A Vinyl Platform for Dissent: Designer Toys and Character Merchandising

Abstract

‘Designer toys’ or ‘urban vinyl’ offer themselves as a fascinating site of resistance to the contemporary circulation of images and things. This article provides an introduction to the field of designer toys and argues that the field may be understood to be a materially situated critique of the commercial practice of character merchandising. Beginning with a description of the logic of character merchandising, this article goes on to demonstrate how designer toys critically and creatively transform some of the fundamental tenets of this practice, advancing a critique of character merchandising via the material objects themselves. In this age of image circulation, the case of the designer toy demonstrates how material artefacts can themselves become significant sites of critique.

When the Greedy Giant Tumbling Down: Analyzing Nickelodeon's Spatialization Practice in Indonesia

“…Merchandizing deal becomes prominent because of the concept of connectivity in it. Connectivity may explain that merchandise product never stands alone as a physical product [6]. When someone consumes a merchandise product, he or she will be reminded of a cartoon on television.…”

Art toy as a tool for engaging the global public on the city of Surabaya

“…The art toy is a three-dimensional (3 D) figure based on the design and pattern of a particular artist or graphic designer collective. It is usually made from rotocast vinyl, but sometimes also resin, plush, and wood material (Jeremyville in Steinberg 2010). They are mostly character design figures that are created from mixing simple or stylised forms of everyday objects or commercial icons that exist in our pop culture psyche.…”

Designing Urban Toys to Support Local Traditional Arts

“…The urban toy is one type of toy that focuses on the visual appeal of the character design. The urban toy is an example of the extension of the creative and critical practice field that centered on character design merchandising [13]. Furthermore, it claimed that urban toys provide a room for a collaboration platform for artists to create something new.…”