I Am Plastic: The Designer Toy Explosion

In barely a decade, the designer toy craze, which originated in Hong Kong, has taken the world by storm. Children and adults, celebrities and design aficionados now line up to pay anywhere from five dollars to thousands of dollars for these highly inventive designer creations.

I Am Plastic provides a colorful visual history of the phenomenon, which has energized not only the toy world but the global art community as well. Fashion designers, comic book artists, underground illustrators, graffiti and fine artists now lend their creativity to the task of coming up with innovative and striking new toy designs. Artists and toys featured in this stunning overview include Frank Kozik, Dalek, Gary Baseman, Bounty Hunter, Junko Mizuno, Jason Siu, Devilrobots, and Pete Fowler.

Paul Budnitz is the founder and creative director of Kidrobot and kidrobot.com, the United States’ premier designer-toy creator and retailer, with boutiques in New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Budnitz, who has himself created several popular toy series, has a fine arts degree from Yale University and is an award-winning filmmaker. He lives in New York City.