They were really like, 3d illustrations, alot of companies popping up to do limited runs of a gr8 illustrator’s designs in like 2003-2008….
It all began in asia, namely Japan, with post-war period like, resin kaiju and other figurines which were a huge collectable hit toward the 90s, 00s because of the sentiment and nostalgia attached to them
But things really started happening around the turn of the millenium, in hongkong, with Toy2R, who in 2001 launch the Qee (like keychain, get it?) and in Japan with Medicom Toy’s Bearbrick as a sort of nostalgic throwback to this style of toy - who, thanks to labels like Bathing Ape, it gained traction among the urban aesthetic and fashion cliques across the ocean in like, Sanfrancisco, Los angeles and new york. So suddenly in north america, in cutting edge urban fashion stores, these Qees and bearbricks started showing up. And in these cases, they started getting fashion label exclusives made, establishing their in vogue status in the west
Hot on the heels of this trend, american companies sprung up to do their own take on the bearbrick, which is when kid robot enters the scene and takes it to the next step and introduced the munny and dunny, blank customs and had up and coming artists use it as a template for limited run collections. And it got insanely popular and helped launch it into a fan scene
By 2008, “designer toys” and custom vinyl was hitting it huge, it was massively popular as an underground art scene thing. It was around this time that I discovered it while i was in newyork, on and off again visiting and periodically living with my girlfriend as a shit head 18 year old at the time lmao.
Anyway, this landed kid robot deep in the illustration and by extension, comic book scene, especially as they started doing limited run license productions like the Simpsons and Marvel comics. The simpsons series was a huge hit, appealing to nerds everywhere rather than artist types. Eventually they started showing up in comic conventions, namely SDCC in san diego
and then this is where Funko enters the scene, a basic toy company that in 2005 had been sold to a nightclub manager keen to monetize the fuck out of it. Funko were already producing licensed bobbleheads under the “Funko Force” and other collectable for nerd properties alongside other venders at comic cons.
Which puts Funko in the same space as Kid Robot and independent venders showcasing their personal vinyl toy projects at the height of vinyl toy popularity in 2009, 2010. Funko saw this trend and in 2010 decided they should launch their own brand of vinyl toys like the Dunny, called Funko Force 2.0
It debuted at San diego comic con 2010. I saw it with my own eyes. I didnt care because i never gave a shit about capeshit when i went to comic con lmfao. At the time there were soooo many half assed attempts to ape the vinyl toy fad from a number of collectable companies, that it never leaped out at me. Even Disney attempted to do it.
I was too busy getting the Kid Robot SDCC 2010 Exclusive shit, still the king of the roost and still generally doing creative shit with the medium.
Kid Robot at the time were collaborating with Yo Gabba Gabba
I was a fool not to notice what was happening, really.
They quickly released and doubled down on the next step of their Line of toys: Pop!
Funko shot for licenses over independent artist collections and it just kept printing money. Demand was mega high. Stores and vendors that started putting out blind boxes from KR and other companies threw that out in favour of the more successful and lucrative Pop!
in a matter of years, the vinyl toy scene got hyper saturated by Pop! and licensed vinyl collectables that we have now arrived to this:
The designer toy scene exhausted itself and all that remains really, in this wasteland of creativity, is Funko Pop! and it’s derivatives.
I have some friends who were producing independent designer toys in 2010 and interest in their work sloped off heavily because the whole vinyl toy scene was now hijacked and defined by banal consumer nerd culture. Anybody past the year 2010, who would be getting their first impressions of vinyl, were seeing Pop! and it really turned them off of it unless they really only care for Pop!’s products and nothing else besides. So anyone still getting vinyl are really only going for Pop! And my artist friends, they are still salty over it lmao
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