When I think of toys, I think interactive, visually aesthetic, stimulating to our senses, such as touch, site, hearing and even smell. The thought brings me back to childhood where I had specific toys that each gave me different and specific feelings in different categories. My interactive and stimulating toys would have been categorized by items such as a fake toy kitchen, a child-friendly salon set up, or a play-doctor collection. These sort of toys made me feel super excited to do mature things that I would see adults do. It made me feel like I could role-play as everyday people who have random professions. Certain toys gave me a sensory satisfaction, like silly string, slime, wax sticks, and squishy balls. They colorful, fun to play with while reducing stress and easing overactive tendency, but they mainly felt so good to squeeze, poke and stretch. Another example category would be the visually pleasing. Dolls were mainly a focus of looks. The fashion, body types, pretty faces and hair that you envy. Dolls made me feel like I wanted to be them, and I just liked looking at them and perhaps drawing out specific fashion styles and superficial goals. I do agree that these would be considered a toxic toy. As they did share a factor of my negative body image as a child, which dolls such as Barbie, and Bratz have been doing for decades to young girls. I feel like this is an example of how toys can have a strong reaction, and influence in your life starting at childhood. Which is why toy company have had a history of complaints for “suggestive” toy manufacturing, such as the criticism of the company Nerf glorifying gun violence, which has been debunked several times, and even recently a doll has been boycotted for designing it to have its button placed on an inappropriate area on the dolls anatomy.
Toys are also very useful for artists who create characters in video games, cartoons, and comics. Manufacturing toys replicating these stories of adventure, character development and themes, excites children of all ages. Even teens and adults take pleasure in purchasing action figures of their favorite characters from superhero comics and manga/anime. I always thought about making toys, but it was never something that I was ever serious about. I am an illustrator, character designer and a fashion muse so if I were to delve into the world of toy making, I would most likely keep it simple in meaning, and mainly do it for aesthetic purposes.
I thought of some interesting designs for dolls that I would enjoy making:
