Toys
Dutch author and illustrator Dick Bruna is probably best known as the creator of Miffy — Nijntje in Dutch — the cute but inscrutable rabbit dressed like a toddler and pictured, in bold lines and primary colors, at the zoo, in the snow, at the seaside, etc…
When it comes to plushes, we take our cues from little baby Lir and ever since she was born a short 10 months ago our niece has been inseparable from her Jellycat Bunglie Pig. They’ve shared long, one-sided conversations of monosyllabic utterances, afternoon snoozefests and, well, just everything. Through thick and thin, Bunglie Pig has been the soft and silent companion of our pink-cheeked Lirskie.
Our baby niece Lir is pretty much the apple of YZ’s and my eye, making it hard to resist buying her every little cute thing that we come across. But, when we stumbled upon a beautiful striped bunny by Tel Aviv label Timo in a boutique in Jaffa, we just had to add the critter to Lir’s collection of toys. Totally in line with Lir’s parent’s philosophy of hugging (not mugging) the earth, each toy is…
Well, it’s old news that we’re killing the planet and along with it, many of these adorable fuzzy creatures! Need some crappy stats to scare you into action? The Nonlife Zoo’s mission statement is chock full of them. How about this doozy: “more than one kind of species vanishes from earth daily”…
Although I try to delegate most of my iPadding to productive tinkering like to-do lists (Taksa), concept sketches (Adobe Ideas), blogging (WordPress), proposals (Pages), and keeping up with the times (NPR, BBC News, TIME Magazine, Paris Match…), it’s hard to resist the smattering of impeccably designed gaming apps available on my new favorite gadget. One evening, after a long day of PHP code, I found a surprise that YZ had left in my section of our iPad library: Angry Birds. A couple weeks and a big fat 105 levels later the game was conquered and had earned a quick-access spot on my iPad dock…
Rather quirky and a whole lot indie, the selection of clothing over at Perks and Mini’s online boutique Someday Store is a upbeat trendsetter’s wonderland. Founders (and lovebirds!) Misha Hollenbach and Shauna Toohey have carefully curated their catalog to include pieces from Bernhard Willhelm, Billionaire Boys Club & Ice Cream, Domestique, Headporter (more on this amazing label coming soon!), Medicom Toy, Neighborhood, Original Fake, Rough Pista, and, of course, plenty of stuff from Someday Store’s founding label PAM and sister label Pambook. We’ve picked out some of our favorites here (yay! Smurfs! yay! Barry McGee! yay! upside down type on canvas bag!)…
Guilt-free and incredibly cute, these plushy renditions of roadkill by Roadkill Toys are irresistibly wrong-yet-right. The squashed raccoon, rabbit, and hedgehog come packaged in a hilarious transparent bodybag with oodles of organs ready to spew out of their zippered abdomen. Hell, there’s even an adorable toe tag!!! These guys are truly to die for (sorry — couldn’t help myself)…
A few months ago I discovered the whimsical world of Hello, Brute: a collection of hand-cast polyurethane resin toys brought to life (with a very fashion-forward and bright coat of paint) by Portland designer Jon Knox. Jon describes his creations as “an all-boy crew who are often stuck somewhere between the best and worst moments of their lives.” I totally fell in love with the character Danny, a discombobulated-looking nerd with slightly stoned doe eyes peering out from behind thick black prescription frames and decided to dig deeper… I was honored to have had the opportunity to ask Jon some questions about his design career and the newest addition to his shop: Pepper (seen above) of which 5 signed, limited-edition 9″ figures are up for grabs (for a wee sum of $175) in the Hello, Brute shop!
“My imaginary wonderland is a land where everything is made of soft wool, trees are knitted and instead of growing leaves, pom poms sprout out, strange knitted creatures eat cup cakes and doughnuts sprinkled with stitching. The creatures are different shapes and sizes like odd socks, some have extra long legs, some have two heads, some are grumpy or shy and all are not what they seem. Scale and proportions are stretched or squashed, there are no rules.” — D.W.
For those of you that caught the edge-of-your-seat action of the Super Bowl last week (yay Saints!), you might have noticed a ROTFL commercial for the Kia Sorento that involved a sock monkey, an alien Gumby cyclops, a windup tin robot, teddy bear, and the peculiar looking, prison bird-striped, shaggier-than-thou character from Blabla, Mr. X. I’ve been a huge fan of this childrens toy company since I stumbled upon the site a while back and was thrilled to see the little hairy monster soaking up his 15 minutes of fame. And, it reminded me that I should share the Blabla wealth with you all…
We’re huge fans of Miami-based think-tank and Kid Robot staple FriendsWithYou. hey did an animated spot for Target that had us in stitches (check out their latest advert for Match.com) and have also designed Mimobot USB drives for Mimoco’s Artist Collection (featured in our Top Ten Flash Drives post) based on their Malfi, Mr. Phantom, and Buddy Chub characters. The all-things-adorable powerhouse has just launched a brand-spanking new site, chock full of their oddball plushes, zippie pulls, tees, Wish Come True blind box toy collection, and art prints…
There’s just something elevated about wooden toys – the lovely way they age from endless afternoons of playtime, the texture of their surface, the woodsy smell… Miller Goodman’s ShapeMaker and PlayShapes have all these qualities and a massive dose of up-to-date design sense. Business partners Zoe Miller and David Goodman started the company just two years back and soon thereafter won…
Get it here!
“This edition features a hint of blood splatter on Terror (revealing his forceful nature) and his loyal and somewhat less threatening sidekick Magnus. The Death Metal edition is exclusive to The Loyal Subjects web store and is limited to 199 pieces!”
The other day, on our Williamsburg P’tit Louis gift excursion, YZ and I sidetracked into Dijital Fix (in the Bedford Mini-Mall) for a quick peruse… Faced with geeky accessories galore, I couldn’t help but buy these two office helpers from ever-innovative Kikkerland. The Hubman is now smiling happily beside my Mac, charging the iPhone, connecting my zip drive, powering the keyboard light and serving as a nifty mouse-cord-extender when Goobie the Cat decides to snooze in one of his favorite spots: right in front of my computer screen…
To top off all the gifts from Santa, our very good friends and neighbors Lili & Thomas welcomed their son Louis Verzeaux Brodin into the world on December 27th. So, as any proper Tata would do, I headed out shopping for a care package. Fortunately, our neighborhood (Williamsburg) has some top-notch childrens’ shops and YZ & I, after much contemplation, settled on a trio of super-soft accessories. The Angel Dear Owl Blankie is softer-than-soft with tons of other friends to choose from (the hippo, pony, dino, and lion are some of our favorites). The company also makes larger, blanket versions of the design which are downright coo-inducing. The apple green sherpa booties from Zutano are equally cute and, with two snap options for the ankle strap, will grow as Louis does while ensuring his little piggies won’t slip out in the cold. Lastly, we discovered Trumpette’s line of themed baby sock 6-packs. Obviously we were drawn to the monkeys, because, well, monkeys make everyone laugh, but there’s a theme for every family – from golf to environmentalism!
