Thanks to his dedicated efforts as the founding editorial director of the Chilton automotive publishing concern, and as the instigator for and vice president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers, Eugene S. Foljambe had already...
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Category archive: toys
February 5, 2012
Like-A-Car: The Foljambe Hobby Auto
January 30, 2012
HIT Job
image: via seo blog thomasthetankenginefriends Speaking of selling out babies, the announcement that, as anticipated, senior executives of HIT Entertainment will be leaving the company when its acquisition by Mattel is completed, led me to this awesomely written article...
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January 27, 2012
Balancing Blocks By Fort Standard
Fort Standard was founded like yesterday by designers Gregory Buntain and Ian Collings, and already they have a tableful of awesome, crystal-faceted balancing blocks handmade from salvaged hardwood and finished in a range of tasty colors, and white. Fort...
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[read the full post...]
January 25, 2012
That's a Nässjö Molded Ply Rocking Horse
Wow, among the interesting items Andrew scouted out at Cologne specialty auction house W.G. Herr's most recent sale: this sweet, Swedish, molded ply rocking horse. The label said it was a special edition made in 1970 to celebrate the...
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[read the full post...]
January 24, 2012
3-D Printed 'Still Alive' For The Fisher-Price Record Player
I'm getting chills watching this. It's a 3-D printed record that plays "Still Alive," Jonathan Coulton's song for the credits of Portal. On a vintage Fisher-Price record player. The future, the past, the virtual and the real, all have...
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Mr. Caitlin Flanagan Is Barbie's Executive Producer And All That Entails
HAHA, all this time everyone's been getting all worked up about Caitlin Flanagan and her pretend-housewifery, and her imaginary teen oral sex epidemic fearmongering, and have been ignoring the real menace II society: her husband, Rob Hudnut. Hudnut turns out...
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January 21, 2012
K2 Playmobil Garden
We try to keep each Playmobil set intact and separate from the others, but I think I see a couple of invasive species in this garden....
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[read the full post...]
January 19, 2012
Toot Toot Chugga Chugga, Antonio Vitali Car
Maybe someone with their Antonio Vitali retrospective catalogues handy can tell us for sure, but I think this sweet, signed toy car is from the US toy collection the Swiss designer launched after he did his work for Creative...
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[read the full post...]
January 18, 2012
MakerBot 3-D Printed Playsets
Finally, not only does my blogging procrastination pay off, I get to call it a protest against censorship! Yesterday, the 3-D printing gurus at MakerBot unveiled the first MakerBot Playsets, a print-at-home, 1:18-scale dollhouse castle full of princesses, Utah Teapots,...
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[read the full post...]
January 17, 2012
Entertainingly Grim, Old-Timey Photos Of Canadian Children
Master Henry Archibald, Montreal, QC, 1865 Via Retronaut comes a very nice selection of photos of mid-19th century Canadian children posing grimly with toys, from the digitized collections of the Musee McCord Museum in Quebec. The images were published...
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[read the full post...]
January 16, 2012
Specific Kids' Objects
Last Summer, David Zwirner Gallery screened a couple of documentaries about Donald Judd, including The Artist's Studio, a 2010 remix of vintage 1970s footage by Michael Blackwood. Blackwood had filmed Judd and his family both in Marfa [in 1975]...
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[read the full post...]
Laser-Cut Steel Dollhouse By Bunker Hill
Though he's mostly into Swedish pine and plywood lately, in the mid-to-late 2000's, Stockholm architect Daniel Franzen definitely had a laser-cut steel phase. One result is this awesome steel dollhouse inspired by the barn house he designed for Swedish...
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[read the full post...]
January 13, 2012
DT Friday Freakout: Disaster Edition
Well, I just had my calendar cleared, and ended up spending ten hours out with the kids. At one point, we just sat in the car. For like an hour. Just chilling when napping wouldn't do. And then there were...
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[read the full post...]
January 12, 2012
Rosie The Hungarian Momblogger's Chair-Based Play Kitchen
Why not make a play kitchen out of a chair? Take a wooden chair, paint or stained to your liking, the leg holes of shelf brackets, it is plywood or sheet set a residual shelf "console". One of the...
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[read the full post...]
January 4, 2012
OG Toy Braun Blender From Creative Playthings
Well here's something you never see. Or at least I've never seen. It's apparently a toy-sized Braun Multimix blender, imported back in the day by Creative Playthings. Which, does this make sense? It clearly dates from the Dieter Rams...
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[read the full post...]
December 29, 2011
Riley Is A Toy Marketing Superhero
Whn I first saw this floating around, I thought it might be one of those awkwardly obvious stunt videos where people feed their kids their own activist lines. But even if her dad got her spun up a little...
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[read the full post...]
December 27, 2011
Homemade Toy Patch Panel By Erik Utter
Video engineering consultant Erik Utter's 2-yo son turns out to love cables, plugs, and control panels as much as he does. So for Christmas, Utter whipped up this sweet toy patch panel on AutoCAD, had it cut and engraved...
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[read the full post...]
December 23, 2011
Antonio Vitali Rocking Snail Too Slow For Christmas
Assuming you didn't already blow your Christmas wad on the ersatz nativity set last fall, you should now be ready to pounce on this: an early hand-carved rocking snail from Antonio Vitali's Swiss toys days. The shaped details are...
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the Mountain Goats Chews Legos, Spits Them Out
Indie songster John Darnielle is so pissed at Lego's new gender-coded blocks & dolls strategy, he almost canceled his subscription to Business Week. @mountain_goats via @gabrielroth [twitter] previously: Lego is for girls now. again. whatever....
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[read the full post...]
December 21, 2011
Lego Occupy Wall Street Riot Brigade Set
"Gear up! Roll out! And put an end to dissent!" Try sayin' Lego's evil now, hippie! Occupy Wall Street Riot Brigade Lego Set [slate v via laughingsquid]...
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[read the full post...]
December 16, 2011
Lego Is For Girls. Now. Again. Whatever.
Our girls already play the hell out of their Legos, so on a purely personal level, I don't really feel too worked up about the new Lego Friends thing that supplants traditional minifigs with girlier "ladyfig" dolls and sets...
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[read the full post...]
December 14, 2011
Stokke Xplory-Lookin' Doll Stroller
Famosa may not make the Baby Pirulin Pipi anymore, but you know what it does make? A toy stroller that looks an awful lot like a Stokke Xplory. For twins. That folds. Maravilloso! Silla Plegable Nenuco, 38,95 € [juguetespedrosa.es]...
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Wee Irish Spring
Judging by his big, swingin', interactive, uncircumcised penis, I would say that the Baby Pirulin Pipi doll in this commercial grew up to be the Baby Wee-Wee toddler doll in the commercial Thingamababy wrote about in 2007. At the...
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Have The Crawligator Market Found A Floor?
You'd think that if the Crawligator that showed up on eBay last week had 17 bids and sold for $202, the one on eBay right now might at least have a single $49 bid. But then, the previous Crawligator...
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[read the full post...]
December 13, 2011
WTF Angry Birds Playground?
I'm sorry, but unless I'm at a theme park where I pay cash money for my kid to be brainwashed by branded entertainment properties and character-licensed merchandise, I don't want it. Seriously, what school board or city council would...
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[read the full post...]
December 11, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Nutcracker Edition
Whew, we've had family and Nutcracker up to ^^^ here this weekend, so here, just in time to ruin your Sunday night, are some freakout stories from the worlds of science, health, parenting, politics: But first, an open letter to...
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[read the full post...]
December 9, 2011
Things I'm Not Trying To Win On eBay: Mint-In-Box Creative Playthings Blocks
I've been thinking I'm going to bid on these beautiful-looking, new-in-box, c.1975 Creative Playthings blocks for the kids' Christmas present. And though we're mostly out of the choke hazard phase, I decided they're a little small for us. [The...
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[read the full post...]
December 7, 2011
Philippe Starck's Face: Mustache Ride-On Toy
Holy Moses, until I was poking around the archive of an Amsterdam design auction, I had forgotten how utterly freaky, bizarre, and wrong Philippe Starck's ride-on/walking toy The Face is. And to think that five years ago, we gave...
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[read the full post...]
December 3, 2011
Whoa, Crawligator In A Box, Baby!
Someone's Christmas just got 100% crawlier. The Crawligator belly scooter is one of the icons of the Creative Playthings era--an era where keeping the kid from inadvertently scooting down the stairs and cracking his melon open was the parents'...
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[read the full post...]
December 1, 2011
Happy Meals, Now With LOLZ
Does SF Weekly cover anything besides the Happy Meal Toy Ban? I guess I don't know, but columnist Joe Eskenazi sure does get worked up over it. What a smug crank. Anyway, today's the first day of the San Francisco...
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A Children's Treasury Of Playground Near Nuclear Power Plant Photos
I can't figure out what's going on in these photographs Eric Vance took. I mean, they're labeled "environmental justice," and they were taken in 2007. For the EPA. During the Bush Administration. So I can only assume they are...
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Awesomely Annoying: Creative Playthings Steel Drum On eBay
This is simultaneously the awesomest thing I've seen on eBay all week and the single worst idea for a kid's gift all year. Unless, of course, your kid lives in a padded, soundproof room, or you totally hate your...
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[read the full post...]
November 28, 2011
'Block Consultants' Teach The Test
Oh, brother, what to make of the NY Times' "Back To Blocks" trend story that leads off with a "self-described 'block consultant'" leading a class for parents in block play?As in fashion, old things often come back in style...
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DTQ: ID This Awesome Viennese Pop-Up Playground Spielkugel?
Yoichi R. Okamoto had been LBJ's official White House photographer, but in the summer of 1973, it looks like he was shooting for DOCUMERICA, a massive EPA photo study project designed to assess the state of the environment, to...
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I Presume You Did Not Buy This Baby Ewok
filed under: Items I Didn't Win At Christie's Legendary makeup artist Stuart Freeborn gave this baby Ewok puppet, which appeared in Return of the Jedi, as a gift to a journalist after an apparently delightful interview. And that person...
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Scrapwood Playground At Tule Lake Internment Camp
In WWII, Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from the west coast, stripped of basically everything they couldn't carry, and imprisoned in inland internment camps, rows of tarpaper barracks in the desert surrounded by barbed wire fences and guard towers....
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[read the full post...]
November 26, 2011
Untitled (Dollhouse) By Yinka Shonibare
Peter Norton has been doing this thing every year, the Norton Family Christmas Project, where he commissions an artist to make an object, that he sends out en masse to several thousand of his best friends in the art...
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[read the full post...]
November 18, 2011
What Is Your Deal, O Beautiful Fawn Sled?
My gosh, but that is a beautiful sled. Simple, rustic, even, but with incredible design. Kiosk calls it a Fawn Sled, and there are like one or two other retailer results with that name, but nothing else pops out...
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[read the full post...]
Star Wars Amigurumi
The best thing about amigurumi toys made using kotyar888's awesome Star Wars crochet patterns is not their cuteness, but the way you have no one to sue when your kid gnaws off those little beady eyes. There is no...
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Play The Empty, Pointless Game Of Life! Shopping Center By Creative Playthings
The company limped along for a few more uninspired years, trying to keep up in the cheap, plasctic future of color TV & Rock'em Sock'em Robots. But if there was a single product that marked, by the laws of...
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[read the full post...]
November 10, 2011
Has The Creative Playthings Housing Bubble Popped?
As the grown-up housing market goes, so goes the dollhouse market. And so a Creative Playthings slot-together ply dollhouse with the original box sold on eBay for half of what it was a couple of years ago--just like a...
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[read the full post...]
November 9, 2011
Crazy Abstract Puzzle
While we apparently don't know anything else about it, the eBay seller who's finally clearing out the old stock from the toy store he closed 20 years ago says this crazy abstract puzzle "was definitely imported from Europe." Sure,...
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[read the full post...]
November 4, 2011
RECALL NOTICE: Stupid-Dangerousest Disney Trikes Ever Made
Sometimes a toy is so obviously, stupidly dangerous, you hope it inspires extra attention and caution on the part of the adults around it. Take, for example, one of my favorite old Creative Playthings toys, the Inquarium In-Crib Aquarium. It...
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[read the full post...]
October 24, 2011
The Capitalist Tool's Rocking Ram
In addition to Queen Victoria's silk bloomers and stockings, the November 1 sale at Glasgow auction house Lyon and Turnbull includes this rocking ram, made by noted Chelesa folly architect Vernon Gibberd. Lyon and Turnbull are selling the entire...
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[read the full post...]
October 23, 2011
Jean Prouvé Swingset Mayhem
Whoa, check out the man going crazy on his rocket sled swingset! This image if from Ivorypress's new mook, Jean Prouvé 1901-1984, which is apparently/obviously pretty sweet. You can buy it from Walther Koenig, and/or see some more vintage...
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[read the full post...]
October 13, 2011
The Clone Wars Are A Trojan Horse For The Prequel Trilogy
Look, I'm as fed up with Lucas and as baffled by The Clone Wars as the next guy. And so I appreciate Michael Agger's game attempt to make a parent's guide for The Clone Wars. But maybe because it's...
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[read the full post...]
October 10, 2011
This Week In Tentacle Kawaii: Alien Facehugger & Seussian Cthulhu
So Neatorama introduces an Alien facehugger plush toy the same time DrFaustusAU starts publishing his Lovecraft X Seuss mashup, The Call of Cthulhu? All we need is a plush great vampire squid doll, and we can declare this a toddler...
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[read the full post...]
October 6, 2011
Rockin' Boats
Oh man, check out the beautiful set of little handmade toy boats scored at the Pasadena City College flea market. They came in this even sweeter case, with little canvas pads on the lid to hold them in. Which...
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[read the full post...]
October 5, 2011
Re-Creation! Les Jouets d'Hermès Petit h
Hermès is preparing to launch the second batch of products objets and jouets made from the scraps and seconds of the Hermès workshops, the Petit h collection. [It's p'tee asch, so you don't embarrass yourself too badly when you...
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[read the full post...]
October 2, 2011
WTF Cosmo Noah Tsunami Shelter/Playhouse
Oh, man, Shoji Tanaka, the CEO of Cosmo Power, says his company's latest invention, the floatable, fiberglass Noah tsunami shelter [JPY200-300,000], can "also be used as a toy house for children." It says it seats four adults, but I'm...
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[read the full post...]
September 30, 2011
Almost Close Enough: Lego VW Camper Van
In the time it takes you and the kid to build the LEGO Volkswagen T1 Camper Van, Volkswagen itself will have built, announced, and killed another Microbus concept. Tuck that away in your brick-loving head. Volkswagen T1 Camper Van,...
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[read the full post...]
September 29, 2011
Antonio Vitali Bus Just Begging To Be Reissued
So beautiful. Antonio Vitali designed this bus for Playforms, a division of Creative Playthings. It is so trippy, I half expect it to come with a Verner Panton action figure. Vitali's carved out design was originally constructed from two...
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[read the full post...]
September 20, 2011
Antonio Vitali New In Box, Now 25% Off!
The more you don't buy, the more you save! That set of mint-in-box Antonio Vitali animals that was $4,000 [plus shipping] has now been relisted on eBay for just $3,000. Plus shipping. And that $20 in the picture is...
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Czech Made: Awesome Motorcyclists By Libuse Niklova
Mondo Blogo's got another round-up of crazy old avant-garde toys. This time the theme is Czech Designers Who Got More Toys Produced Than Ludislav Sutnar, Maybe Because They Stayed In Czechoslovakia. In other words, the Libuse Niklova retrospective at...
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September 17, 2011
Santa Maria, Vitali Bambina!
And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is how to sell some Antonio Vitali carved wood toys. Amazing. Previously: Holy Family! Antonio Vitali Creative Playthings wooden dolls, and family, and animals, and a freaking house/manger deal...
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[read the full post...]
September 5, 2011
MIB Museum Quality In Box: Antonio Vitali Animals For Creative Playthings
Well, if I hadn't just watch a slightly random assortment of Antonio Vitali toys go for certifiably insane prices on eBay a couple of weeks ago, this eBay auction would have made me straight-up roll on the floor and...
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[read the full post...]
September 4, 2011
A Little Short For A Storm Trooper
I suggest you do what she says, and get Kristina Alexanderson's Clone/Stormtrooper photos one a day. Because clicking through them all at once is just too damn adorable. Oh, ok, just one more: CClone-365-2011 project and photoset [flickr via...
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[read the full post...]
September 2, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Big Gulp Edition
Some news from the worlds of science, education, health, politics and parenting, designed to freak you out and ruin your long weekend. I confess, I watched Wall-E with K2 this week, so I've already got a head start on the...
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[read the full post...]
August 30, 2011
My Name Is Gween. I Speak For The Twees.
Here is a set of toy trees from a green-themed toy company called Gween:Gween represents growth. The growth found both in a child and nature. Gween toys bring the two together. We believe that the future of the planet...
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August 27, 2011
Like-A-Bike Delivery Truck
This beautiful survivor 1972 Ford F-100 has never left Southern California. After three decades delivering motorcycles around OC for Irv Seaver, it retired with Seaver's shop manager to a life of well-cared-for leisure. Whether you buy it or not,...
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[read the full post...]
August 26, 2011
Ostalgie's Rainbow: Dresden Rocket Slide
Beth from the awesome indie label Lemon Cadet was traveling in Germany when this vintage postcard jumped off the rack and screamed "Achtung, Daddy Types!" at her. So she had to get it and send it to me. [The...
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[read the full post...]
August 25, 2011
Sweet Stash Of Antonio Vitali Wooden Toys On eBay
It's always tough to post about awesome Antonio Vitali toys, knowing as I do that the biomorphic, abstracted carved wood pieces are rare enough, and the prices are going to go high enough, that it's extremely unlikely any actual...
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[read the full post...]
August 22, 2011
Depressing Caption, Meet Awesome Chairs
The photo blog on The Atlantic has been running extended looks back at images from World War II. Today's theme: Japanese-Americans forcibly removed from their homes and businesses and shipped to internment camps in the middle of the freakin'...
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[read the full post...]
August 19, 2011
Speak, Pedal Car
A couple of years ago, car writer Roger Boylan published an article in Autosavant about Dmitri Nabokov's passion for cars. A few months later, Nabokov forwarded a rather incredible selection of family photographs, accompanied by his captions. Most are...
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[read the full post...]
August 17, 2011
Madeline Dollhouse Wallpaper
I was waiting for J. Courtney Sullivan's NY Times article about her deep commitment to her childhood dollhouse to turn out not to be one of those adults-way-too-into-dollhouses stories. I guess the fact that she started going to dollhouse furniture...
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[read the full post...]
August 6, 2011
Awesome Creative Playthings Wooden Alphabet Letters
Full disclosure: I wrote this post within minutes of these things turning up on eBay. But these Creative Playthings wooden alphabet letters from the mid-1970s are so quietly awesome, I decided not to mention them on DT until I...
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[read the full post...]
July 28, 2011
Filmore The Ur-Pillow Pet, From Creative Playthings
You know what's awesome? Vintage Creative Playthings toys from the 1970s, mint-in-box. You know what's apparently less awesome? vintage plush Creative Playthings beanbag chair animals from the 1970s. So far, no action at all from the eBay bidding sharks....
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[read the full post...]
July 26, 2011
Keep Calm And Carry A Stuffed Animal
Among the great photos In Focus published of London during WWII is this one: a small boy hugging a giant, kind of awesome stuffed animal. The simple form of the animal reminds me a bit of Renate Mueller, so...
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[read the full post...]
July 21, 2011
Kaleidoscope Dollhouse Wallpaper From Artware Editions
Wow, Artware Editions is swinging for the wallpaper fences. In addition to the artist-designed, roll wallpaper from Studio Printoworks, they're selling Maharam Digital Projects' huge collection of custom-scaled, mural-style wallpapers by dozens of contemporary artists. They look pretty awesome....
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WTFPlayhouses Of The Glorious Revolution
Now I know a thing or two about inordinately expensive playhouses. And I love Houston. And yes, it's true, I was an Internet pioneer-turned-blogger and have posed for Playboy. So you may be thinking it's hard to tell me and...
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[read the full post...]
July 5, 2011
Toys R Us Is A Battlefield
At her NAFTAstic masculinity marketing blog The Achilles Effect, Canadian social media expert Crystal Smith decided to throw all the ads for boys' toys and girls' toys into the Word Cloud Generator and see what retrograde gender stereotypes came up....
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[read the full post...]
June 30, 2011
Holy Moley, Evel Knievel Shortster MINT IN BOX
Anyone remember back in 2008, when I asked everyone and no one in particular, "How many Evel Knievel tricycles do you think are still out there?" Well, it's taken almost three years, but we finally have an answer: AT LEAST...
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[read the full post...]
June 29, 2011
Whoa, Dare Wright Lonely Doll Photos At Bonhams
How'd I miss these? Did I not scroll all the way down? I was just updating the price results on last week's kids book illustrations roundup [short answer: pretty rough if your name's not Pooh], and there at the bottom,...
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[read the full post...]
June 20, 2011
The Playtown Real Estate Market Is Bouncing Back!
Green shoots! Here is a bright spot in the real estate-obsessed economy of Southern California: this week LA Modern is auctioning a vintage Playtown Garage from Creative Playthings, which comes with car, gas pumps, roof hoist, and a bed...
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[read the full post...]
June 12, 2011
Bros Before Pos
I was going to WTFpost about Bronies before heading off for a long weekend, but then I thought, "No, they whole phenomenon only started in January; maybe it'll be completely gone by Monday." And, no. As of 11:17, it...
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[read the full post...]
June 9, 2011
Mr. Mole's Awesome Attic Playroom
The NY Times goes poking around writer Tom McNeal's house, which has a couple of rather awesome playrooms hidden in the eaves. Their kids are tweens now, but I imagine these were pretty popular back in the day. That...
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[read the full post...]
June 6, 2011
Crochet-Bombing
via @lizzieohreally comes the cutest crochet-bombed bicycle you'll see all day. [twitter, yfrog]...
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[read the full post...]
June 3, 2011
Alexander Calder Rocking Horse Concept
Big Red Thing is a public archive site created by the art historian Jennifer Geigel Mikulay to collect memories, artifacts, and responses related to La Grande Vitesse, the giant Alexander Calder sculpture that became a civic icon for Grand...
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[read the full post...]
May 30, 2011
The Minimii Arne Jacobsen Dollhouse Is A Rareified Object.
Well, it didn't arrive in time for Christmas 2009, but it's available for 2011. And assuming you stopped buying anything else in anticipation of its arrival, you might have enough socked away. Of course, I'm talking about the Arne Jacobsen...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 23, 2011
Homeless On The Street, Knockoff Pushbikes Are Cracked
You can Skuut, but you can't hide. Sooner or later, that knockoff karma's gonna gitcha. Spotted by DT reader and Skuut Skout Rolf on the Lower Lower Lower East Side, Gold & Fulton Streets, Manhattan....
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 22, 2011
Holy Family Circus! Antonio Vitali Is Tearing Up eBay Right Now
YOW. When I first didn't bid on a pristine, complete set of Antonio Vitali's Wooden Family dolls made for Creative Playthings, in 2006, $51 was enough to scare me off. When they sold for $229, I thought it was...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 12, 2011
The Decline Of Aston Pedal Car-ization
The Queen can take care of herself, it's the Aston Martin pedal car that needs saving. Just look at these two cars, both for sale in Bonhams' upcoming Aston Martin Automobilia sale on May 21st: Lot No: 201 is an...
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[read the full post...]
May 5, 2011
Is This Chandigarh Playground Available To Order?
This playground structure from Chandigarh, Le Corbusier's planned city in India, is pretty awesome. If you really like it, just wait a while, and someone will loot it and bring it to auction in Paris, New York or Chicago....
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[read the full post...]
May 4, 2011
A LEGO Room With A View
Yeah, so it's not in a 40-room Georgian country manor in England, just a reno'd rowhouse in Cobble Hill. But at least the New York Times finally came through and showed us the damn Lego Room. Turns out it's...
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[read the full post...]
April 29, 2011
Creationary Is An Awesome Word
At the moment, Creationary is the name of a game, pitched as Pictionary With Legos. But it seems like it has the potential to be so much more. When the thrill of building the "unique buildable LEGO dice" wears...
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[read the full post...]
April 21, 2011
Leggero Ventolino: Eine Kleine Wooden Bike Trailer
Leggero was the first European bike kid trailer like 20 years ago, and then something happened, press releases don't say what, just that "Now, the pioneer is back - with the Leggero Vento," which is manufactured in Switzerland, and...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 20, 2011
Crayola Colored Bubbles Are Disaster In A Bottle.
Andy Baio recently bought a house, which means he won't lose his deposit over of the insane, paint-splattered mess his kid's Crayola Colored Bubbles made all over their brand new deck. Crayola Colored Bubbles Wand Set, $12.99 plus several...
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[read the full post...]
April 18, 2011
Think Of The Family Of Children
Bwahahaahathisissoawesome. It's not mentioned on Old Chum's flickr page, so I asked. [Old Chum is actually the flickr stream of Vancouver's own heritage central, Old Faithful Shop.] And so we learn that this photo is from The Family of...
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[read the full post...]
April 11, 2011
It's The Little Differences
So here's one thing I did not know before going on a Disney Cruise: the dolls are different for Europe. In the store on the boat--which, rather incredibly, felt like it was hardly open, mostly because they kept it...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 5, 2011
We Want Lego Rooms, Where's Our Lego Rooms?
So you read that T Magazine story about Dinder House, that 40-room Georgian manor in BF Somerset or wherever England, and you get to the end, and what is the one thing you want to see?:At Crawford's suggestion, they...
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[read the full post...]
April 1, 2011
Playmobil Apple Store At ThinkGeek
The best ThinkGeek April Fool's Day products are the ones that you know are fake, but that you actually want to see anyway. With the careful attention to detail--the Woz at the front of the line expansion pack, the...
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March 30, 2011
Road To Kindergarten
DT reader Micah was freaky right when he said I wouldn't care about the content of the wired.com story, but the second he saw the completely unrelated photo, he knew it was a DT kind of thing. No idea...
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March 16, 2011
The Committee Car, by Brad Denboer
I always knew those Julian Opie characters were up to no good. Designer Brad Denboer just released The Committee, a limited-edition, old-timey iron-shaped toy car with an ominous story built right in. The price was not announced, but since...
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March 9, 2011
Teddy Bearskin Rugs
Miami-based artist Agustina Woodgate has been making elaborate rugs from the skins of recycled teddy bears for a couple of years now. They'd look pretty intense under one of those Campana Brothers stuffed animal chairs. Rugs | Agustina Woodgate...
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March 8, 2011
Who? Where? What? Pedal Car Museum?
East Sussex's most famous pedal car enthusiast and child at heart Phil Collins has thrown open the doors on his Mill Toy & Pedal Car Museum, which boasts Europe's largest collection of vintage pedal cars. Or does it? We...
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March 1, 2011
Mushroom Cloud Playhouse By Dietrich Wegner
OK, now we're talking. Though I fear it's no realer than the brand tattoos on his naked babies, Dietrich Wegner's mushroom cloud playhouse is apocalawesome. It was at Pulse Art Fair in 2009. Again, I think with a commission...
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February 28, 2011
Playhouse-Size Bridgehampton Farm Stand
At his latest show at David Zwirner Gallery, Philip-Lorca di Corcia is showing work he originally shot for W Magazine at the turn of the millennium. I'm glad he's finally showing it, because it's some of his strongest work....
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February 11, 2011
Elmo On The Bowery
Found Art (Bowery) Unmonumental 470, by Joy Garnett, 2011...
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February 8, 2011
And We Would Go On As Though Nothing Was Wrong
When I imagine Playmobil versions of real world things, I imagine amusing dioramas. Or chubby little hands moving the characters through the scenes, a la Todd Haynes' underground Barbie doll epic, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story. So I can...
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January 30, 2011
Playmobil Island Of Dr. Moreau
This is awesome. I'm surprised there aren't much more Playmobil movie remakes or Playmobil The News out there. Dr. Moreau playset [mathowie's flickr]...
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January 21, 2011
Feminist Drives Princess Industrial Complex Off Road
The New York Times has given New York Times writer Peggy Orenstein's new book, Cinderella Ate My Daughter, a very nice, if slightly meta review. The book is based on an article Orenstein wrote about the Princess Industrial Complex a...
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January 14, 2011
Very Much Like A Trike
When he saw the awesome plywood convertible balance trikes at the store, Andy at Beta Dad did what any self-respecting dad of twins who's already blown his $600 wad on a garageful of tools would do: he went home...
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January 12, 2011
Wow, Get The Catalogue For Toys Of The Avant-Garde
Holy smokes. After seeing the post here a few weeks ago, Patrick actually ordered the catalogue for the Museo Picasso Malaga's rocking exhibition, "Toys of the Avant-Garde." He just posted a whole slew of photos from it on Mondo-Blogo,...
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January 10, 2011
Prince Charming's Nuts, Or Is He?
I admit, I haven't read all of child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim's 1976 treatise, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. [It's hard to find it discussed online, if only because the first hundred or so...
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Strong, Finnish: Sweet Molded Ply Ride-on Toy Via MidMod
So i've got a tag for molded ply, and a tag for ride-on toys, and a tag for vintage, of course. But at some point, it looks like vintage molded ply ride-on toys are gonna need a tag of...
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January 3, 2011
Kay's Anatomy
Lot 207 in Rago's upcoming Discovery Auction deserves a post of its own, if only to keep its mysterious awesomeness from overwhelming the rest of the merch. You'd think that the four-pack of Kay Bojesen bunnies would be enough,...
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The Auction Of Misfit Toys
There are a few interesting kid-related things in Rago's schedule-filling, warehouse-clearing auction next weekend: Lot 130 is a kid-sized Thonet rocking chair with a couple of reeds sticking up from the woven seat and a random side table thrown...
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January 1, 2011
Yeah, Baby!
Happy New Year from the Department of Small, Unsung Parenting Victories, where we just learned that last week, my wife persuaded the kid not to name her Lavender Unicorn Pillow Pet "Horny." Lavender Unicorn Pillow Pet, like $15 [amazon]...
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December 22, 2010
Gloria Who? Knu Tries The Knockoff Approach To Selling The Red Ball Rocker
There's no doubt that it's a children's design classic. The question is, whose? A few years back, Knu was contracted to manufacture the "Red Ball Rocker" for DWR, a knockoff/reissue of the innovative molded ply Hobby Horse Gloria Caranica...
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[read the full post...]
December 21, 2010
Audi Pedal Car Sport May Actually Work
You know, DT reader/car guru DT makes an excellent point: most pedal cars are ergonomically awful, with pedals that require powerlifter thighs to get anywhere. [You remember trying to get that rusty old pedal car going when you were...
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December 16, 2010
I Want To See 'Toys Of The Avant Garde'
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Wooden Toy painted by Pablo Picasso c. 1920s Painted wood and metal 23.5 x 36 x 23 cm Private collection. Courtesy Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte ©Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Málaga 2010 I've...
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December 11, 2010
Awesome 1800s Doll House
I'm sure it's painted with lead and arsenic, but this 1800s dollhouse in original condition is pretty awesome. Too bad [one of] the previous owner Nancy Allen isn't related; I totally would've fought my cousins for this. Massive Early...
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December 9, 2010
This Is What It's Come To
Having a kid will make you do things that will be unrecognizable to your pre-kid self. Like sitting here on eBay, getting ready to snipe just the right vintage Madame Alexander doll for Christmas....
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December 8, 2010
Small Child Once Lived In Large Loft
The other day I came across this book, Converted into Houses, from an era, 1976, where the idea of converting a loft or industrial building into a house was still novel enough to hang a book proposal on. Nothing...
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December 7, 2010
¡MOM A DT 33d & 00d Giveaway!
I'm so glad to see Pee & Poo, the cuddly toys from Sweden, advertising on Daddy Types again; I think they're awesome. And with free shipping through December, there really is no better time to buy. But to celebrate,...
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December 4, 2010
I Even Made A Film About Ironing Once, And This Is Depressing
Hi, I just got back from schmoozing with the NetJetset in Miami Beach at the world's most money-soaked art fair, so now let me post the world's most depressing children's Christmas present! Forget the gender stereotypes of the JC...
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[read the full post...]
December 2, 2010
Grayscale Big Wheel
Forget whatever I just posted about the confusing morass of The Original Big Wheels. If it actually looks this awesome, I'll pay cash money right now for this grayscale Mighty Wheels, and I wouldn't care how long it took...
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Who Gets The Original Big Wheel?
Have you tried looking for an old-school Big Wheel for your kid? What a e-commerce shitshow. There are, of course, Big Wheel-like products in whatever bigbox store you visit, but the pull of nostalgia is strong, and the dream...
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November 28, 2010
Citroen Puzzles From Rosie's Factory
I OWN a Citroen and this makes no sense. And you know what? That's just fine. From their history, I gather that the Belgian wooden puzzle company Rosie's Factory produces an oddly exhaustive collection of vintage car puzzles for...
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November 13, 2010
Strange Pedal Car Fruit
I know if I were in the Forbes 400 like David Whitemire Hearst Jr., and I had a foundation set up to hold my collection of pristine and/or restored pedal cars, I'd certainly lend them to a museum. But...
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November 4, 2010
Vasarely Planetary Folklore Participations No. 1 [through 3,000]
You know what, maybe things weren't all awesomer and more exciting back in the olden days, when people lined up on Lexington Avenue to get the newest "chic Christmas gift of 1969" at Bloomingdale's. And when they used to...
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November 1, 2010
Oh Kay! Bojesen Menagerie At Wright20
So you want a whole nurseryful of vintage Kay Bojesen wooden animals, but you've only got a couple of months before the kid arrives? No problem, Wright20's got your cost-no-object request covered. Though be sure to request the condition...
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Just In Time For Anti-Christmas, The Omen Trike Can Now Be Yours
Sorry, kid in The Shining, but this is probably the freak-outiest tricycle in cinema history. Though the price estimate for this auction is nowhere near as scary as the 2008 original. And if it doesn't sell, brace yourself for...
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October 26, 2010
¡Atención, Los Publicistas Del Museo!
I don't ask for much, really. I'm not one of those swaghound bloggers mucking around for free samples. Or blackmailing companies with the threats of negative posts because baby needs a new pair of Crocs. And though I mock the...
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October 25, 2010
Build The Town Posters By Ladislav Sutnar
Wow, has it really been four years and two weeks since I first posted about Czech emigre designer [and area code parentheses inventor!] Ladislav Sutnar's beautiful-but-unproduced Build The Town block set? Well then, I'm only two weeks late in...
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October 21, 2010
Training Wheels & Hand Grenades
"Lob in a play hand grenade, and finish off the rest with the submachine gun." Look, I didn't have one of those violin lessons & mufflers childhoods; I played my war in the ditches and woods like the rest...
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October 19, 2010
Wingnutsac
God Bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her, and guide her, while ignorant authoritarian religious zealots and their Alaska Birther husbands treat her as a high school cafeteria, and make taunts about the president's balls, which prompts the...
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October 14, 2010
Wolfgang Rebentisch Designed The Hippo In 1993.
Seriously, I like Stokke, and I like the Hippo. And it's totally their call if they decide not to produce or carry it anymore. ergo:design in Germany picked it up, and it still rocks. But Wolfgang Rebentisch, the man...
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[read the full post...]
October 12, 2010
Oh, Hell Yes. Not Just A Crawligator. Crawligator DOT COM.
In practice, they may only ever pop up once or twice a year, but that still means that anyone can post a plain, old Creative Playthings Crawligator on eBay. But only one man, the visionary who registered it two...
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[read the full post...]
October 11, 2010
Coal, Minders, Daughter
Just when I was beginning to wonder whether anyone actually ever bought one of Brockhage and Andra's Schaukelwagen, DT reader and schaukelwagenmeister Andrew spotted this 1970 photo in the Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz:The GDR built up a network of day...
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October 4, 2010
Pamela Weir Rocking Horse
Southern California woodworker Pamela Weir-Quiton has been making what she calls functional wood sculpture since the 1960s. LA Modern has this rocking horse of hers from 1972 in their upcoming auction October 17th. It looks a little side-tipsy to...
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October 3, 2010
There's More To Renate Mueller Than Jute Hippos
All the stuff I wrote 2.5 years ago about the New Hotness of eastern German toymaking legend Renate Mueller still stands: the only things different are that R 20th Century has finally amassed enough vintage Mueller to put on...
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[read the full post...]
October 1, 2010
FAO Schwarz Coming Soon To A Toys R Us Near Your Downmarket Neighborhood
So 18 months after buying the crumbling premium brand, and 18 months before the lease expires on its only remaining retail location, Toys R Us is readying a Christmas plan to roll out F.A.O. Schwarz products into its 595 big...
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[read the full post...]
September 30, 2010
Genital Bleeding! Does The CPSC Have Your Attention For The Fisher-Price Mega-Recall Now?
In its great, revitalized mission to rid the world below our knees of potentially injurious protrusions, the CPSC has recalled more than 10 million Fisher-Price trikes, playsets, and high chairs. The biggest news is the 7 million kids' trikes--sold...
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September 29, 2010
Incredible Creative Playthings Collection Trickling Onto eBay
Over the last few years, a few of us have helped bring long-overdue attention to the amazing, innovative, vintage toys of Creative Playthings. Why? Partly to give credit and appreciation to the makers of the toys we might have...
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September 28, 2010
Whoa, Camel, Kalon Hut-Hut Rocker Now Available In Resin
I still have my suspicions that the Kalon Hut-Hut isn't actually a rocking toy, but a Fifth Element-style, 5-dimensional CNC-carved key to a wormhole in our saddle-slash-Pringles-shaped universe. Now that they've announced a $125 version molded from 100% recycled...
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September 27, 2010
OG Creative Playthings Alarm Clock
My brother the expert kidgiftgiver. When he came to visit, he rightly figured that any annoyance we might feel towards the Disney Princess Silly Bandz he brought K2 would be forgotten as soon as we were all woken up...
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September 20, 2010
Excuse Me, Doc, I've Got A Creative Playthings Scooter To Land
The last thing he said to me, "Doc," he said, "some time when the crew is up against it, and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to get out there and give it all they got and win...
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September 15, 2010
Oy Vey. Jewish Silly Bandz
You call that a dreidl? They look fine on Amazon, but at the Meshuga Bands website, I gotta say, these Jewish Silly Bandz knockoffs look kind of ghetto. Waitaminnit, the Amazon ones are actually called "Jewish Silly Bandz" and...
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[read the full post...]
September 13, 2010
Parapluesch Mental Plush Toys
Orange News, the news service of the British mobile company, reports that some German hipsters have unveiled Parapluesch, a line of cuddly toys with collectible mental disorders. The toys--and the accompanying Flash game [more of a slo-mo Flash storyboard,...
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September 2, 2010
Bwahahalvar Aalto Children's Playset
So what did we discover in the upcoming Rago Arts Discovery auction scheduled for Sept. 11? That even with "(Attr.)" and "unmarked" in the lot description, it still takes a pretty big set of stones to sell this pile...
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August 31, 2010
Vintage Euro Pedal Car?
The list of things I missed in Antwerp this summer is growing, one vintage Euro, iPhone-shaped pedal car at a time. This sweet little ride was at Atelier Solarshop on the day Dubieus Design, the vintage design and furniture...
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[read the full post...]
August 29, 2010
Mini Brothel By Atelier Van Lieshout
Alright, so it's not actually a toy. And yes, I know the estimate seems high. But you gotta admit, at 10.5 inches high, this 2005 maquette, Mini Brothel, by Atelier Van Lieshout, would be the perfect thing to park...
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August 27, 2010
I'll Take Crazy Vintage Dollhouses For $500, Alek!
There's gotta be a story or two here behind this incredible, handmade 3-ft wide, hexagonal dollhouse, which dt reader Christine just spotted on eBay. First off, obviously, What the hey? Those steeply raked rooms look like theatrical set tricks,...
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August 17, 2010
Hate The Playa, Not The Happy Meal Toy
Happy Meal toys are the toy equivalent of McDonalds french fries, which are in turn the food equivalent of cigarettes. They incite and fill an instant craving. Their utility wears off in about five minutes. By which point, they've lodged...
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August 11, 2010
OG Tupperware Japan Toy
Check that out: The vintage/flea market shark who runs Swimsuit Department found a mint-in-box, vintage Tupperware Shape-O puzzle ball. From and in Japan. Apparently, they were called Tuppertoys there. Who knew? All I know is, my little brother and...
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August 9, 2010
Once You Have Black,
You maybe should lower your opening bid. Especially considering a mint-in-box Creative Playthings steamroller without the beat, aftermarket paint job went for just $45 shipped. Creative Playthings U.S.A. Vintage Wood STEAMROLLER, opening bid, $19.95 + 9.55 s/h, auction ends...
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August 3, 2010
Have You Seen Me, The FAO Schwarz Range Rover?
So we had that bit about the FAO Schwarz Ferrari Testarossa, with a 5hp Briggs & Stratton motor and leather interior. But before that, through most of the 1990's, in fact, FAO's high-concept go-kart was apparently a Range Rover. With...
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July 23, 2010
Breitschwerdt Pferd: Some '70s German Non-Rocking Horse
Maybe this Breitschwerdt rocking horse from the 70s is in such good condition because no one ever played with it. I'll go ahead and assume that it rock-steps forward, otherwise I can't account for it. Breitschwerdt was supposedly a...
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Uh, No: BRIO Taureau
Wow. Maybe it'll grow on me. Maybe I can paint it brown and turn it into the rocking Jawa transporter I always wanted as a boy. Or maybe, holy crap, what happened? And how much does BRIO pay you...
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July 22, 2010
BRIO Rocking Ox On The Block
It was listed at Wright 20 as "American c.1965," with a no-reserve estimate of just $100. But I guess at least two people recognized it as the Rocking Ox, introduced in 1967 by BRIO, the largest wooden toymaker in...
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BldgBlog On BldgBlocks
Everyone's favorite architopian blogger Geoff Manaugh just geeked out over the massive collection of vintage blocks and building toys in the archives of Montreal's Canadian Centre for Architecture. The primary target of his fascination is Dr. Richter's Anchor Blocks,...
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[read the full post...]
July 12, 2010
Quick, To The Wary Meyers Machine!
Look, I know that breathing leaded gas fumes has resulted in an entire generation of Americans who see nothing wrong with taking their parents to job interviews 1. But that doesn't mean we should throw groovy vans themselves into...
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[read the full post...]
June 30, 2010
Allons Enfants De La Patrie De Cette Handmade Teething Moustache Magnifique!
I'm sorry, did that last post about the esoterica of lead standards, and the Washington miasma of congressional lobbying not get my point across clearly? Let me try it another way: HOLY CRAP, PEOPLE! IF YOU DON'T CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES...
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United We Etsy! Handmade Toy Alliance
The Handmade Toy Alliance is getting a boost from Etsy, which makes sense, because Etsy gets such a boost from the army of craftspeople and small business owners whose livelihoods are still set to be snuffed out by the industrial-scale...
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[read the full post...]
June 28, 2010
Ost-some! Spielwagen Pop-up Playgrounds In Berlin
It's not so much that communists hate children, it's just that the communist idea of fun centers on balls-out renditions of patriotic songs and large-scale choreography, not anarchic playground scampering. And so even after reunification, Eastern Berlin's parks and...
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June 26, 2010
Woodworkers' Kids Always Have The Nicest Hand-Carved Rocking Toys
Holy smokes. Master California studio furnituremaker Rick Pohlers created this rocking toy for his own kids in the 1970s. It's carved cherry with a leather seat, and features Northwest Coast Indian-style detailing on both sides. It's not huge, either,...
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[read the full post...]
June 21, 2010
Like-A-Crotch-Rocket: The Glodos Bit
The Glodos Bit is a tip-resistant walking bike for toddlers designed by the Spanish duo Marc Castelló and Sergi Teixidó. It's made from molded ply, aluminum, and Big Wheel plastic. It's an incredible combination of an Eames splint, a...
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[read the full post...]
June 7, 2010
The Future Is Here, And It's Riding A Retro Saab
Wow, I was on a hairy deadline, so I only just watched Apples's video for the new iPhone 4 [wipes tears away from eyes]. It almost makes me want to be a road warrior again, just so I can...
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[read the full post...]
June 4, 2010
Mini Bugawho?
Ohdeeoh posted a handy roundup of toy strollers, complete with links to their earlier posts on each one. Front and center is this awesome-looking, homemade mini Bugaboo, hacked together from an aluminum picnic basket; the extendible feet from two...
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[read the full post...]
June 3, 2010
Your Moment Of Slot-Together Zen: Builder Boards
The post yesterday about Richard Dattner's awesome, slot-together, plywood panels from his 1966 Adventure Playground has unleashed a mini-wave of similar, if not quite as super-graphic designs. First up: Builder Boards, a playhouse construction set made of marine ply...
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[read the full post...]
June 2, 2010
FOUND: Richard Dattner Made This Mystery, Slot-Together Playground Equipment
It might take some time, but we here at Daddy Types aim to leave no loops unclosed. At least when it comes to awesome-but-obscure playground equipment. Three and a half years ago now, the NY Times ran the photo...
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June 1, 2010
It Is Killing Me To Miss Kidscreen's Transmedia Boot Camp Tomorrow
Kidscreen, the trade magazine for the kids IP industry, is holding the world's first ever, how-to confab for transmedia tomorrow in Santa Monica. It'll be led by Jeff Gomez, the high-powered, transmedia producer behind Starlight Runner Entertainment. The registration...
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[read the full post...]
May 28, 2010
Sarah Palin Had A Creative Playthings TV Camera Truck As A Child.
When Creative Playthings was struggling for relevance in the changing toy market of the mid-1970s, it seems corporate parent CBS had some suggestions. ["1. Less wood, more plastic!"] But there were also some cockamamie toys that look like they...
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May 27, 2010
Won't You Help?
Poor DT reader Kristen can't go back into her favorite Williamsburg thrift store because the late model Creative Playthings washer/dryer set is still there, taunting her with its early 70s era styling and its $50 price tag. Won't you...
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Seekin' Hide: American Indian Doll & Cradle
Speaking of antique craft and materials, check out this Nez Perce toy cradleboard, c.1880, which is coming up for sale at Heritage Auctions on June 11. It's only 9.5 inches high, perfect for Indian kids' little beaded hide dolls....
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[read the full post...]
May 20, 2010
Antonio Vitali Doll Chalet On eBay
Looks like the high end real estate market for dolls is beginning to rebound. I haven't seen an early 1950's Antonio Vital doll chalet like this on the market for a while, much less one that already has a...
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[read the full post...]
May 13, 2010
Club Peguin X E*Trade Mashup
Even if it was a tangential reference in an entirely other post, we have mentioned Disney's $700 million purchase in 2007 of Club Penguin, an online subscription game world for kids, started by four dads, before. Mostly, because it was...
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[read the full post...]
May 12, 2010
Return Of The Return Of The Jedi Playground Equipment
Boingboing ganked the scan without credit--plus he called it an AT-AT, when it's clearly an AT-ST/Chicken Walker, duh--but the ad for the incredible Gym Dandy Scout Walker Command Center With Speeder Bike Ride backyard playset was originally from the October...
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[read the full post...]
April 29, 2010
Noby, Joby. Joby, Noby.
While I was Googling around, trying to track down this fleecy-soft version of Noby Noby Boy, from the cover of the just-released-on-iTunes soundtrack of Keita Takahashi's PS3/iPhone game, I found out Cabel from Panic had a kid way back,...
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[read the full post...]
April 26, 2010
Ausgezeichnet! Der Neue Schaukelwagen!
And here I thought I knew about all there is to know about Schaukelwagens. Turns out that not all Schaukelwagens are old. The Schaukelwagen did go into production soon after it was designed [in 1950 by Hans Brockhage and...
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[read the full post...]
April 22, 2010
Little Office Space
This is so wrong in so, so many ways. Like five ways at once. I know the Little Tikes Young Explorer were just a cubicle, it'd be fine. Ridiculous and depressing, but fine. This actually has a low-to-middlin', kid-tuned...
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[read the full post...]
The Elmo/Broccoli Study
Maybe it's the lines of pollen she snorts off the edge of her crib every morning, but K2 has been having a rough time with itching and snot the last couple of weeks. So while we were at the pediatrician...
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[read the full post...]
April 19, 2010
The Fifth Axis: Hut-Hut Rocker By Kalon Studios
Coochicoos seems to have been taken in by Kalon Studio's email last week that their new Hut Hut rocker is optimally-milled on a 5-axis CNC machine from your choice of five FSC-certified woods, and that the name means Giddyup...
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[read the full post...]
Today's German Lesson: Ein Schaukelwagen 'Sehr Bespieltes'
'Sehr bespieltes': I wish I could tell you it's German for "great project!" It is actually, "very played-with." And that's just what this Schaukelwagen that popped up on German eBay is: sehr bespieltes, also sehr berepaired. But at the...
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[read the full post...]
April 16, 2010
Make One, Drop One. Need One? Take One. The Toy Society's Toy Drop Program
The Toy Society leaves little homemade toys in public for ye random other folks to take home. The toys have a little, "Take me home! Just spreadin' joy!" message and the URL of their blog, where "Found!" stories are...
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[read the full post...]
April 14, 2010
We Stand On The Shoulders Of Goatcart-Riding Giants
And to think I wondered for a moment how relevant it might be to us as dads today, in 2010, to delve into the history of the crazy old toys our great-grandparents used to ride on. Longtime DT hero [and...
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April 13, 2010
Crazy Old Playthings: An Internet Treasury Of Animals Pulling Kids Around
Wow, DT reader Sara either turned her kids loose in the street for the afternoon, or the whole clan has mad Googlin' skillz, because after Benjamin Harris's grandchildren's goat wagon, she sent a veritable parade of crazy animals pulling kids...
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[read the full post...]
Crazy Old Playthings: Benjamin Harrison's Goat Cart
Crazy grandparental antics didn't start in the 20th century. President Benjamin Harrison, for example, gave his grandkids a bunch of goats, including one named His Whiskers, pictured here on the South Lawn of the White House pulling Goat Cart...
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[read the full post...]
Crazy Old Playthings
They're starting to bubble up, photos of some of the crazy old playthings our great-grandparents made. That our grandparents managed to survive playing with. So they could eventually bring our own parents forth, and so on, and so on, until...
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[read the full post...]
April 12, 2010
This Is Not A Back Flip On A Big Wheel
Big Wheels are made of injection-molded plastic and would disintegrate before they left the ramp, never mind the impact. This is a backflip on a Big Wheel-shaped, steel-framed tricycle called the Trek MOD. Available in both blue and pink...
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[read the full post...]
April 6, 2010
Eames X House: Eames House Blocks By House Industries
EAMES EAMES EAMES HOUSE HOUSE HOUSE BLOCKS BLOCKS BLOCKS D'oh! House Industries makes it look so easy, but getting stackable awesomeness by mixing an icon of 20th century architecture with classic fonts turns out to be pretty damn hard....
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[read the full post...]
Color Rally Blocks
I'd like to think that given our ongoing fixation on colored grids and blocks, I might have posted about Grimm's Spiel und Holz Color Rally Blocks by now. But there we are. Grimm's Spiel und Holz Color Rally Blocks,...
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[read the full post...]
Es ist nur eine Frage der Zeit
Yes, it is just a matter of time before the kid outgrows all that giant plastic crap you buy you end up selling it from a vacant lot in Tejas. See the full-sized image, and several other installation shots...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Richard McGuire + Liquid Liquid On Fallon
Holy smokes. Liquid Liquid performing "Cavern" on Jimmy Fallon. So Richard McGuire is like, "Now that two of my four awesome children's books are back in print, I can take a break from designing awesome motion graphics for PBS Kids...
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[read the full post...]
April 4, 2010
Sweet Amish Doll Quilts
I'm sure the vintage hand-painted woodgrain frame guys are going, "Doll quilts? Who cares about doll quilts?" But if you've got a babydollwrapping frenzy going on in your house, you'd probably be all, "Can you keep the frames and...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 2, 2010
Gilbert & George Singing Sculpture Toy By Kit Grover
Wow. In the Fall of 1971 Gilbert & George's Singing Sculpture was the debut show at Ileana Sonnabend's new gallery in SoHo. The pair stand on a table in suits and spotted metallic makeup and execute a precise series...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Kiss Me Deadly: Awesome, Handmade Mid-Century LA Modernist Dollhouse
Check out this sweet & simple doll house Chris spotted on eBay; it's coming from Long Beach, CA:Created by a Los Angeles shop teacher clearly inspired by the case study and mid century modern homes that were being built...
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[read the full post...]
April 1, 2010
ThinkGeek's My First Bacon Is Everyone Else's Like Fifth Bacon
You know, maybe ThinkGeek was just a too busy bringing last year's most perfect April Fool's Day joke, the Tauntaun Sleeping Bag, into actual production, that they didn't notice the entire industry that has risen up to putting little...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 31, 2010
Anorak Now Available In Indie Toy Format
Finally! England's awesomest--and awesomely expensivest--indie kid's magazine is now available in a toy! Each 3-inch high polyurethane resin version of Anorak will be handmade to order by Matt, so allow around 10 days to ship it out. Also, important...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 29, 2010
250 Creative Playthings Maple Blocks On eBay
Usually, a big set of Creative Playthings blocks like this comes out of a church basement preschool, and they're kind of gnawed on and gnarly. But these maple blocks look surprisingly clean and ready--to get gnawed on by your...
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[read the full post...]
March 27, 2010
Ferrari Plush Steering Wheel, &c.
From cutrate car seats to baby-sized pit crew jumpers, Daddy Types has long documented the hilariously tacky crapitude of Ferrari's licensed merchandise. No car brand I can think of has such a chasm between the autos themselves and the...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 21, 2010
You Say Donald Judd Photocollage, I Say Donald Judd Dollhouse Schematic
Donald Judd bought 101 Spring Street, a 5-story cast iron loft building, in 1968. He raised his family there and used it as a studio and office space until his death in 1994. The Judd Foundation is closing the building...
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[read the full post...]
March 20, 2010
Kent Rogowski, Bears, Have Issues, Need Hug
The reaction among Teddy Bear Artists to Kent Rogowski's Bears series, which consist of portraits of abandoned teddy bears turned inside out, runs the gamut from to . But if there's one thing they can agree on, it's that...
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[read the full post...]
March 17, 2010
We Are The Easy Bake Oven Generation
Regular readers of Daddy Types, who know better than anyone just how fascinating and insightful I am, can appreciate it when I say that I am, without a doubt, the least interesting thing in Adweek's in-depth article about [not]...
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[read the full post...]
March 16, 2010
Knitscape 2.0
Wait, 1978? Didn't we just come through the craftiest era since the invention of macrame? Why has no one knitted an awesome landscape play blanket for a kid born in the 21st century? Which would mean updating it, by...
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[read the full post...]
March 15, 2010
Froebel Who? Herzog & deMeuron Condo Model Blocks On eBay
You know how Frank Lloyd Wright said he became an architect because his mother gave him Froebel blocks to play with as a child? Well, guess what, everybody played with blocks as a child Frank, what else ya got?...
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[read the full post...]
Pesci Di Mari, Polpo Di Mari, Mammiferi Acquatici Di Mari
Since I only obsessively tracked down the info, dates, and materials for all the editions of Enzo Mari's iconic 16 Animali puzzle, I don't know which edition of Mari's sequel puzzle, 16 Pesci, has been obsessively photographed, up close,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Ahh, Spring: Birds, Flowers, Marilyn Neuhart Dolls At Auction
I'll admit it, when it comes to writing about some seemingly basic new parent topics, I feel a bit burned out sometimes. It gives me a new-found appreciation for the folks who write parenting magazines and have to come...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
The Window To The Soul
I'm not reading it, and I've really got nothing to add on the topic, except to say that I will be totally unsurprised if Rielle Hunter hasn't timed her GQ article to the launch of her momblog. Otherwise, the...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 12, 2010
Cabbage Patch Doll Portraits By Andy Warhol
The list of "baffling things that happened in the 1980s which I was completely unaware of at the time" has grown by one: Andy Warhol was commissioned by Roger Schlaifer to make portraits of Cabbage Patch dolls in 1985....
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[read the full post...]
March 5, 2010
There's A Party In Las Vegas! Yo Gabba Gabba Movie In The Works
So Entertainment Weekly gets the leak that Juno director Jason Reitman is involved in a Yo Gabba Gabba! movie. Considering that truly awful kids' TV shows like Dora The Explorer and Rugrats are shoveling out long-format TV specials and even...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 1, 2010
Ado Blocks By Ko Verzuu
Alright, now that I bought them, I can post about these incredible blocks designed by Ko Verzuu in the 1940s and made by ADO, the Dutch toy and furniture company run by and for the mentally disabled community patients...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 26, 2010
Pepsi-Cola Playscape By Jerry Lieberman
Does any headline capture the 1960's ideal playground better than "A Child's Garden of Plastic Delights"? Beginning in 1965, Manhattan designer/dad Jerry Lieberman, under the sponsorship of Pepsi-Cola and the National Recreation and Park Association, worked to develop a...
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[read the full post...]
February 25, 2010
I, For One, Welcome Our Ki No Haguruma Overlords
First, let me apolgize in advance for any feelings of inadequacy that may stifle your own woodworking projects after watching these videos. Don't sweat it. Your day job probably isn't in the engineering, mechanics, manufacturing, robotics or design industry, and...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 24, 2010
Never Saw: Enzo Mari See Saw
Mamma mia, how could I have tracked down every variation of Enzo Mari's iconic 16 Animali puzzle last year [on Feb. 25!], and yet somehow I missed l'Altalena/ See-Saw? What an awesome-looking book. Michael has a full set of...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 22, 2010
American Kids Don't Need No Kaufladen To Sell Their Apples On The Street
Kids in the US get play kitchens. Kids in Germany get play sales kiosks. Which country has a childhood obesity problem and which one has already pulled out of the recession? That's what I thought. Kaufladen by Hase-Weiss, EUR290...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 21, 2010
Giacometti-esque: Bumming Man
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } 5 table, originally uploaded by MrsBadger. How's that for proof of concept? DT regular Becster...
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[read the full post...]
Betty Thomson's Multiplications Cubes Now Have Five Google Results
The moral of this story is, if you see a garage sale at one of those Ice Storm-lookin' houses in Connecticut, pull. over. Do you want to play a game? [mondo-blogo via andy] Previously: but they're clawing their way...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 19, 2010
'The Earliest Known American Rocking Horse'?
At some point, when there's just so much great stuff, one right after the other, it's neither accidental nor mysterious. Nevertheless, John Foster's blog accidental mysteries is a non-stop stream of awesome finds. Let's look at this one, shall...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 17, 2010
Sherrie Levine's Shiny, Rocking Playthings
I don't quite follow how these sculptures of vintage children's objects cast in bronze fit in with Sherrie Levine's ongoing questioning of authorship and originality. They're not quite as iconic as, say, Marcel Duchamp's urinal, which Levine had previously...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Brinca Dada Dollhouse v0.9 On eBay
Weird, and interesting. DT commenter MC recognized the newly unveiled brinca dada Emerson dollhouse--from an eBay listing last December. Sure enough, Here it is/was, and it sold for a whopping $407+75 shipping. It's not clear whether this was a...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Wanted: Alberto Giacometti-esque Dolls
Alright, now that the modernist upstart toy company brinca dada has broken the mold on dollhouse families, DT commenter Teufelkindsvater suggested going all the way: I think little dolls made out of twisted wire or dark bronze coloured Sculpey...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Playhouse Modern: Emerson House By Brinca Dada
From the twittering sound of things, I am the only dadblogger who didn't make it to Toy Fair 2010 this year. So I'll have to wait to see the Emerson, a new modernist dollhouse by brinca dada [that's day-duh,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 16, 2010
Lead Bear, Lead Bear What Do You See?
Alright, I'm back! Did I miss anything?The products, which were made in China for Target's in-house brand, were identified as the retailer's two "Message Bears" - one a pink stuffed bear with "XOXO" across the chest and the other...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 10, 2010
4900 Fuse Beads, After Gerhard Richter
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Fuse Beads, After Gerhard Richter, originally uploaded by gregorg. We'll get through this Snowpocalypse one...
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[read the full post...]
February 9, 2010
Round And Round And Square By Fredun Shapur
Fredun Shapur's illustration and design work is as awesome as his name, and it baffles me how little information about it exists on the web. Shapur did toys and graphics for Creative Playthings, including an iconic series of posters...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 4, 2010
Awesome Dollhouse, Much Else, Made By Joel
Joel is an at-home dad in Portland, where he just finished building this awesome modernist dollhouse for his son Jack. [His daughter's apparently more into bicycles at the moment.] Hardwood dollhouses are sweet. Holy smokes, he made all the...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 3, 2010
Knockoff London-In-A-Bag
Wow, just because they don't have labels doesn't mean you can knock them off. The Museum of London is selling a London-in-a-Bag play set which is a straightup ripoff of Muji's original -in-a-Bag series of toys, which were created--in...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 29, 2010
Just Some Princess And Some Frog Necklaces Recalled For Toxic Cadmium
FAF Inc. of Greenville, RI has charmed generations of children with their magical animated storytelling, their pioneering theme parks, and their unparalleled merchandise. In just a few short years, they created one of the most powerful little girl brands,...
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[read the full post...]
January 24, 2010
ShapeMaker Blocks By Miller Goodman
Zoe Miller and David Goodman design a fine-looking collection of kids products for the Tate's gift shop, but they pulled out all the stops for their own debut toy: ShapeMaker blocks. These rock. The graphic simplicity, flexibility, and creative...
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[read the full post...]
January 18, 2010
Das Gutenkinderauktionblogposten
The German auction house Quittenbaum has a design sale coming up in a couple of weeks, February 9th, which includes some classic pieces of vintage kids design and a couple of oddities: Lot 90: First up, the classic Schaukelwagen convertible...
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[read the full post...]
January 17, 2010
Exposition Playmobil Au Musée Des Arts Décoratifs
Last month, the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris opened an exhibition of the history of Playmobil. The show is timed to commemorate Playmobil's 33rd, 34th, or 35th anniversary, depending on who's counting. Or the death in 2009 of...
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[read the full post...]
January 15, 2010
IKEA Train Track Configurator Calculator
John Graham-Cumming took a break from calculating the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop to write a quick program that calculates the number of possible loop configurations for the 16-pieces of...
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[read the full post...]
The Hub Discovery Brand Network Kids Hasbro Dynamic DNA Concept Fail
My first The Hub was the expensive, preppie men's clothing store in Raleigh when I was growing up. I got no beef with them. In fact, I still have my first three-figure handknit sweater, which I purchased there in 1984....
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[read the full post...]
January 14, 2010
Bauhausgezeichnet! Alma Siedhoff-Buscher Blocks On eBay
An original Bauhaus children's toy by the Bauhaus designer, Alma Siedhoff-Buscher. It is a Bauhaus Building Block Set, circa 1923. The set consists of 48 rectangular blocks in different colors in their original presentation box. The box size is...
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[read the full post...]
January 13, 2010
Spiral Staircase Slide
I love it when a plan comes together. A friend had emailed just the other day, asking if I knew of any more awesome slides built into houses besides that underground eco-dreamhouse deal Alex Michaelis built in London. And...
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[read the full post...]
January 8, 2010
I'd Totally Keep That Picasso Toy Guitar, Too
Paloma Picasso was born in 1949, which means Pablo probably made this little toy guitar for her in the early 1950s. Picasso was in the sculpting zone at the time, creating playful, iconic works like his mother baboon with...
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[read the full post...]
January 3, 2010
DONE: The DT Instaproject Doll Cradle
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Well, it's done, and just in time, but don't look for me to be opening...
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[read the full post...]
December 31, 2009
DT Instaproject: OGGG Grandpa's Cradle
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } 1/2-in poplar boards instead, originally uploaded by daddytypes. Clock's ticking. And right away, I find...
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[read the full post...]
December 30, 2009
DT Quick [?] Project: Great-Great-Great Grandma's Cradle
K2's 2nd birthday is coming up quick, and I remembered that the wife and I had talked about getting her a cradle for her dolls--her babycount's already surpassed Angelina Jolie and is on its way to Octomom territory. When...
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[read the full post...]
December 23, 2009
DT@FR: Black Bebes Pour Tous!
Marche du Noel, Aix-en-Provence: Found this shop full of black babies in a town full of white people more than a little odd/disturbing. The only explanation I can come up with is Brangelina....
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[read the full post...]
DT@FR Rocking Crocodile Toy in Lourmarin
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } DT@FR Rocking Crocodile Toy in Lourmarin, FR, originally uploaded by daddytypes. Some Place in Lourmarin,...
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[read the full post...]
December 16, 2009
All You Want For Christmas Is A Crawligator?
Let me suggest that if you really had a Crawligator on your kid's Christmas list and you haven't picked one up already, you'd do well not to quibble over the high opening bid on this one. Instead, just count...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 15, 2009
Uh, No. Unicorn Taxidermy On Etsy
The last two times we've been to Costco [Sorry, Jim, I'm weak!], the kid has fixated on a horrible, awful, giant piece of crap toy horse that looks like the Budweiser Clydesdales. It doesn't rock, it doesn't look like...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 14, 2009
A Very Special Monday Mommy Mailbag
So what vital information do publicists have for you parents/ladies? Toys"R"Us Helps Take The Worry Out of Holiday Shopping for Moms With its Annual Toy Guide for Differently-abled Kids Last-minute holiday season can be stressful for moms, and particularly so...
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[read the full post...]
Big Old Wheel
This is the 2nd coolest Big Wheel in the world--after the one you had as a kid, of course. 1940s steel & aluminum circus tricycle/big wheel, $435 [modern50.com]...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 13, 2009
Playsam Dollhouse! By Eva Schildt
Wow, look what I just found at Noojii, the baby gear shop DT reader Sven runs in Hamm, Germany [midway between Dusseldorf and Hannover]: a Playsam dollhouse by Swedish designer Eva Schildt. At just 30 cm high, the dollhouse...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 1, 2009
Designers We Ripped-off, D'oh! We're Repentant!
Haha, in the middle of the reporting for Fast Company's long, devastating takedown of Design Within Reach, their screwed up CEO--the one who opened all the unprofitable stores and began proudly and systematically knocking off designers in pursuit of a...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 30, 2009
As Like-A-Bike As You Can Get
It's taken a few years and a pile of knockoffs, but Kokua has reached the ontological limits of the Like-A-Bike: Inches in Germany? Like-to-Bike 16-in. children's bike, by Kokua [liketobike.de via dt reader nelson] Update/flashback: BMW's walking bike has a...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 24, 2009
More Eames Molded Ply Animals
In 2007, the Eames Office and Vitra produced a limited edition molded plywood elephant that was based on a 1940s prototype Ray and Charles exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art. [There were originally two elephants made--see above--but only...
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[read the full post...]
Holy Smokes, Holy Folks!
Here's the first stop on my search for plush Ten Commandments: Holy Folks. Aren't they adorable? Their little hands are magnetized to hold their accessory--and to pray. And their beady little eyes look like they'd choke an unimmaculately conceived...
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[read the full post...]
Knockoff Ripoff Within Reach: Plan Toys Walking Elephant
Somehow my thorough ignoring of what DWR's up to caused me to miss this: a ride-on, walking elephant made from molded rubberwood ply. It's different enough from its obvious inspiration, Ray and Charles Eames's molded ply elephant [which DWR...
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[read the full post...]
November 23, 2009
If It Was Only The Plush Mohel Scissors, It Would Have Been Enough
Ah, Hannukah, you're almost here. One of DT's favorite Jews, Marjorie Ingall, has compiled a list of so-wrong-they're-almost-right Hannukah gifts, for the Jewish life & culture magazine Tablet. It is awesome. Check it out. The ten plagues finger puppets, we...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 21, 2009
So What Else Isn't Muji Bringing US For Christmas?
I know I should wait until after Thanksgiving, but I can't. It's a DT Nov. 21 tradition! Take a look at some of the Muji Xmas 2009 Awesomeness--that is only available in Japan: Blackboard matryoshka dolls, chalk included, Y1200. Wood...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Muji X Lego Papercraft Colabo
Just in time for Kurisumasu! Muji x Lego had a genius product breakthrough: combine cut paper with Lego bricks to make--whatever you want. Muji designed four play sets, complete with pre-cut paper and all the tiny little bricks needed...
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[read the full post...]
November 20, 2009
Bojesen Auction Awesomeness
See that, learning a new vintage toy is just like learning a new word: now you notice when they start turning up. Take this beautiful for example: the rattan doll pram Kay Bojesen designed in 1949 for Wengler, which...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Tell Your Army Of Adorable Mask-Wearing Pandas To Stand Down, IKEA!
I'll buy the little alien helmet mask. And the plush, Ikea-colored viking helmet. Oh, what's that? Someone's rifled through the bins like a bowl of M&M's in a Van Halen dressing room or a box of marshmallow-less Lucky Charms,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 19, 2009
ЯIP: Gunther Kilsheimer, Creator Of Toys R Us Logo
No way, did you know Toys R Us started in Washington DC? It began as a baby furniture retailer in Adams Morgan [in fact, the original store is now a blues bar called Madam's Organ. All the Baby Boomers raised...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 17, 2009
Hey You! Go To Shrimp Shop This Saturday In Los Angeles
Andy from Stork Bites Man and Ryan from The South Willard are having a colabo joint for kids starting this weekend. It's called the Shrimp Shop. Here's just a taste of what to expect:Boro Pants Ceramic Mobiles Creative Playthings...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
The Fageol Walkee Tricycle On eBay, Tetanus Shot Not Included
Wow, this looks incredible. Vintage industrial kid gear. The Fageol Walkee Tricycle takes its name from its inventor, Christopher Walkee. Haha, no. William B. Fageol and his brother Frank built the first bus. Their company, the Fageol Motor Company,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 15, 2009
Take Me To Your Little Brother's Homemade Spaceship On Etsy
Ah, what are older brothers for? For selling the insane flying saucer playhouse your dad or whoever spent 8 months straight building for you on Etsy for ten grand, that's what. The one with the removable dome, the reclining...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 12, 2009
Ceci N'est Pas Un Caketopper. Custom Wood Doll Family
You know that NY Times article about custom wedding cake topper artists? Me either, but DT reader Eric did, and that's how he found out that Fancie Fannies also makes non-cake topper dolls, with kid-safe non-toxic paint. So he...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 10, 2009
OG Ply At Design Council
You know how, though he made an entire nursery for his own kids in his listed-and-open-to-the-public house, and how he did a bunch of toys for them, too, this is the only picture of Erno Goldfinger's modernist toys that ever...
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[read the full post...]
November 7, 2009
T Is For The Tiniest Shoppers
Wow, who at the NY Times T Magazine offices is having a baby? Because almost the entire Winter Design & Living issue is devoted to kid- and family-related design. Some highlights: Fred Bernstein's got a piece about how it's alright...
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[read the full post...]
November 6, 2009
Struts RIP, Or They Shot Whorses, Didn't They?
It started this summer, and so it has nothing to do with having kindergarten friends who take riding lessons. But otherwise, we are unable to account for the intensity of the kid's current horse-and-unicorn fixation. The one bright spot...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 4, 2009
Every Lego Family Speaks Lego In Its Own Way
So awesome. At The Morning News, Giles Turnbull has gathered several families' names for various Lego parts into one fascinating chart. Fascinating, yet useless, of course, since your own lingo is probably different:"Dad, I'm building a roof for the medical...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 3, 2009
Don't Cry For Wii, Australia
The Baby and Me video game for the Nintendo Wii is only launching in Australia, but who cares? You can make your own right at home. Here's the concept for the Australian version: Your baby reacts by giggling, gurgling...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 31, 2009
Vintage BRIO Rox: Molded Ply Ox
You know what might turn BRIO's fortunes around? Bringing back this molded plywood rocking ox with the red horns and foot rests and the blue felt seat that they introduced in 1967. Seriously, stack those things like Pringles and...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
BRIO? Indies? Toy Casualties Mount In CPSIA Trainwreck
It's been a while since the CPSIA has been in the news, or at least since anyone's sent me anything about it. The CPSC's new lead and phthalates restrictions and testing requirements for childrens' products kicked in earlier this year,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 30, 2009
Japanese Rainbow Elmo's Super, Thanks For Asking!
Sanrio introduced these rainbow Elmo cell phone straps last year in Japan, as if the only problem with Elmo is that he's red. Elmo Dreams in Rainbow Colors cell phone straps [muppet wiki via Mr Brian Design]...
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[read the full post...]
October 29, 2009
Have You Seen Me? Vintage Mystery See-Saw At Grain Edit
There's probably a long German word for the kind of suffering that comes from not knowing where a cool vintage toy ad came from. And another one for the annoyance of scanning something and forgetting to make any reference...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Vintage Playground Indy 500 Simulator
It looks kind of unwieldy, but this sweet piece of OG playground equipment is only 4' long and 2' high, small enough for toddlers--and small enough to ship via Greyhound. Even better--for me, anyway, I'm sure it means jack...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 27, 2009
Talmudic Toy Teasers
Here I was, reading about all these awesome Torah and Talmud Toys and wondering where I can get some--Toy Eglah Arufah Everything you need to act out the matter of the Eglah Arufah (literally, the decapitated calf). Toy Eglah Arufah...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 23, 2009
Busty Meccano Nanny & Pram By Andreas Konkoly
This won't be news to the readers of Pram Watch, the official blog of the Pram Museum, but to the few stragglers and delinquents among us, I say take note: "All nannies have a motherly bosom, and if you...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 19, 2009
Yes, Please, Thanks: Lego Kitchen By Simon Pillard & Philippe Rosetti
Damn, but I love/hate the Internet. How a simple idea, beautifully executed, can race around the world in serendipitous hops and jumps, shedding facts and context along the way. I don't know who Philippe Simon and Pillard Rosetti or...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 15, 2009
What Is A Puppenhaus, Alek?
That one SoCal roadtrip when I tried out for Jeopardy!, I got dinged in the final round. And yet nearly twenty years later, here I am, filing the most random bits of information away in my head for no...
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[read the full post...]
October 13, 2009
From The Mixed Up Archives Of Mrs British D. Sign Council: Play Rocker Prototype By John Millns
No sooner is one vintage kids design mystery solved than another takes its place. The British Design Council has published its slide collection online, including this rather awesome-looking "child's rocking play fixture," which uses the same special, NASA-designed bend-into-shape...
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[read the full post...]
Holy Smokes, It's The Tyng Toy!
The Tyng Toy was created by the brilliant young architect Anne Tyng in the late 1940's. It's probably the least well known of toy from the Golden Age of postwar modernist kid's design, an era which also saw toys...
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[read the full post...]
Random 1940s See-Saw Still Around, Mistaken For Antique
New Jersey auction house Rago Arts has a $1,000-2,000 estimate on this c. 1940s homemade ply & pine see-saw they're selling in a couple of weeks. Even if it does convert to "a stepping toy," when you flip it...
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[read the full post...]
October 8, 2009
Inflatable Solar System Just Like The White House
So for the last few months, the wife has been working on a big astronomy event at the White House, which just went down tonight. [High five, baby, you pulled it off!] She had 150 middle school kids, a...
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[read the full post...]
October 6, 2009
My Grandfather's Clock, The Eerie Song On My Kid's Version Of My Fisher-Price Clock
Naturally, I had no idea as a kid, but as soon as one of those Fisher-Price Teaching Clocks crossed my grown-up path this weekend, I started wondering what that song was. I mean, if it's going to be my ringtone,...
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[read the full post...]
October 5, 2009
Awesome In Theory: Fisher-Price Classic Toys
The Fisher-Price Teaching Clock I had as a kid is long gone, but the kid honed right in on Joel's yesterday at the flea market. She bought it for ten bucks. [I know, but I wasn't planning to teach...
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[read the full post...]
October 4, 2009
Like-A-Segway: Gyrowheel By Gyrobike
The old way to teach a kid to ride a bike was training wheels, of course, and the new OG way was on a pedal-less walking bike like a Like-A-Bike or one of its many knockoff/competitors. Now there's a...
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[read the full post...]
DT Found It: 'Sculptures For Children,' By Frances Weiss
Last fall, I'd wondered aloud who the unidentified artist was in Life Magazine's 1951-52 photos of some surreal sculptural playground equipment. All I could figure out was that some of the Jan. 1952 pictures were taken at Tibor de...
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[read the full post...]
October 1, 2009
Dutch Plywood Awesomeness By Gerrit Van Bakel
Whether it was the name of his collection or it's just Dutch for "plywood furniture," Gerrit van Bakel's "meubel multiplex" phase lasted from 1966 until the around 1981. During that time, the artist cranked out nearly 80 different rounded-edge...
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[read the full post...]
September 28, 2009
Damn, But I Hate You, Happy Meals
It's been a couple of years since some random punk and his dad at the McTable next to us told the kid that there are supposed to be toys in a Happy Meal. [As payback, I told him about the...
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[read the full post...]
September 18, 2009
From Ford's Dept Of Awesome/Horrible Ideas
After bugging my dad for months asking why we couldn't get a Citroen Karin, I learned not pay too much mind to concept cars. So the downright goofiness in the Ford Transit Connect Family One Concept of storage bins...
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[read the full post...]
September 10, 2009
And A Little Woodworkblogging On The Side
Swedish illustrator Anders Nyberg keeps a blog for all his wacky side projects. Come for the fantastical wooden toys, stay for the giant Lego "thing" Nyberg and his daughter made one Sunday afternoon using all their Lego pieces. Anders Nyberg...
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[read the full post...]
September 8, 2009
Thank You, Creston's Mom!
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } , originally uploaded by creston funk. DT reader Creston Funk's parents rather awesomely saved his...
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The Triumph Of The Crayolatariat
On the Fourth of July, we took the kids to The Crayola Factory: A Hands-on Discovery Center in downtown Easton, Pennsylvania. Though it's impossible to say such crafty entertainment could not be found without three hours in the car, the...
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[read the full post...]
September 3, 2009
This Week In Doll-Sized Real Estate Marketing
This Creative Playthings, slot-together, 2-story dollhouse is a later model, being sold unfurnished, and it's in good-but-played-with condition, so no museum piece. Still, I'm surprised it hasn't gotten any bids yet; back in the day, $99 might have been...
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[read the full post...]
September 2, 2009
Old Timey Pedal Cars At Bonhams Run The Awesome Gamut
There are three standout pedal cars in Bonham's upcoming auto memorabilia and classic vehicle auction Sept 12. They are presented here in decreasing order of estimated price... Lot 293, a bare metal restoration of an Austin J40 pedal car, complete...
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[read the full post...]
September 1, 2009
Mad World: If Kids Designed Their Own Xmas Toys
Seeing this old Al Jaffe spread from Mad Magazine was an "epiphanic" window into the design process for either Wary or Meyers, I'm not sure which. Also, it was one of the first things she or he picked out...
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[read the full post...]
August 31, 2009
Gold-Plated Creative Playthings Dollhouse Bathroom
Now I love Dino like a brother--a brother who gave me a very fair price on a beautiful, old, Elephant Gray Eames RAR shell, and who added a truly excellent reproduction Eiffel Tower base--and who attached it for free,...
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[read the full post...]
August 28, 2009
Hyperchouette! Willow & Juniper Baby Rattle From Provence
During the summer lull, Kiosk has posted a little mini-market of finds from Provence, including this awesome, handwoven baby rattle they found at the Saturday market in Apt. It's by a potato basketweaver from Cadenet--which happens to be just...
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[read the full post...]
August 27, 2009
Playgrounder Comes Out To Play
Before the kid was born, and I had a hard time finding any baby gear I could stand to live with, I thought I'd keep a list, so the next guy Googling around for an industrial-style changing table could use...
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[read the full post...]
August 24, 2009
Unplayed With, Ungnawed On: Awesome Creative Playthings Steamroller
It doesn't get any better than this, folks. If by "it" you're referring to vintage, 70s-era Creative Playthings wooden steamrollers, gift-ready and new in the original box. Whether it's worth at least $45 for your kid to have the...
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[read the full post...]
August 19, 2009
Larger-Than-Average Mickey Mouse Merchandise
1st Dibs: Come for the odd 1950's Mickey Mouse see-saw salvaged from a Miami Beach drive-in theater [$2,500 at Pierre Anthony Galleries in West Palm Beach, via anonymous works] Stay for the even more distended Mickey dresser, a head-scratching,...
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[read the full post...]
August 15, 2009
Bears On Melting Ice By Masahiro Minami
Japanese designer Masahiro Minami has come up with a fun, playful way to teach your kid how the SUVs are killing all the polar bears. Just like the Industrial Revolution killed off all those ice floe-hopping brown bears. Have...
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[read the full post...]
Kay Bojesen, Resistance Fighter?
From the Kay Bojesen Samling exhibition at the Rudersdal Museums comes this fascinating bit of context about the creation of one of Bojesen's signature toys, the Royal Danish guard:At its birth in 1942, in the midst of occupation darkness,...
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[read the full post...]
August 13, 2009
My Left Foot [Powered Hop-along Hobby Horse]
For want of a www., a day was lost. It took me until now to realize I was missing the www. on the URL for my blog server. Stay tuned for pictures of the Audi grille that was destroyed...
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[read the full post...]
August 10, 2009
Lovely Parting Gift: Gerrit Rietveld Dollhouse
I thought I'd tracked down every last kid-related design Gerrit Rietveld ever made, but it turns out I'd only covered the furniture, not the dollhouses [!]. Gerrit Rietveld presented the plans for this dollhouse to the Jesse family, repeat...
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[read the full post...]
August 9, 2009
Yes We Cane! Rattan Kids Furniture By Kay Bojesen [?!]
Is there anything that Kay Bojesen didn't make? In 1949, he created an export collection of rattan [spanskrør] kids and doll furniture for R. Wengler, basketmakers to HKH Frederic IX, King of Denmark. And the awesome pram above--sorry, doll-size...
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[read the full post...]
August 6, 2009
Thingamababy Totally OWNS The Baby Gloton Breastfeeding Doll Story, BTW
I know that it's suddenly flared onto the big gearblog and WTFblog radar, but AJ had that chup chupi chupiriffic Baby Glutton Spanish breastfeeding doll story down like three weeks ago. And he's got the hundred+ fervent lactivist comments...
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[read the full post...]
August 5, 2009
Men Shop At Mars, Parents Shop At Venus
Well, it's taken me a few years, but I think I finally have it all figured out: parenting, the difference between moms and dads, between quality and crap, between magazines and blogs, how to fluff an advertiser. And it's...
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[read the full post...]
Indian Bamboo For Kids By MP Ranjan
Prof. MP Ranjan sounds like the Eames and Enzo Mari of Indian design. Or at least Indian bamboo design. He's the head of the Centre for Bamboo Initiatives at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, where...
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[read the full post...]
August 3, 2009
Creative Playthings Store By Studio Works
I'm trying to remember how I found my way to architect Lester Walker's website, but I don't have any trouble remembering what stuck there: the sweet, futuristic retail store that Studio Works designed for Creative Playthings in 1969. Studio...
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[read the full post...]
July 31, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: No Toms, Dustins Or Leos Edition
Have we got a pile of overhyped science and alarming news stories to ruin your parenting weekend! "Does Breastfeeding Cause Autism?" This insane headline is the reason the Freakout was created. It is also practically a quote from the UCSF...
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[read the full post...]
July 21, 2009
Purple Mountains Of Farm Toys From Sea To Shining Sea
Leaving Philadelphia on the 5th of July, we decided we wanted to be anywhere but I-95, so we headed to DC via the farm country of Lancaster County. Of course, the only Amish Experience we could expect is that...
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[read the full post...]
July 20, 2009
Finally, Stitch Wars Is Here, And Not A Plush Jar-Jar Binks In Sight
Sheesh, teasers from Stitch Wars, the Star Wars-themed indie craft exhibit/sale at Bear and Bird of Lauderhill, FL have been dribbling out for so long, it felt like the release of Episode I. But it's finally out, and after...
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[read the full post...]
July 18, 2009
Creative Stranglings: CP Indoor Gym House [Of Strangulation] On eBay
Wow, you don't see these on eBay very often. Nowadays, the company known as Creative Playthings makes nothing but slides and playground sets. But back when Creative Playthings was Creative Playthings, this was about it. The Indoor Gym House...
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[read the full post...]
July 16, 2009
Pfeiffer Opens Kaiku's Kimono
kaiku: sweet molded ply wagons and toy strollers set to drop this Fall but how do they look? website only teases: "little modern movement" AND?? whoops, hip designer's portfolio shows the goods inadvertently [?] kaiku design: little modern movement...
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[read the full post...]
July 15, 2009
One Backwards R To Rule Them All
Wow, so last we heard from Toys R Us & Babies R Us, they were buying up F.A.O. Schwarz, or whatever's left of it--a soon-to-be-evicted, toy store-themed amusement park on Fifth Avenue, and parents' vague, vestigial fondness for Tom Hanks...
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[read the full post...]
July 14, 2009
Felix Gotze: Eine Kleine Schaukelmotorrad
I've been trying to link to this all day, ever since DT reader Rolf tipped me off about it, but the original site who posted German designer [whose facebook says Hong Kong?] Felix Gotze's Motorcycle Rocking Horse has been...
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[read the full post...]
July 12, 2009
Real-G: Life-size Gundam Lands In Tokyo
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } CIMG6990, originally uploaded by ryoki. That is mecha-mazing. To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Gundam,...
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[read the full post...]
July 10, 2009
Blackhawk Down At Toys R Us Right Now!
For purposes of blogging, I'll assume these are real ads, and not just linkbaiting comps. Creative Review says the stills from this ad campaign for Mattel's Matchbox collection come from Ogilvy & Mather's office in the happy happy, good...
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[read the full post...]
July 6, 2009
4 Million Aqua Leisure Baby Floats Recalled For Drowning Risk [!]
If you thought reaching a live customer service rep at Aqua Leisure was hard before... The CPSC just issued a recall for over 4 million baby floats made by Aqua Leisure between 2002 and 2008 and sold until June...
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[read the full post...]
Slides Rule: The 517 Awesomest OG Suberidai In Japan
Andrew posted a few pictures of vintage Japanese slides [suberidai] on his blog, and I realized it's been two years since I visited iharay's amazing online collection. He's up to 517 slides now, and not even half of them...
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[read the full post...]
You Gank My Battleship!
The trick with the Monday morning What's New? email blasts from the vintage design gurus at Virginia-based Three Potato Four is realizing that they actually put the items in their online shop Sunday night. Usually, that means the awesome...
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[read the full post...]
July 4, 2009
Build-A-Heroin-Filled-Bear
On Independence Day, let's take a moment to celebrate what makes America great: like a network of drug dealers in the Bronx moving their heroin around the tri-state area inside Build-A-Bears. And the free press who keep referring to...
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[read the full post...]
June 29, 2009
Dollpocalypse Now
The horror... the ridiculous horror... I've been trying to work out the script where this dopey gringa gone-native is Dennis Hopper, and the man living on this abandoned doll-covered chinampa is Kurtz, which would make the canals of the...
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[read the full post...]
Reference Library, Max Lamb, Enzo Mari At The Selby
The homebrewed messy modernist snake has eaten its tail, and it looks awesome. Andy Beach's April retail colabo in Milan with Apartamento Magazine has now gotten the The Selby treatment. Which means you can see the full-color, reissued awesomeness...
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[read the full post...]
June 26, 2009
Hello Gundam?
A Taiwanese fan made this for Gundam's 30th anniversary. Stay tuned for the launch of the matching Pink Base. Deco-Gundam [pinktentacle via c-monster]...
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[read the full post...]
June 23, 2009
Now About That History Of Soft Play
I just realized it's been two whole months since I learned that those giant foam wrestling mat-style playgrounds are called "soft play," and that the leading design and manufacturer for soft play areas, in malls, anyway, is a Denver-based...
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[read the full post...]
June 17, 2009
Just Do What The Muppets Say, And No One Gets Hurt
Yeah, sure I knew Jim Henson's Muppets predated Sesame Street and that most were created for commercials. In the abstract. There were even a few Muppet ads screening last summer at the Smithsonian's otherwise forgettable Jim Henson Legacy exhibition. But...
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[read the full post...]
Awesome Homebrew Coffee Bar/ Play Kitchen
Come for the chalkboard paint in rainbow colors, stay for the awesome little stainless steel play fridge. Craig was one of the earliest DT reader/contributors, and a big modernist design fan, as you can see from the incredible homemade...
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[read the full post...]
So You Wish You Had An Oscar Mayer Wienermobile Pedal Car?
DT reader Katy sends along a photo of a cute kid in a wienermobile from flickr megapoweruser mattlogelin's photostream. And the obvious question is, "Where can I get one?" Well, they turn up on craigslist and eBay. About 16,000...
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[read the full post...]
June 16, 2009
Ausgezeichnet! New Renate Müller Animals--By Renate Müller
Sure, you might see a sweet Renate Müller stuffed animal, made in the 70's from leather and jute--the East German cashmere!--for sale here and there. Andy Spade's new store has/had a whole pile of them. But here's a caption...
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[read the full post...]
Those Pasties Look Like Choke Hazards Anyway
Miss Coco, this plush burlesque hoochie mama by etsy maker Jellibat, has already been sold. [jellibat's much tamer etsy store today, via tryhandmade]...
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[read the full post...]
Hola, Puerta De Los Alphabet Blocks Grandes!
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Reconstruyendonos II, 2009 by Belkis Ramirez , originally uploaded by C-Monster. Most artists just show...
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[read the full post...]
June 15, 2009
More Than Model Trains: Mid-Century Modern Kibri Dollhouse
Well here's one hint that German model maker Kibri had a serious modernist thing going on in the early 1960's: check out the swingin' Kibri doll house at Virtuelles Puppenhausmuseum. The doll house, model 158/9, was modular and extendable,...
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[read the full post...]
June 11, 2009
Mass Modern Auction @ W20: Thinking Of The Children
Part of me wants to shout out about all the interesting-looking kid stuff in Wright20's upcoming Mass Modern auction June 27, and part of me wants to shut my piehole, because there are lots of lots being sold no reserve,...
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[read the full post...]
'Dov Working On Various Construction Projects'
For those who have a hard time imagining American Apparel CEO Dov Charney making anything other than a complete, skanky, sexual harassing ass out of himself, this slideshow of all the crafty toys and furniture he made as a...
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[read the full post...]
June 8, 2009
One Was Johnny
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Johnny Carson & Nauga, originally uploaded by grickily. The other was Nauga, and the third,...
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[read the full post...]
June 7, 2009
Creative Playthings Miracle: "Immaculate" Play Kitchen
Just a sec, I need to update my list.... DT's Words I'll Never Hear Describing Vintage Creative Playthings Play Kitchens list Pristine Mint Immaculate Never Been Played With Free Shipping OK, I'm back. And what better to do on...
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[read the full post...]
June 5, 2009
Ikea Slide, Now In Convenient Take-Home Size
One of our Ikeas somewhere had a slide at the entrance to the kids section, which was mildly awesome. But either I forgot which Ikea it was, or they tore it out, because it's gone now, which mildly sucks....
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[read the full post...]
June 4, 2009
The Family That Flays Together Stays Together: Freaky One-Eyed Kid Car By Elmer Presslee
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Now how is it that a kid in a music video full of rubber, gore-faced...
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[read the full post...]
June 2, 2009
Wood Paneling Dollhouse
One of the kid's early trademark phrases, which she learned by listening to me call my wife to tell her where we were in our NYC-DC commute, was "Somewhere in New Jersey." Near as I can tell, that's also...
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[read the full post...]
June 1, 2009
Crazy Racers That Go-Go-Go! [Out Of Print]
With the end of preschool approaching, I've been stockpiling some craft and toy and art projects to keep the kid busy. At the flea market today, we scored a couple of pristine, c. 1960 activity books from Whitman Publishing of...
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[read the full post...]
May 31, 2009
They Don't Make Rickshaw Tricycles Like They Used To
Yes, venerable playground fixture Angeles Tricycles still makes a tricycle rickshaw, the Silverrider. But a few decades of lawyering and design tinkering has taken the edge off. And added some paint to the raw, simple beauty of the galvanized...
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[read the full post...]
May 28, 2009
F.A.O. R Us
Toys R Us is owned by Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts. TRU has announced it is acquiring F.A.O. Schwarz, a company whose primary assets consist of two retail leases [NYC, which expires in 2012 and is being...
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[read the full post...]
Malaise Era Creative Playthings Dump & Derrick Truck - NIB
The compleatist, collector, or gnawed-wooden-toy-ophobe will be bidding against each other for this New In Box Creative Playthings Dump & Derrick Truck that just appeared on eBay. Me, I'll sit this one out. Even though the ability to switch...
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[read the full post...]
Mecha Bojesen Mega Auction
Though Kay Bojesen has been reduced to expensive teak monkeys today, back in the day, he was a veritable one-Dane, wooden Playmobil, replicating even the most random corners of the modern world in his signature, modernist toy style. At...
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[read the full post...]
May 20, 2009
The 8-lb Vespa-Riding Gorilla In The Room
From Hypebeast, the hipster press release transcription service beloved by corporate brand managers the world over, comes an announcement about a hundred scooters dropping:Aside from the 100th Anniversary Apparel Collection, quintessential brand Fred Perry collaborates with legendary Italian company Piaggio...
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[read the full post...]
May 12, 2009
Neutraface Blocks: Teaching The ABC's Of Typefaces Since 2009
So awesome. Before House Industries introduced their Alexander Girard-inspired blocks a couple of years ago, the mid-century modernist alphabet block market was in a rut. Actually, it didn't exist, but that's not important now. What's important is that House...
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[read the full post...]
May 8, 2009
What's Wrong With This Piet Hein Eek Picture?
If you ignore my sloppychoppy highlighting, nothing. But HOLY CRAP, DWELL MAGAZINE! If you're gonna have a fine interview with Piet Hein Eek, and then you add a 27 [!] slide slideshow, DON'T have the caption on the 27th...
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[read the full post...]
Faces Tape By Our Children's Gorilla
The Swedish kid's design company Our Children's Gorilla has advertised on Daddy Types before, but they come up with such awesome stuff, sometimes I think I would pay them to write about it. Seriously, I think I'll PayPal them...
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[read the full post...]
May 6, 2009
Pininfarina Giulia Rocking Horse Object For Riva 1920
The names Pininfarina and Giulia go together like, well, like Alfa and Romeo. So I was a little concerned that would Pininfarina blithely attach the name of one of its founder's last and greatest creations to anything, much less...
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[read the full post...]
May 5, 2009
Molto Colani! The Limited Edition Luigi Colani Action [sic] Figure
Decked out as they are in remarkably detailed recreations of the butter yellow trenchcoats the Professor created for Swissair in 1990 and possessed of the maestro's intense, visionary gaze into the biomorphic future, the 1/6 scale collectible figures of...
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[read the full post...]
May 4, 2009
Fou, Fou, Completement Fou! Hermes Pour Les Petits
OK, the massive auction of vintage Hermes stuff coming up at Artcurial in Paris on the 20th better be because hedge funders are scrambling for liquidity in the face of the global depression. Because if 700+ lot sales of OG...
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[read the full post...]
May 1, 2009
Mille, Pedal Car By David Seabra
The finalists in the Prix Emile Hermes design competition were exhibited at Milan last week. If there had been a category for awesomest ride-on toy, I'm sure Portuguese architect David Seabra's Mille pedal car would have won. Also the...
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[read the full post...]
April 30, 2009
It's Baaaack! Knu Re-Reintroduces "Rocking Beauty," Gloria Caranica's Red Ball Rocking Horse
Or is that, "Knu re-reintroduces 'Red Ball Rocking Horse,' Gloria Caranica's Rocking Beauty"? I got this press release in my inbox the same time as some other folks, but I wanted to get some more info before posting about...
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[read the full post...]
Living On The Earth [While Mostly Naked, And With A Kid]
As soon as I saw the cover of Alicia Bay Laurel's Living on The Earth at the library sale, I knew I was buying it, and as soon as I opened it and found out the whole thing was...
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[read the full post...]
April 28, 2009
Just One Word: Plastic Crawligators. OK, Two Words
Dads of future boogie boarders of America take note: there's a Crawligator on eBay, and right now, it is only eleven bucks. $77. still not a record. UPDATE: The Crawligator bubble has not popped. It went for $405. Crawligator,...
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[read the full post...]
April 27, 2009
Birds On A Tree? How Can That Be?
The Creative Playthings junkies mourn today, at least all the ones who didn't win the auction yesterday for this pristine and rarely seen Birds-on-a-Tree puzzle from Creative Playthings. Fantastic, and in a palette that'd match the kitchen you grew...
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[read the full post...]
April 22, 2009
Milano Watch 2009: Color Me Villa?
On the bright side, it's nice to see that Magis didn't invent a method for turning petro-plastic into cardboard to make Javier Mariscal's Villa Julia playhouse. On the, uh, not so bright side, the Villa Julia may be the...
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[read the full post...]
Milano Watch 2009: Magis, Giant Plastic Dodo Not Yet Extinct
A giant plastic rocking Dodo debuted by a giant plastic manufacturer at a giant furniture and design fair in the middle of a depression while the planet's climate is deteriorating? Magis is ironic like a #$%ing Hummer turning donuts...
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[read the full post...]
Who Makes Those Airbrushed Wrestling Mat Playgrounds?
Did you know that those Habitrail-like indoor playgrounds made out of plastic tubes and padded pipe were invented in 1982 by Jack Pentes? And that his soft modular play [SMP] solutions alleviated baby boomers' fears of letting their kids...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 21, 2009
Recycled? And How: Color Me House Cardboard House Wins Dr. Toy Award, Costco Deal
I've been covering the children's cardboard industry long enough to know that recycling is the norm. What I don't do, though, is go around trading on my purported reputation as a toy expert by anointing straightup knockoffs with meaningless...
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[read the full post...]
April 18, 2009
Score One For The Little Bunny: Bankruptcy Court Orders Oilily To Remove & Destroy Rosa Pomar Knockoff Bunnies
Wow. If I'm reading my Google Translator right, Rosa Pomar has won. Fearing that publicity and criticism of Oilily's knocking off of Pomar's stuffed bunnies could derail the sale of the bankrupt company, the Dutch court trustee appointed to oversee...
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[read the full post...]
April 8, 2009
Just Give'em A Cardboard Box To Play With
So a publicist sent me [1] a Nintendo DSi the other day, which I still haven't opened yet. Though I'm a video game culture guy, I'm not really a video game guy. And I try to be upfront with...
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[read the full post...]
April 6, 2009
Oh Give Me This Home, Where Las Vaquitas Roam
Because I will not be spending $19.5 million to buy it. New York Magazine cuts a line of pure real estate China White in their feature on this 7,000-8,000 square foot duplex loft atop a West Village garage. But...
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The Toys Our Grandfathers Built Are Now Antiques
On the way to get a haircut this weekend [in DC, Georgetown], I was stopped by this awesome, homemade pedal plane in the window of Metro Interiors, one of the few clean 20th century vintage shops I've found in...
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April 2, 2009
Not April Fool's, But Also Decades Late: The Death Star Beach Ball
Lucas, I oughta... just ship the damn thing already. The R2D2 Inflatable Drink Holder can wait. Shiny kid from A.I. not included: Death Star Beach Ball available at Target [starwars.com via boingboing]...
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[read the full post...]
March 31, 2009
It's A Miracle! Giganta And Rocket Slides Are From The Same Company
It's obvious now, but until a couple of minutes ago, I had no idea Giganta the scary/awesome playground robot and the biggest, awesomest rocket-shaped playground structures were both made by the same company, Miracle Equipment Company of Grinnell, Iowa....
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[read the full post...]
March 30, 2009
BRIO On Swedish eBay: They Don't Make'em Like They Used To
And for a moment it looked like they may not make them at all anymore. But thanks to the excellent sleuthing of previous DT advertiser Christopher Robin of Our Children's Gorilla, we can enjoy a few sweet vintage BRIO...
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March 25, 2009
Richard Dattner's Habitot, The Ur-PlayCubes
Wow, awesome. While poking around a bit more on urban planner/architect/playground designer Richard Dattner's PlayCubes concept--which, according to the 2000 monograph of Dattner's work, seems to be doing just fine, thanks--I found this: Habitots. And this is what we...
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PlayCubes: The Richard Dattner MidCap That Didn't Stick
Along with Paul Friedberg, architect Richard Dattner has been one of the most influential forces in modern playground design in the US. They both championed the adventure playground concept in the 1960's, which called for the transformation of underused...
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[read the full post...]
March 23, 2009
Picture Yourself On A Plane. On An Island. A Bunny With Flower-scope Eyes
So while I'm waiting to see any response from Oilily about Rosa Pomar's flower-eyed bunny dolls and what looks like a cut-n-dry case of knockoffery, some new developments have come to light about the history of one design element...
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March 22, 2009
Oilily, AKA The Dutch Portuguese Indies Plundering Company
Those Dutch, always with the greedy, unilateral attacks on the Portuguese Indies. In the 17th Century, it was the Dutch East Indies Company seeking to wrest control of lucrative spice trading routes in Asia that were controlled by the Portuguese...
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[read the full post...]
March 21, 2009
Happy 50th "Birthday" To All The Little People Out There
What could warm a parent's heart more than sharing a treasured memory of a favorite toy with his own child? Today, March 21st, is the "officially marked" 50th birthday of Fisher-Price's Little People. That's right, the awesome little figurines...
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[read the full post...]
March 20, 2009
Brio 26 Tile Pick-Up Game
I confess I can't remember at the moment, but I love whoever gave us this Brio Pick-a-Pair game like family. And it's beautifully made, with endearing designs that were no doubt applied to this high-quality hardwood by happy, skilled,...
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[read the full post...]
March 18, 2009
Welcome To The Hotel Dora: You Can Grow Out Of It Any Time You Want, But You Can Never Leave
I knew it was a bad week, finger-on-the-pulse-wise when I learned about Nickelodeon and Mattel's plans to launch Tween Dora on NPR's weekend quiz show, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me." But I needn't have worried. That was just the...
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[read the full post...]
March 17, 2009
Ahh, The McMemories
As any serious doll collector knows, Yolanda Bello's doll designs for Ashton Drake, in her own eloquent words, "redefined doll collecting as the world knew it" when her first doll, Jason, a romping tot in a blue cloud suit designed...
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[read the full post...]
March 13, 2009
Caonimama? Pushmi-Pullyu The Next Symbol Of Chinese Internet Freedom
When I bought this sweet, fuzzy vintage Pushmi-Pullyu doll on eBay a couple of years ago, I thought it'd be fun for the kid. Only when it arrived did I see how hilariously unplayable it was for a toddler,...
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[read the full post...]
March 11, 2009
Plush Your Mother: Grass Mud Horse Dolls In China
Long Duck Dong, freedom fighter! The NY Times has a report about a fascinating protest movement that's sweeping the Chinese internet. In response to a massive political crackdown by government censors, ostensibly targeting vulgarity and porn, millions of net...
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[read the full post...]
March 6, 2009
Barn Find? Creative Playthings Moon Buggy
My wife works for NASA, and yet I had no idea our country faced a dire shortage of wooden moon buggies until this old-timey Creative Playthings moon buggy turned up for sale on eBay. It's the first one I've...
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[read the full post...]
February 26, 2009
The Skeeving Of Lot 1069: Little Kid Stuff From The Michael Jackson Auction
Apr 15 UPDATE: The NY Times reports that the auction, which Jackson had originally authorized, then recently opposed, has been canceled. Also, instead of "the large turnout" that had been expected, "only a few dozen fans and passers-by were...
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[read the full post...]
February 23, 2009
Can Your Mother In-Law Make A Crawligator This Awesome?
A couple of weeks ago, when we started huntin' Crawligators in the Internet swamps of eBay and craigslist, DT commenter John suggested this blog post, where a little kid in the Bay Area named Sibyl was cruising around on...
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[read the full post...]
February 19, 2009
Daddy Types Love Roller Bears
When you have a website called Daddy Types, you're pretty aware of how often you talk about how fun it is to play with bears. These little carved wood bears from Germany, which roll back onto their feet on...
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[read the full post...]
February 17, 2009
Brio Bork Bork Bork Bork! What's Swedish For "Bankruptcy"?
Actually, the word that matters most to the venerable Swedish wooden train maker right now is likviditeten. Liquidity. As in, cash. As in, after disappointing sales, extended operating losses, and extraordinary expenses, Brio is facing what its board of...
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[read the full post...]
Friendly Frontier: Climb Every DIY, Inflatable Slide-Equipped Mountain
Friendly Frontier is the second is the artists Zoe Walker & Neil Bromwich's Dummy Landscape series. It's an inflatable mountain range, "of the kind so commonly used by nature to divide countries," which is equipped with inflatable evacuation slides....
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February 15, 2009
Mad Mod Ply Dollhouse Prototype On eBay
This sweet, birch ply modernist dollhouse just turned up on eBay, where it's described as "one of just a few modern dollhouse prototypes designed and built by an architect-cabinet maker team. Designs were based on modern houses by Le...
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February 12, 2009
Brother, Can You Spare A Crawligator?
The Creative Playthings Crawligator is one of those awesome, fun-looking, no-brainer toys that looks like it should be on the market forever. Like a Hula Hoop or Rock'em Sock'em Robots. Unfortunately, the little baby belly skateboard didn't survive the...
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[read the full post...]
February 9, 2009
Ronin Playtown Fire Truck By Creative Playthings On eBay
In the mid-1960's, Julian Winston designed the Playtown series for Creative Playthings, which included playsets for an airfield, a marina, a garage, and a fire station. With no fire station to serve, this masterless wooden fire truck, sweet and...
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[read the full post...]
February 7, 2009
Dude Makes Indy Pedal Racer Out Of Pots & Pans
Suh-weet. Hoosier native and kitchen raider Joseph Inhat made a sweet, 1930's Indy-inspired pedal car for a 4-year-old he knows [kid? grandkid?] out of pots, pans, and a maraschino cherry lid. Pictures of the build are at Hemmings' blog....
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[read the full post...]
February 6, 2009
Hans Beck, Father Of Playmobil, 79
Hans Beck, who became the chief of development for the Brandstätter Group toy company after he created Playmobil in 1974, died last week at the age of 79. Playmobil's German inventor Hans Beck dies aged 79 [guardian.co.uk] image: detail...
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February 5, 2009
Everything Must Not Go! Court Spanks CPSC, Upholds CPSIA Phthalate Ban
Short story: If you make or sell plastic or vinyl children's products, you can forget whatever plans you made for the weekend. Slightly longer story: The Natural Resources Defense Council and Public Citizen sued the CPSC over exceptions the Commission...
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February 4, 2009
Girard In The House!
House Industries pioneered the Alexander Girard objet revival in 2006 with their awesome wood blocks set, which they adapted from the sun-covered matchbooks Girard designed for the Casa del Sol restaurant in NYC. That's the House approach: adapt some...
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[read the full post...]
February 2, 2009
Naef Bau Bau: Swiss Building Toys NOT For Tinkering
Who's ever even heard of this Naef Bau Bau birch building set designed in the 50's by Gert Muller? As far as I can tell, the thing's only been published in two tiny pictures in the Kurt Naef biography....
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[read the full post...]
February 1, 2009
November Was Nakaban Month At Chigo
Chigo is one of our absolute favorite baby stores in the world, which is too bad because it's in Tokyo, and we haven't been for a while. Which means we missed the veritable Nakabanpalooza they held last November. I...
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Yeah, Right. You're Not Gonna Fool Me With That "Naugahyde Comes From Naugas" Crap Again
You know how when you were like seven, your dad told you that the bar stools in the rec room were not vinyl, but a special kind of leather that only came from these mysterious creatures called Naugas? And...
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[read the full post...]
January 30, 2009
Creative Playthings And, Uh, Other Playthings
Andy found a 1970 New York magazine review of the Creative Playthings store on 53rd Street which, unfortunately, replaced their awesome original store in Rockefeller Center. Here's my favorite line: "I do wonder about the value--educational or play--of live fish...
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[read the full post...]
January 21, 2009
Tchotchkes We Can Believe In? Toy Obama Air Force One
Maybe the problem is that crunchy liberals have been out of power for several breeding cycles? But it's not like the neo-con's Torture Me Elmo was a big hit, either. Maybe making toys that are simultaneously propagandistic and fun...
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[read the full post...]
Elsie Marley And Her Patchwork Steam Shovel
It was always said that Elsie could craft in a day what a 100 other etsy.com sellers could craft in a week. I hope it's not too Henry B. Swap of me to point out there are enough buttons...
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[read the full post...]
January 20, 2009
Ferrari Bikes 70-80% Too Expensive
The catalogue copy for the Ferrari children's bicycles is maybe more revealing than intended about exactly who they're for:This licensed Ferrari bike is simply beautiful in every detail. The perfect first bike when your child has to have the...
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[read the full post...]
January 19, 2009
Betty Thomson's Multiplications Got Spanked By The Yoshimoto Cube
90% of dadblogging is just what shows up. Just a few hours after I stumbled across Multiplications, I stumbled across the Yoshitomo Cube. Here's the deal: In 1969, The Museum of Modern Art commissioned artists and designers to create some...
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[read the full post...]
Don't Let Your Child Choke On Those Plush Ovaries
As soon as Los Angeles plush artist Wendy Bryan found out that the plush ovaries and Fallopian tubes on her I Heart Guts plush uterus posed a choke hazard, she immediately announced a recall. Even though the plush uteri...
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[read the full post...]
January 14, 2009
Alright People. We Have A Serious Creative Playthings Situation In New Jersey
If you thought the recent eBay appearance of some unusual--and unusually well-preserved--Creative Playthings toys being sold from Hamilton Square, New Jersey--a town within easy commuting distance of CP's vintage headquarters in Princeton--was a fluke, think again. The same eBay seller...
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[read the full post...]
January 13, 2009
Two Down, Thirteen To Go! Unidentified Local Family Drives Extremely Identifiable Bugaboo
Does the sender of the first photo of a Little Marc Jacobs X Bugaboo in the wild still win a 'daddy type' t-shirt if she's also a Bugaboo publicist? Yes she does, but I'll keep the offer open for...
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[read the full post...]
January 8, 2009
Skip*Hop Adds Trike*Bike
Interesting. Skip*Hop keeps expanding its product line beyond the low-profile diaper and stroller bags which gave the company its start. And now they've picked up what I believe is their first distribution deal; they're now the US distributor for New...
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[read the full post...]
January 6, 2009
She's A Children's Product! Burn Her!
I want to fix the CPSIA, the CPSC's new lead testing law, and save all the various children's product industries from regulation-induced bankruptcy and collapse on February 10th as much as the next guy. But I would like to do...
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[read the full post...]
January 1, 2009
Playing For Kepes
So far, I haven't been able to get the LIFE Magazine photo archive on Google to return more than 200 images at a time. So who knows how many photos Ralph Morse actually took of the awesome nursery Juliet...
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[read the full post...]
December 31, 2008
I'm Gulliver, Dammit!
Uhh, wow. Just, wow. With only a few hours before the deadline, I have found The. Craziest. LIFE Magazine Archive Photo of 2008. It's by Ralph Morse, and it was a, uh, well, it's about the introduction of Troll...
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[read the full post...]
Creative Playthings Playsack Turns Classic "Bag-On-Head" Punishment Into Hours Of Flame-Retardant Fun!
Hmm, look what else is in that New Jersey basement. An unopened Creative Playthings Playsack, which, as you could probably guess, is a giant paper bag that a kid is supposed to play in. The eBay description is intriguingly...
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[read the full post...]
December 30, 2008
What The Schnell? Has Any Kid Ever Even Ridden An Alurunner?
The Alurunner sled answers the burning question absolutely no one who hasn't just downed an entire bota bagful of schnapps is asking: What would you get if a German performance tuner like AMG, Brabus, or RUF started with, not...
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[read the full post...]
December 29, 2008
Porsche, VW & Ferrari Sleds Are Exactly What You Would Expect
Which is to say, the top-of-the-line Porsche sled is an over-engineered, high-performance, aluminum-and-steel category killer of almost obnoxious simplicity. The cheaper one is plastic, and it tries to make you to forget that it's basically a Volkswagen. Also, it...
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[read the full post...]
December 27, 2008
Ladislav Sutnar, Vik Muniz. Vik Muniz, Ladislav Sutnar
That's how I like to see my favorite Ladislav Sutnar prototype blocks: in a giant photo in the New York Times, accompanying an excellent review of Vik Muniz's awesome "Rebus" exhibition at MoMA. Roberta Smith says "Rebus" is fantastic...
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[read the full post...]
December 23, 2008
DIY Bantha Plush: Finally, Something Good Comes From The Star Wars Holiday Special
Anyone who has ever seen the 1978 variety showsploitation travesty that was the Star Wars Holiday Special cannot pretend to have been betrayed by the treacly offenses of baby Annakin and Jar Jar Binks. We knew Lucas had it...
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[read the full post...]
I Know Exactly What You Can Get Oakley For Christmas
And no, it's not sunglasses. It's an awesome, giant stuffed ball made from a muted-yet-whimsical selection of 100% recycled wools. Hopefully, your Oakley's parents aren't too hippieish about natural fiber stuffing, because anything but polyester turns this into Oakley's...
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[read the full post...]
Sweet Modular Prefab Dream Finally Realiz--Wait, It's A Dollhouse
Until the real estate market exploded, modular prefabricated modernist houses that were intended to combine the quality finish and economies of off-site construction, but that ended up costing as much as, if not more than, straight-up custom design were...
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[read the full post...]
December 22, 2008
The Smallest Plywood Dollhouse
Etsy seller Petit Flaneur makes this interesting-looking little doll house--and I mean little, it's only a foot high--out of printed, papered hardboard and filled with "birch micro-plywood" furniture. Including a sweet, micro-plywood crib that should give the CNC types...
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[read the full post...]
December 20, 2008
Not In Time For Christmas: OG Handcarved Pull Toy By Antonio Vitali
Don't not buy this incredible hand-carved wooden donkey pull toy from Antonio Vitali's early, Swiss National Crafts Store days before he started working with Creative Playthings, because the opening bid is a whopping $399. Don't buy it because the...
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[read the full post...]
Calvin Klein Dollhouse By Josh Prince-Ramus
Uh, wow. OK. Calvin Klein, which is now owned by Phillips-Van Heusen, commissioned Josh Prince-Ramus, the guy who bailed on Rem Koolhaas to start his own firm REX, to design a dollhouse for the Madison Avenue store's holiday display....
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[read the full post...]
December 17, 2008
First, Dump Out The Dry Cleaning Solvent: DIY Pedal Car From A 55-Gal Drum
I lost the pictures, but when we went to the Pioneer Day parade in Ivins, Utah last summer, there was, in the parking lot next to the inflatable slide that got so hot in the desert sun, kids would come...
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[read the full post...]
December 15, 2008
Awesome Molded Ply Slide Of Doom From Creative Playthings
They sure don't make'em like they used to. And even as the safety-loving half of me is relieved, the awesome, molded plywood simplicity-loving half of me is in mourning. Just take a gander at this vintage portable slide from...
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[read the full post...]
December 13, 2008
Grand Magasin: It's Kiosk For Commies!
With the US government busy de facto nationalizing major swaths of our crumbling economy, this Christmas season is a good time to turn our attention to the glorious, proud, worker-owned co-op factories of Europe--and then go all capitalist on...
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[read the full post...]
December 11, 2008
Crochet A Circle. Crochet A Circle Now. YGG OG Amigurumi
Wow. I wanna go to the crocheting party in etsy seller Crafty Is Cool's tummy, too. Sure, she's created plans and kits for making your own amigurumi versions of Yo Gabba Gabba! characters. Which is great. But if you...
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[read the full post...]
December 10, 2008
A Quick Study Of Albanian Lego Sub-Machine Guns
We're not hippie freaks about it, but we don't let the kid have toy guns, play with toy guns, or pretend that she's playing with a gun. When she started pointing sticks and Lego structures at us and looking...
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[read the full post...]
December 8, 2008
In Soviet Union, The Catalog Orders You
Back up a minute, comrade. Can somebody explain how it is that we--the Americans--supposedly won the Cold War, and yet I'm the one who has to wrestl with a pile of catalogs as big as a bear cub and...
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[read the full post...]
December 7, 2008
Washington Post Pre-Eulogizes Club Libby Lu
The Washington Post has taken a moment at its parenting blog On Parenting to note the impending demise of skanky mall makeover chain Club Libby Lu. The editors mourn the loss with deep sadness, and the comments are filling up...
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[read the full post...]
December 5, 2008
Modernist Doll Housing Market Bubble Update: Villa Sibi, $10 On eBay
I'm going to operate on the assumption that some people, somewhere have actually been buying Sirch's Villa Sibi. One possible explanation for the the nearly 50% price increase for new Villa Sibis [from $600 in 2004 to $855 today]...
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[read the full post...]
December 4, 2008
It's Hard Out There For A Bratz
You know, people bitch and moan about the out-of-control litigiousness of the American corporate landscape, and particularly intellectual property laws and the stranglehold rabid trial lawyers pursuing frivolous copyright infringement cases have on good old-fashioned creativity. But then you read...
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[read the full post...]
My First Murakami Chibi Kinoko
Chibi Kinoko, aka Little Mushroom, is an adorable little character Takashi Murakami introduced on his line of exclusive Louis Vuitton bags and accessories. And there's a 9-inch plush version available, too, because as anyone who loaded up at Murakami's in-museum...
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[read the full post...]
December 3, 2008
FOUND: Large, Slightly Mangy Toy Dog, Answers To The Name Of Bojesen
Are you on a sacred quest to find a Kay Bojesen pull toy dog woodworking project that's larger than a tuna can? Because it appears that an outfit called Find The Grail Auctions has posted one on eBay. But...
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[read the full post...]
December 2, 2008
Blame Candy Land
Because the board games teach kids what their parents don't have time to say, Greg Costikyan has an in-depth analysis of Candy Land, the board game created by Eleanor Abbot and first published by Hasbro in 1949. Costikyan lifts the...
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[read the full post...]
November 28, 2008
To Shop: Reference Library @ Kiosk, Nov. 28 - Dec. 7
If you shop at only one blogger-curated pop-up store this holiday season, make it Andy Beach's Reference Library Mini-Exhibition at Kiosk in SoHo. Despite his fame as a retail artist/design guru/dad/ex-DT guest blogger is probably best known for his...
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[read the full post...]
Thanks To Jamie Hayon, The Chicken Shape Is No Longer Unexplored
From Lladro hacker Jamie Hayon's website: The chicken, a rather unexplored shape, found its place amongst my green dreams. I wanted to portray this common bird as a sensational object by amplifying its characteristics and dimensions, turning it into...
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[read the full post...]
November 25, 2008
Ikea Store Ikeahack? Play Kitchen Made From Something Else
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Ikea play kitchen in the Elizabeth City, NJ store, originally uploaded by daddytypes. When I...
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[read the full post...]
November 24, 2008
The Mystery Of Life: Who Designed This "Modern Playground Equipment"?
The search results for "playground" at Life magazine's photo archive are dominated by one series of images: nearly 200 photos of surrealist bent steel playground equipment from 1951-2 created by an unidentified female sculptor. The stuff is awesome: creatures...
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[read the full post...]
November 22, 2008
Quirky Canada Has Own Laws, Crazy, Calder-Inspired Sideways Circus
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } circus, originally uploaded by Rob Cruickshank. If it weren't in Canada, and thus even colder...
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[read the full post...]
November 19, 2008
Ko Verzuu? Don't Mind If I Do
FWIW, I toggle back and forth between the just-the-facts headlines and the annoying, jokey ones. Guess which one this is? A couple of very interesting looking ADO toys designed by Ko Verzuu just popped up on eBay Austria: a...
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[read the full post...]
November 18, 2008
I Wanna The Whole World In A Bag, Muji, 'N Ever'thinissinit
For the fourth Christmas in a row, Muji has expanded its "In A Bag" series, a megalomaniacal mission to distill entire swaths of the known universe into tiny, little wooden toys, and then trap and sell it in little...
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[read the full post...]
Muji ABC & Kanji Stamp Sets
You know the old saying: there are no atheists in Muji Xmas Gift Departments. Once again, the minimalist, eco-friendly, no-frills retailer has come up with a giant mountain of stuff I want to buy. First up in the Mujimix: great...
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[read the full post...]
November 15, 2008
Pups.It Italian Indie Plush Is Freakin' Awes... Sigh
Crazy creatures, quirky personalities and backstory, imaginary cartoon world, lumpy plush toys, tight jeans--holy smokes, they actually call themselves "The Kidult Lab." But here's the catch: It's Italian! Wake me up when someone pulls one of those Marvel vs....
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[read the full post...]
November 13, 2008
I'd Like To Be Told. When It's Going To Suck: Busted Mister Rogers Talking Key Chain
A few months back, I felt like a heretic even asking the question, whether some slightly expanded, thoughtful licensed merchandise from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood might not be a nice alternative to parents facing down the Sesame Street juggernaut. Now...
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[read the full post...]
November 7, 2008
PLAY Mobile! Sweet Rocking Cycle At Designblok 2008
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } PLAY!, originally uploaded by pavelm. Will the owner of the velo-tastic tubular rocking horse parked...
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[read the full post...]
November 6, 2008
Fresh From Prague: Baby Tron Chopper By Pesr Polak
Designboom reported from Designblok08 in Prague, where students in an industrial design class at the AAAD exhibited their class project: a series of ride-on toys for kids ages 1-4. I can't quite make out how Pesr Polak's super-slick actually...
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[read the full post...]
For Sale: Creative Playthings Carriage, One Owner
Jenn from Minor Details spotted this sweet 1960's Creative Playthings plywood wagon/carriage on Craigslist. It's being sold out of Huntington, Long Island by the original owner, who is a big girl now, and can do things like research the...
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[read the full post...]
November 3, 2008
Mumbleboy Papier Mache Awesomeness
The artist Kinya Hanada, who works as Mumbleboy, was into trippy indie plush before trippy indie plush was cool. Which may or may not mean that papier mache is the next plush; for all its clean, simple, aesthetic pleasure,...
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[read the full post...]
October 30, 2008
Not Luigi Colani?? Another Non-German Engineering Scandal
Where's Brooke Shields when German engineering and design need her? First, we were forced to contemplate the reality that the "German engineered" VW Routan minivan is, in fact, a reskinned Chrysler Town & Country. And now, it turns out...
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[read the full post...]
Eine Kleine Matchbox Zoo
This awesome vintage toy zoo from Germany fits into eight beautifully designed matchboxes. The pieces are so small, you have to wonder if they might actually not even be a choke hazard; just wash'em down with an extra bottle....
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[read the full post...]
October 29, 2008
Merry F-in' Christmas, Pauly! Cervini's Custom Lil C500
Hell yeah, you're a guido, and f-in' proud of it, bitch. An' your kid's gonna grow up just like his old man, summers on the Shore and what not, you gotta problem withat, go back to the f-in' city....
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[read the full post...]
October 28, 2008
Sublime Muppet X Station Wagon Mashup In Germany
In order to issue someone a speed camera ticket in Germany, it's necessary to have an identifiable photo of the driver, not just the car's license plate. Which, because of the sensitive camera calibrations, means all you need to...
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[read the full post...]
I'll Take Ridiculous Radio Flyer Concept Studies For $1,000, Alek
This over-contoured rethinking of the traditional red wagon was created by a design intern over the summer when the economy seemed slightly healthy, and it features a luxe interior with basically no alternative play patterns beyond getting pulled through the...
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[read the full post...]
October 27, 2008
Lynskey Performance Titanium Tricycles Now Available In Cycling Paradise
The stock market's a mess. The banking system's in disarray. The real estate market is a disaster. And now even Daddy Types' comments system has tanked. Fortunately, the production of customized titanium performance tricycles continues unperturbed. And not just...
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[read the full post...]
Partisan Hack, Or Thou Shalt Not Commit Kidultery
You know, when I started this post last week, it was going to be a self-righteous sermon against the evils of kidultery and how, when nominal adults get all fixated on designing toys for their own amusement and not...
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[read the full post...]
October 26, 2008
Mini Mies: Dad Builds A Farnsworth Dollhouse
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } exterior 1, originally uploaded by j&mgorman. Josh's' son Camden is almost two and getting into...
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[read the full post...]
October 25, 2008
Whatcha Got There, Kind+Jugend Dude? Is That The Hoppop Motta Walkbike?
Why, yes, yes it is. Hoppop is a Belgian outfit founded by baby footprint art mogul Christophe Verlinden, which came to the Kind+Jugend expo last year with the Hoppop Original, a hardcase diaper bag that converts into a booster...
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[read the full post...]
October 24, 2008
Once Thought Extinct, Stokke Hippo Spotted In The Wild
Well, the wilds of Sweden, anyway. I've seen exactly one of these awesome Stokke Hippo rocking toys before, in a baby store in Reykjavik, Iceland. I'm sure that one's since been chopped up for firewood, but artist/blogger Elisabeth came...
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[read the full post...]
October 23, 2008
Carbon Dating On A Pig: Bronze Age Toy Found Near Stonehenge
Archaeologists announced the discovery in an infant's grave near Stonehenge of a carved stone pig. They belief that the 2.5-inch figurine, which dates back more than 2,000 years, is either a toy or a memorial/funerary object for the baby's...
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[read the full post...]
Rad Mad Scientist Blocks, Lasercut For You By Xylocopa
Awesome. Just. Awesome. These incredible maple blocks, laser-engraved with line drawings from the hilarious world of mad scientists, showed up at Make Magazine's latest Maker Faire in Austin. They're by the laser-cutting artists at Xylocopa, a husband & wife...
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[read the full post...]
October 20, 2008
Anchor Stone Blocks Exist, Are Made Of Stone
I've got to clear these damn browser tabs. Anchor Stone Blocks were created in Germany in the late 19th century. They're red, yellow, and blue cast stone, designed to mimic the brick, limestone, and slate, respectively, of traditional European...
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[read the full post...]
Creative Playthings Family Scandal! Rocking Beauty Had Sister Named Rocking Ugly
As everyone hopefully knows now, the iconic Creative Playthings design, the red ball-equipped Hobby Horse, was not designed by Philip Johnson, and the Philip Johnson who didn't design it was the creative director of Creative Playthings, not the feisty,...
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[read the full post...]
Kaleidoscope-ic, Man: Phillips dePury Tries To Bogart My Toyage
Ceci n'est pas un toy. Ceci n'est pas un dollhouse. Ceci n'est pas a house at all. Because if it were any of that, would it be being auctioned off at Phillips dePury this Saturday? Bien sur que non....
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[read the full post...]
October 18, 2008
Mesdames Et Messieurs, Je Vous Presente Calder's Circus At The Whitney
For years, Alexander Calder's awesome theatre/performance art/toy/sculpture Circus has been in the lobby of the Whitney Museum, entertaining its way into the psyches of generations of city-dwelling kids. It's made of dozens of little articulated toy figures, which the...
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[read the full post...]
October 15, 2008
Group Hug! Nice Customer Service Stories From Wooden Toy Companies
There's a story on Consumerist about how awesome Melissa & Doug's response was when a mom called about a broken propeller on her daughter's new wooden plane. Though she only called about replacing the plane--and warning the company about the...
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[read the full post...]
October 13, 2008
Wow, Did The Kid Love Digging Up This Fake Dinosaur Skeleton
Somewhere in the past few years, a farmer in the city my in-laws retired to, St. George, Utah, found a motherlode of super-detailed dinosaur tracks and fossils, and they built an entire museum around them. Just like that. So...
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[read the full post...]
October 9, 2008
Wal-Mart: Don't Compete With Someone Who Buys Toys By The Shitload
The Wall Street Journal reports that Wal-Mart has scattered a bunch of $10 toys in the aisles of its stores this Christmas season--which is apparently in full swing. Some other retail giants are doing the same thing. Wal-Mart doesn't say...
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[read the full post...]
October 4, 2008
I, For One, Welcome Our Spandex Lucha Robot Overlords
I mean, I know the robots are plotting to enslave the world by positioning themselves in close proximity to our human offspring. Where they wait, in silence, until the Robot Emperor gives the signal...then KABLOW! But when they have...
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[read the full post...]
October 1, 2008
Wood By Ten: Cute, Cheap And Into Production
OK, new theory: maybe no one in London remembers the Childsply and Childsform group design challenges and exhibitions because the entire London design world consists of an endless stream, year in and year out, of group design challenges?? ["Hello...
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[read the full post...]
September 30, 2008
Eighty Bucks For The Ur-Big Wheel?
The company that made the original Big Wheel, Louis Marx, sold out to his competitor in the early 1970's. That company, Empire Plastics, went bankrupt in 2001. Some other company reconstituted Empire and now makes the Original Big Wheel...
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[read the full post...]
September 29, 2008
Eames Elephants So Nice They Editioned Them Twice
Ahh, 2007. The good old days, when we thought that a thousand euros was a bit steep for a limited edition Eames molded plywood elephant, but hey, we'll manage. After all, we've been waiting since 1945 for the thing...
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[read the full post...]
Cubi-Q: German Play Furniture Is Awesome, Cubic
Looking at the traditional-to-slightly-boring children's furniture designs on the German wood furniture firm Zwergraum, I would never have imagined they'd come up with something as awesome as the Cubi-Q. With four boxes, two table-like pieces, cutouts, and optional wheels,...
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[read the full post...]
Tessell: I, For One, Welcome Our Korean Tessellation Play Mat Overlords
OK, so in the US, we're making foam playmats with alphabets on them. And in Denmark, they're making Bobles, ride-on, climb-on animals made from computer-cut foam. All well and good. Until you find out that in Korea, they're making foam...
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[read the full post...]
September 28, 2008
Took The Kid To Crafty Bastards, Er, "The Craft Fair"
So the kid and I went to Crafty Bastards after church today. We were overdressed and underinked. Still, we got to meet Spooky Daddy in person, which was awesome. He was working the puppetmaster thing pretty spectacularly, and it...
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[read the full post...]
September 26, 2008
Where All The Wooden Pacifiers At?
K2 is having a great time sucking on the wooden doorknobs on the kids' Via Toy Box doors. [Remember to glue, not just screw, those bad boys on, btw.] And one of the puzzles she loves [un]doing has these...
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[read the full post...]
September 23, 2008
DT Plush Toy Nerddown: Sluggy Freelance Bun-Bun Vs. Higgs Boson Particle?
Alright, Maybe I should be scouring flickr for photos of dads taking their infant children to the Yankees-Orioles game. And maybe I will. But for now, I'm too confounded by the nerdiness of these plush toys to do anything else....
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[read the full post...]
Il Ritorno!! Corraini Reissues Enzo Mari's Play Wall
In 1967 Danese debuted Enzo Mari's Il Posto dei Giochi, The Place of Games, otherwise known as "Wall." Kids could use the ten-panel corrugated cardboard play structure printed and perforated with Mari's designs to create various kid-sized spaces. The...
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[read the full post...]
Animal Families By Abbatt Toys
Abbatt Toys were sort of the Creative Playthings of England. Paul & Marjorie Abbatt founded their toy company in the 1930's with a focus on education and design. Their friend, the British modernist architect Erno Goldfinger, designed their innovative...
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[read the full post...]
September 22, 2008
Kid O Toys Arrive, Are Awesome
You know, I was just wondering to myself the last few weeks, "Where are those Kid O toys I was promised would be hitting the market soon?" And here they are. Wow. Educational clarity and simplicity of design that...
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[read the full post...]
DTQ: Anyone Know This Wooden Dollhouse?
Maya from Covetable doesn't covet this wooden dollhouse, at least not anymore. She just got it from another parent who can't remember where it originally came from. Does anyone recognize it? There's apparently a partially worn off logo "with...
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[read the full post...]
September 19, 2008
Just Shoot Me Now: A Dad Walks Into A Target...
I needed a gallon of mixed paint, and we were running low on diapers, so after I dropped the kid off at pre-school, K2 and I did a combined Home Depot/Target run to the Virginia suburbs. Holy smokes, nothing knocks...
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[read the full post...]
September 18, 2008
Needs More Blobwall: Greg Lynn's Recycled Toy Furniture Somehow Wins Venice Biennale
Huh? CAD monkey/architect Greg Lynn's Recycled Toy Furniture won an award at the Venice Biennale [not the real Biennale, the architecture one, but still], despite the fact that the only "furniture" aspect is the tacked on tabletops; giant plastic...
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[read the full post...]
September 17, 2008
Say Hello To The Schaukelwagen's Little Friend
Kinderstoele this, Kinderspiele that. A few days of poking around the kinderweb has turned more stuff I thought I would've known by now, but there you go. For example, I totally missed "Zappel, Philipp! - Die Welt der Kindermöbel," an...
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[read the full post...]
September 16, 2008
You Say Football Net, I Say Soccer Net, CPSC Finally Says It's A Freakin' Deathtrap, Get Rid Of It
Almost 200,000 MacGregor and Mitre toy soccer goals of death have been sold in the US since 2002. But now the CPSC has issued a recall, following news that a 21-month-old boy died while trying to climb one. I should...
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[read the full post...]
September 6, 2008
This Is Neil Fraser's Brain On Blocks. Any Questions?
Neil Fraser had an MRI, then he laminated his various cross-sectional scans onto a stack of 1" wooden blocks. Now he can do nifty tricks like cut away 3D models of the inside of his head. Wooden Brain [neil.fraser.name...
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[read the full post...]
September 4, 2008
Little Riggin': UK Dad Makes A Mini Foden Just Like His
After 150 years of British lorrymaking, Foden ceased production in 2006. Which, coincidentally? is when a truck driving dad in Herefordshire named Paul started making a kid-sized replica of his own Foden rig. Now it's done, and it looks...
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[read the full post...]
September 2, 2008
But Of Course. Kozmo The Arizona Anti-Smoking Alien Doll
In 1994, Arizona voters approved Prop. 200, a cigarette tax which would fund anti-tobacco use educational programs. After a couple of years of ramp-up AzTEPP, the Arizona Tobacco Education and Prevention Program hit its fully funded stride in 1998....
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[read the full post...]
August 31, 2008
Buy It For The Name, Keep It For The Cute: Skummis Plush Creature
I don't know what a filur is in Swedish besides a house music band and a military drone plane designed by Saab. But I do know what Skummis are: justsocuteiwannaeatthemup! Whether it's a blobby plush creature or a set...
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[read the full post...]
August 28, 2008
Why Is The Ferrari Tipo 500 The Rolls Royce Of Pedal Cars?
OK, so there's De Parma, a slightly cheeky antiques dealer in London, who's selling this vintage Ferrari Tipo 500 F2 racer pedal car--dated to the 50's and sourced to Italy, but otherwise no manufacturer is mentioned--in very nice original-looking...
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[read the full post...]
August 27, 2008
Vintage DIY Scooter: They Don't Make Them Like They Used To
Instructions: Take one set of roller skate wheels, an old handlebar, a 2x4, some boards. Add a bent sheet of tin to give it that proper Ralph Kramden Drives This Bus snout, then paint it with whatever's left over...
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[read the full post...]
August 24, 2008
Got Too Many Euros? Kidstuff Roundup From German eBay Auction
You know how The Economist publishes the Big Mac Index, to show how over- or underpriced certain currencies are for the exact same thing? Well, the price estimates the Munich-based auction house Quittenbaum has placed on US vintage auction staples...
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[read the full post...]
August 23, 2008
Y, It's Bamboo! Bam Bam Baby Tricycle
Not only did Andrew Grigor's Bam Bam Baby Tricycle win the 2008 Launch Pad Source One packer's prize for emerging Australian designers a few weeks ago, the prototype's flatpack, anti-plastic, sustainably harvested bamboo ply, recycled aluminum, and off-the-shelf O-ring...
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[read the full post...]
Karl Lagerfeld x Steiff Bear Mashup Scarier'n A Roomful Of Dolls
I don't care how many Diet Coke butlers you send my way. Come September, don't let me find out you got one of the 2,500 ridiculous Karl Lagerfeld bears Steiff is selling at places like Colette and Neiman Marcus....
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[read the full post...]
August 21, 2008
Wait, What? Evel Knievel Was A Skanky Tool
Dammit, I wish I would've found this before I got caught up in my Evel Knievel nostalgic posting spree. Because really, nothing takes the gleam off a childhood hero like hearing him make casual homophobic rape jokes about his own...
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[read the full post...]
Evel Knievel Electric Toothbrush
Holy smokes, I just checked, and the kid has eight toothbrushes, nine if you count the ToothTunes Junior musical toothbrush a publicist recently sent. [1] It turns the kid's skull into a soundbox; she hears "Hakuna Matata" inside her head...
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[read the full post...]
How Many Evel Knievel Tricycles Do You Think Are Still Out There?
I'll take a flying leap--hehe, yes, pun totally intended--and say, uh, not that many. Maybe a hundred? A dozen? Only two mentions of a 1975 AMF Evel Knievel tricycle seem to have gotten themselves embedded in the auto-compiled text...
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[read the full post...]
August 20, 2008
Webkinz, I Need To See You In My Office.
Because it's getting out of control. I understand that the social networking and community aspects of virtual worlds based on real world plush toys are quite powerful draws, especially for the youngest, least marketing savvy consumers who are your targets....
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[read the full post...]
August 19, 2008
Uh-Oh, Rachel Whiteread Got All The Doll House Furniture, Too
Seems that at least a few of the hundreds of vintage dollhouses sculptor Rachel Whiteread has been hoarding over the last couple of decades had some furniture in them. And when she could no longer resist its miniature charms,...
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[read the full post...]
Kippenberger Greifbar: Martin Kippenberger's Dollhouse
I can't find any references to it online beyond the auction sites, but this 1990 sculpture by Martin Kippenberger, titled Kippenberger Greifbar, will be sold at Sotheby's in New York in a few weeks. It's from an edition of...
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[read the full post...]
August 16, 2008
Visionary Obama, Protector Of American Children, Threatens To Ban All Chinese-Made Toys
Finally, a leader who refuses to pander to the giant corporations and foreign demons who threaten the greatness of this Nation! On December 19th, at a campaign appearance in Concord, NH, Senator Barack Obama boldly answered a citizen's question--a question...
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[read the full post...]
August 14, 2008
Diaper Bag Full Yet? Skip*Hop Is Gettin' Into The Toy Business
Having successfully branched out beyond diaper bags into the baby-related countertop accessory and playroom floormat markets, Skip*Hop has launched a soft, fuzzy toy collection. There are 14 pieces, optimally sized for the floor, the babyhand, and the stroller bracket....
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[read the full post...]
August 13, 2008
Karmazing! Little India Kali Plush Doll By Leeanna Butcher
See? Not everyone riffing on Sanjay Patel's awesome little Little India Hindu deities is knocking them off. Plush artist Leeanna Butcher went to art school with Patel, and he recently asked her to create this plush incarnation of Kali,...
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[read the full post...]
August 12, 2008
OG 1964 Ford Galaxie Fire Chief Wagon On eBay
Besides the remarkable, unrestored condition and the sheer awesomeness of growing up with sirens and flashing lights on top of your family ride--you'd be the star of every school dropoff line and carpool, and the kid'd totally be a...
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[read the full post...]
My Little Pony Of The Apocalypse
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } My Little Zombie Pony, originally uploaded by dbx1. This is only the second artist-modded My...
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[read the full post...]
August 8, 2008
Win A Yo Gabba Gabba! Keycap In The DT WTF? Licensed Product Contest!
The Mall: The kids and I went to Hot Topic yesterday at the mall. [Actually, at the second mall; the first mall we went to on Wednesday didn't even have a Hot Topic. What the point of our country's...
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[read the full post...]
August 7, 2008
Some Assembly Required: The Porcupine Playdome
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Waiting for The Last Hex, originally uploaded by daddytypes. Alright, I've finally got my photos...
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[read the full post...]
August 6, 2008
Fisher Price: Help Me, Jazz Hands Elmo, You're My Only Hope
If John McCain really wants to protect America's Children, he doesn't need to ban all toys from China, just half of them: the $11 bn/year Yet Another Sorry Robotic Elmo market. I can't tell--and I don't want to know--whether...
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[read the full post...]
August 5, 2008
Kung Fu Pander: McCain Threatens To Ban All Chinese-Made Toys
Don't know how I missed this, from an April 2008 Bloomberg report of a John McCain townhall meeting in Youngstown, Ohio:"I have to tell you, if I were president of the United States, the next toy that came into this...
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[read the full post...]
Pick It Up Pick It Up Pick It Up Pick It Up Pick It Up Pick It Up
And so it starts. Yo Gabba Gabba! toys have been spotted at Target. Noisy ones, too. Also: Borat-style swimsuits for boys. Or so it would appear. Yo Gabba Gabba Toys at Target [nontoxicreviews]...
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[read the full post...]
August 1, 2008
Gangsta Babies Keeping It Very Real, Unfortunately
Mezco Toyz introduced Gangsta Babies, a set of four 10-inch vinyl baby dolls decked out like refugees from a 2004 ad agency trend board. They illustrate perfectly the risks of designing a product that parrots fleeting trends instead of...
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[read the full post...]
July 27, 2008
Whoops, Missed That Herman Miller Kite
Just checking in on the vintage goods at the awesome Landscape Products in Tokyo, and what do I find? A little kit for a Herman Miller kite. It seems to date from around 1980. The triangular pieces covered with...
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[read the full post...]
July 25, 2008
Mamma Mia, El Gatto Meo di Bruno Munari, Senza Volto!
Turns out vulcanized rubber cats have less than nine lives. In 1949 Bruno Munari made some special promotional black cats called Gatto Meo for Pirelli using the company's flagship product. It's not known how many survive [the image below...
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[read the full post...]
July 24, 2008
Thank You, Target, May I Have Another? Elmo LikeABike Knockoff
So maybe Target was just testing the waters when they steamrolled Like-A-Bike last year with their own $50 made-in-China knockoff. Because not only are they back, they're expecting you to pay ten bucks more for the Elmo version and...
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[read the full post...]
July 22, 2008
Voluskrin: OG Icelandic Toys
No sheep--or polar bears--were harmed in the making of this fascinating, old school Icelandic toybox and toy set. The little bone fragments and such are made of plastic:In Icelandic farmhouses of yesteryear, children had a special hiding place for...
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[read the full post...]
July 20, 2008
Wow, Wow What Have We Here? Plush Noggin 'Clones'
When you've been sewing for 50 years like Gramma Ruth, you don't "knock off" anything, least of all the so-far unlicensed, unmonetized characters of some media conglomerate-come-lately like Nickelodeon. No, when you make your own homebrew plush versions of...
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[read the full post...]
July 18, 2008
Bag-o-Bones: PBK-Meets-CSI
Nothing adds edgy ambiance to your pleasantly whitebread merchandise mix quite like a child-size skeleton. On the one hand, paper pulp doesn't have the long-term playability of wood, or even plastic. On the other hand, IT'S 30% OFF! monogramming...
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[read the full post...]
Nobi-Nobi Disney Ball Tower Of The Apocalypse
Holy crap, Takara Tomy! Flashing lights, multiple melody buttons, melody balls, sounds, raising towers, spiraling ball tracks--inside and out--ball hiders, ball holders, ball chutes, clocks, butterflies, Mickey, Minnie, Donald...The insane Nobi-Nobi Ball Tower has 16 [!] separate features for...
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[read the full post...]
July 14, 2008
Awesome Baby-Sized Ply Play Kitchen By Shiroma Somebody
When I first saw this plywood play kitchen at Mary-Branche, a Japanese online kids&moms boutique, I thought it was nice and simple. If a little chunky, what'd they do, double up the plywood? Wow, check out the smooth finish,...
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[read the full post...]
July 3, 2008
Can We Enamel It? YES WE CAN! Hello Kitty Tonka Truck
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } GVWR Payload Testing, originally uploaded by Telstar Logistics. Uh-uh. I guess when your dad's the...
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[read the full post...]
June 27, 2008
Antiques Backroadshow: Vintage Vinyl In Goldsboro
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Olde Country Store, Goldsboro, NC, originally uploaded by daddytypes. Full of Wilber's barbecue and looking...
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[read the full post...]
June 26, 2008
Garden Gnomes Not Included: Sweet Community Playthings Tractor On eBay
Dayton, Ohio bidders will have the advantage on this awesome, old Community Playthings ride-on tractor. Though it's just under 11 inches high, all that maple lumber and those chunky Firestone tires will cost a bundle to ship. Maybe when...
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[read the full post...]
June 23, 2008
Tryon Toy Makers: For Kids By Kids
Didn't see that one coming. While getting in touch with my North Carolina roots by poking around the special collections at UNC-Asheville, I stumbled across the archives of the Tryon Toy Makers, a company founded in Tryon, NC during...
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[read the full post...]
Giant Foam KidsCars Not Available In Green
I gottalotta nerve complaining about the Internet's short-term memory when I can't remember if I've written about these giant upholstered, padded foam KidsCars before. It seems like I have, if only because polyurethane is an odd material for a...
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[read the full post...]
June 21, 2008
Florent, We'll Miss You! But Check Out These Awesome Maps--And Morellet Guerineau??
Last weekend we took K2 for her first visit to Florent. Also her last, because Florent's closing in less than two weeks. I'd planned on many years of boring brunches where I'd explain to the kids how daddy and...
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[read the full post...]
June 20, 2008
Will These Lifelike [sic] Wall-E and Eve Robots Come To The US?
Whoa, these laptop-size Wall-E and Eve robots were at the Tokyo Toy Fair. Do you think Takara Tomy will bring them to the US? Next week? Tokyo Toy Show 2008, or check out the video directly on YouTube [kilian-nakamura...
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[read the full post...]
June 17, 2008
Sweet, Church-Tested Folding Climber From Community Playthings
Demand for this awesome, folding Community Playthings climbing gym must have dropped off some time after the Planet of the Apes trend faded away, because it's no longer in production. Fortunately, this one is available for pickup in Rochester,...
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[read the full post...]
June 16, 2008
DT Renegade Craft Fair Round-up
Staging the Renegade Craft Fair in the Pool at McCarren Park Pool is a great way to crystallize the cultural divide that is Williamsburg: you walk through thousands of Hispanic families camped out under every tree in the park,...
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[read the full post...]