Archive for July, 2009
Do Toy Designers need to understand demographics?
To be successful a toy designer should know the demographics of his customer the toy buyer. For the toy designer demographics is the study of the behaviors and other characteristics of various types of toy customers in terms of statistics. How many customers and potential customers are there? What can be designed to get them to [...]
Marble Run toys have it all: Curiosity, creativity, movement and sound.
Marble Run toys are the best of toys. Kids are curious, creative, love movement and love sounds. All of us do, not just kids. And marble runs have all of that and more. Part of the charm of marble runs is the natural way that the toy uses gravity to create the motion and sound. [...]
Will Wright’s toys that make worlds.
This video about one of Will’s new toy designs is a couple of years old but is still fresh and fascinating. Will is a fantastically creative guy and a true toy wizard. There is no way to describe this video. You just must watch it. It introduces a pretty cool way of creating toys. The concepts Will presents [...]
The Handmade Toy Alliance helps toymakers producing handmade toys.
Small toymakers in the U.S. were almost wiped out by a new Federal law in 2008. The Handmade Toy Alliance is a huge factor in getting the law turned around. Toymakers, toy designers, children’s product manufacturers, independent retail stores and bloggers have endorsed the Handmade Toy Alliance and are working with the Alliance to protect handmade toys in the USA. Check [...]
Toy designers build a victorian doll house.
Doll houses have been a favorite toy with kids for centuries. This video reminds me that the doll house still has great potential for creative expression and lot more potential than most toys. The doll house is overlooked by most toymakers and probably because doll houses are nostalgic and sentimental like this one. But that is OK. [...]
Toy designer constructs building block castle.
This guy is a real Toy Wizard. Toy castles are great fun but this one of the best castle block toys I have ever seen. The video says it all. The design of the blocks get the creative juices flowing and the possibilities are absolutely endless. This is just fantastic. John Lewman toy designer www.toymakerpress.com
Disney’s 1930 Midnight in a Toy Shop Cartoon.
This is great for 1930 and it looks like a lot of toy designers are copying the same old design philosophy of make it quick, make it cute and hope it sells. The 1930′s produced some great art in films but this Disney film doesn’t cut it. But a designer has to start somewhere and this [...]
Disney’s Toy Story Toy Designers at work.
This is quite a contrast to the 1930 Disney Toy Shop Film shown above. The characterization is magic to me. The expressions are right-on for the social values and emphasis of both kids and adults today. That is the challenge of toy design. A toy has to appeal to the adults first. They buy the [...]
Child psychology for toy designers.
There is a short article in this that mentions the importance of play. It is worth a read. There is some other general info that may be of use that shows the attitudes of adults toward children in today’s society. The research paper was produced with the cooperation of Brio. Click on the link below [...]
Easy to make solar powered toy car.
This is toymaking at it’s best. He uses materials on hand with existing technology to create a toy that is easy to make, fun to play with and demonstrates the latest values and current trends of our world’s culture and concerns. Solar energy is on just about everyone’s mind at any age and there is [...]
