Full dis­clo­sure: I love toys. In recent years I’ve grown very fond of “designer” toys — ones that are often lim­ited edi­tion and cre­ated by artists and illus­tra­tors. You can find them at shops like Kid Robot and Giant Robot, and each city seems to have their res­i­dent designer toy store. (Mine is Atomic Books in Bal­ti­more, MD and I love it!)

Designer toys don’t just have to be fig­urines. They can be plushes as well. It’s always great to see some­thing that is made by an artist/illustrator. They bring some­thing dif­fer­ent to the table — dif­fer­ent pri­or­i­ties on the design and over­all feel. The con­struc­tion might be a lit­tle more crude than a “nor­mal” plush, but that’s fine by me — I love how imag­i­na­tive they are! Below are some I really like. I’ve posted about Herzenart before. Also, Blythe Church hand-felts her work, and hav­ing hand-felted before, that is quite a feat.

row one: Herzen­sart // row two: Jay Cover // row three: Blythe Church // row four: Ninon // row five: Sian Kee­gan