Yeah, so about how contrived that whole grup thing about people persisting in some state of suspended adolesence? Where they wear the same clothes as their kids? And uptalk all the time?
Turns out I neglected to check with some of the winners of the VinylCollectables.com Ultimate Vinyl Toy Competition. Michael Mennone was a runner-up with his toy design, Lil Shtz:
Lil Shtz were created to express a feeling a child has when they encounter childhood problems. Through their body jesture and their facial expressions it is evident that they are sad............and at the same time pissed! (I also added other directions that were fun and intersting through the same form but with different graphics)Second place went to Sofie Collin. Though she'll never be able to get her toy's name through the trademark process, Collin's backstory for Bean Babies ["Vinyl toys for big babies..."] reads like a grup manifesto:
bean babies Vinyl toys for big babies...Vinyl Collectables Ultimate Vinyl Toy Competition Winners [vinylcollectables.com]Bean babies are sprouts from magic beans wiht ideas, hopes, dreams and desires that are sprung from age crisises [sic] when growing up and desperately trying to stay "forever young". The babies have childish desires to traverse official boundaries. Doing stuff they aren't supposed to which involves the guilty freedom of a child breaking the rules.
If we take care of our bean babies and let them grow, or if we suppress them is up to us.
When buying your bean baby the colorway is a bit of a surprise because they are packed in small paper pot packages with just the leaves of the sprout showing.
Colorways
I-baby - with white headphones playing a grown-up version of the invisible game, pretending you are separate from the 'real world'.
Paintball baby - with reall expensive equipment and 'sport' rules you think it is totaly OK to roll abound [sic] in the mud playing war even though you are 40 years old.
Chocolatechipcookiedough baby - you admit you like the dough better than the actual cookies.
Surfdude baby - stuck in your same old flip-flop style and in some way realizing that you are not getting any younger but just stopped caring if others think you are an old hippie or a bum.
Milkmustache baby - You just want a big glass of milk instead of soda, beer or water.
Backpacker baby - Don't really want to commit to anything. a free soul who want [sic] to be spontaneous and experience new adventures around the world.
