Alright, the painted metal toys at Dutch Design Week just got a LOT more interesting. Hello, sweet toy gas station.
A couple more shots from DDW are great, but let's go to the source.
They turn out to be Arche Toys, launched a couple of weeks ago by Floris Hovers, a maker of rather severely nice-looking furniture and design, which was also shown at DDW.
I couldn't stop staring at Hovers' finely placed welds to hold the ArcheToy pieces together. And so many different rigs coming out of a few basic shapes? Though they're not a choke hazard, the barrels on those tanks might be a poke hazard, ditto the hooks on the end of the crane. But still, there's plenty for the supervised child to play with, as long as they're not in a throwing stage...
the basic car
the basic taxi
the basic pink Coupe deVille awarded to the first Mary Kay saleswoman of the year
stop, that tent's cuteness is blinding me
if sharing's a problem, the dish on this tv truck might take a chunk out of a kid's cheek. heads up.
Floris Hovers Ontwerpen is located in Raamsdonksveer, the traditional center of Holland's awesome metal toy industry. I had no idea, so I looked it up; it's south of Rotterdam on the way to Breda, and a Google image search for a map pulled up this insanely cool photo of a Cosmopoliet camper for some reason. Go figure.
Awesomus Maximus: Floris Hovers - ArcheToy Catalogus [florishovers.nl]
It is so hard to be Dutch living abroad. You've got me really wishing I were there right now. Every time I go I literally have the bags packed full of the cool toys from my childhood and cheese.
Thanks for making me drool even more!
That last one is clearly a surveillance van.
Where's the little Mr. Hulot figurine to go with these?
The gas station is great, but I'll need the Plastac factory, too...
[nice catch. -ed.]