Full Vinyl: The Subversive Art of Designer Toys (Hardcover)

by Ivan Vartanian (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Geared toward garage kits, character figures, subculture figures, limited editions, and extreme figures by master creators, this book satisfies the appetite of the figure aficionado with a continuous stream of figures and vast and comprehensive selection. Full Vinyl covers mass–produced popular favorites (such as Homies), sub–culture figures, Anime–inspired figures (such as Bome), category–defining "thingies", Hong Kong luminaries (such as Eric So and Michael Lau), figures based on the work of hugely popular artists (such as Gary Baseman or Yoshitomo Nara), and artists that take figure making to the next level (such as Shinichi Yamashita).

This volume includes interviews with selected creators, and discussions on topics including aesthetics and the significance of the work for an older audience of collectors.

The catalog will include captioning for each figure, including licensing and distribution information.

About the Author

Ivan Vartanian is an author, editor and the founder of Goliga Books, Inc., a book-packaging company specializing in art, photography, and design. His publications on art include: Andy Warhol: Drawings and Illustrations of the 1950s, which was traces the artist’s ten years of work as a commercial illustrator before his re-invention as a pop artist and impresario, Egon Schiele: Drawings and Watercolors, a comprehensive chronology of the artist rapid development as a master of human expression, before his death at the age of 28, and Drop Dead Cute: The New Generation of Women Artists in Japan, a survey of contemporary drawing in Japan. His design books include: Now Loading . . . : The Aesthetics of Web Graphics, a survey of cutting-edge web design, Graphiscape: New York City and Graphiscape: Tokyo, a series of books about "found graphics" that define the graphic sense of major cities, and TypoGraphics, a look at the overlap between graphics and type. His photography books include the monographs Studio Portrait: A Documentary of Yoshitomo Nara, Kamaitachi: Photographs by Eikoh Hosoe, and the anthology Setting Sun: Writings by Japanese Photographers. Ivan Vartanian lives in Tokyo, Japan.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 164 pages
• Publisher: Collins Design (January 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060893389
• ISBN-13: 978-0060893385
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #326,621 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too excited?, May 13, 2007

By	Assaf Libster Gamzou - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

for those of us into urban vinyl, art toys, designer toys or whatever you'd like to call them - this is an excellent book. with it's coverage of dozens of artists with color photographs and biographies, it makes for a great read to the zealous collector, and that is exactly where the catch lies. for those of you looking for a bit of critticism or some braoder cultural context, i, for one, felt that this book treated the designers with over enthusiasm (not to say out-right FANaticism), and the two or three articles relating to urban vinyl as a phenomena semed more like a gesture then a genuine wish to explore the origins and implications of all these small weird toys.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excelent!, July 27, 2008

By	Gabriel S. Fazzioni - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It has some designers sketches !
More than I expected ! Great deal !!

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Full Vinul Yes Thank You!, April 1, 2007

By	Anja Veronika Sorlie "cakebreaker" (Oslo, Norway) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is such a wonderful, fun, plasticfantastic book! It has great essays from leading toymakers/collectors, amazing pictures and if you're nok hooked on designer toys after this book, I don't know if you ever will be hooked!

There also comes a little keychain with this book... I can't use it though. I don't want to "break the book", but it sure will be nice for someone else!