What’s Inside This Designer Toy?
Last night, one of my Dunces (Goody2Shoes) by Gary Baseman tumbled from its perch and broke a leg. I’m posting the photo here because although we get some great insight into the insides of our designer toys courtesy of Jason Freeny, I’ve never seen anything like this. The leg is filled with a soft substance that I’d compare to peanut butter. Since Grody Shogun’s Luke Rook is Mr. Mashup, I asked if he could shed any light. He wrote via Instagram:
Good question. I can’t speak specifically about particular industrial goop, [but] I can attest to [the] toy making process being achieved with all kinds of workarounds. I would guess it was a filling for balance or to retain its shape. Usually these workarounds pop up when producer “a” has a finished mold that doesn’t quite work and can’t/won’t remake the whole project. When it comes down to it, this whole industry is held together with whatever is on hand.
There’s almost something “charming” about that. Goody2Shoes was designed by Baseman and released by Critterbox in 2006. The figure had 5 other brothers: Ditch, Fib, Pulp, Retardy and Lil Copy Cat. Each toy was 12 inches tall (on a stool) and came in really excellent conical packaging. I got in a bit of banter with Baseman, too:
@garybaseman: Sorry about your little Goody 2 Shoes! Did you break off the other leg to see if it was filled with jelly?
@jeremyriad: I did, and the other leg was filled with banana! And then there was a knock on the door, and it was Elvis! Things are getting really surreal–please advise!!!
Goody2Shoes is currently awaiting his turn in the free toy care clinic, and he is expected to make a full recovery.
Do NOT eat that ‘peanut butter’ Jeremy, even if Elvis tells you it’s ok.
Hey Jeremy….I’m currently working on a custom Retardy Dunce, in this process I removed both the arms and the legs. The ‘peanut Butter’ seems to me to be nothing more than a plaster of paris substance to give a lower centre of gravity (it’s a couple of cm thick and the rest of the body is filled with expanding foam. The vinyl is very thin (in parts less than 1mm), so I think all this stuff also serves to help retain the shape of the figure.