lead
From its start in the late 90s, the urban vinyl/designer toy movement ranged from the square-jawed, blocky figures evident in Michael Lau's early work, Sket-One's nostalgia-heavy takes on pop art, and artists like MADL and Ron English whose work in graffiti and street art has been translated into plastic.
Given the pop culture leanings of this relatively new medium, and the commercial nature of toys in general, it was only a matter of time before bigger companies and popular intellectual properties attempted to cash in on the burgeoning platform. Since the mid-2000s, artists like Sucklord have been aping the Star Wars saga, and a couple of years later officially-licensed toys started hitting the markets. Here's some of the cooler ones out there, check out our gallery of 10 Best Designer Toys Inspired by Star Wars.
vcd
Star Wars VCDs
Artist: TOMY x MediCom
First Released: 2007
The VCD stands for "viny collectible dolls" and portrays characters in a Michael Lau-inspired blocky style with large heads, hands, and feet in rotocast vinyl, a cheaper way of manufacture which often meant that movement was restricted due to the hollow plastic. Like many designer toys and the other VCDs in the series, this Boba Fett was limited to a run of 1,500 pieces.
vinylmation
Disney Vinylmation: Star Wars Series 1
Artist: Mike Sullivan
First Released: Jan. 2011
This year saw the release of these Disney-themed Star Wars toys in the shape of a familiar mousey silhouette. Designed by artist Mike Sullivan, these depict characters from Episode VI: The Empire Strikes Back. The next iteration in the Star Wars series is set to launch in May and August 2012, and will not only feature designs from Episode IV: A New Hope, but have a special set depicting Disney characters like Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck portraying different characters from the Star Wars mythos.
sucklordvinyl
sideshow
Sideshow Collectibles Premium Format Series
Artist: Various, Sideshow Collectibles
First Released: Dec. 2004
California-based Sideshow Collectibles stood out from the pack with the 2004 debut of their Premium Format line. Made in a 1/4 scale, meaning they clocked in at about 18" tall, each piece is a museum-quality reproduction utilizing the talents of skilled artisans as well as the Sideshow Collectibles design team.
While limited in articulation, this Darth Vader figure featured a variety of sound and lights, and members of the Sideshow Collector's Club were eligible for an exclusive version, which contained a special accessory otherwise unavailable in the general release, a practice that continues this day.
Sideshow also makes high-quality 12-inch figures as well as serves as the U.S. distributor for many of MediCom Toy's products.
muggs
Star Wars Mighty Muggs
Artist: Chris Hicks
First Released: Jan. 2008
Believe it or not, Chris Hicks was the sole designer of the Mighty Muggs series for Hasbro. Deciding to create their own in-house line of art toys, using their large stable of popular properties like G.I. Joe, Transformers, and even Indiana Jones, the company released wave 1 of their Star Wars series in 2008. What set apart these designs were their rounded limbs, super-deformed bodies (and equally simplified accessories like lightsabers and blasters), and large size. Each Mighty Mugg stood around 8 inches tall. Eventually Hasbro released the smaller Mini-Muggs line, but the larger ones were definitely better-suited for display.
kubricks
Star Wars Kubricks
Artist: MediCom
First Released: April 2003
MediCom's Kubricks have been popular in Japan for a long time, yet never really hit with mainstream America. Their first Star Wars characters were the April 2003 release of the bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back: Boba Fett, 4-LOM, Bossk, Zuckuss, Dengar, and IG-88. Ever since they've dropped numerous characters from all six films. And to get even more meta, they did a version of the original '70s "Early Bird Boxed Set" from Sears, which, like the original, was only available via mail-order and is super-rare.
mimobot
Star Wars Mimobots
Artist: Mimoco
First Released: April 2007
Mimobots combine the pragmastism of a flash drive with the coolness and collectability of designer toys. Initally starting with a series of drives depicting characters designed by independent artists like Yahid Rodriguez and Dino Alberto. They still do artist collaborations with the likes of tokidoki, FriendsWithYou, and Gary Baseman.
2007's officially-licensed Star Wars series marked one of the first forays into the designer toy world actually co-signed by Lucasfilm. The first series depicted Chewbacca, a stormtrooper, R2-D2, and Darth Vader. Later series would introduce other characters and introduce a cool design concept: helmeted characters' faces would be revealed after popping off the top to plug in the drive to a computer.
gayempire
Suckadelic Gay Empire
Artist: Sucklord
First Released: 2005
Suckadelic's Gay Empire line was not only a reference to Star Wars, but those bootleg toys you were likely to find in Chinatowns and dollar stores everywhere. The delibirately shitty packaging and bright paint job reference bootlegger's ignorance and lack of care in regards to portraying characters correctly, and spawned a series of popular neon-colored, non-posable resin figurines.
hottoys
Hot Toys Star Wars Series
Artist: Various, Hot Toys
First Released: Coming Soon
The easiest way to describe Hot Toys' 1/6 scale figures is that they are miniature, plastic, human beings. There is a crazy amount of detail that goes into each piece, and the care taken by the sculptors to perfectly match the faces of the characters they are supposed to portray is uncanny.
Their Movie Masterpiece line tackles complicated designs from the intricacies in Iron Man's armor to the scalloping in Batman's suit perfectly. They also made an amazing series of figures based on the Predator series. Surely, if this Bespin Luke Skywalker gets release (it's currently pending approval), it'll be one of the greatest artisan Star Wars toys ever made, and definitely not cheap.
super7
Super7 Super Shogun Stormtrooper
Artist: Super7
First Released: Sept. 2010
San Francisco's Super7 is known for their love of old Japanese toys like your favorite vinyl Godzilla and Toei monster figures. The '70s saw the release of Takara's Jumbo Machinder line stateside, where it was renamed Shogun Warriors. Takara is no stranger to awesome robot toys — later on the company would make up the toys that became the Transformers.
This rendition of a stormtrooper took all the classic design elements that made the Shogun Warriors great: rolling wheels on its feet, a whopping height of 2 feet, and spring-loaded wrists that launch the toy's fists like missiles at the press of a button. Before the age of videogames and iPods took control of kids' minds everywhere, finding a toy like this under the Christmas tree would make children go apeshit.