THE INSPIRATION

One thing that I want to be clear about from the beginning is that I am not a character animator and I don’t want the “acting” of this giant toy to be the focus of my piece; I’m not trying to re-create Toy Story here. Also, even though I consider myself to be fairly decent at 3-D modeling, I want to keep the toy as simple as I can, because I think it will be more effective in conveying the message that a simple toy can be better for a child than any of the technologically complex toys of today.
In fact, the inspiration for this piece is a toy that was one of my childhood favorites: Playmobil (picture). Back in the day, it was much simpler that it is today. It was made out of 6 pieces: legs, torso, two arms, head, and hair. It had moving joints at the shoulders, neck and waist, with very limited movement. It always struck of how simple it was, yet so functional. When I start working on the design of my toy, these are the two characteristics I want to carry over.