Designer Toys 101: What is a Dunny?

If you are new to this column, it is truly meant to be read from the beginning to the most recent.
Please start with the first installment, "What are Designer Toys?"

Do you see that outline above, the one with the question mark in it? That, gentle reader, is the base form of a Dunny, arguably the most-popular and highest selling Designer Toy on the market. Much like the Munny (which we previously discussed), the Dunny was created by Tristan Eaton and Paul Budnitz, the latter of which began the Kidrobot company that releases both vinyl figures. Unlike the Munny, though, the Dunny isn't a blank canvas for artists to express themselves on; Dunnys are typically sold blind boxed and are always decorated with an artist's design pre-placed upon it. Hit the jump to continue reading for the full explanation…

As opposed to customs, which are hand-decorated by the artist, Dunnys are initially sold with a pre-established design that has been produced on the vinyl form at the manufacturing level. This isn't to say that custom Dunnys don't exist — as they most certainly do, artists love to take these production pieces and rework them into a original piece of three-dimensional art — but Kidrobot does not sell them this way.

As you can see from the above grouping of rather recently released Dunnys, the base form with those iconic bunny ears is one of the very few standard elements in the production. Each design is mass produced and can be anything from a paint scheme that transforms the platform into something new to a massively resculpted version that is barely recognizable as a Dunny anymore.

The majority of production Dunnys are 3-inches in height and released in blind boxed series a couple of times per year, resulting in 40+ new Dunny designs being produced in a twelve month period. There are also special limited edition Dunnys produced, usually in heights of 8" or 20" but also in the 3" version; though you know exactly what you are buying with these versions.

Since a blind boxed 3" Dunny typically costs under $10 brand new and, with each series, Kidrobot employs some of the best designers in the industry to craft the style of the releases, it's not hard to understand why these widely available figures are so popular and tend to be the "jumping on point" for most collectors in this industry.

Next Week: What does Kaiju mean and what is it?

Designer toys used in the example set are (L-R):
"Ken the Mysterious Tigrrr" dunny designed by Squink and manufactured by Kidrobot, 2011
"Birro the Clown" dunny designed by Chauskoskis and manufactured by Kidrobot, 2012
"Zombie Union (Local 743) Striker" dunny designed by Huck Gee and manufactured by Kidrobot, 2011
"Ashigaru (Red Armour)" dunny designed by Jon-Paul Kaiser and manufactured by Kidrobot, 2012
"Gay Empire, Suckadelic Overmaster Supreme" dunny designed by Sucklord and manufactured by Kidrobot, 2012
"Zombie Biker (Green Version)" dunny designed by MAD and manufactured by Kidrobot, 2011