From MoMA’s Century of the Child, these technically ingenious toys are testament to Czech designer Libuše Niklová’s belief that plastics were the future and that playthings need not be dreary. Toys from many of the Soviet Bloc countries in the 1960s and 70s were cheap to produce, colorful, lightweight, washable, and easy to store. This MoMA video shows her son, artist Petr Nikl, using and musing on some of the toys he grew up with.
Image Credit, top of post: Libuše Niklová. Sound-producing animals in their original packaging. 1963–65. Hand-painted polyethylene, paper, PVC. Manufactured by Fatra, Napajedla, Czechoslovakia (est. 1935). Archive Fatra, Napajedla, Czech Republic. © From the book Libuše Niklová by Tereza Bruthansová, published by Arbor vitae societas in 2010. Photograph by Studio Toast – from MoMA
Categories: Design
Canadian Art Junkie 
I liked how he played accordion-style on the blue elephant. Wish I could get to the MoMA to see them. Heck – to see anything at the MoMA. 🙂
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I agree on the MoMA. Also loved that video.
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Great! I absolutely love those! You know Fatra now remakes some of the toys after the original design and you can actualy buy them for quite cheap:
http://www.hracky-retro.cz/cs/zbozi/nafukovaci-zviratka-fatra-komplet
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Very interesting. Thanks for the link. I guess it’s true that when design is good, it absolutely survives.
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