Last night, amongst the craziness that is the San Diego Comic Con, Clutter Magazine presented the first The Designer Toy Awards, hosted at Munky King in San Diego.

I myself couldn’t be there, for obvious logistical reasons, but I followed the action keenly as it unfolded on Twitter, thanks to Steve Talkowski’s running commentary on the winners.

Since this was the first award show, nominees were being accepted from work over the past two years. So there was quite a large amount of nominees in the running, and all rightfully so, with the list being reduced to a few shortlisted by pre-award voting. South Africa was being well represented with Hello Vinyl nominated for Best Blog and Vinyl Destination for Best Online Toy Store (both unfortunately not making the short list..) while Kronk making the top 5 for Artist Of The Year. Go Team SA!

There were a lot of suprises amongst the obvious takers in all categories, and without further ado, read on for the full list of shortlisted nominees and winners in each category…

Fan Favorite
Blankie: Series 1
Micro.Mundos
Soopa Marias by Erick Scarecrow
Tuttz New Year Edition by Eric Nocella
Diaz / Argonaut Resins
Winner : Android by Andrew Bell

Best Plush Design
Cavey by Holly Stanway
Pecan Pals
Sir Artichoke by Lana Crooks
Thanks, Grandma by Amanda L Spayd
Winner : Plunk and Pop Lion by Anna Chambers

Best Online Toy Store
Bambaland
Lulubell
Myplasticheart
Tenacious Toys
Winner : Rotofugi

Best Collaboration
Google x Andrew Bell - Android
Itokin Park x Amanda Visell, Bed Monster
Kaws x Sorayama Campanion
The Hundreds x Garfield
Winner : Ferg x Brandt Peters - Trouble Boys

Best Collection
Gino Joukar
Kinohi aka “HaynMade”
Sara Harvey and Jason Foster
Toybreak’s George and Ayleen Gaspar
Winner : Carl Aka “Mutonisyourfriend”

Best Customizer
Chris Ryniak
Jason Freeny
The Beast Brothers
Walter Jacott aka Chauskokis
Winner : Doktor A

Best Blog
Kaiju Chronicle
Spanky Stokes
The Blot Says
Vinyl Pulse
Winner : Toysrevil

Best Licensed Product
Android by Andrew Bell
James Jarvis - Hello Kitty
Manny Pacquiao by Mindstyle
Pinocchio & Jiminy Cricket by Kaws
Winner : Super Shogun Stormtrooper by Super 7

Best DIY Platform
CE: Creative Enhancement
MAD*L
Omi by Munky King
Qee by Toy2r
Winner : Mini Munny by Kidrobot

Best Self Produced
Boss Carrion by Paul Kaiju
CAMO jumping Brain
Moon Fox by Sergey Safonov
Shawnimals, Ninja of the Month
Winner : Hermees by Gary Ham

Best Toy from a Comic
Skull Bunnies
Stitch as Deady by Voltaire and Mindstyle
Tomorrow Queen by Ashley Wood
Zombie Chuck by Brian Fyffe
Winner : Kill Audio by Vinyl Cut

Best Mini Series
Elements Alpha
Jibibuts Wooden Minifigures
Mechtorians by Doktor A
Resound Field Guide
Winner : Tic Toc Apocalypse by Amanda Visell

Manufacturer of the Year
Circus Posterus
Gargamel
Kidrobot
The Loyal Subjects
Winner : Three A

Best Toy Store
Freak Store
Kidrobot
Munky King
Super 7
Winner : Rotofugi

Break Through Artist
Angry Woebots
Chauskoskis
L’Amour Supreme
Sergey Safonov
Winner :  Jason Freeny

Most Influential Event
CE Design Contest
Designer Con
I love Munny
The Vader Project
Winner : San Diego Comic Con

Best Functional Toy
Incubot’s Voltron USB Drive
Marka 27’s Minigods
Maywa Denki’s Otamatone
Tokidoki Frenzies
Winner : Mimobot by Mimoco

Outstanding Production
Dievas Dunny by Nathan Jurevicius and Kidrobot
Frank Kozik Ultraviolence
Super 7 Jumbo Stormtrooper
Toy Tokyo x Secret Base x Ron English X-Ray
McSupersized Figure
Winner : False Friends (In Pain Edition) by Coarse Toys

Best 1/6th Scale
3A popbot Tomorrow King
Crazymichael by Michael Lau
Fighting JC by Ashley Wood
Hot Toys War Machine
Winner : Playge Rat by Ferg

Lifetime Achievement
Dov Kelemer
Frank Kozik
Israel “Lev” Levarek
Jim Crawford
Winner : Michael Lau

Artist of the Year
Chris Ryniak
Kronk
Paul Kaiju
Scott Tolleson
Winner : Ashley Wood

Toy of the year
3A Toys Popbot figure
Caleb by James Jarvis
Jaws by Coarsetoys
O-No Sushi by Andrew Bell
Winner : Kaws 4ft Companion

And that concluded the awards! Congrats to ALL the winners. It’s a pity that in a scene where there is SO many talented artists and influential people and companies that keep the toy scene alive, that only a select few walk away with an award, but it goes without saying that everyone was a winner that night!

Big congrats and thanks goes to Clutter Magazine, again, for taking up this behemoth task of organising this award show. And from what I can tell, it was a relative success! So look forward to this happening again in the future!

Thanks for reading and stick around for some photos of the event below… (thanks goes to all the photographers who can’t unfortunately be credited.. but I’m sure you know who you are!)

The beautiful Designer Toy Award, designed by Pete Fowler and produced by Pretty in Plastic.

Rotofugi, snagging two awards for Best Online Store and Best Toy Store.

Gregory, accepting the award for Best Manufacturer and Artist Of The Year on behalf of 3A and Ashley Wood respectively.

Claudio Sanchez, accepting the award for his character winning the Best Toy From a Comic, Kill Audio

Shenanigans by Kaiju Chronicle