Collectively Speaking
What's your collecting obsession?
By Maria Weiskott -- Playthings, 5/1/2005
Lisa Orman, President, KidStuff Public Relations
She was only 5 years old, but it was love at first sight: Lisa Orman and a Madame Alexander doll.
Indeed, it was not only love, but another passion that evolved: Collecting
“My mom taught me to sew at a young age, so I always appreciated the small details and fine quality of sewing on the Madame Alexander doll clothes,” she tells Playthings, adding that she also loved “the sweetness of their faces, and the characters from storybooks. I loved their hair.”
Like we said, it was love at first sight!
Orman says she knew that eventually she “wanted all these same things for my daughter for her playthings.” And she made sure it happened. Today, Orman shares her Madame Alexander collecting passion with her 10-year-old daughter Emily, (pictured with Orman on page 53).
Orman's 8-year-old son Jack also caught the collecting bug, but in his case for Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.
While she did collect Sailor Moon dolls for awhile, it has been the Madame Alexanders that have captured Orman's lifelong attention and she readily admits to the emotional attachment that comes with the passion.
“Playing with these dolls with my daughter takes me back to my own childhood, and I feel like a girl again. I love dressing them, combing their hair. It's funny how it takes you back, and how you connect with your child when you play with them on this level,” she says.
In order for a toy to be collectible in the future Orman believes it must have one or more of the following qualities: it must have been either truly basic in an intrinsic way, beautifully made, rare in numbers, made of fine materials or tied to something with enduring meaning like a classic fairy tale.
“I don't like the focus on characters so much, and I don't like that toys come out first, then a TV show is based on them, instead of the other way around,” Orman tells Playthings.
“There's also too much fad stuff around,” she notes adding that whenever she has bought the fadish toys for her kids, “it gets played with once and then goes to the back of the closet.”
But today's toy climate, she says is “techno, robotic, video and character-driven.” During this particular era, “with all the compression from the troubled toy industry, you're not seeing as much innovation or risk-taking because so many small companies are going out of business or can't afford to take any risk. They're playing it safe, and there's a lot of copying going on, which I hate,” Orman points out.
“I believe toys like the Slinky, Etch a Sketch, yo-yo, Big Wheel, spinning tops are the toys that were at their best and I think they will be collectible in years to come. “
On the other hand, Orman does believe that years from now collectors might be after movie and television merchandise like SpongeBob SquarePants. “And maybe some of the first robotic toys, because they'll be so advanced in the future compared to what we have now, that today's stuff will look primitive in comparison,” she quips.
Are you an avid collector of toys and have a story to be told? Please e-mail Maria Weiskott at: mweiskott@reedbusiness.com.
