A wee post

Inspiration comes from so many sources, and as a designer, I can truthfully say that sometimes, what I've done I've thought to be original and mine, but in essence borrows so much from what I've seen that it has seeped into my unconscious mind. If the ideas are too similar to someone else's, then it gets shelved until something can be done to actually make it "mine" -- through an improvement or my own interpretation.

It is also quite possible that an idea is so great that many people can simultaneously hit a very similar "Eureka!" point independently. With our products, we try very much to make sure that the things we produce don't infringe on anyone else's creative rights and it pains me when others do not share the same sort of respect.

Today, I was reading wee wonderfuls and my 'creative' side aches for Hillary Lang, because no one who has ever put in the time, thought, energy and most importantly heart into any sort of creative endeavour wants to see someone else take that creation and claim it, un-rightfully, as their own.



To be fair to the company that has produced the dolls, I know nothing about why/how they came to be. To an outside observer though, it just seems that the dolls shown just look remarkably similar to the patterns that were produced by Hillary Lang, that were never meant to be produced commercially without her consent.

I can only hope that that company will do what's right.

Toys R Us of the 1950s?

We're the parents of a walking toddler (boy) who just happens to have an affinity for anything that looks like good, wholesome, cleaning fun -- a swiffer, a mop, a broom, what have you. It's become more and more difficult to actually be able to use these in his presence because he insists on "helping". Being the clever parents that we are, we thought, "Hey, I bet they make toy ones that would make him let go of our toys!". (If only cleaning were actually so much fun).

Being interweb-oriented, I went to Toys R Us' Canadian site, and found two possibilities when I searched for "cleaning", since "broom" yielded no results. Of the two relevant results, I was rather surprised with what I read.

For the first set: "14 Piece Cleaning Playset English Edition", by "Just like home":


It's described as, (and I quote):
"This Mr. Clean playset will help get the house spotless, just like mommy does!"

Now, I try not to rant in our blog, but WTF?, "just like mommy does!"?! It's 2007, not 1957. After reading that I thought, "well, this has got to be the exception" since I would think that a major toy store wouldn't fall prey to such gender-biased stereotyping.

Then I went to the second set: "Cleaning Set", also by "Just like home":

This one is described as, (and I quote again):
"This toy is sure to be a favorite for the little girl who loves playing house."

Now, both sets are made by the same manufacturer, and there's a good chance it's a Chinese manufacturer (as 95%+ of toys are these days) that had badly translated copy for their product. But, for Toys R Us to actually have this as the copy for their website is pretty unbelievable. It seems that it's the rule and not the exception for Toys R Us website copy writers to try and pass on gender-based "roles" for the next generation. I'm not sure if I want to go look at "play kitchens" next.

I've got to say, I'm very disappointed with Toys R Us, and I'm now thinking that when we find a toy cleaning set, it won't be from them. So, do any indies out there make a toy cleaning set?

Update: Mrs. Tiggy Winkles (our favourite local toy store), has a cleaning set. But, notice it says, "Help mum and dad clean up!" That's more like it. I know where we're buying our toy broom from.