Nice to meet poo: desk toys for the downtrodden designer

When Gavin Strange isn't working as a senior designer at Oscar-winning animation studio Aardman, he is JamFactory - a designer who loves all things vinyl. His design toys have accumulated many a fan, with his droplet series becoming an instant classic. Today, he announced his new vinyl toy and they come with a scatalogical surprise that we find weirdly alluring...

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Strange worked with Columbian sculptor Alex Avelino on the toys, lovingly named Shirley Creamhorn & Shithawk. Strange explains: "When I was a junior designer in Leicester, I got given a silly name of 'Shirley Creamhorn' by my designer friend Andy Rudkin, who would order me rubbish stationary samples with 'Shirley Creamhorn' engraved on the side. Over the years I picked this up and used it as an alter-ego name for a bit of fun."

Production process

After Strange designed the characters, Avelino then sculpted the toy by hand before it was handed to a toy company in China that produced the mould and 500 plastic injection copies.

The toys were then shipped to a Colombian toy company where they were hand-painted (using both brush tip and airbrush). Finally, they went to another company to get the Big Spoon logo stamped on the feet. The toys have actually been finished for years but due to some shipping woes have only just landed on British shores.

The toy is 5.7in tall and comes in two colourways - blue and green. There are just 500 made - 250 in green and 250 in blue, with each one being hand numbered and the boxes being signed by Strange himself. So, if you'd like to give Shirley Creamhorn & Shithawk good home, we suggest you act quickly...

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Do you have a design toy on your desk that you think we should know about? Leave a comment in the box below!