Emergency Toys has done it again. The funky, imaginatively retro Hazel Blade is the latest toy design from the prolific French artist behind the seeming endless string of intriguing designs and prototypes. The new design is a stylish fusion of ideas and genres.
Hazel is a walking contradiction. The civility implied by her vintage dress and throw back pigtails clashes pointedly with her ominous mask and razor-sharp sword. Finally, there’s her old school, medium-format camera referenced in the character’s subtitle: ‘A Rolleiflex 6×6 girl’. Adding to the fun, there’s the clever wink of a name. Said quickly, it sounds an awful lot like Hasseblad, famed rivals of Rolleiflex.
If you haven’t done so already, head on over to Emergency Toys’ Instagram and marvel at their numerous art toy designs and protos. Impressively, many of these are in some state of production, some apparently imminent.
