Car-focused Donut Media is best known for their YouTube channel, but they're now venturing into toy design—and already have a smash hit on their hands. Like British industrial designer Julian Meagher, the folks over at Donut bet that car enthusiasts would happily pay for a miniature version of a recognizable and beloved automobile model, one that's been distorted into fun, cartoonish dimensions.
Settling on an Acura Integra Type R—and going through the proper channels to license the design from Acura—they partnered up with toy studio Level52 to design this skewed, desktop- or dashboard-friendly version, to be the first in a line of toy cars they call Stocky:
On Kickstarter, at press time the inaugural Stocky had netted an astonishing $326,134 on a $75,000 goal, with about a week left to pledge. It's being offered in three factory colors, a glow-in-the-dark version, a translucent version, a gold-plated version, and a primer grey for DIY'ers who want to do their own paint.
It appears there will be more to come. "The plan," the company says, "is to make a Stocky for everyone's favorite cars."
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The author stated the following: "the folks over at Donut bet that car enthusiasts would happily pay for a miniature version of a recognizable and beloved automobile model, one that's been distorted into fun, cartoonish dimensions." I think he is right. I have been slowly getting into the car scene from the age of 16 and have been watching videos on "YouTube" every day. I came across the team at Donut's videos a while back and have learnt a lot from them about cars. Donut loves cars. The so-called "THICCBOI" size car will work great on a desk. It will not take up too much space, while still making a statement that tells people that you are a car guy/girl. The car almost looks like it is building up speed while standing still. "Stocky" slots right into the model car collector market. Collectors will love to have something slightly different on their shelves. The car is fully licensed and comes in the original colours, so people would be able to remember their own ones fondly. I love the fact that they have a paint it yourself version of the car, allowing people to try and envision their dream car. It could potentially also be used by paint and wrap companies to show customers a few different versions of cars if they aren't sure which colour to go for. We all have memories of playing with toy cars when we were younger and dreaming of one day owning that specific car that you like. I would personally love a version of the Nissan R34 GTR on my desk, while I am working, and I know lots of other people would too. Thanks for the great article Rain.