A Letter From Paul Budnitz

Many of you know that I’ve been making designer toys for over two decades. I founded Kidrobot in 2002, and then Superplastic in 2019. Along the way we've made toys with hundreds of the world’s most brilliant artists, fashion designers, street artists, musicians… The list is epic, and along the way we have (mostly) managed not to suck.

But of course Superplastic has always been more than toys. At our core we make animated comedy — sick, sexy, and gratuitously violent — with a dash of subversion that (I hope) lifts us from psychotic to profound now and then.

And yeah, we make toys as well.

But here’s the hard truth about art toys: they’re a ridiculous way to make a living. 

Costs are high, and quantities too low to make much of a profit at the end of the year. If you do it like we do it, you do it for love — which is why Superplastic's infamous New Years’ Eve parties are always more a wake than a celebration, complete with Irish drinking songs, Janky® Brand chicken fingers, and Costco beer.

I digress.

All Superplastic toys are made in small factories overseas owned and run by friends, because there are no USA-based vinyl toy factories. Zero. 

Everything was going along just fine... until the US Government arbitrarily decided to impose 10% tariffs on all our toys. Then on March 4, tariffs went up to 20%. If we believe the president, very soon tariffs will be 50%!

There is no fucking way we can afford that… and neither can you. An 8-inch Janky would sell for something like $300 with government taxes taking most of the profit. 

And we need to plan ahead: it takes almost 2 years to make a toy, from idea to a box on your doorstep! Superplastic is just too small to sink all our money into toy production, only to go bankrupt trying to get them into the country later.

So we’re taking a break from toys.

For now. If things change we’ll be back — bigger, brasher and better for it.

Janky & crew will keep doing their thing. Please follow them on Youtube, Tiktok, Instagram, or whatever social platform you prefer.

Thanks for so many years of support. We love you.

🖤

Paul Budnitz
Superplastic
Founder