It's a Man Thing

A shared passion of mine are the simple plastic Acrobates figures originally designed by Rene Ach. They date from the same period as a number of similar, simple toys created by Patrick Rylands. Rylands designed Playplax, Mosaic and a pair of supremely simple bath toys in the shape of a bird and a fish. After I found a reference to Playplax and his other toys in a copy of Design Journal 1970, I saw more of his toy creations, including a simple toy, very similar to Rene Achs acrobates, called 'Little Men'.

 This odd, almost sculptural toy is brutally simple in its design and conception. It consists of three, five part figures and a stand. Each piece is approximately 4mm deep and fitted with grooves around the edges. Each piece grips the other by means of marrying up the grooves, allowing a basic, two dimensional poseability. 

The set I found seems to be an ex classroom toy, the box is battered and torn, but the toy itself is complete and almost unused. This is hardly surprising as the actual play value of the toy seems limited. The figures must be used with the stand, so it basically becomes more of a display piece. From that point of view, it works extremely well as the iconic shapes of the figures allow a flat, colourful sculpture to be created.