I Am Plastic: The Designer Toy Explosion by Paul Budnitz, founder and creative director of Kidrobot, is a visual history of vinyl toys in their incarnation as collectible urban cute. The operative word here is visual: there is very little text, so the details readers may be craving are simply not there. But as a compendium of vinyl from all over the world, this is a good way to collect without the mysteries of the blind box. It is the perfect book for any vinyl collectors, but also a good visual introduction for anyone curious about this modern art phenomenon.

Hardcover, 368 pages. Harry N. Abrams, 2006. $26.40 at Amazon.

+ I Am Plastic at Amazon