The Creepy Toys Factory

Cuba is an “Eternal Paradise” for innovation and the economic development based on imitation and wear. 

The Creepy Toys Factory is a project inspired by the marketing of objects (toys) which are built as part of a system of an underground economy on the outskirts of the city. This industrial craft market, dedicated to the entertainment of children, is a real and widespread alternative that make up for the toys´ sales in the government stores. It offers significantly lower prices, and thus accessible, to the most of parents within Cuban society. However, the manufacture of these toys does not meet any of the international and national standards set for it, neither is it regulated by quality and security controls which are essential in objects intended for children. All type of trucks and cars, guns throwing plastic small spears that simulate shots, hybrids between Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, sharp swords, hand-made painted, and sometimes deformed, babies, and others singular toys are made from recycled plastic in illegal little factories. They can be settled down in the courtyard of a house or any other small space and the employees work in dangerous conditions by a relative small paid, so they could be defined as sweatshops. All these toys are copies of the ones imported and sold in government stores or personally imported by any person, but their quality and safety is significantly less. Sometimes, they feel apart from the original design through the incorporation of other elements to enrich their “aesthetic or beauty”. LINK Riera Studio Art