A specter is haunting Play - the specter of modern collectibility. All the disparate powers of tactile fun and frivolity have entered into an alliance to exorcise this specter, to defend and protect the imagination before it is sealed forever in a plastic clamshell and sold on eBay to some sucker with too much money and not enough on his mind.

The history of all hitherto existing toy kind has been one of aggressive activity, heroic invention, and good old fashioned knees-in-the-mud fun. For generations, a bubbling cauldron of vision and pluck has existed where plastics meet the mind's eye. As boys and girls become men and women, each in their turn has found strength and succor in bobbles that they have imbued with life and drenched with meaning.

Two things result from these facts:

I. Action figures are already acknowledged by all consumer indices to be a power in and of themselves, promoting innovation and community to levels previously attained only by marbles.

II. I forget the second one.

And yet, in this modern era, we have seen the very spirit of Play eroded by marketeers with dubious intentions, who bend the divine impulse to Play with toys into raw shopping and hoarding behavior spirals.

Could a reasonable person be convinced that a pad of blank paper will be worth more in 25 years? Would any marginally sane person leave a tube of paint unopened because of a typo or color variation on the label?

It is an article of profound certitude and our reverberant mantra at wearesmall.com that indeed TOYS ARE FOR PLAYING. If you don't believe us simply ask any toy, boxed or loose, custom or mint, if it would rather be a plaything or a commodity. If you listen hard enough you'll hear the consistent, abundant truth of the matter. And you'll be glad that you did it, too.

Therefor and whereas, it is high time that free custom toys should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of collectible goofiness with a Manifesto of their own.

Make sure you are on the proper side of Play. Seize the easy opportunity to frolic and the great gift of merriment offered to those who release a plaything from the oubliette of its package. Take up the enlightened cause of fun. Free your mind, free your toys, and the rest will follow.

Players Win, and Winners Play. Join the Small Revolution.

Now more than ever.

HEAR ANOTHER TURGID MANIFESTO