RANGES FROM THE BOISTEROUS

By Ben Greenman

from forthcoming collection, as yet untitled

The Vecsey Toy Company’s collection of miniature figurines have long since come to be regarded as an indispensable part of any home collection. The entries for this holiday season are on a superior scale to those imagined for many a moon. The figurines, one inch in height as in every other year, stride confidently across the line separating craft from art, notably those the represent birds of prey (which hover roughly one foot in the air with no visible means of support) or lake fish, which begin to turn pale and gray if left in open air but which take on vibrant colors when submerged in water. All are rendered in the most exquisite detail imaginable, and one would be forgiven for believing that they are real, and that the rest of us are oversize effigies. And then there are the specimens of tiny female humans, billed as a counterpart to the successful series of men released earlier in the year, which was fine in its own right but cannot live up to the new arrivals. The set ranges from the boisterous (“Carol, On a Bender,” complete with a not entirely rebuttoned skirt) to the more philosophically inclined (“Andrea, Contemplating Being,” the subject of which is nestled in a comfortable leather armchair with a miniature copy of Buber’s “I and Thou”). Other new Vecseys include a first-time mother, staring at a newborn baby with a wondrous expression that is half-smile, half-scowl; and “Foreign Secretary,” which depicts an attractive middle-aged woman en route from her flight to her hotel, sitting in the backseat of the town car paging through a report on regional security. All are lovely and diverting creations that provide collectors with a ready-made store of surprises.