i no longer want to do business with a company like this.

I definitely think some of your projects could work as high-end designer toys, especially your whole articulated Homage series (although I think the wicked saw blades on 1.0 may give some people pause about ‘playing’ with the thing). Good luck with all that.

Dustin- Despite that fact that you are working in metal, as opposed to vinyl or resin, I’d definitely say that your figures fall into the art toy category. Metal (and wood as mentioned by Jerome) and a few other “alternative” media have been gaining traction in the designer toy/ art toy world. I know that Nathan Hamill cast his Boris toy into bronze, and if I recall correctly, Kozik, MAD & KAWS all released metal pieces recently (just to name a few of the big names).
Most of us toy collectors enjoy and collect robots, or at least vinyl toys that LOOK like robots, or custom toys painted to look like weathered metal. So I don’t think it’s a stretch at all to consider your metal pieces “designer toys”.
I think the main thing here is if you like working in metal, and doing so gives you a sense of purpose as an artist, then I say go for it!

Not having seen your metal robots, I couldn’t say for certain whether they’d suit the designer toy market. but I’m assuming these are ones you designed/built yourself. In which case, they might. But one other trend Budnitz mentioned: He thought “nostalgia is death” (a line from Bob Dylan) — meaning if your toys are meant to be quaint period pieces, then they’d be more suited to some other sub-culture of collectors.

But — like the way Ruiz treated the classic Warner Brother cartoon characters — if the toys appropriate, update, twist, spoof or ‘augment’ the original models in some manner so they’re not purely “old-fashioned,” then they’re much more likely candidates. I’d check out the inventory at a number of the websites I’ve linked to — and there are others that can be googled — to get some idea. A number of the sites even have ways for you to contact them, pitch your products.