Felix Hastings 2025

Abstract

Lambie: The Nostalgia Series is a series of four blind box figure designs, inspired by themes of nostalgia and childhood memories. This series focuses on my original character Lambie, a plush sheep who serves as both a mascot and persona for myself. My thesis project explores themes of nostalgia, memories, and vulnerability through a series of blind box toys designed to feel like fragments of a childhood scrapbook. I wanted to capture small but meaningful moments, both happy and bittersweet. These memories hold both comfort and a sense of fragility, which I aimed to reflect in my designs. My project also highlights how toys can be more than just objects—they are a representation of memories, comfort, and belonging. I designed 4 unique figures, including turnaround sheets, sculpted and painted prototypes, and illustrated insert cards. Each figure was inspired by my own childhood memories. Playhouse was inspired by my memories playing in my backyard, as well as the bittersweet feeling of outgrowing your childhood. Homework was inspired by the helplessness that comes along with being a child, and the stressful memories I have of doing math homework that often left me thinking I was dumb. Play Pretend was inspired by childhood imagination and the many hours I spent daydreaming and playing pretend as a child, often with my little sister following along after me. Lastly, Cozy Day was inspired by the safe and comforting memories I have of spending days at home during weekends, vacations, and snow days, just playing games and watching movies with my sister. The turnaround sheets of each figure feature information that would be important in a manufacturing scenario, such as sculpt notes, painted details, and color palettes. Creating sculpted and painted prototypes was an important aspect of this project for me, as a multi-media artist, and these were sculpted in a mix of polymer and epoxy clay and then painted with acrylics. Often, blind box figures include insert cards of each design in the series, so I created watercolor illustrations for each of these, as well as wrote flavor text to introduce more context and create a better sense of worldbuilding in the project.