Designer Toys 101: What is a Custom Trade Circle?

If you are new to this column, it is truly meant to be read from the beginning to the most recent.
Please start with the first installment, "What are Designer Toys?"

While Custom Trade Circles aren't as common as they once were, they are still around and a reader had noticed the term and wondered what it meant. To be honest, it's a fairly straight-forward concept to explain and will lead to a rather short article this week.

(KR Message Board Dunny Trade 1-7)

Back before customs had the marketplace they currently enjoy, most customizers sold their wares directly to fans via forums (two popular ones were the Kidrobot forum and Custom Toy Union). In order to build up their names, a lot of artists participated in Custom Trade Circles, wherein an organizer would announce a platform and/or theme with a deadline and the number of artists they wanted to participate; customizers would sign up to be part of the Circle and then build one custom that satisfied the requirements. Then the organizer would randomly assign each participating artist another of the artists that would receive their custom… so everyone in the Circle would get a custom from another member of the Circle in exchange for their own custom.

That's strictly what it was. The customs weren't for sale and if you weren't willing/able to customize a piece yourself, then you weren't able to own any of the pieces (unless an artist who received a piece was willing to sell it, a practice that was frowned upon).

Next Week: What is a Lucky Bag?