ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

When does a toy equal a tax deduction? Alternatively (and perhaps more legally), when can you smack down a naysayer by informing him/her that the toy you just purchased is for educational value? When the toy comes bundled with a book of course. Toy designers are putting out books with and without toys by the droves lately (case 1, case 2, and case 3 all reviewed in the last week). This latest offering from Bubi Au Yeung is no exception to that, though it is certainly exceptional. Check it out: The book is called Treeson & Other Stories. The story and illustration are by Bubi, the text is written by Eric Sun and translated (Chinese/English) by Norma Groen.

The story book, which also contains photos of Treesons submitted by fans, comes with a special-edition Baby Treeson figure (with glasses!), a cloth “dumpling” tent and a Treeson green card in a keepsaver box. Treeson & Other Stories was produced in an edition of 500 sets and is already available online (from Taiwan) here and here for 585 Yuan ($85 USD). You can see scans of some of the book’s pages on those sites, as well as on Bubi’s Flickr where she says she’ll fill her suitcase to capacity with books for fans going to TTF ‘08. Crazy Label is also going to have some available next week and are taking emails for pre-orders now. I wasn’t really feeling all the recent Treeson hype, but I dig four-eyed toys and box sets with books, so now I’m paying attention. A couple scans from the book after the jump.