'Toy animation' refers to a type of stop motion animation wherein toys are used as the moving subjects. Most toy animations seen today (especially on YouTube) either use action figures or robots that can be posed, or construction toys that can be assembled (such as the bricks offered by LEGO and Mega Bloks).
Although many people are under the impression that stop-motion animation all started with clay animation, records indicate that the first stop-motion animation may in fact be a toy animation. This first stop-motion animation is credited to Albert Smith and J. Stuart Blackton, who created 'The Humpty Dumpty Circus' using toy circus acrobats and animals in 1898.
The emergence of a large variety of poseable action figures in the mass market and advances in digital photography and computerized image processing have helped spur the growth of the popularity of this form of animation, not only among professional animators but among hobbyists as well. To know how toy animations are usually done, click here.
An example of a popular toy animation in YouTube that uses action figures is this Ironman Vs. Bruce Lee video by PatrickBoivin.
An example of a popular toy animation in YouTube that uses Lego bricks is this 'Summer Nights' video by demondoggz.
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