The majority of the popular designers are from Hong Kong, such as Kasing Lung, the designer of cute monster-like figures, and Kenny Wong, who designed Molly, the wide-eyed girl bought by Kong, the college student.

About 4 million finger-sized Molly dolls, costing just 59 yuan, have been sold on the mainland in the past year as well as various series of limited editions priced much higher, according to Wang, who has signed a contract with Wong.

Kong bought dozens of limited editions of Molly dolls, with the most expensive costing 7,000 yuan. Apart from Molly, she loves toys shaped as monsters, and to find a good one she often travels overseas to visit toy shows or flea markets.

She also buys toys made on the mainland. She and her cousin are fans of Zhang Shihao, who enjoys a good reputation for his toys created as art pieces.

Zhang, who works in Beijing, used to be an ardent collector and had thousands of designer toys at home. Before turning to designing them himself, he was a comic book illustrator and later worked at an advertising agency.

The 35-year-old mainly creates limited editions of his pieces, often 30 to 50 in a particular style.

"I prefer to be called an artist. These toys are my artistic exploration," said Zhang, who learned to paint when he was a child.

He said he loves to find inspiration from Chinese culture. His iconic piece is a three-eyed, human-like tiger. Different editions have been produced in a variety of colors, heads and hands. The tiger was inspired by a painting from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) that depicted various demons.