Even those look cheap and gaudy as fuck to what came before.
AFAIK the earliest iteration of these things would be the German Hummel Figurines from the early 1930's based on the drawings of Franciscan Nun Maria Hummel.
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Like these fuckers are commonly found in households of elderly Germans, not cheap, but then again you can tell why, being from porcelain and hand drawn. They are considered very schlocky by younger people, but given that the company that made them quite production years ago, the remaining pieces will only get rarer as they get damaged or tossed by people that inherit them.
The Dutch Royal Airlines also has a similar tradition with their Delfts Blauw collectible houses for business class travellers or as promotional item. Some people even received them as a small token of goodwill for experienced inconveniences while travelling with KLM.
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Granted more of a industrial mass produced item than the Hummels, but infinitesimally higher effort than plastic trash like Funkopops, Gundams or Anime/Hentai related figurine crap. The great gag of the houses is that they are hollow and filled with Old Style Dutch Jenever sealed with cork and wax.
Truly modern consumption cultures is about taking a good product/concept and endlessly diluting it with novel, but inferior versions that can be mass produced. See also Coffee and things like Coffeechains.