Another Uglydoll article

If you've been following the blog, you know I'm a fan of the Uglydolls. You can read about them in 8 past entries here . If you like Uglydolls, you're in luck - here's another article about them. If you're not a fan, move along - there's nothing more to see here.
This is a nifty little article about the origination of the Uglydoll in the LA Times this week. I know the story, but it never gets old. Read it here

8 Best toys that YoYo Joe's got at/since Toy Fair...so far

8 - Uglydoll action figures. Why? Cause they're Uglydolls!, and they're action figures! They're two, two, two toys in one. Little vinyl figures of your favorite Uglydolls. Note to consumer: Ugly means Awesome!

The Uglydoll for the connoisseur

We just got in the Uglyverse limited edition OX - in six fresh & exciting colors! Why is he limited? Cause they only make them in 2009, after that, he's histoire, mes amis. Since he's limited, he's more money, right? That's where you've gone wrong, mister - OX, limited or not, is still a paltry $19.99 - just like his regular old version. Plus, the colors are nice and springy! Get your Uglyverse OX today!

Who you callin' Ugly?

OK, I admit it. I'm somewhat of an Uglydoll fanboy now. As I've told you before, I was not a fan of the Uglydoll when I first saw them at Toy Fair. But, how things have changed. The little booth I first saw at Toy Fair keeps growing and the hype keeps getting bigger on these soft and comfy plush toys. As I mentioned last week, Ethan and I headed up to Comic Con last week but left before David Horvath, one of the creators of the Uglydolls, appeared. We grabbed a couple copies of his book, Bossy Bear, in hopes that I'd see him at Toy Fair. 

I kept stopping in at the Uglydoll booth to see if I could catch up with David, and finally, on the second day, I stopped in when he was there. He was kind enough to talk with me for a couple minutes about his blog, and then he signed one of the books for Ethan, one for YoYo Joe's and a Babo keychain. He also posed for a pic with Emily and I. 

One of the toys I expect to be in demand from Toy Fair was initially made available at Comic Con, but is now shipping to all retailers who ordered them. It's Uglydoll action figures! Packaged in a blind box! (For those not in the know, a 'blind box' is a marketing genius' way of saying 'you have no idea what you're getting so you will probably voluntarily purchase two of the same figures so we make more monkey, muhahaha') We'll have Uglydoll action figured in a couple weeks. 

Long live Uglydolls!

We have met the geek, and he is us...

Our hero, Ethan, flanked by a couple of huge Uglydolls

So if you'd told me back in college that I would spend a day ten years later (OK, you got me, 20 years later) heading to a comic convention, I'd have sworn

1 - that you were mistaken

2 - you to secrecy and 

3 - just sworn

Nonetheless, my son Ethan and I headed up to New York today for the New York Comic Con and it was a lot of fun. 

It only occurred to me to head up there several weeks ago when I kept seeing Comic Con mentioned - first it was at Uglydoll creator David Horvath's Uglybog. Then, I saw that author of the wildly popular 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' author Jeff Kinney was planning on being there. Finally, I saw that Mo Willems, who is one of our favorite young child authors, was appearing at Comic Con. I talked to Ethan and asked if he might have interest in heading up, and he was game. 

After reading about how some people waited in line for upwards of four hours to enter the show on Saturday, we decided to leave early. We left at 6 am and met little or no traffic on the way up, getting from our house to New York in less than two hours. 

We found out when we got there that, due to our registration as a 'professional' (store owner), we didn't have to go in the line that the general public entered (aka 'The Cattle Call') - we had our own entrance - which had little or no line. We totally could have slept another hour or so. We stood in line behind Marvin Law - a comic book artist from Toronto, who was awesomely nice. He showed Ethan his portfolio. 

We got in and were inundated by schwag. Free books at one booth, free trinkets at the next, posters here, piles of it. Plus, there were tons of people dressed as their favorite characters as well as the walk around characters. Ethan got his picture taken with a Stormtrooper, with a couple mondo Ugly Dolls and several unidentified super heroes. We also got books signed by Jeff Kinney (see his pic with Ethan)
and Mo Willems. Both Kinney and Willems were kind enough to sign a book for YoYo Joe's. We decided not to wait around for David Horvath, as we figured I might be able to catch up to him at Toy Fair. We did notice the table where he signed autographs on Saturday. We noticed a little nick out of the corner of the table, and saw that David had added his own artistic license to how it appeared.

It was a lot of fun.

On the way home, Ethan said "boy, we saw a lot of geeks today, " to which I replied, "what are you talking about? WE were geeks today!"

Nothing says 'I Love You' like an Uglydoll

Well, to be honest, just saying 'I Love You' probably says it better than an Uglydoll, but giving an Uglydoll is a whole lot uglier!
Uglydoll's are, in my son's terms, "beast," as in "whoa, that Uglydoll is beast!" Yes, they're ugly - that's the point.
When I first saw them at Toy Fair four years ago, I was all like "yuk, those things will never catch on." And I wasn't alone! Creators David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim pitched the original Uglydolls to big huge toy manufacturers and they passed on them. They decided to create them on their own and now they've developed a fanatical following. Heck, even President Obama's daughter made news by taking one of them to school in her first week at her new school.
My favorite part of them? The tags. They're awesome! Silly and funny at the same time. And they're soooo soft - great for kids & adults alike. Plus, they've got a great backstory - originally created as a gift during a long distance romance between Kim & Horvath.
YoYo Joe's carries both little Uglydolls and big ones. Come in and check them out, they're in the front of the store in a big trashcan (yep a trashcan). The little ones are in a little trashcan (duh)
For the whole romancy schmancy story of Uglydolls, read this NY Times article.
Check out David Horvath's toy geek blog here.

My Uglydolls can kick your Uglydolls butt!

Boys dig Uglydolls. Curious, cause when I was a kid any boy caught playing with a doll would get his butt kicked three ways till Friday. Of course, I was a kid like thirty friggin' years ago, when they kicked your butt for having short hair and using the wrong curse words. Good times, but I digress...

The New York Times has an awesome article about the attraction of the Uglydoll for boys. I knew the minute I saw them that they weren't gonna sell. Happily, I was wrong and now I'm a big fan of the Uglydolls. At Toy Fair this year, I noticed David Horvath (co-creator of the Uglydolls) at the Ugly booth. I was too nervous to go introduce myself to him. I was thinking, "What am I gonna say? 'Uh...Hi David....I like your dolls'" I'm either not dorky enough or too dorky for that. Oh well. Check out David's awesome blog.

Ugly-Riffic!

Nothing says Happy Valentine's Day better than an Ugly Doll.

Well, actually, there's probably a lot of things that say Happy Valentine's Day better than an Ugly Doll. A trip around the world, for starters, would probably be a better gift. That said, a soft, cushy, plushy, smushy Ugly Doll can fill in for a trip around the world, for those of us who cannot yet afford such an extravagance. Plus, the Ugly Doll will only set you back about $20.

You say you don't have a Valentine? Well, according to a survey, eight million American's admit to getting themselves a Valentine's Day gift - so why shouldn't it be an Ugly Doll?

In other Ugly News, Ugly Dolls new website went live today. It's Flashtastic. Check it out here.

Hey Ugly!

Yea, I'm talkin' to you. If you haven't discovered Uglydolls, what the heck is wrong with you? When I first saw them at Toy Fair a couple years ago, I thought, "those are just about the dumbest thing I've ever seen." (FYI, here's the dumbest thing I've ever seen at Toy Fair) Well, paint me purple and call me Susan, cause these ugly critters are hot. We've sold hundreds of the attractive-challenged toys! Why? Well, they're so ugly, they're cute, plus they're ultra soft and each toy features a wonderfully wacky tag that describes them. Pictured above are the newest of the Uglydolls which are (Front row, L to R): Poe (a dragon who hates to fly and loves Chocolate ice cream), Babo's Bird (Babo can't stand birds, but his is his), Plunko (a business man) (Back row, L to R): Puglee (she's super smart!) and Ugly Ghost (found way out beyond the back exits of Uglytown). First scheduled to arrive? - Poe!