DEHARAVATH

April 19th-May 14th at Giant Robot 2 in Los Angeles.
Opening reception on the 19th
6:30PM to 10PM
Sun-Min and myself x Yukinori Dehara.
You can become more familiar with
Deraha's works here:
http://www.dehara.com/
Dehara has been a favorite of ours since we met
in New York 11 years ago after seeing his show
at Zakka (now located in Dumbo Brooklyn, previously in Manhattan).
It's a true honor for us to share the same space with Dehara.
He's brilliant. Truly genius, with an incredible sense
of color and humor.

Our wedding gift from Dehara.


More news on this show soon or at GR2.NET

ONE FOR THE TEAM

Ever since the NY Times article I've found out about all kinds
of worry over what others might think. Kids worried about
what other kids would think if everyone found out about
their ugly plush collection. Even a few warnings from other
kids about what would happen should anyone find out!
"They'll think you're a ________". etc


Well, hey I understand how that works as well as the next guy.
When I was in 8th grade, all I wanted was the GOLION robot
from Japan. It was the heavy metal Japanese version of what a few
years later became known as Voltron in the USA.
But did I let the silly remarks made by other kids in the
class dictate what I could and couldn't like? No way sucka!
Too bad for them!


Here he is! Still have him!
Hey should I have listened to the kids who laughed when
they found out I wanted to make stuffed animals for a living?
Oh wait, that was my teacher. Anyway, NEVER EVER stop what
you love doing or change who you are just because someone
else doesn't like it or teases you. This goes for kids too.


Anyway, I've decided to take one for the team.
See this? It's a straight up Power Ranger toy phone.
No way this can be cool. Call it Sentai from Japan all
day long, it's still just a kiddy phone toy for 4 year olds.
And I think it's freakin dope fresh awesome.


So I am going to wear it on my bag until the end of the year.
I don't care of I have a meeting with the president of Samsung
or the CEO of Sony...or even dinner with the in laws.
The talking, zapping, led light flashing phone for kiddies
goes with me.


Awesome action features. I will let you know if anyone laughs.
I have a feeling nobody will care.


I love these side alleys in Seoul. This one in Myeongdong.
Wait, is that Pepsi in a glass bottle?


Pepsi in a glass bottle is really good.
Do we have that in the USA?


I stole this from the Giant Robot flicker site.
Photo from the Rats show at GR2.


Fake Tim Biskup toy, but on a knock off Sony Post Pet bear,
so 2x the fakey.


Also found some fake Tokidoki bags in Seoul.
The le Sportsac logo says "Lead Sports".

SOLID

Solid Orange Wage will be one of three
uglydolls.com exclusives coming in April/May.
We'll have more details as we get closer.
It's a lot of fun for us to see Wage in
plastic again after all these years.
As for the Kaiju Ice-Bats, we have
12 clear reds left and about 20 each of
the others. Not too many versions
on the way after, but a few here and
there. While we had fun with the 13
Flatwoods types, we're holding back
on Ugly Kaiju colors.
A few of you have asked why you're seeing
uglydolls.com exclusives elsewhere.
The only other place you'll see them is
www.intheyellow.com as they are the production
company based in Japan, and
keep 10 of each to sell to the Japanese market.
So if you see them aywhere else online, they don't really have them
and it may be a photo error. So watch out for that.


But not to confuse those with the regular Clear
Ice-Bat and Clear Wage. Those are not exclusive.
We only made 200 of each, but they are
available at fine shops near you.
Or close by? Far away.
Clear orange Wage is my favorite.
Looks like candy.


Clear green Wage. The second of three
Uglydolls.com exclusives coming in April/May.
100 PCS of this guy made.
Thanks for tuning into our Yahoo live
broadcast. Still choppy I see. May be that
way until we move into our new office.

WATCH THIS!

Next YAHOO LIVE! broadcast will be
Friday MARCH 28th 6PM LA time / 9PM Eastern time /
10AM Saturday March 29th Japan time.
That way everyone in LA is in traffic and
everyone in New York is out doing something
better than watching me talk some more
about what's 100% totally NEW and top secret.
Here's the link!
http://live.yahoo.com/uglydolls

GIVE ME A HAND!

Woah, robos #4 and #5 from Go-Onger.
Go-Onger keeps the spending Go-longer.
This time you add the Police Hound mobile
or Green Shark Car onto Engine-Oh to
make him look like Popeye.


Remember Danny Glover?
Like Popeye? Like Popeye?

HEART 2 HEART 2

Ugly on Arirang TV in Korea last night and
repeating all day today. Arirang is the
all English cable channel in Korea.
Bossy Bear and Kaiju Ice-Bat shown off
to an entire land of adults not collecting
toys at all. Ah but there's hope.
We'll see how many adults and "kiddults"
show up for our signing in Seoul on
April 12th. Maybe all 4 stop by!

KINKI CONTEST

Kinkirobot in Seoul Korea is having an
Ugly contest. The prizes include Bossy Bear
books (Korean version!) and some of our toys.
We'll be there April 12th for a signing
and to meet anyone who feels like stopping by.
We're going to be bringing some pretty dope
fresh give-aways of our own. Some you
won't fine anywhere else. So if you're in Seoul,
or will be soon, click this LINK for more info!

TURTLE CHANGES

Woah. Not at all sure what this is exactly.
It's a Korean website with a step by step
real time sketching of Bossy Bear.
But turtle has been turned into some
sort of living acorn beaver Tomogotchi.
Very interesting, and happy to see.
If you click on the picture here you
should be able to watch it, or click
link under that.

http://sketchpan.com/?zaraza01=3276

BOOKS A GAZILLION

Many of you noticed! But not to worry.
Amazon has removed the listing for our first real story book,
Chilly Chilly Ice-Bat, to update the info, but it is still on the way.
We made some tweaks to the cover and size, so they will
re-list soon. No worries, it didn't disappear.
Ugly Guides #1 and #2 hit the stores
on April 22nd. Those are guides to the
Uglyverse, but not really stories with
a beginning, middle or end. Our first
story book, Chilly Chilly Ice-Bat, which
will come out a little bit after the guides,
tells the tale of how Wage and Babo meet
Ice-Bat for the very first time.

These aren't images from the book but I wanted
you to see the shoe statue thing.
Shoe repair places love those statues.
Some move! Hammer time.

Ice-Bat

Ice-Bat is going to be the official thingy for the
Nagoya Art Museum in Japan to help celebrate
their 20th anniversary. No special items but
there will be a few funny pamphlets and
posters, so we'll try to keep some aside
to make available to the ultimate
Ugly completists if possible.

BOYS 2 MEN

"Lonely and upset because toy
companies were snubbing his ideas, Mr. Horvath drew one of his
characters on the bottom of his love letters:
Wage, a little orange everyman in an apron who works in a supermarket."
Articles never get it 100% right.
I never pitched Ugly to a toy company.
Close, but that's not how it goes.
I was upset because Sun-Min had to go back to Korea!
But this article goes that extra step by calling
girls who are into Uglys "tom boys".
Funny, as they were interviewing us, we had the strong
feeling they were determined to show that boys, and boys
much more than girls, are into uglys.
We kept telling them that these are for everyone,
not just boys and not just girls...and not just kids,
but adults and grand-ma + grand-pa too!
Anyhow, get your fix of Ultraman misquotes,
bad sales numbers, and even some psychoanalysis right here.
In the end, it is very nice to be in the NY Times
for the second time, and I do thank you all
for understanding what this (actually very kind and warm)
writer ultimately did not.
ARTICLE IN NY TIMES LINK
EDIT/ADDED NOTE:
Woah we've received an overwhelming number of
emails praising this article, so I may just be a
press snob. Did it all go to my head?
Maybe I should go ruin a hotel room in
Hollywood. Or maybe Encino?
Or just stay home and count my
lucky stars.
Thanks for the input and kind words.

UGLYDOLLS.COM EXCLUSIVES

The first ever uglydolls.com exclusive items
go on sale this week. When exactly? Not sure!
But the Ice-Bat Kaiju clear red and
Ice-Bat Kaiju solid blue, each an edition
of 100 pcs, will both be up for sale on
uglydolls.com by Friday at the latest.
Uh but it could be sometime Thursday.
If it helps, our office operates between
8am and 7pm Eastern time. So they won't
get placed on the web store at night after hours.
Sign up for email notices if you
haven't already. This way you will
be notified through email as
they are going up. They are not to

Hmm but watch your spam folders.
I would be around
to give you the exact update but I may
be in the air when this happens.
13 hour flight. Yikes!
Ages 15 and UP!
Not a toy for children.
$75.00 each.
UPDATE
they are up now!
Hi from the run way.

BABO'S DREAM COME TRUE

Can't tell you who made these but can tell
you they tasted just like Play Doh, which
is a very good thing in my book. A very kind
gesture. And a great likeness!
Lots of hopping back and forth between LA
and Korea this week.


These donut things were pretty good.
But watch out for the hot oil inside.


Year of the Rat show at GR2 in LA.


Atom watches over other fake toys in Insadong.
The toys for adults thing is kinda starting out in Korea.
But they aren't really calling it designer toys.
They're calling the buyers "kiddults".
Let's see where that goes.

WAGE'S BACK

edited to avoid spam

UP UP AND AWAY

Greetings from the air port. Can you see this?
not sure if this is going to work. I can't read much
on this PC despite those fancy lessons I've been taking.
Anyway thanks for stopping by Yahoo Live today.
We'll have Kaiju Wage on next time.
Maybe on march 22nd.
Have a good one.

YAHOO LIVE KAIJU

We will be LIVE on Yahoo LIVE!
from 9PM EST/6PM Pacific time Wednesday
until 9:15PM /6:15PM to show you
the 3 different Ice-bat Kaijus.
We'll open them up to see what's
inside the bag, how the 2 blue guys
differ, and how the final version
of the first blue clear one differs from
the prototype.
Hope to see you then!
here's the link:
http://live.yahoo.com/uglydolls

UGLYDOLL KAIJU #2

UGLYDOLL KAIJU #2: Wage type 1: Clear Orange.
Thanks to the kind people at Intheyellow,
we're able to bring you the second Ugly Kaiju:
Wage, just in time for his 7th birthday.
Or well before that! Wage ships in April/May.
Made in Japan.
For more info check out
www.intheyellow.com
Gamera ate his apron.

SOLID ICE

Ugly Kaiju Ice-Bat #3: Solid Blue
This uglydolls.com exclusive should be
up online for sale around the middle of the
month. Exact date and price soon.
We don't know either yet. Depends on
how much it costs for us to get these
in from Japan and exchange rate, etc.
And how fast we can enter them into our
own web store. But soon!
Here's all 3

HEART 2 HEART

Bagels are popping up all over Korea! I should
get into the plus-size pants business now to
make my fortune here.
I will be on Heart to Heart, the Arirang show, on
Korean TV pretty soon. We tape this Tuesday.
I think they post the episodes online
after the air date. Will post if so.


Lots of shirts on the way. We hope you like.
Mightyfine has done a great job!
More on that soon.


Stickers for eyes. I really hate
stickers on toys and I thought
we would never see them in this
day and age.


Luckily they have been placed on there
by experts. I hope they don't fade, drop off,
of get all peely over time.


Chrome on the wheels. Let's check
back in 18 months to see if the Korean version
has chrome or gray. I wonder if this
will make it to the US at all.
We'll know by November or so.
I am sure you really want to know.


That 'G' logo is very familiar.

EXTRA EXTRA 어글리 돌

Extra extra. Well according to today's Chosun
newspaper in Korea, we live in New York?
So there's a lot of extra in there.
While the facts may be a bit off, as they
have been in 99% of articles written about us,
the photo is 100% real.


Oh but I didn't expect the front page of naver.


This was funny to see. Korea is the no-toy capitol
of the world, so today is a good day.
Now to get adults to buy toys here.
The next hurdle.

EDIT:
CHECK THIS OUT:
CLICK HERE TO WATCH

ICE-BAT KAIJU 2 + 3

Clear blue Ice-Bat Kaijus on the way toy your
favorite shop now... and then this news just hit us.
Exclusive RED and SOLID BLUE ice-Bat KAIJU
are on the way from Japan now.
We will post more info soon right here,
but I wanted to share the photos as soon as possible.
Should go on sale by mid March.
Each a limited run of 100.
Ages 15 and up! Really, not only
are these not toys in any way, the
ears are super sharp.
Red and Solid Blue will only be available on
the official ugly site.
(There are 3 versions total:
Clear blue #1, clear red #2, and solid blue #3)

TEE SHIRTS

It may be tough to find our first few Ugly shirts
but they are on the way in greater numbers now.
We just approved the next season,
and they're really funny.
Here's a super old, rare robo shirt we did
with Merge Records way back.
Robo based on a drawing my brother
made for me when he was only two or so.
The Ugly shirts are even better.
Oh and shirts for the little ones?
Coming up.

COLLECT THEM MALL

The Soul Chip thing is brilliant.
You buy the robot which is made up
of 3 cars. It includes a soul chip
for the first car, but if you want to bring
the other 2 cars "to life" you need to
buy their soul chips. Aha but their
soul chips are included with the gun
and phone, so if you want all 3 cars
to talk and light up, you're going to have to
purchase the items you might or might not have
thought of ever buying before.
It's fun, but could also be seen as something else.


It's something we deal with on an hourly
basis now. Hey to collect all of our Mothmans,
Flatwoods, Cupacabras and UMAs costs big big $,
to be honest. But is it a "must have them all"
line? I guess that is up to whoever likes them.
And we are quite fortunate that there are others
who enjoy them as much as we enjoy making them.
They embody what we are passionate about and
help us spread the word about subject matter
we've grown up with. But collect them all?
Maybe.
In my opinion, when they are all lined up,
some go really well together, some don't.
But yeah, if the only way to make Mothman
work was to buy Chupacabra...that might be
a little too much.
Still, Ban Dai Japan....GENIUS!
I will be buying every soul chip.
Best Sentai toy line since Hurricanger.
In my opinion.

CHOSUN INTERVIEW

The big newspaper here in Seoul is the
Chosun. So today we went to have an interview
for the release of Bossy Bear in Korea.
I was still kinda jet lagged but both
Bossy and I were super thrilled to
be walking around in the rainy snow
slush to meet the reporters at the
news office.


You can find Bossy Bear everywhere
from Kyobo to Emart now.


They had a gallery downstairs.
They did not allow any clowning around
in there at all.


They had a space tube too.
No joking around permitted.


I tried to sneak in mention of
the Mothman VS Flatwoods set
release, but they just looked at me funny.
Hey but these 2 great shops have them
for sale today!
TAINTED VISIONS
and
3D RETRO
$9.50! We cut on quality and passed the savings on to you!
CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW ON PLASTIC AND PLUSH!
We scored 6 on paint.
The purpose of this set was to score a low 4,
but a 6 is still acceptable.
Super market toys are usually a
solid 4 to 5.


BEST TOY TV AD EVER

SAFE!

I fell for the first time last night.
I was super jet lagged I guess.
Walked into the dark office and
didn't see the pillow on the floor.
Crash! I'm sure I fell when I was an
infant. But never as an adult.
Oh, except for the first time I tried
Snowboarding. Uh but I was just a boy then.
I couldn't tell Sun-Min
I didn't know how to snowboard,
so I went straight to the top of
high skill level mountain and
went straight down. She didn't see
me miss a group of people by a hair as
I landed on my back and heard it crack
for the very first time. Last night was
the second time. Safe!


So if the Sentai guys are really that
small next to their cars, where would
they drive them? Watch out for that pot hole!
I mean the grand canyon.


I really was going to buy just one of these and not open it.
Uh but then I realized the Soul Chip thing is way too smarty.
But I stop at the first 3. Really.


No really.
Oh and I like how the gun is a gas pump.
It pumps your money directly into Ban Dai's bank account.

GO-ONGER A LITTLE LONGER

Just got back to find Super Ben's
box of the new Sentai DX robos waiting for me.
Well, that and my lovely family. So after many
hours of what really matters, it's time for a
quick reveal before I take my first nap.
When will the jet lag go away? Last time I was
fine coming back to Korea. This time it hit
like a wall. So far this is my favorite Sentai
toy line in a long time. A very kiddy feel to it,
with a mix of retro Birdman in there.
The packaging for the phone thing looks
like old Zyuranger boxes. No pics of those yet.
Pretty wiped out.
More when I can hold my eyes open.
I bet you can't wait.

Eh but Masked Rider looks too much like Spawn for me this year.
So this is the only piece I'm getting from that this time.
I slept on the plane but arrived in the early morning.
I think it's better go get in at night so you can
sleep and start fresh the next day.
Did I ever tell you the storZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ