NYT: The Uglydolls Phenomenon

Guess what I found in the New York Times Style section today?

Had to share the love. I remember Uglydolls when they were first stocked at Giant Robot and how much Erick Nakamura, its co-founder, talked about them in his magazine. Glad to see its a global phenomenon that is friendly to boys and girls. I figure that would be obvious but here's NYT take on it: Guys and Dolls: An Ugly Remake. And for kicks, here's Uglydoll co-creator David Horvath's children's book, Bossy Bear that I posted earlier.

Excerpt below:

Guys and Dolls: An Ugly Remake

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

WHAT is it about Uglydolls? They’re soft, they’re plush, they’re cute, they’re openly called by a name that is usually anathema to boys: dolls.

And yet, in many cases, when you see a bed covered with them or a backpack open just far enough to let one breathe, that bed or backpack belongs to a testosterone-burning little sneaker-scuffer.

They are the dolls that many boys are willing to nap with, be seen on the street with and take to sleep-away camp. As Marcelo Jaimes-Lukes, who got his first Ugly as a third-grader at the Little Red School House in Manhattan, put it: “No, you didn’t get teased for having one. In my class, you’d be teased not to have one.”

I noticed this because my 6-year-old stepson totes three to school, and his doll games are all about adventure. He and his mates pile their Uglies into a plastic crate named the Voyager and soar off. “We go to Persia,” he said, “or a pet shop. One time we went into the sewers to go surfing.”