Tin Thunder Robot

Look what I found! I think this is an original Thunder Robot from the 1960's. Check out the other cool Tin Robots on this website.
I have always loved Robots, from the early guys on Star Trek, Lost in Space, and Star Wars, to the current awesome badness of Cameron on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Robots ROCK! So I was really pleased to discover this fine fellow, Thunder Robot is available in a re-released that looks pretty fine. His antenna spins, he walks and flashes a light through the window in his head and eyes, arms raise and fire cannons while flashing and vibrating. I feel the need for some additional shelving is on the horizon. A nice set of Tin Robots along side the Uglydolls would be delightful. Hey, maybe David Horvath will make his Ugly Robot into a Tin Robot. How could it be better than that?
Want your own Thunder Robot? Here you go.

It's Fun, It's Free, It's Folding Bossy Bear

Fun Fun Fun

I just found this cool Folding Paper Art on Uglyblog. If you click here and click the pic you can download this Bossy Bear folding art project. Plus, Shin Tanaka has other wonderful creations to download and fold.
Be sure to poke around on Shin Tanaka's website to see his amazing creations. Paper Art is so appealing and interesting. This is new to me. Hey, maybe I found something to collect in addition to Uglydolls.

I mean, just look at THIS! Who could resist? Not me.



A special Thank You to David Horvath for the introduction to Shin Tanaka's art.

Comet Lulin: A Smudge Worth Seeing

Well, now my neck is frozen, and my fingers are all in a knot.
But, I SAW Comet Lulin with my binoculars. Woot! Woot!
It looked as if someone put their thumb in some white powder and thumb smudged the sky. I found it between Saturn and Regulus. It has yet to reach Regulus.
It was well worth the effort. Thrilling.
If you divert your eyes slightly from the Comet, it helps to see the tail. Very dim indeed with binoculars.
I took my Uglydoll, Rocket, who is a blue Wedgehead with me. He stayed on his back on the dashboard with his eye skyward. He's still enjoying the warm glow of our new sighting. Me too.

Comet Quest

My hands are frozen, my neck tied up in knots. The thrill of questing for comets through cloud-covered skies on cold winters nights comes with a price. The Pacific Northwest is hardly a stargazers paradise. My attempts to see Comet Lulin this week have consisted of dashing in and out anytime I suspect I see a hole in the clouds. Sometimes there is a perfect, but small opening, like a portal to the stars. Through this fleeting window I can see the heavens from a few seconds up to a minute before my portal collapses. I realize it is very optimistic of me to hope that Comet Lulin will appear right in the frame of one of these tiny windows. So far, it hasn't.

And that is one of the reasons I adore Slooh.com, a group of remote control observatories located in less cloudy parts of the planet. Between dashes outdoors into the frigid starless night, I sit comfortably in my office seeing such amazement's as this.



I snapped this beauty of Comet Lulin with the Slooh.com telescopes easy-to-use camera system.

Comet Lulin is still up there. If our weather forecast for Sunday holds out I may be able to view it through my binoculars. Rather than the green tailed marvel it is in the photo, it will appear as a largish, white fuzzy cotton ball. Though not as spectacular as the Slooh telescope, there is something undeniably satisfying in a first hand encounter with the cosmos. So I will be there, binoculars in hand, looking up and Southeast, following a line from Saturn to Regulus where the Comet will be exiting our lives.

Abima's and Worms, Bella and Terra

The Abima Brothers have their Ugly Worms. They are inseparable.









The Abima's understand the amazing bond between Bella the Elephant, and Terra the Dog. As the video says, "if they can do it, so can we".

Mrs. Kasoogi and Me

Discovery of the 2009 Uglydoll Catalog on the Uglydolls site had me pacing the floor with excitement yesterday. I could not sit down to write, but instead tossed the description of Mrs. Kasoogi into the mulling spices of my mind to see what would brew.

Mrs. Kasoogi is an Uglydoll with true paranormal interests and experiences who can understand my passion for such things. Already I'm planning to show her around some of my favorite Internet spots of aliens, ghosts, worms in space, UFOs, and other phenomena.

Short list of sites I think Mrs. Kasoogi will enjoy:

UFO Worm in Sky
The best view starts at about 1 min into the video.

More Worms in Space
This was put together from photos taken by a member of Slooh.com, a group of user-controlled remote telescopes in Chile, Australia, and Canary Islands. (Yep, that means you enjoy it from home) Go here to enjoy the discussion relating to this video.


And what's with the Big Hole on Mars!

It is also said she "enjoys details, such as where to find buried treasure and the secrets to life". Well, I don't know if a metal detector can find the secrets to life. We will try. However, the buried treasure is a definite maybe. She's coming in Spring of this year. That gives me just enough time to research metal detectors to find which machine combines powerful searching technology in a light-weight frame. Then together, Mrs. Kasoogi and I will strike out to discover what lies just beneath the surface. Waiting.

Note: Mrs. Kasoogi is scheduled to be released in Spring 2009. Her item number is 71341. Where to get her? Check here.

Uglydolls in the News

Swinging from the backpack of Sasha Obama, Babo's Bird is now Uglydoll Elect. The secret is out of the bag, and Uglydolls are all over the big network news. All across the nation, and world people are awakening to the awesomeness of Uglydolls. Google must be fat with searches on the subject.

I'm not sure how I feel about the great big world focusing in on my tiny corner of bliss. I not only collect all things Ugly, but I covet them, hoard them, adore and protect them. They are sweet. They are vulnerable. And just as I'm sure the Obama's wish to protect their kids from over-exposure, I want to protect the Uglydolls. I want to round them all up in a safe little place and tell the world to go away.

It's not just about the dolls. It's about the lifestyle of collecting, trading, anticapting, and discussing Uglydolls. It's a small community of people who adore the creations of David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim, and I want to protect that too.

In reality, I can't protect Uglydoll from over-production, mass distribution, or over-exposure. Only their creators can do that. But I can hope that I don't one day find them hanging from the "impulse buy" end caps at supermarkets. Or see ads associating them with Buddhist Monks high on a secluded hilltop. I don't want to see them in a Happy Meal, on an antenna ball, or discarded in massive heaps in a thrift store.

Why? Because I love them. They are my friends, my Ugly family, and one of the most enjoyable aspects of my life. Because they deserve better. They are endowed with a quality that cannot be expressed on a blog. How do you describe their little softy soul that lives behind their big, expressive gaze? It's a quality that compels us to take them out with us, and photograph them in public places. They attend our parties, watch TV with us, sleep in the bed, travel on our holiday's, steal our cookies, make us laugh, put color into every day. Yes, this is beyond a collection for me, and I am not ashamed one bit to admit it. I'm a grown-up with toys, who plays with them everyday, and loves it.

There is a tendency in this country toward fads and excess. I hope my sweet Uglydoll's hold their own against the uber-commercialism that runs wild in the world today. I hope the Uglyverse is beyond all that. When that world is pressing in on me, I turn to the Uglyverse for renewal and joy. Being with them is like hitting the reset button on my heart.

On the other, less selfish side of things, I'm excited and happy to see the country take notice of the talented and lovely co-creators, David and Sun-Min. I can only imagine how cool it must be to see something you designed and produced get national notoriety. If they love that, I must be glad for them. David Horvath is such a positive thinking person, he might get a giggle out of my concerns. I'm glad the future of Uglydoll's is in his hands, and I hope it stays there.

So world, be kind to these soft, cuddly, sensitive, soulful, funny, trusting characters known as Uglydoll's. They are not just another toy. It's an adoption.

Note: Uglydoll Wage is pictured above.