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Welcome to the Uglytown, USA- home of Prettyugly's Uglydolls plush toys. The limited edition, hand-made dolls have been available in select boutiques since 2002, and have now emerged as a full-blown toy line. Interlink Planning, best known for Rodney Greenblat's Parappa the Rappa, has signed on to represent the Uglys, and a PlayStation 2 crossover game project is in the works with Sony Computer Entertainment.
You couldn't write a nicer love story than Uglydoll. Creators David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim met in art school in 1996, but were separated in 2001 when Sun-Min was compelled to return to Korea after September 11th. Staying on in New York, David worked as an animator until his company joined the ranks of failed dot-com ventures in 2002. What was he to do? How would he be able to see his girl again? While separated, David populated many of his pining letters to Sun-Min with sketches of a little orange, apron-wearing ugly guy (who appeared often in David's art work for the Japanese market). Equally lovesick Sun-Min responded with a hand-made, hand-sewn doll of the ugly guy as a gift. David asked her to make one more, and she made five. David sold the additional four to Giant Robot (which had just opened their store in Los Angeles), and they sold out in three days. Taking note of the opportunity, David would send Sun-Min the artwork for more Uglydoll characters, and she would bring them to life. Selling everything to pay for shipping and materials, David and Sun-Min hand-made and sold 1,500 Uglydolls in eighteen months. All this while being separated- they didn't see each other again until Toy Fair 2003, where they had an Uglydoll booth on the Javits floor back by the exit. David and Sun-Min keep on living happily ever after. The couple has turned Uglydolls into their own toy company (Prettyugly, LLC), based in Brooklyn with a small office in New Jersey. They will be announcing an Uglydoll plastic collaboration through a still-undisclosed Japanese company in 2004, which will be timed with the release of the Sony PS2 game. So what's with the PlayStation hook up? It's actually not an Uglydoll game, but a collaboration between David Horvath, Sony Computer Entertainment and Interlink. Created by the same team who put together Parappa, the game will be an action title and will involve a new way of using the PS2 controller. It is being developed to share an affinity with designer toy culture, as a media crossover between gaming and figure collecting. Sony has also decided to change the status from a Japan-only release to a worldwide title, so expect to be hearing about the game soon. We're as intrigued by this as you are- when Sony gives them the OK, Prettyugly will be sending us the full scoop, including art, screen images and more. Check them out online, too: www.uglydolls.com |