Original Rubber Ugly Creatures

[RubberUgly]

Nov 28, 2013 5:19:02 GMT -8 Astronit said:

My there are so many varieties, this is not an easy task to identify which uglies were first.

Yes, I'm just hoping that one day we can stumble across some packaging for whatever the true first issues were. Take my Teacher's Pets on card for example. The Iris is a yellow eye, but the Joel isn't a dual eyestock and I was able to lift it up enough to confirm that it isn't even a scooped bottom. The Alvin is of nice size, but I don't know how to identify the earliest Alvins.

Teacher's Pets Card

If you check websites like Worthpoint, you'll also see that Boxes of Horror Pets don't include the earliest examples either.

Since Topps did actually sell Jigglers under their own brand name, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something will eventually surface.

[eleggua]

thespacefarm, who did the artwork on the backround of your first two photos? Skinner?

[eleggua]

Skinner = www.theartofskinner.com/about/

[eleggua]

Ouch!!! It hurts just looking at those Joel's with missing eyeballs!

[eleggua]

Nov 27, 2013 14:57:09 GMT -8 Astronit said:

Notice the deep scoop in the middle where rubber was removed from his body after pouring into the mold.

I'm not sure those were scooped out after molding. My take's always been that was a design feature in the mold, so you could rest him on a finger.
Not like he ever stayed on your finger, though; falls off with a slight jiggler, er, jiggle.

[RubberUgly]

Nov 28, 2013 23:42:20 GMT -8 eleggua said:

Nov 27, 2013 14:57:09 GMT -8 Astronit said:

Notice the deep scoop in the middle where rubber was removed from his body after pouring into the mold.

I'm not sure those were scooped out after molding. My take's always been that was a design feature in the mold, so you could rest him on a finger.
Not like he ever stayed on your finger, though; falls off with a slight jiggler, er, jiggle.

Hi eleggua, can you take the time to post a picture of your scooped Joels? The mold scoop is very strange, and definitely wasn't considered for the benefit of consumer IMO. These toys were designed to sell for a Nickel or Dime to a child, they didn't originally have any purpose in mind that I know of. (not even as a pencil topper or eraser)

[chancre]

Just to put my tuppence in. All my Uglies were bought in 68/69 in London.

Ours were sold loose in a box and I don't recall them being reissued over here, rather there were wholly new series.

On the matter of Pat and Karen. I am as sure as I can be that these were original Uglies I bought from the same box. In fact I bought 2 Karens (one goes on Ebay tonight)

[surfandturf]

Here are a few that I am pretty certain are 1st generation uglies. The Daniel was inspired by the red one I had as a child way back in 1967. I notice that there are 2 different Daniel molds. The red Daniel is slightly smaller out of the 2 and has thicker rubber and a little more detail. The Joel is a 2 stalk eye attachment with no Hong Kong printed on the underside. It also has the scooped out underside. It is my favorite Ugly in my collection. The 1st series is very hard to come by and I prefer 1st and 2nd generations. Was it around 1970 when they lost more detail and generally became smaller?

[RubberUgly]

Nov 29, 2013 9:51:45 GMT -8 surfandturf said:

Here are a few that I am pretty certain are 1st generation uglies. The Daniel was inspired by the red one I had as a child way back in 1967. I notice that there are 2 different Daniel molds. The red Daniel is slightly smaller out of the 2 and has thicker rubber and a little more detail.

Here are my Daniels, the first 2 are pretty detailed. My little red guy is missing lots of pieces, but he is a cool example. However, I think that even though he has plenty of very distinct details, he lacks fine details in other areas. I never noticed before that they have an "N" on their hat to go along with the Jersey.



(Click on any image for a higher res version)








I also wanted to show how the Doc P.V.C. Animal compares to Daniel. By the way, I did not pose my Doc to be in the same position as Daniel. It's just the way mine is. You'll also notice that Doc's arms are just baseball bats with fingers added to create hands.






While I was at it I took some photos of my Arties. The tan/cream colored guy has lots of unique details, but I think the Orange Guy has the most accurate mold details of the bunch (bags under his big eye, detailed crooked teeth, asymmetrical nose w/prominent nostril) .









Here's a beautiful shot of the Orange Artie:

[hilariah]

Nov 23, 2013 11:12:52 GMT -8 Astronit said:

Okay, this topic may get a little controversial but I want to try and answer a question that comes up quite frequently on this forum;
"what monsters were the Original Rubber Ugly Set?"

I have very specific memories of the first dozen Rubber Ugly creatures that I got from the dime store around 1968/69. They were all made after the Topps Ugly Stickers trading card series. (But I didn't learn about Ugly Stickers until the 1973 release so I thought the Ugly Stickers were copies of my Rubber Creatures.

So, in this topic thread I would like to hear other collector's opinions about what and when the very first Rubber Ugly creature toys were.

Here are the ones I am absolutely sure were first generation Uglies.




Note, there is no Carl in this group because I don't own one. But I believe he belongs on this list.

This is basically the collection im going for Astronit! If you ask me youre missing Ralph though! Plus I would like a Pat and Albert cause they are way too cute not to look for! Carl would be nice but he seems way too rare for me to find!

[JP1000]

Well, considering it's been like 5 years since I made this original post with by now seems like easy questions to answer, thought I'd share some answers to my own questions that I've learned over the past few years!
Albert is definitely NOT one of the main line of Topps uglies, but related to Karen and I believe Pat and maybe Moon Bug. I also came across another tree-like ugly, orange and looks just like a dead tree, fairly massive and orange like Karen, with about the same proportions as Karen & Pat (I'll try & post a pic later). There are a group of probably unrelated Uglies I sorta lump together as "misc. uglies", such as Albert, Karen, Pat, Moon Bug, Mike, this other Dead Tree ugly, etc.

I had asked about Doc earlier (seems like a dumb question now!), definitely one of the PVC critters. I got lucky enough to get what I believe is the entire set of 11 (sure seems like there should be 12 but I've never seen a 12th one), all in bags w/ header cards...yay!

I had also asked about spacefarm's pic of the Florence & the colorful Don. I now know that that Don is part of the series of 12 beautiful, firm rubber pieces by Stevens Mfg. that are copies from the flimsy & cheap Horrible Reptiles series (or, most likely, the crappy Horrible Reptiles may have been copies from the Stevens pieces).

[Astronit]

Here is a rare Red-Eye Joel.

Red Eyed Joel by Astronit, on Flickr

[Monsterman1962forgotpw]

Nov 23, 2013 20:58:57 GMT -8 JP1000 said:

Very interesting & informative Astronit! Much appreciated!

So, even though they are generally mentioned in conjunction with Uglies, figures such as Don, Albert, Ralph, and Doc are NOT considered "true" uglies?

Or ARE they, but didn't come along till later?

I know that with some of those odd-ball ones (like the Tree Guy and that one that looks sorta like Sandy but with lobster pincers on it's legs), that it's sort of a stretch to even see the similarity between the rubber figures and the stickers. But I always see Don, Albert, and those guys mentioned in discussion on Uglies.

Or were they considered Second Generation Uglies, or something like that?

Ralph is absolutely a 1st Gen figure.