Word: kim
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...mother started to worry and persuaded him to show his drawings of what were to become Uglydolls to a major toy company (he's mum about which one). "They flat out told me none of my characters could translate into anything," he says. Frustrated, that night he wrote Kim a letter with a little drawing of Wage at the bottom. "Basically I was like, I'm going to work hard and find a way for us to get back together." When Kim received the letter, she decided to do something with it. "I knew it would make David happy...
...handmade plush dolls were too ornate and craftlike," says the Giant Robot owner. "The prototype had great energy and didn't ask too much in terms of analyzing it as a form or design concept. It was just easy to like. So I ordered 20." They sold out immediately. Kim sewed a second batch of a new character, Babo (Wage's blue, buck-toothed, dumb-but-loyal best friend). They sold out in two days...
Over the next 18 months, Kim sewed 1,500 dolls by hand, interpreting and mixing and matching the drawings Horvath sent her. "For the first two months I didn't have a sewing machine," she says. In 2003 they went into full production and set their sights on a spot in the American International Toy Fair. "Every time we sold a doll we would save for a booth at the fair. Our 10-ft. by 10-ft. booth was made out of felt and a couple of pieces of wood. We were there with spray glue 20 minutes before...
Despite the humble showing, Uglydolls were a hit. Adrienne Citrin, spokeswoman for the Toy Industry Association, which this year awarded Uglydolls Specialty Toy of the Year, says Horvath and Kim were the first to marry indie pop culture and plush. Nakamura agrees. "Uglydolls are self-deprecating, and it's an eternal question whether they're really ugly or not. They're made and designed well. They're soft and puzzling since you can't always figure out what their moods are from their facial expressions. They also don't fade," he says. Early on, Uglydolls appealed mostly to adults...
...Kim moved back to the U.S. after the fair, and she and Horvath wed last November and are expecting a child. Pretty Ugly has a warehouse and a sales-and-support team of seven (all under age 30) in Warren, N.J., but the dolls, which come in five sizes, from 14 in. to 6 ft., are sewn by hand in Korea and assembled in China. They range in cost from $7 to $600. The company also sells keychains, T shirts, limited-edition vinyl figures, a card game and a How to Draw Uglydoll book...