The supercute cast of stuffed vinyl animal characters from the House of Ingri have big, expressive South Park eyes. Even the sad/weary/skeptical-looking ones are huggably cute. Unfortunately, their small parts and non-chew-resistant naugahyde means these toys must carry the "ages 5 and up" disclaimer.
But that's alright, because they hail from Williamsburg, where the demographic distinction between "5 and up" and "25 and up" [technically, it's "25 and up to 30, no, 32, wait, 35"] was waived long ago, and where having a kid of your own is now the perfect excuse for buying the $80 snugglemuffins you used to just buy for yourself.
While conscientious parents will only let their kid near their precious Ingri toys once the teething phase is past, it's up to the previous generation--the boomer grandparents--to make Marti, Tito, Moki & their friends truly safe for infant consumption: in book format!
When children's author Harriet Ziefert went to visit her new grandchild in Williamsburg, she found Ingri dolls all over the place, just waiting for a chokeproof brand extension. The result it Me! Me! ABC, a modern-day alphabet boardbook with House of Ingri characters throughout. Given its Billyburg provenance, I'm guessing that "C is for Co-sign for me!" "D is for DJ with me!" and "U is for Underwrite me!"
House of Ingri naugahyde vinyl dolls, $80 [houseofingri.com]
Buy Me! Me! ABC! on Amazon [amazon]
PS House of Ingri also created some limited edition vinyl clouds, which are available exclusively at Exploding Dog [explodingdog.com]
For some reason, these reminded me of the plush dolls made by Giant Microbes (www.giantmicrobes.com). I'm not sure what ages they're approved for, but they do cost a lot less than $80. :)
[they're like $8 or something. completely different vibe, though. we have a few microbes, they're like Beanie Baby-scale. -ed.]
They look cool. But not $80 cool. Maybe not even $40.
$25-35 - yes, I would buy them all and start a farm.
Hmm... well as far as I can see we have a very distorted version of Curious George, ET, and well, that there on the end is quite possibly me on my first Halloween.
They are pretty entertaining, but I agree, no where NEAR $80 worth. I'd pay maybe $5 a piece in a consignment shop after the little alien scares the crap outta someone's kid.