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agentX
Joined: 12 Oct 2007
Location: Jeolla province
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 Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 4:21 am Post subject: Love Grows 'Ugly' for U.S.-Korean Couple? |
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Cute love story or warped marketing ploy?
We distort, you comply...
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Love Grows 'Ugly' for U.S.-Korean Couple
A series of plush toys inspired by love letters between an American man and a Korean woman has become a huge hit with sales of more than 100 million units. The toys are called Ugly Dolls and are the creation of illustrator David Horvath, 36, and his wife Kim Sun-min, 30.
With their iconic big heads and short legs, Ugly Dolls became famous after Hollywood celebrities including Robin Williams, Christina Aguilera, Ashlee Simpson and Paris Hilton said on TV they would give them as gifts to family and friends.
The dolls were also used as props in the film "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" starring Dustin Hoffman and featured on NBC's "Today Show." U.S. newspapers and magazines have interviewed Horvath and Kim.
The dolls are a product of their love. The couple met at Parsons School of Design in 1997, but Kim returned home to Korea upon graduation in 2001. They kept in touch and their relationship flowered by mail. Horvath, meanwhile, worked on his dream of creating toys better than Barbie or Power Rangers. He created some characters and contacted several toy companies, but found no success.
Discouraged, Horvath sent a letter to Kim with an illustration of a character with an angry face, prominent underbite and an ill-fitting apron. Kim sewed up a plush version of the character for Horvath as a Christmas gift, and "Wage," the first Ugly Doll, was born.
A friend of Horvath who runs a character shop in New York happened to see the doll and suggested selling them and in 2003 they began mass producing the dolls in China. The couple worked on new characters and designs together and have so far created 26 characters, including the second one "Babo." Each character has a different story. "Cinko" hates water, "Peaco" is very shy, and "Ice-Bat" turns everything he touches into ice.
Ugly Dolls now sell for US$20 apiece in some 20 nations including Canada, Norway and Sweden. In Korea they have become available at character shops in Apgujeong and Gangnam since late last year.
The success of the business enabled the two to meet more often, traveling between Korea and the U.S. They finally got married in Seoul in November 2005 and now have a baby girl.
Living in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, the couple plans to create new Ugly Doll characters -- six every year -- and work on illustrations for children's books and animations.
([email protected] ) |
There's a lot to be said about this. Well, maybe not as much as some other topics, but...
It sounds like a charming romance. They kept in touch by snail-mail- it's old skool ever for 2001. Romantic? sure. Techno-illiteracy...possibly.
Those dolls are pretty damn fugly but one could assume that's part of the charm. Either way they found a pretty good niche market. Maybe I should get my step-bro's doodles and make dolls out of them- it seems to be all the rage. |
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Smee
Joined: 24 Dec 2004
Location: Jeollanam-do
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| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 4:39 am Post subject: |
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| Hahaha . . . Yongin. |
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kermo
Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Location: Eating eggs, with a comb, out of a shoe.
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| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 4:54 am Post subject: |
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| Smee wrote: |
| Hahaha . . . Yongin. |
Wow. Lil' ol' Yongin.
We keep popping up in the strangest places. |
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fortysixyou
Joined: 08 Jun 2006
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| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 8:38 am Post subject: |
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| With their iconic big heads and *beep* legs, |
WTF?
Is it short? fat?
You can't say short?
Why the *beep* not?
EDIT: Holy shit, you can't say short?!?!?!?!?!?!! |
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fusionbarnone
Joined: 31 May 2004
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| Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 12:20 am Post subject: |
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Absolutely brilliant.
Making things happen. Love really can move a mountain of money.
Those two will never have to wait to win a multi-million dollar Lotto win. |
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matthews_world
Joined: 15 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 6:31 am Post subject: |
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Fugly.
They must not have been memorable enough to have missed them in the movie. |
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dogshed
Joined: 28 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 7:29 am Post subject: |
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Maybe this is a case of mail used for email. Maybe eventually the word
mail will completely replace email and we will say paper mail if we
need to be specific. |
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dogshed
Joined: 28 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 7:37 am Post subject: |
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http://www.blueluxe.com/uglydolls.php
This article is slightly more detailed.
I used to sew things like that when I was a kid.
I should have stuck with sewing. I could have
been a gazillionaire. |
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Donkey Beer
Joined: 20 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 5:34 pm Post subject: |
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| At first glance i thought they were dikes. |
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moosehead
Joined: 05 May 2007
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| Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 1:28 am Post subject: |
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Parsons School of Design???
that dude is so not straight 
pure relationship of convenience it is, more power to them - they get rich and both can travel/live in two different countries, all the better to manage their sweatshops with  |
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princess
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: soul of Asia
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| Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 5:06 am Post subject: |
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| hehehe...hohoho...kekeke...I just bought two of them at Coex today. They are sooo cute and the story behind them is romantic. I bought Ice Bat in black, and the puppy "Toodee" in purple. They have their own story, too. Toodee likes grape juice because he is purple...hehehe... |
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