Tuesday 22 May 2012

Squiggles

The practice of sticking googly eyes on inanimate objects is one that I wholeheartedly support - in principle. In practice, the results can be somewhat disappointing. Enter 'Squiggles'.

Sometimes, a bit of fake fur and some googly eyes can conjure up a winsome little character. But Squiggles... is a strip of fake fur with some googly eyes stuck on top.
Squiggles' USP is that you can 'Stroke my back and watch me wiggle!' True, if you stroke it, the piece of fake fur undulates gracelessly. If you stroke it quickly it undulates backwards with a leap. Something to do with the way the suede layer underneath sticks to the surface it's on, I think.
As a source of fun, the possibilities are extremely limited.

11 comments:

Jane Housham said...

I love your phrase 'undulates gracelessly' -- perfect.

Peggy said...

Squiggles!! Thank you so much for confirming that I have not lost my mind! I though that was the correct name.

Just a couple of days ago I brought a few boxes down from our attic, thinking of all that "stuff" we have that we really, really do not need. When I opened one of the boxes, I was so surprised to find my Squiggle, which is red like the one you have here. Mine no longer has the tag on the underneath. I remember loving it, even though it is not much of a toy, or "pet", or whatever. My 36 yr. old son was here at the time & said "What the heck is that?"

I'm thinking I got this in the early to mid 60s. Do you have any idea if that would be the correct time period?

And, yes, there was lots of "stuff" I didn't need in those boxes, but my Squiggle is a keeper.

Do you mind if I link to this blog post?

tragicgnat said...

Pretty late commenting - but of course these were not fake fur but real sheepskin, dyed. It was a craze in grammar school in the mid-60s, along with troll dolls, yo-yos, tops, marbles etc. I had them in several colors. There were other sort of non-sequitor novelties around that time, but not all of them caught on.

Kitsch and Curious said...

Thanks tragicgnat. Never too late to comment! I expect you're right about the sheepskin - possibly it just felt more like fake fur after all these years. I don't have Squiggles to hand to check. I have a lot of old toys and collections, and amazingly poor old Squiggles didn't make it into the permanent display, and is languishing in a box. You might appreciate another craze of this era that I blogged about - the gonk http://curiousobject.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/gonks-and-glooks.html

Unknown said...

I had a white Squiggles. Its wiggly eyes were glued to red felt hearts and it had a red tongue. It was a special Valentines version. Perhaps it was the sheepskin, but my cats carried it around until it finally fell apart. I've discovered that miniature versions made out of fake fur are a huge hit with my current generation of felines.

Kitsch and Curious said...

Poor old Squiggles is probably a much better toy for cats than it was for humans! Thanks for commenting!

Just Me said...

I have been wondering what these toys were called that I so vividly remembered from the 60's!!
I never owned one, it was a toy that belonged to a playmate of mine, and I loved it!
Would love to own one now...

Unknown said...

I wish I still had mine. It was turquoise and adorable!! My old toy chest was given away when my father died and out went Mr. Squiggles. I cannot find one anywhere. It was great seeing this!! Thanks!!

Carol said...

Has anyone found a remake of this? I loved mine!

Unknown said...

Mine was made of REAL FUR! And I lived in Southern California in the 60's.

Unknown said...

Carol it would be super easy to cut a strip of faux fur and hot glue googly eyes to it! Lots of fun!