the Wry Baby Blog

Doing a little exploratory doodling here for an exciting new project here at Wry Baby HQ. Thought we’d share a page of swarthily bearded dudes for fun. Did you know we illustrate everything we make? From Mysterio to our new Screamin’ Demon Snapsuit™ to our New Parents’ Fun Book it’s all one guy drawing that stuff (Wry Baby Dave). I know, right?

We here at Wry Baby love us some good design. We also go nuts for great illustration. We flip for unique ideas and we lose our collective minds for fun toys. We also love people who help others. Which explains why we’ve fallen so head-over-heels in love with our new favorite designer toy brand, Stuf.

We met Stuf two years ago when they asked us to help them create a line of plush art toys for infants called Developmental Stuf. We took the fun-sounding bait (who wouldn’t, right!?) and when we saw what Stuf was all about, our jaws dropped.

It’s beautifully simple. Stuf art dolls come in only one shape and this shape comes in two sizes, 6 inch and 12 inches tall. But as simple and limited as this sounds, Stuf comes in as many themes as imagination permits. They launched their first three lines last August at the New York International Gift Fair: Bird Stuf, Developmental Stuf and Pirate Stuf.

Developmental Stuf is great for helping improve infants’ eyesight and the addition of bells and crinkly paper inside stimulate all the other senses, too. Bird Stuf are beautifully illustrated by Stuf Staf and backed by wonderful patterns. Pirate Stuf is a crew of absolutely huggable scalawags and have hilarious character traits written on the back. Curly Pete, for example, “knows where the treasure’s hid” while Pirate Sue is “nothin’ but trouble“!

Each line of Stuf also contributes to a thematically appropriate charity. Bird Stuf, for example, donates a portion of its profits to the American Bird Conservancy. Developmental Stuf helps PlanUSA rebuild Haiti’s educational system and Pirate Stuf donates to the children’s writing programs at 826 Valencia in San Francisco.

Right now you can find Stuf in NY MoMA, SF MoMA, The Walker Art Center and over at wrybaby.com. We love the folks that make up Stuf Staf and we hear they’re working on two new lines for this Summer. We can’t wait to see! If you want to be in the know when they launch new Stuf, why not Like them on the Facebooks?

The Pirate Stuf Family.

The Developmental Stuf Family.

The Bird Stuf Family.

Will April 1 never get here!? Our 3rd Annual April Fools’ Day Almost Storewide 1/2 Off Sale at wrybaby.com is 7 days away and it feels like an eternity. While you wile away the hours to the big day, take a look at this interesting if not slightly gross video of a little girl’s teeth growing in. The close-up version near the :18 mark is the best view. (Originally found at neatorama.com)

Want to hear your precious angel screaming, cooing or giggling from the inside of your pocket or purse? It’s entirely possible! We just added our son’s voice screaming “YELLOW PUNCH BUGGY NO PUNCH BACKS!” to our iPhones because hearing it 1,000 times a day just isn’t enough. Follow these great (and easy!) custom iPhone ringtone instructions we found!

And while you’re in iTunes, check out our own iPhone App, the Baby Wheel of Responsibility! Let FATE decide who’s changing diapers, handling late night feedings and apologizing to annoyed restaurant patrons. Only 99¢.

Wry Baby Dave’s got a killer Handlebar Mustache situation happening. He’s betting it all on the Handlebar comeback this year. All the kids’ll be rocking it at Spring Break. Wearing their wool bathing suits and battling with fisticuffs for the ladies’ attention. There’s a long history of dashing HB action in the Wry Baby Family that dates back to the Civil War Era (thanks for the archival assistance, Josh). Gentlemen, it’s not too late to get nice and mustachioed.

Stay warm and snuggly tonight! To inspire you, enjoy this parade of happy hideous holiday hotness.

Baby’s First Toys (1978) gets it horrifically wrong from the cover. Balloons? Inside, marbles and buttons (buttons!?) are included in what may be the worst childrens book ever. This in contrast to be BEST dangerous baby book ever, Safe Baby Handling Tips.

As a kid, I idolized Soupy Sales. Even though I grew up in the Seventies, I somehow was able to catch reruns of the late-’50′s/early ’60′s Soupy Sales Show on TV. So weird. So spontaneous. So…weird! I loved it, but what really hooked me was Soupy’s masterwork, the Soupy Sales Show LP.

Put out in 1961 on Reprise Records, it’s a snapshot of what his show was like in the beginning, before all the ’60′s era celebs (Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., etc.) thought it fun publicity to be hit in the face with pie on his show. The LP is, basically, a show in itself with music. Soupy gets a call from a record label who wants him to record an album. He agrees to do it, but doesn’t have any songs, much less a singing voice. But his puppet gang (White Fang, Black Tooth, Hippie the Hippo, Pookie the Lion) all come to his rescue offering songs from their songwriting club. The songs are not only hilarious, but catchy as all get out and are stylistically outrageous. Ranging from Rock ‘n’ Roll to a Cha-Cha-Cha to a tender ballad about the love between a boy and his…dog. The album was a huge hit.

As a kid, as well as now, my favorite bits were the songs about Soupy himself and no song sums up what made me love him more than “Pie In The Face“. In 1985, Soupy said he’d probably be remembered for the pies, and he was okay with that. But while this song is about his signature pie-in-the-face-bit, it explains WHY he loved getting hit with pies. Simply because it made people laugh. That was hugely inspirational to me and eventually became the basis for my doing what I do now with Wry Baby. It really is the greatest feeling of all to make people laugh.

When I was in elementary school we had to perform skits for a senior center in Orange County, CA. Each kid had to do a short bit for a crowded audience. I chose to lip sync to Soupy’s “Pie In The Face” (complete with two back-up dancers) and in the end get smacked with two big whipped cream pies. We had never rehearsed with real pies, though. You’d really be surprised how far all that whipped cream goes once it hits your face. I have to admit there weren’t many laughs at the end of THAT performance, but I still chuckle out loud whenever I think about it. Thanks so much, Soupy!

Remarkably, you can get this release! On CD even! Rhino Records put out a two-record set of Soupy’s LPs, the Soupy Sales Show and Up In The Air, his second release. Click here to get to Rhino where you can even listen to snippets before you order. Only $19.98.