There’s a room in our building that used to be a racquetball court, but has since been turned into storage. For a while today, it was empty and we decided to see what our Remote Controlled Yodelling Lederhosen sounded like in that environment.
Here, in 14 seconds, is how the tragedy played out.
At long last we can share our secret product, Handerpants! This is such a huge innovation in our industry we were afraid we’d be victims of industrial espionage. We doubled our usual security and forced people to sign the same privacy agreement Apple uses. Now, they’re here and they were worth all the effort.
Download Handerpants mp3 ringtone here!
Download the Handerpants iPhone ringtone here!
We thought everyone had seen the dramatic chipmunk! But, they haven’t. It all started with this clip on YouTube from a Japanese talk show.
Which brings us to our painting…
And yes, before you correct us, we know it’s a prarie dog. Don’t blame us because the internet named something incorrectly!
Our oldest fans know who Bibo is already, but some of you who found us more recently might only recognize him from the masthead of this blog. A little explanation is in order.
Bibo is a found product of the highest order. While we can create amazing products, nothing beats finding something that we can’t explain yet want desperately ourselves. When we found Bibo in a factory showroom, we had no idea what it was. It was just a strange looking clock that shouted “Bibo” over and over again until you tapped the stem on his head. We requested more information from the factory about exactly what Bibo was and got the strange explanation below. It was love at first sight for us, the explanation just deepened that love.
Good day! Story of Bi-bo.
This is an ancient God story and Love story in China. At that time there were two main powers; Snake Devil Woman and power called Sky Devil Religion, who likes drinking people’s blood very much. When the solar eclipse is coming is the time Sky Devil come out to control the world… They have a beautiful Phoenix God Woman to protect them against the Sky Devil.
One day, beside the very beautiful pool, there was one handsome young man who sit on a big stone and blowed flute to lead one fire Phoenix to the pool. Then he use cold pool water to extinguish the fire of this Phoenix and suddenly Phoenix change to be a very beautiful girl. Also, this handsome young man aroused one sleeping God Monster called Bibo to be protection God of Phoenix. This God Monster Bibo had slept in the bottom of the pool for over thousands of year. Bibo is a God Monster with intelligence. He has two big eyes, and he knows very well what people want to do. He cannot speak, but only “Bi-Bo.” When there is any danger happened, he will speak. The top of his head will light up and his hip will makes many colorful smoke to help him survive because this smoke is very stinking and it can hinder the sight of his enemies.
We love Bibo very much because he always survive by using some funny ways.
The clock is long gone, but our love for him is still strong. So, we are proud to introduce the Squeeze Bibo and the Bibo Painting.
Here’s an original catalog page with pictures of the clock and the companion clock, Lucky Boy. Click for a larger size.
One of the designers made this for his own iPhone and I thought I’d share. Soon, you’ll see this logo show up on some of our products. Oh, and the t-shirt.
Right-click to download or click on the picture for other options.
I just remembered this off brand Michael Jackson product sample we got years ago. Love the guy wearing it on the package.
UPS sent us this helpful map of places our packages might be in danger from pirates. We would like to offer two helpful suggestions from the perspective of a company that has had some success with pirates. One, instead of “high risk areas for piracy” on the legend, it should say, “HERE BE PIRATES.” Two, they should have put an “X” on the map to show where UPS has buried their treasure.
One thing they did get right is that it was delivered by a fellow with a black spot on his hand that died soon after giving it to us.
Click picture for larger view.
One of the bad things about moving our Seattle retail store to a smaller location is that we had to get rid of some of our larger items. Most of the items that wouldn’t fit moved to our business offices. As an example, here’s a picture of the “Santa Claus in Dentist Chair with Spider” installation which now resides in front of our filing cabinets.
One of the things that hurt the most was losing our handmade rocket. It was way to big to be in someone’s house and we were afraid that it would have to be recycled. Thankfully, when we offered to donate it to 826 Seattle they accepted.
826 is a great non-profit organization that teaches writing to kids. Also, the entrance to their building is the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co, a mercantile for all your interstellar needs that helps support their organziation. It now hangs from the ceiling of their shop and was recently named the “HMS Copernicus’ Ride.”
826 is always looking for support and volunteers, so if you want to help them with their mission to teach kids creative writing click here for more information.
Where would we be without our dreams? All progress is based on coming up with a seemingly impossible idea and then figuring out how to make it reality.
One of our dreams, as a company, was to mass-produce an affordable, well-made, novelty beard of bees. It sounds silly and simple, but the complexities involved eventually caused us to abandon the whole project. In fact, the only existing prototype is in a cardboard box in our archives.
Our first thought was to print the bees on some cloth, but that looked bad. Why bother if it’s going to look fake? What potential mate would see this printed cloth beard of bees and think to themselves, “Wooooeeee! That is one fine looking bee beard”? No one would, so it was abandoned.
So, we asked for a beard that we could cover with bees. Here is the suggested beard:
If you look carefully on the beard package you can see that it says, “Do not dry clean.” This is good advice for facial hair of all types.
Our next step was to develop a realistic looking bee to stick to the hair. Simple enough, we’re experienced in the plastic insect business.
Then, we asked for a sample of them on the beard, but they wouldn’t stick. Instead we were sent what you see below: beard shaped netting with a few bees glued to it. There were three problems with this. First, the beard weighed over two pounds. This may not sound like a lot, but it’s enough to make your face tilt forward while wearing. The second problem was that to get enough bees to make it look realistic it would have had a retail cost of around $60. And lastly, it still didn’t look right. Instead of attracting a potential mate, it would simply confuse them as they tried to figure out why you had a bunch of bees stuck to a net under your chin.
Eventually, we just used the idea as an April Fool’s day joke.
Yet, we still dream that the world will have an affordable novelty beard of bees. Perhaps, one day, technology will catch up with our imaginations.
This beautiful picture from the back of our Bacon Tuxedo Joke Gift Box was too beautiful not to share on its own. Maybe there is hope for the future with children such as these.
New Products Follow Us On Twitter