History Toys / Uglydolls

''Uglydoll'' is a Korean-American series of collectable plush dolls concieved by David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim. Released in 2001, these dolls are the definition of UglyCute, with many different [[Characters/{{Uglydolls}} characters in the roster]], as well as their own universe, the "Uglyverse", to call their own. All of the Uglydolls have their own personality quirks and differences, with "Ugly" being marketed as a positive adjective for individuality. Going with this, the Uglydolls avoid gender stereotypes, including Peaco, a pink guy who loves to dance, and Gorgeous, a girly girl who's an avid computer coder.

** Abima is Wage's [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers cousin]].

''Uglydolls'' is a Korean-American series of collectable plush dolls concieved by David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim. Released in 2001, these dolls are the definition of UglyCute, with many different [[Characters/{{Uglydolls}} characters in the roster]], as well as their own universe, the "Uglyverse", to call their own. All of the Uglydolls have their own personality quirks and differences, with "Ugly" being marketed as a positive adjective for individuality. Going with this, the Uglydolls avoid gender stereotypes, including Peaco, a pink guy who loves to dance, and Gorgeous, a girly girl who's an avid computer coder.

Uglydolls started off during Sun-Min Kim and David Horvath's courtship. Since they weren't allowed to see each other, they communicated with letters. David drew a doodle of proto-Wage on one of his letters, and Sun-Min turned it into a plush doll for him as a gift. Thus, the toys were born. Uglydolls are available in four sizes: The "Classic" size, which is the medium size and about 1 foot tall, the "Little Uglys", who are half the size and originally had wildly different colors, the "Clip Ons", which were tiny 1/4 size Uglydolls sewn to a plastic clip to hang on backpacks and the like, and the "2 Foot" size, which is exactly what it sounds like.

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Nimah has a crush on Wage that he doesn't know about.

** While Flatwoodsey lacks a bio to contribute to their cryptid-inspired mystery, the red version exclusive to FAO Schwarz advertised them as female.

* AmbiguousGender: All of the prototype Uglys, as they were never sold. A few released Uglys' bios, like Softy's, leave out pronouns entirely.

* ArtEvolution: A few Uglys changed over time. Babo is a notable example, originally starting off grey and with different proportions. Eventually, his design became more infantile, with his color becoming pale blue and his shape rounding out. The plush version never got changed, but Tray, Jeero, Ice-Bat, and Cinko's did.
* BatOutOfHell: The aforementioned Ninja Batty Shogun, especially when paired with his lighter counterpart, Picksey.
* BedsheetGhost: Ghosty, in contrast to the Ugly Ghost.

* BlowingARaspberry: If an Ugly doesn't have teeth sticking out of their mouth, they'll often have a little tongue permanently sticking out instead. Ox and Cinko are the first and most noticeable for this behavior.

** The colorations and designs of some Uglydolls were different at the start than at the tail end of the toyline. Tray started off in the illustrations and toys with a pale pink color before switching to an intense hot pink later on. Ice-Bat's four teeth were unusually-spaced, with the middle two closer and separate from the outer two, and he had rounded feet before a later version gave him a more typical uniform row of four contiguous teeth and two toes on each foot. Jeero switched from a beige-grey color to a pale tea-green color in both drawings and his plush, with the plush itself having adjusted proportions. Cinko's dolls had a different body design and received an entirely new shape later in the line. Target got replaced by his orange Suntan Target variant. The Little Uglys half-size Uglydolls also started out by having unique color palettes, before switching to be the same colors as all other sizes of each character.

* FunnyOctopus: Target has multiple tentacles, two which serve as arms, and Cinko's arms resemble them. Fittingly, they're brothers. Cold Feet also has tentacle arms and closely resembles Cinko.

* GenerationXerox: The Uglydolls of ye olden days were more or less the same Uglydolls of modern times, only with ye olden problems to deal with.
* GeniusDitz: Wedgehead is a bit dim for the most part, but when he flips over, he's a master food critique, though it only works on cereal.

* TheGhost: Ugly Charlie's bio mentions a brother, Jrizzy, who has yet to be seen. Seeing as the two Uglys ave very similar face designs, it may just be an earlier version of Jay Jdizzy's name that wasn't caught out before being printed on Ugly Charlie's tag.

* KuleshovEffect: All of the Uglydolls are given flat expressions in their dolls and most of the books involving them, letting their emotions portrayed however seen fit. The comic books give them various emotions, however.

** Moxy is full of energy and never stops moving. This is actually lampshaded in her bio.

** Cinko has five spots, three on one arm, and two on the other.

** Ugly Guide 3 says that Babo is purple in an alternate universe because his Little Ugly version was initally colored purple.

* NumericalThemeNaming: Tray has three eyes and three brains, and her name is a corruption of the word "three".

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Ugly Ghost, an.. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin er... ugly ghost...]]. Also, Ghosty.

** Fea Bea came in two color schemes using yellow, blue, and pink, and both Bop n' Beep and Turny Burny were available in two different color schemes.

* PunnyName: Many of them overlap with MeaningfulName. Tutulu is a meaningless example, based on "toodle-oo", an expression for "goodbye".

* SplitPersonality: Bop n' Beep, who literally [[SharingABody share bodies]] with each other. Also, Turny Burny and the Double Trouble Uglys, all of whom are double-sided Uglydolls.

* UpdatedRerelease: Cinko and Target's original dolls were discontinued to be replaced with a darker, rounder Cinko and Suntan Target. Tray, Jeero, and Ice-Bat also had changes made.

A [[WesternAnimation/{{Uglydolls}} film adaptation]] by Creator/STXEntertainment released in May 2019. The toyline for the movie saw Creator/{{Hasbro}} taking control of the master license until it expired. Three years later, in April of 2022, plans for new adaptations in the Uglydolls franchise were announced by [[Creator/ImagineEntertainment Imagine Kids+Family]]. This announcement was concurrent with Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} greenlighting a animated adaptation of Horvarth's other creation ''WesternAnimation/BossyBear''.