Halloween hand puppets! Fun for all ages!
One of the most beloved monster toy lines of the 1980s was Mattel’s Boglins, which were created by Timothy Clarke and Maureen Trotto. The Boglins, rubber hand puppets that were housed inside of cage-like boxes, were conceived by Clarke as a way to get kids into puppetry – he himself was fresh off working with the Jim Henson Company on The Dark Crystal at the time – and they were marketed as gross-out pets that you could, well, wear on your hand. Sticking your hand into the Boglins allowed you to open and close their mouths and even, thanks a mechanism inside, move their eyeballs back and forth. At the time, there was nothing else on the market like them, and still to this day, the movie-quality craftsmanship is incredibly impressive.
The original line of Boglins, which included characters like Dwork and Drool, paved the way for all sorts of spin-offs, including Aquatic Boglins, Belching Boglins, Boglins with hair, and even Mini Boglins. But the coolest spin-off line was the Halloween Boglins, which introduced two brand new creatures: Bog-O-Bones, painted like a skeleton, and Blobkin, painted like a pumpkin.
“It was kind of a kitschy thing to do for Halloween,” Tim Clarke told me when I spoke with him a couple years back. “I never thought they’d become so popular. But people really loved them.”
How could you not?!
As he noted on his Instagram account, @TimClarkeToys just whipped up brand new custom versions of both Bog-O-Bones and Blobkin, which will be shown off at the Clutter Gallery’s upcoming Boglins show, running from November 12th through December 2nd. The event celebrates the relaunch of the line, and could lead to the return of the Halloween Boglins.
“We will see what kind of interest there is to decide if I do more,” says Clarke.
Did you ever own a Halloween Boglin? Share your childhood memories below!
