Why don't we look at more old wood toys together?

It's been nearly a decade since I regularly posted here, so I thought to myself, "Why not catch up on a few more things that have happened in between?" Like the very first series of wood toys I made a few years back (2018 to be precise). Those little buddies at the top of the post were called Friendly Friends. There were six variants in total (go and count them, I'll wait), and all of them had cute shape-y heads that swiveled on their little bodies. Friendly Friends came bagged with a tiny comic zine imbedded into the header card. There were instructions on the back of the header to "cut along the dotted line" which would reveal the zine underneath. Can you imagine?

I had completely forgotten about doing that sneaky zine header card until looking back at these pics. Neat. These two purple babies below were my favorite of the bunch (because purple is my favorite color, you see). And the little triangle-y headed one was far and away the best out of all of them. I really wish I had kept it.

A lot of people saw the purple tube-headed one and rightly called out the Katamari Damacy influence. That game had a huge impact on me when it came out; I could not get enough of the visuals or the music or the gameplay. Heck, just thinking about it makes me want to go roll with the Prince right now!

But before I start rolling katamari, I should probably show you the other two small runs of wood toys that I released along with those Friendly Friends...? In keeping with the "friends" theme, these were called "Mushroom Friends" and "Ghost Friends." Can you guess which one was which?

I can't hear how you guessed, but I'd wager you got it correct. If only because it's pretty clear just from looking at them which was which, right? The ghosts are the ghosts and the mushrooms are the mushrooms. Obviously. I was honestly only asking you to guess as a playful little goof... I do that sometimes. Sorry? I'll try to mind my p's and q's from here on out! As a token of my good intentions, I leave you with this exclusive behind-the-scenes WIP photo of all three series of toys being assembled. Hot dog!