Fugglers are Back! But What the Fugg Are They?

Fugglers are Back! But What the Fugg Are They?

I remember getting a tiny bit obsessed with Fugglers during their first wave of popularity back in 2019-ish.

I didn’t actually buy any, but I was looking at them online and annoying my boyfriend by showing him pictures every 30 seconds and laughing. “Look at his wonky teeth”, “Aww his eyes, look at his eyes” etc.

It was a minor obsession, but nevertheless, they stole my heart for a week or so.

Anyway, they disappeared and I forgot all about them but I have just discovered that they are back. What’s more, with two kids under my belt I now have the perfect excuse to go out and buy a bunch of them. You know, for the kids.

I can’t wait to tell my fella 🤭

While there is something of a cult following for these ugly little cuties, I understand many of you may be wondering what the Fugg I am going on about. It’s an odd one to get your head around. So here is everything you need to know about Fugglers.

What is a Fuggler?

What is a Fuggler

A fuggler is a soft toy. Or a plushie. But! Fugglers are no ordinary soft toy.

They have teeth. Freakishly realistic human looking teeth.

They are described as:

“funny-ugly monsters that will ruin your life and warm your heart”

They remind me of Gremlins if you are old enough to remember them.

They have names like GapTooth McGoo, Oogah Boogah, Wide Eyed Weirdo, Gnawing Terror and Reeko.

Each Fuggler toy is different, the range is pretty big after all these years, but they all share a few similar characteristics:

  • Butt-on holes. These are buttons stitched on right where their bottom should be.
  • Vacant eyes, sometimes made of buttons, but more often they look like the eyes of an animal. Usually vacant.
  • Rough stitching making them look hastily assembled (they are actually very well put together, it’s just a design choice)
  • And the teeth thing. The weirdly mesmerising gross teeth thing…

For all the marketing backstory stuff about them wreaking havoc and running riot, they don’t actually do anything. They are just plushies.

There are different ranges now though. You can get ones that glow in the dark, a gold range, a festive range, a giant range, a baby range, a fart face range (whatever that means) – there is even a SpongeBob SquarePants and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles range.

From what I can tell, more adults buy them than children. They are a collectible of sorts. People place them around their homes, dress them up, add their own extra features to them. There is a whole Fuggler sub-culture out there,

Where Did They Come From?

Original Fugglers

Apparently, they have been designed to look like they come from the darkest corners of thrift shops.

In reality, they were designed by a British woman called Louise McGettrick, from Folkestone.

Louise started the original Fugglers as an Etsy store, having one day thought it would be funny to sew human teeth (false teeth I hasten to add) into the mouths of teddy bears. I know she sounds like a freak from that description but she seems lovely from the interviews and photos I have seen.

The spark of the idea actually came when she found a bag of false teeth for sale on ebay. She wasn’t looking for them, but she found the listing funny and bought them. She was actually looking for a gift for her husband’s birthday. He was obsessed with shark’s teeth so she was looking for one for him.

I wonder what their first date was like…

Anyway, she still runs the Etsy store, it’s called Cathairandteeth if you want to have a look at what she’s doing now.

That was in 2010, but by 2018 the business had gone a bit nuts thanks to some national press and a series of memes, so she sold Fugglers to Spin Master. They are a massive global toy and entertainment company. Spin Master mass produced Fuggler toys for a while but then in 2020, announced they were “going into hiding”.

They weren’t making them anymore, in other words.

A few years later, Addo Play went into partnership with Spin Master to bring Fugglers back into the world, and that’s where we are today. I’m late to the party, but they are back and fugglier than ever before.

Where to Buy

The official partner for the UK is the toy shop, The Entertainer, but you can buy Fuggler toys in loads of other places too.

They aren’t exactly expensive, so if you are somebody who is a bit of a collector they are an affordable hobby.

You can find the various different types of Fuggler for between £8.00 and £25.00 depending on which one you get. Some of the originals might be a little more expensive on platforms like ebay due to their rarity, but we’re talking an extra tenner, nothing crazy.

Amazon is another place to look, Smyths Toys have them too, and even the discount shops like B&M and Home Bargains sell older ones, often for very little money.

When you buy one you get a little adoption certificate and plenty of warnings. They basically tell you not to buy it, not to open it etc. Because Fugglers are so naughty and will bring nothing but chaos and carnage with them wherever they go. It’s a nice touch.

You won’t struggle to find somewhere to buy them, but what I would say, is that Addo Play’s licensing deal with Spin Master runs out at the end of 2025, so there is a chance they might go back ‘into hiding’. So if you want to buy some best not to wait too long.

Fugg TV

I’ve been showing my kids this and they love it.

As part of the re-launch, they created Fugg TV. This has mini episodes of the Fugglers getting up to no good in their homes and work places. Yes, some Fugglers now have jobs.

They have silly voices and very limited understanding of the world – oh, and they will eat anything. Frisbees, cars, couches, anything. Then hey do a lot of farting.

Here’s the trailer for the Living With Fugglers series:

 

You can see why kids would find it funny.

There are loads of videos and they do a good job of enhancing the world and building on the backstory. If your kids enjoy these plushies it can help inspire them to use their imaginations and create their own Fuggler stories at home.

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