Kristin Baybars' Ostrobogulous Creations - click to enlarge The other day I wrote about a cuddly toy investigation that started with of a bit of reader engagement and ended with some enjoyable dialogue with Kristin Baybars’ support team.
This is a follow up piece prompted by some more research into Kristin Baybars’ Ostrobogulous creations. As a result of liaising with David Ward, I was fortunate to be able to start exchanging notes with Sarah, a keen collector of the characters.
The Word
But first, are you familiar with the word “ostrobogulous”, after all it’s not exactly commonly used parlance? Do you know what it means? If you don’t, here’s how Lexico.com details the adjective:
“Used after Neuburg to designate something that is slightly risqué or indecent. Also applied arbitrarily to things which are bizarre, interesting, or unusual in some other way.”
"Origin - 1950s. Apparently irregularly from oestrous + -o- + either bog or bog + -ulous, attributed to Victor Benjamin Neuburg, British writer"
From a zoo perspective, the latter elements of the description are clearly more relevant than the former.
Apparently, Kristin has always disputed this definition of the word as she maintains it is a reference to a word her Mother used to mean "something a little frustrating but playful". Kristin's Mother (Ida Affleck Graves) wrote a book called "Ostrobogulous Pigs" in 1952 and it was illustrated by her good friend Bernard Watson. It was he who would use the word in the context described above.
The Range
The range it turns out had more in it than I was initially aware of. Sarah was kind enough to send me on some photos of her collection and help me to fill in the blanks about character names.
Here is the list I have so far been able to determine. If you can fill in the blanks, either in terms of character names or animals missed out altogether, please get in touch.
Character – “Name”
The image collage that accompanies this post shows an example of each creation. There are two Aristo clowns because one photo came from Sarah and the other is the figure that lives in the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood. This is the actual clown that I referred to in my original post from 2013 (if you follow the link, you’ll have to scroll down to my Peter Hoot).
Muswell Fox was apparently rejected by the Design Council and was never put into production. Sarah is therefore lucky enough to own a prototype. From a personal perspective, I particularly like the fox and think it’s a shame it didn’t make the cut.
I believe that all the fabrics used were from the Heal’s range. David Ward advised me that the fabric used for Loveday’s orange/brown owl in the earlier post was called “Armada”, the fabric for the orange turtle shown in the photo accompanying this post was “Pageant”. Whilst some of the fabrics were quite restrained, for me, the more sixties psychedelic/abstract floral/seventies-heavy-pattern the better. At this stage I am not sure what the fabric is on my Peter Hoot, but I’ll update this post if/when I find out.
Blog Home
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Kristin Baybars' Shop
7 Mansfield Rd,
Gospel Oak,
London NW3 2JD
Tel. 020 7267 0934
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/OstrobogulousToys
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Kristin-Baybars-948746098636155/
P.S. Content here doesn’t have to be about car shows, heavy metal gigs or current affairs. Admittedly, Ostrobogulous Toys make a pretty niche kind of topic. It’ll be interesting to see how much more reader engagement it prompts. Some of the most popular material on my site is also peculiarly niche (or bizarre, interesting or unusual, to borrow from the meaning of Ostrobogulous) e.g. Superman lolly sticks, Peter Lightfoot prints, Camp Summit, Hi-Tec Tecs, The Forgotten Soldier etc.
This is a follow up piece prompted by some more research into Kristin Baybars’ Ostrobogulous creations. As a result of liaising with David Ward, I was fortunate to be able to start exchanging notes with Sarah, a keen collector of the characters.
The Word
But first, are you familiar with the word “ostrobogulous”, after all it’s not exactly commonly used parlance? Do you know what it means? If you don’t, here’s how Lexico.com details the adjective:
“Used after Neuburg to designate something that is slightly risqué or indecent. Also applied arbitrarily to things which are bizarre, interesting, or unusual in some other way.”
"Origin - 1950s. Apparently irregularly from oestrous + -o- + either bog or bog + -ulous, attributed to Victor Benjamin Neuburg, British writer"
From a zoo perspective, the latter elements of the description are clearly more relevant than the former.
Apparently, Kristin has always disputed this definition of the word as she maintains it is a reference to a word her Mother used to mean "something a little frustrating but playful". Kristin's Mother (Ida Affleck Graves) wrote a book called "Ostrobogulous Pigs" in 1952 and it was illustrated by her good friend Bernard Watson. It was he who would use the word in the context described above.
The Range
The range it turns out had more in it than I was initially aware of. Sarah was kind enough to send me on some photos of her collection and help me to fill in the blanks about character names.
Here is the list I have so far been able to determine. If you can fill in the blanks, either in terms of character names or animals missed out altogether, please get in touch.
Character – “Name”
- Clown – “Aristo”
- Fish – “Burble”
- Fox – “Muswell“
- Frog – “Olugo”
- Goose – “Sippigoose”
- Hedgehog – “Hedgiwig”
- Humpty - "Humpty"
- Lion -
- Mole – “Moobie”
- Owl – “Peter Hoot”
- Snake -
- Turtle – “Totterton”
The image collage that accompanies this post shows an example of each creation. There are two Aristo clowns because one photo came from Sarah and the other is the figure that lives in the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood. This is the actual clown that I referred to in my original post from 2013 (if you follow the link, you’ll have to scroll down to my Peter Hoot).
Muswell Fox was apparently rejected by the Design Council and was never put into production. Sarah is therefore lucky enough to own a prototype. From a personal perspective, I particularly like the fox and think it’s a shame it didn’t make the cut.
I believe that all the fabrics used were from the Heal’s range. David Ward advised me that the fabric used for Loveday’s orange/brown owl in the earlier post was called “Armada”, the fabric for the orange turtle shown in the photo accompanying this post was “Pageant”. Whilst some of the fabrics were quite restrained, for me, the more sixties psychedelic/abstract floral/seventies-heavy-pattern the better. At this stage I am not sure what the fabric is on my Peter Hoot, but I’ll update this post if/when I find out.
Blog Home
Blog Library
Home
Kristin Baybars' Shop
7 Mansfield Rd,
Gospel Oak,
London NW3 2JD
Tel. 020 7267 0934
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/OstrobogulousToys
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Kristin-Baybars-948746098636155/
P.S. Content here doesn’t have to be about car shows, heavy metal gigs or current affairs. Admittedly, Ostrobogulous Toys make a pretty niche kind of topic. It’ll be interesting to see how much more reader engagement it prompts. Some of the most popular material on my site is also peculiarly niche (or bizarre, interesting or unusual, to borrow from the meaning of Ostrobogulous) e.g. Superman lolly sticks, Peter Lightfoot prints, Camp Summit, Hi-Tec Tecs, The Forgotten Soldier etc.
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