HOW BABY FACE WAS BORN...
32. Oodles & the Magic Diaper Babies

I've really enjoyed relating the story of Baby Face, as I remember it. Even as I typed I could feel details slipping away, like a vivid dream that fades away even in mid-telling. But we have saved a few memories here, that teetered on the brink of oblivion, and that is all, that will remain.

When we first set out on this journey, neither of us imagined it would turn into such a long one and I'm sure we lost many of our few readers along the way. For those that stuck with it, my Many Thanks! I hope I've managed to answer many of your questions, and shed some light on some of the Mysteries of Baby Face, and her short life.

Two Mysteries, yet, remain, and like the Extra Attraction at the Sideshow, you're invited to step through the flap, to the next tent, where for a few pennies more of your valuable time, I will endeavor to enlighten you! The first mystery is "The Magic Diaper Babies"! Who are they, and Do they have anything, at all, to do with Baby Face? ("not that that matters".)

I know all the facts, but, even, I can't make up my mind, as to the answers. So I offer the facts, and you can decide for yourselves, if Magic Diaper Babies and Baby Face are "related" or just Good Friends!

In 1985 I made up a quick little item that consisted of small babies, each with a lock of hair that formed a loop so they could be strung on bracelets, necklaces etc. I sculpted one basic figure, and then took it apart and made a separate plaster mold for each of its six components. Then, I pressed out the basic body parts in Super Sculpy.


This was the first attempt at anything that resembled sculpting, since Outer Space Men, eighteen years earlier. I then, assembled the parts and played with them, until they showed me a pose I liked, and that was that! I used the blunt end of a flat tooth pick as my tool, as at that time I had forgotten all about the tool I had used on Outer Space Men. I poked the end of the tooth pick into the soft Sculpy to form the eyes and poked around with it to create facial expressions! Premonitions of Baby Face to come! I made twelve figures like this and Noah Kislevitz, Andy and Adams youngest brother, who had joined Kiscom, by then (and who I should have mentioned earlier) took them out and presented them, on a slab of black marble to LJN Toys, who bought them on the spot! (Sounds like this happens all the time! Believe me it doesn't.)

LJN, then, commissioned me to make 36 more Sculpy sketches, which I did, all by the same method from the same plaster molds. All of these came out of my head, without the aid of any reference material or for that matter Forethought! I never said to myself I'll make this one do this or that, as usual, I let each Oodle tell me what it wanted to do!


They then gave, about eight of these sketches, each, to six different sculptors to do finished sculptures. Some were a lot better than others, and all had to be simplified to come out of molds with no undercuts. I kind of hated what I saw, but as Eunice often remarks, "You'd like it even less if there wasn't any"!

Believe it or not the name "OODLES" came to me in a Dream! I never did figure out what it might mean. Perhaps it referred to how much money I hoped to make! If that was the case, then the dream, most certainly, did Not come true! As the Oodles dove into the great Toy Pool of 1986, they must have whispered to each other, "Don't make Waves!" As it turned out, They didn't even make a Ripple!


Oodles Commercial!


There's a long story to tell about how the molds for Oodles were "stolen" and used to make and sell millions of Oodles throughout Europe, where they became a "rage" and we knew nothing about it, until Hasbro introduced them here, calling them "LIL BABIES". It was the Biggest Success we NEVER HAD! But the story is too long to tell! Whoops! I Just Did!

One of the worst things about inventing toys, is that you can work for weeks on something that will never see the light of day! One of the best things about inventing toys, is that you can work for minutes on something that will feed your family [and your collecting habit] for Years! Alas, knowing that makes you work all the harder, lest you miss those few minutes, the next time they come around!

And here it is the only known photo, of the sketch that became, "The Magic Diaper Babies"! It just took me longer to clean up the dark photo on Photoshop, than it did to draw it in the first place! The "bows" were eliminated, and the name was changed, [I think it was Gary Niles himself, who came up with the name Magic Diaper Babies], And along with my original Sculpy sketches for the Oodles, The whole project was given to Sue Beatrice who Did the Rest!!

Sue Beatrice is by far one of the most Extraordinarily Talented, Generous and Good Looking people, I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. You can easily verify the Talent and Good Looks part of that, by looking up her web site at: http://www.beatricedesignsinc.com

By the way, it was Sue who sculpted all the small collectible figures of the Cabbage Patch Kids for Panosh Place. And you can't enter a gift shop anywhere in the world, today, without being surrounded by her work! As I said earlier, Sue used several of the Oodles as Ideas for poses for the Diaper Babies, But the look and styling was her own. From time to time I would send rough sketches of other ideas, more to look like I was, at least doing "something", than because, she needed any help! Sue doesn't just turn drawings into sculptures, she does it all, coming up with the styling and Ideas as well. I particularly loved the Mermaids series, I believe she too, thought it was some of her best work!

Not everything that was produced did justice to her skills, as the eyes were put on as decals and sometimes they would be positioned badly, with unattractive results. But such minor inconsistencies didn't prevent them from being beloved, especially, in Europe, where they were sold in individual closed bags, and became a hot collectible!

The series went on and on and at no time did it ever occur to anyone, not Sue, not Kiscom, not Gary, nor I, that these Magic Diaper Babies had Anything to Do with Baby Face! The styling was based, a little on Oodles, a little on my sketches, and a lot on Sue's own vision of babies. In fact she had a very clear vision of babies, indeed, as two of her own, frolicked nearby while she worked!


Magic Diaper Babies Commercial!



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