Introducing the Broccodevil

I received a Make My Own Monster kit for Christmas last year. It’s a service offered by the North American Bear Company, which has the distinction of having the worst shopping site I’ve seen in some time. Anyway, the Make My Own Monster concept is great: kids (of all ages, in my case) draw a monster, send in the drawing, and the company makes it into a one-of-a-kind plush toy.

It took me a while to settle on a design. There are a number of bizarre characters I’ve sketched, illustrated, and painted over the years, so I was distraught to discover that the kit specified that the plush toy design would become the property of North American Bear Company, presumably so that they might consider selling them in larger quantities. This is particularly disappointing given the high price of the service, along with the fact that no such legal requirement is shown on the service or store websites, not to mention the ambiguity of a one-of-a-kind toy whose purchase includes the implicit sale of mass production rights.

Given my general disdain for such practices, I considered abandonning the effort entirely on principle. But I was so eager to see what they’d come up with, I decided to draw a new monster. Some ideas are cheaper than others, and I’m pretty sure I could design a new monster every day.

At the time, we were mired in a heavy-duty version of the Eat to Live diet, something we still roughly follow in our house. It involves a lot of vegetables, and a lot of chewing. Vegetables seemed like a good target for monsterhood. I came up with a concept for a sort of floret-satan I’d call “Broccodevil.” Ominous.

The kit itself is very simple. It comes with instructions, a few sheets of drawing paper, some forms to send in, and a set of colored pencils. I assume the pencils are provided in order to limit the colors to ones that match the materials the company offers. Here’s the drawing of Broccodevil I sent in.

I did a few things here to test the production process intentionally. The examples shown on the Make My Own Monster website are pretty simple. I wondered what they’d do with the green/brown blending on the arms and legs (the idea was to make them stalk-like), how they’d stitch the hooves, and if they’d be able to get the bloodshot eyes I was hoping for. I was also curious about how they’d form the eyes and horns.

The instructions promised that my monster would be delivered in 10-12 weeks, and I got mine around week 11. Here’s how it turned out (see the photo page for a bigger version):

I was pretty impressed. The bulbous eyes are particularly nice, even if it wasn’t possible to get a subtle redness on the edges. The color doesn’t quite match, which isn’t such a big deal, but the fabric sample that came with my kit was light green while my actual monster is clearly dark green. If I’d known both were available, I would have liked for the top floret part to be dark green and the stalk light green. The internal lines are all accomplished by stitching, which means no appliqués to fall off. Each of the colors of material have a slightly different feel, which is a nice touch. And the thing is truly huge. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of drawing and plush.

On one of the forms, you can also provide some traits for your monster. Those seem to get reproduced on the (removable) tag. Not a very interesting way to incorporate this metadata, but admittedly I’m not sure how else they’d use it to inspire the plush creation itself.

I’m clearly not the target market for this product — at least not as a creator. They sell it only through F.A.O. Schwartz, and that website recommends the kit for “children 3-6 years.” Certainly there’s great pleasure to be gained by kids who have the patience to remember a drawing they did three months earlier, but I think the company is missing a huge opportunity to market to geeky, obsessive parents who want to make monsters with or for their kids. And as for the legal matter, it really just needs to be fixed. For $250, I should be buying real uniqueness, without strings. Alternately, why not give me the option to release the rights in exchange for a small commission on sales, along with an affiliate program for kit purchases, like Zazzle.com or similar services do?