August 2003 - Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, called HP Lovecraft "an American genius... incomparably superior to all those who followed." Although he died in 1937, Lovecraft's writing is so imaginative that it remains in print some seventy years later. Search his name on the Internet, and you'll find it inextricably linked to words like "macabre," "weird," and "bizarre." How better to celebrate an American original, then, than with a line of plush toys?
"The ominous syllables which can be rendered only as 'Cthulhu'..."
Cthulhu is Lovecraft's best-known creation, a great mound with tentacles that is rarely described in detail, the author leaving the reader to imagine his own horror by instead describing the monster's effect on those who see him. Toy Vault interprets the monstrosity in a number of ways this fall, starting with a hand puppet. "I love the entire line of Lovecraft toys," said Paul Maclean, owner of the HP Lovecraft online gaming site Yog-sothoth.com, "but my favorite must be the Cthulhu Hand Puppet, an inspired choice by Toy Vault. At last Cthulhu is under your complete control. Watch out Punch and Judy!" The Cthulhu Hand Puppet will hit stores in September, in time for holiday sales. [15", SRP $19.95, available 09/03]
The Super Hero Cthulhu is another addition to Toy Vault's Lovecraft line. It's a plush version of the classic tentacled terror... with cape, mask and costume added. "Lovecraft never described Cthulhu as wearing Spandex," said Toy Vault design director Jon Huston, "but he never said he wasn't wearing it, either." This 16" plush makes Cthulhu safe and cuddly for every adult horror fan to give to his youngest child. [16", SRP $29.95, available 09/03]
As if Underoos weren't humiliation enough for the horror that lurks ceaselessly behind life in time and in space, Toy Vault steps it up a notch with Santa Cthulhu - exactly what you'd expect from the name (with the jingle-bell bedecked tentacles maybe making for a surprise finish). "If you saw this thing ringing a bell on your street corner, you'd be emptying your pockets into his bucket pretty quick, and dashing through the snow even quicker," promised Toy Vault design director Jon Huston. [16", SRP $29.95, available 10/03]
"Shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and unforming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front..."
Cthulhu isn't the only horror in Toy Vault's Lovecraft line. According to Lovecraft's lore, the Old Ones created the Shoggoths as the first organic life forms of earth, malleable, multi-cellular creatures designed to be workhorses for building a vast empire for the Old Ones. Toy Vault creates their vision of the Shoggoths as 15" plush toys. Ron Spencer, designer of the toy, said, "Lovecraft described the Shoggoths as huge, black, amorphous masses that could grow whatever organ or appendage needed. I chose to show them in a star shape because it's more interesting and fun than a plush oval blob." [15", SRP $24.95, available 10/03]
"That is not dead which eternal lies, and in strange aeons, even death may die."
A creature as powerful and frightening as Cthulhu surely deserves priests who are also powerful and frightening. Enter the Deep Ones, a race of creatures who, from the undersea city of Y'ha-nthlei, worship Father Dagon, Mother Hydra, and the Great Old One Cthulhu. Toy Vault presents the Deep Ones in a 12" plush, making for the perfect complement to the Cthulhu and Shoggoth plushes. "Who needs a pillow when you've got these babies?" asked Huston. [12", SRP $24.95, available 10/03]
Toy Vault has been making innovative toys from their headquarters in Corbin, Kentucky since 1997. They've developed toys with such properties as the Sci-Fi Channel's Farscape, Monty Python, and Nickelodeon's Sponge Bob Squarepants. Toy Vault can be found on the web at www.toyvault.com.
  
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