STORY DETAILS
Storyline Creation Date:
Idea: 1980s
First known writing: NA
Stories:
Bed Toys
CONTENT WARNINGS
Generic warnings: None.
DISCLAIMERS
As these characters were based on commercially produced stuffed toys, some are characters from well-known franchises--e. g., The Wuzzles, The Fluppy Dogs, ALF, the Muppets, etc. When I was unfamiliar with the franchise (like with The Fluppy Dogs), I made up the character's personality; if I was familiar with the franchise (e. g., ALF, both the original and the cartoon), my character was basically the actual character, just interacting in my world. One note of explanation here, however: These were TOYS, therefore these were TOYS of the actual characters. For example, it's not ALF hanging out with my other toys, it's a TOY of ALF.
Another, unfortunate disclaimer is that I had MANY bed toys...but years ago, stored most of them away upstairs, where I currently have no access to them. We have pests, and I worry that some or many may be destroyed. And I never made a list of the characters. So my collection here will be incomplete. Some that I remember, such as Fireplug, I can't find anywhere online, so my recollection of their physical appearance may be off.
STORYLINE HISTORY/INSPIRATION
I spent most of my early childhood pretty isolated; although I had a few friends in school, I didn't have anyone to come play with me at home, nobody whose home I could visit myself (I got homesick very easily anyway), and no sleepovers or church or friends' parties/gatherings or extracurricular activities. Pretty much the school day was my lone means of social contact. The result of this was I passed a lot of time in my imagination, in the company of my toys--both my little plastic figurines that became the Animals, and my stuffed toys. I had no real name for the latter, but I used to stash them at the foot of my bed (before their numbers became overwhelming, when they were moved to a hammock), so I informally called them my bed toys. I always had a favorite one or so that I held as I slept. I just assumed everyone had "bed toys."
The Bed Toys, despite coming from numerous franchises and manufacturers, all coexisted in the same universe and got along as a community. I think later on I took some inspiration from The Muppet Babies in that, rather than having their own village like the Animals, they simply lived in my bedroom; so technically I was a character in their universe too, just an uninvolved one. Think of the human family in The Christmas Toy (another direct inspiration), in whose house the toys live, yet the toys have to conceal the fact that they're alive from their humans or face consequences. Similarly, my toys had to pretend to be just toys when I was around, and came to life when I was gone. My play with them was basically pretending that I was not there. I guess this kind of set the precedent for all my later work...with a brief exception in the first version of the King Kuts series, I've made a point to keep myself as a character completely out of my work--my characters do not know I exist, and for all intents and purposes, I don't. I erased myself.
As I grew older and moved on from playing with my toys to simply writing stories out, both the Animals and the Bed Toys fell by the wayside. Especially after my toys were stored away. I have no written material featuring the Bed Toys because all the storytelling was physical play. I guess what people nowadays call roleplaying...? I'm probably too old and cynical now to give them a proper story (see the darker turn an attempted reboot of the Animals is taking), but I'd at least like to memorialize them as characters. Sadly, there were so many, and so many of them were cheaper, unidentifiable toys, AND I know one was stolen and at least two handmade ones were destroyed 😞 , AND I've woefully forgotten the names of many, that a complete listing is unlikely.
RANDOM OBSERVATIONS
Wackiness. Friendship, for better or worse. We're stuck together, may as well make the most of it. Toys are only human. What goes on when we're not around to see it...?
Character InformationCharacter profiles and brainstorming infodumps.
Storyline InformationEssays and info.