Giant Robot Store and GR2 News

In Korea, you have to serve two years of in the Army. He’s been in the public eye for a decade and at 29 is now enrolling in the military service. Yes, you have to do this in Korea. Athletes who win a gold medal can be exempt, perhaps because of the status they give to a nation, but a singer, dancer, or actor? No, they have to learn how to fight. At 29, this is a crucial time in his career. He hasn’t been in any successful Hollywood movie, but that little momentum from Ninja Assassin to Speed Racer will be long erased. In two years, what will change? By then will another Korean export fill his shoes? Probably not, but can he live with himself and away from the public ridicule if he doesn’t serve, yes. The photo and video below is from our buddy Rain’s appearance at Giant Robot NY. Yes those are Uglydolls in the background and Sun-min Kim’s Spiderboom!   [youtube]qhTWTN2K850[/youtube]
Continue reading

 

In your youth, there were certain shops that you couldn’t wait to visit and when you got there, you didn’t want to leave. Are they still there? Why did they disappear? Did they have enough support or help? Did their customers just shop online? 

As a retail shop owner, we’ve seen the tides of change. Shifting spending habits coupled by our crippled economy have forced closures of an endless amount of retail establishments. It’s a nationwide epidemic that’s not well addressed or supported. Are empty street blocks our future? Or will they be filled with mega-corporate owned “fake” small businesses?

Changes happen in small amounts and a business like Uglydoll started a new promotion that’s exciting as it is fresh and they’re helping small businesses by offering a special coupon that’s redeemable for a special Uglydoll. It’s retro in that it relies on US Mail, just like the legendary great promotions of the past.

It was a few years ago at Comic Con that our friend lost his Star Wars pen. He was relentless in his effort to find it. Time passed, everyone was forced to wait while he crawled on his hands and knees. It was a ball point pen. Why was it special? It was a mail order premium that might have been worth a few dollars, but sentimentally worth everyones teasing.

David Horvath explains the promotion from ideas to reasons why. It’s incredibly generous and thoughtful and hopefully inspires others including ourselves to do the same.

 

GR: What made you decide to do the Cookie Chef Babo promotion?

DH: It’s about getting people in the stores. We have a new guy Mike, and he was at Hasbro for 22 yrs. On his first day, he and I had this idea independently, and I give him the credit. That’s what he brought. He’s been great about that sort of thing. The idea is to get people into the stores. This is definitely something we want to do more of. We got this ready in the beginning of the year when he started.

Continue reading
Spend $25 and you get a little form that you send in, and  you get? Cookie Chef Babo. It’s an insane deal and smartly, the Uglydoll folks and David Horvath and Sun-min Kim have created a way to get people out to the shops. Get out, come see us, get in, get a form. Once we run out of forms… that’s when the offer expires. We’ll see if we can get more!   Addendum: no Chronicle Books products,  Bossy Bear, or Qee or Toy2R products. We like them, but they don’t count. Tax doesn’t count either. One household can receive up to 3 of the of plush.   We extended this online. We’ll mail you the certificate. You need to at 4.95 shipping, it’s a 12″ doll. The products need to have a barcode, so the buttons are too small! Internationals, you’ll probably have to wait. Limit of 3 per household!
Continue reading