#cryptid screaming

Like look at hiiimmm ahbjsdbagsbfghb! he's so baby girl!

@look-back-month-challenge

Day 4: Do you still have any toys from your childhood?

Yes!! A whole bunch, but since I'd like to feature them on other days, instead I decided to share some of my Littlest Pet Shops and a handful of old happy meal toys I keep on display! I used to have WAY more LPS, but little siblings + lots of moving means that they've gone missing around the house lol.

The Hello Kitty's were all from a Halloween collab, pushing down on the witches hat reveals a pet cat, pushing down the antenna on the butterfly flaps the wings, and the skeleton glows in the dark!

The Zorua used to backflip, but the mechanism is all worn out, so instead it does little hops!

But I don't wish to get rid of the old design... They are cute, and had a sweet personality.

I'm probably going to redraw them and give them a new name, a new life, something better than before.. Hmm..

Please don't reblog.

Old art of now a nameless character. I kinda don't like it, but I do as well????

Wally is constantly, consistently making eye contact with the viewer. He talks to us in his hidden messages, he says hello to us, and is so happy to "speak" with us in the website guestbook (at least before it was closed)

Wally is, by my interpretation, an incredible example of the type of character/host of the shows I watched as a child. The type that interacts directly with the kids at home, invites them to join the conversation and leaves space for them to speak. Someone who talks to their friend through a screen, and invites them to join their world and day-to-day life, like Bear from Bear in the Big Blue House, Steve from Blue's Clues, Elmo in Sesame Street, and Mr Rogers and his neighborhood.

My initial reaction to Wally and his behavior is that he is someone's friend. He is supposed to be a friend to the kid on the other side of the television screen, of the paperback read alongs, of the records and the toy telephone.

Wally doesn't speak to an audience, and is surprised to learn that he's very popular in the radio interview, and excited with how many apparent friends visited the website

Wally loves his friends, and he loves You too. "Wally is your best friend", he writes in your profile on the website.

And I think of other characters that are Friends.

I think of Steve being so excited to see "You" again in the blues clues movie, after all these years. I think of Spinel in Steven Universe the Movie, literally created to be a friend, crying and breaking down at the end of her fight with Steven, as she asks herself what she's doing, repeats the phrase "I'm supposed to be a friend". I think of the countless children's shows that ended, not with a wrapped up plot or grand finale, but with the characters looking through the screen and saying a tearful goodbye.

I think of my little sister watching Bear in the Big Blue House, the same way I used to watch it when I was her age and it was still on TV.

I think of Welcome Home being lost media, abruptly cancelled and taken off the air.

I think of how the other neighbors in home acknowledge each other, and the narrators, but never us.

I think of how distressing it must be, to be someone's best friend, and they suddenly, without warning, disappear. And when you ask your other friends and neighbors, slowly realizing that they have no clue who or what you're talking about. Realizing that there's no real trace of your friend, no house, no belongings, and the slow realization that you're not even sure what they look like. You remember looking at them, talking with them, the feeling of their presence as you brought them along with you on your day. But nobody else remembers at all.

...

I think Wally misses his friend, and is trying to find "You". He's trying his hardest, sending out letters and messages in any way he can to try and find "You". And he finally did. He watches us through the website, through the pictures and the eyes, and he tries to speak with us again. We scrawl notes through the guestbook, but he still can't hear us. We call each other on the phone, and he knows we're there, but we never say anything. He's desperate, and getting more and more overt, and then the restoration team gets scared and scrubs the site. Almost all his hard work, his messages, his eyes are gone. He can't see us again, where are we, where is his friend. And he gets one phone call through. He knows we're there, and we STILL. WON'T. TALK.