Munny Mania

Who here knows what a Munny is?

Ask me that same question 5-6 weeks ago, I wouldn't either.

I do now, though, so I'll tell you (or you can read about it yourself here). A Munny is a blank toy, usually a chubby little figure, that you can decorate yourself. Apparently, these things have taken off in popularity among the hipster/creative types.

Steve Brown, one of the proprietors of Shoparooni on Waterloo Road, is a fan and recently sponsored a contest. Despite my utter lack of artistic skill, I decided to enter and Tina and I spent the bulk of the day of the contest, a couple weeks ago, working on our respective Munny pals. Hers, of course, was way better than mine, both in design and execution.

She did something along the lines of a hip asian skater crossed with Lite-Brite. I had more trouble with the conceptualization.

At first, I thought about doing a little Lenin dude, with receding hairline and goatee and such, but I couldn't figure out how to do the clothes. Then I thought about doing a Ghoulardi munny, but the same type of problem confronted me. I thought about buying three more munnies and making a set of KISS dudes, but didn't feel like spending $60 more.

So, at the last moment, struck with inspiration at the art supply store on Coventry that I can't recall the name of, I decided to make a sea monster. I went to Tina's and her kids helped me mix up some green and blue and yellow paint, which we then glooped on the Munny. One of her kids drew a funky little scary face on the Munny from one of her "how to draw monsters" books. Another kid found a crazy looking claw and we decided to make a spear. Then I figured I'd put on the moustache I bought from Big Fun to put on the Munny when he was still gonna be Lenin. And then one of the kids put a little plunger in the Munny's hand (you know, the one not holding the claw-spear). We hurried up and created a little patch of undersea land, complete with shells and sand and coral and sponge for the Munny to stand on, and off we went to the competition.

En route to Collinwood, I changed my mind about removing the plunger the kid had included at the last minute. Instead, I embraced it, figuring between the moustache and the plunger, I was well on the way to having a pretty good version of a sea monster plumber. I mean, if sea monsters live in communities, there has to be at least one plumber, right?

Actually, I decided that my sea monster, Harry, would be the 2nd most successful plumber of his particular tribe of sea monsters. If only I would have thought of this earlier in the day -- we could have made an ass crack.


As it was, neither of us won anything at the competition. I thought maybe Tina had a chance, but as fun as mine was to make, it didn't come close to any of the others. Of course, with an ass crack it might have...

(Click here for pics of the super awesome submissions.)

Either way, we had fun making them, and to paraphrase something Steve said the next day, when we bumped into him after dining at the Beachland's new Sunday Brunch, it was great to see adults all excited about playing with toys and coloring/painting/designing again. I agree, and look forward to whatever his next competition is. I still won't have any skills, I still won't win anything, but it'll be fun to try.