Throwback Thursday review: Koosh Lings and Kooshie Koos

I'm RagingMoon1987, and life is not beautiful right now.  Without going into too many details, someone that I once respected has hurt me greatly, and at the moment I see no clear-cut solution.  If there's any silver lining to the situation it's that I've been inspired to go back to school.  I'm looking into expanding my horizons in the library with a library science degree, and I may look into pharmacy technician courses as well.  So if y'all pray, please pray for my mom, me, and Coworker B.  We are ALL having it rough right now. 

With that sunshiney little opener out of the way, today's post is stretching the doll label a bit, since I'm not too sure if the Koosh Lings are dolls or figures.  They're certainly not ACTION figures; that label is more fitting to G.I. Joe and Spiderman than fuzzy little beings.  But the Koosh Lings don't have much in common with dolls either.  The Kooshie Koos are definitely dolls, but Koosh Lings?  Well, you be the judge.  Teeter is the Koosh Ling in the middle, while his two mop-topped companions are Kooshie Koos.

Hmmm...now that I think about it, Kooshie Koos aren't really dolls either since they lack joints, but we'll get to that.  Little Sister and I were both fans of Koosh balls and figures when we were kids, and among the items we had in our collections were these goofy, bendable oddities called Koosh Lings.  Koosh Lings are kinda like Fry Kids or Mome Raths, in that they're balls of fuzz with arms, legs, and eyes.  Unlike both the Fry Kids and the Mome Raths, the Koosh Lings also have a full face, as opposed to the large eyes of the other creatures.  Koosh Lings came in both genders, were of varying colors, and had various personalities.  I owned the characters Teeter, Melvin, and Tugs, Sister had Skye and T.K., and for some reason we both had Pip.  Pip was the one everyone loved...literally.  That's what her card said.  All of these critters had a personality hashed out, with my Teeter here being the nutjob party animal of the bunch.

I don't remember the personalities of T.K. or Skye since they weren't mine, but I remember that Teeter was the nut, Melvin was the brainiac, Pip was extra-sweet, and Tugs was the strong one.  Teeter stands about four inches tall, and unlike some Koosh critters he can stand on his own two feet.

All of the Koosh Lings could stand on their own, though it sometimes took a little bamboozling.  I always credited Teeter with having the best balance because his feet are bare and thus wider than the shoe-shod feet of the other Koosh Lings.

He has three toes like the Flintstones do, LOL.  I remember how freaked out I was as a child when I saw that Fred, Wilma, and the other denizens of Bedrock had three toes.  He also has some black crud on his vinyl that I haven't been able to get off, plus some vaguely molded nails on his big toes.

Using the three-toed logic you might think that Teeter would have three fingers as well, but he doesn't.

Well, maybe he does.  Does one's thumb count as a finger?  Either way Teeter has four digits on each hand.  His left hand is open, and his right hand is curled.  This enabled him to hold onto a pencil or a drinking straw or something like that.

These critters can also hold on to each other, as their arms and legs are the perfect thickness for such a stunt.  When Sister and I had a ton of these we'd attach one to a curtain rod or to the top of the fence and then we'd link the rest together.  We had a few simple rules for this game:  Tugs, as the strongest, always had to be on top, and the two Pips could not be holding on to each other.  Later Koosh Lings, from the Wild Times line, held small items in their hands and thus could not grasp each other.  These arms and legs bend, by the way.  Indeed, one of the taglines for Koosh Lings was "bendable buddies."

I should probably say a word about the paint job.  Teeter has big navy blue eyes that remind me of Cookie Monster, plus an open mouth with a red tongue.  There's a little bit of detail on his cheeks that suggest fur.  His paint job is not the most precise, but since Teeter was a cheap toy in his day I can forgive that.

Like all Koosh beings Teeter is covered in fine elastic filaments.  His body is navy blue...

...and his hair is orange and yellow, like a Koosh pencil topper that I had during fifth grade.

Do y'all see those loops, right behind Teeter's head?

I used to cut those to "prevent illness," as I put it at one time.  I'd pretend that if I left those loops intact my fuzzy friends would fall victim to a dangerous (but not fatal) disease called "loopus."  LOL, I was so weird!

For what it's worth to a doll blog, that's Koosh Lings in a nutshell.  I'd do better to have the rest of Teeter's gang before I could make a decent review, but for now, I don't.  All I can say is that this zany little toy is fun to have around, especially as a quirky pencil holder.  He's made life at work a little more bearable.

With Teeter out of the way, let's move on to my other odd looking pair.  The world seems to have forgotten about Kooshie Koos, as I found exactly ONE commercial for them on YouTube and very little information elsewhere.  Kooshie Koos are from Hasbro's Koosh line like the Koosh Lings are, and they have various names and personalities, but other than that these dolls are very different from the Koosh Lings.  I was able to glean character names from in-box examples on eBay; indeed, I had no idea the individual figures had names.  The lavender-haired doll on the left is Baby Powder Paula, and I think her dandelion-haired companion is named Busy Baby Blossom.

How many dolls do I have named "Blossom," I wonder?  I've never stopped to count.  Anyway, Kooshie Koos vary in height, depending on the pose that they are in.  Paula is standing and is 3.75 inches, hair and all, while the seated Blossom is 3.25 inches.  They are both of similar size to Sonny Angel.

Well actually, no they're not, but their hair makes Paula and Blossom LOOK like they're the same size as Sonny Apple and Sonny Konpeito, and I often display them together.  Teeter is taller than all of them by quite a hair.

I said above that Teeter is supposed to be the zany Koosh Ling of the bunch, but when I look at him with the Kooshie Koos he takes on a more responsible role, like the role of a fun-loving but reliable babysitter to his smaller Koosh friends.

LOL, some babysitter!  Anyway, the Kooshie Koos remind me a little of the Quints with their tiny size and huge eyes.  I likely would've included Paula and Blossom in Quints games if I'd had them at the time.

Since they're Koosh entities, Paula and Blossom have full heads of rubber filament hair, but the filaments are a little different from Teeter's.  They're softer, finer, and shinier.

Since the Koos are babies and most of them are girls they all have pastel-colored hair.  Even the sole boy of the bunch (Baby Boy Bradley) had pastel hair, though to soften that blow he was given blue hair.

Like Teeter, Kooshie Koos have painted faces, but the paint job is more precise for the most part.  Paula has a little paint missing from her left eye, which I assume peeled away during application (these eyes look like decal eyes).  Paula has big brown upturned eyes and a pale pink mouth (not again!!!  WHY???)...

...while Blossom has left-gazing blue eyes and a pale pink mouth.  They both have teeny-weeny noses and teeny-weeny ears.

Interestingly, Paula's eyebrows match her eyes, while Blossom's match her...eyeliner???  Weird indeed!

The body is where the Kooshie Koos stop being dolls and start being figurines.  They have ZERO joints.  None at all.  Their heads don't even turn.

I love how they come in different poses, though!  I also love their painted diapers and booties, though I don't understand why Blossom's booties are lavender when her hair is yellow and her dress is blue and pink.

I do appreciate the molded details, even though they're not as crisp as on some other toys.  The little booties have treads on the soles...

...and their diapers are appropriately bunchy in places.

Clothing is simple, just these little flocked dresses that close with a small square of Velcro.  Paula's dress is blue with a pink bow, and Blossom's is purple with no embellishments at all.

They're very simple little garments, though Paula's dress is gussied up a bit with a scalloped hem and that pink bow.  The stitches holding the Velcro on look pretty glaring, unfortunately.

Furthermore, I wonder why Paula got a dress that doesn't match her coloring in any way.  To be fair, it doesn't match Blossom's coloring either.

Then again, a purple dress looks a bit too monochromatic with purple hair and purple shoes.

Instead of my usual good/bad section I'm just gonna say that while these are not collectors items they're spirit boosters.  They popped up in the mail and made me smile during a dark week, and that alone makes Teeter, Paula, and Blossom worth having.  I also recommend them for fans of the classic Koosh balls because they have everything Koosh balls do, with some added personality. 

Much love to all,
RagingMoon1987