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Heed the call of Cute-thulhu.
Nor is it to be thought that man is either the oldest or the last of earth's masters... The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be. Not in the spaces we know, but between them, they
walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen. They walk unseen and foul in lonely places... The wind gibbers with Their voices, and the earth mutters with Their consciousness. They bend the forest and crush the city, yet may not forest or city behold the hand that smites. Kadath in the cold waste hasth known Them, and what man knows Kadath? ... As a foulness shall ye know Them. Their hand is at your throats, yet ye see Them not; and Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold. Man rules now where They ruled once; They shall soon rule where Man rules now. After summer is winter, and after winter summer. They wait patient and potent, for here shall They reign again."
--A quote from the Necronomicon, cited in "The Dunwich Horror."
Author Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) is renowned as one of the true masters of macabre horror. S.T. Joshi, probably the leading Lovecraft expert, described the tales as depicting "vast gulfs of time and space... huge monsters who rule the universe and who, far from being hostile to human beings, are utterly indifferent to them, and occasionally destroy them as we might heedlessly destroy ants underfoot. These entities are not to be taken literally (as occultists who now believe in the 'truth' of the Cthulhu Mythos do), but as symbols for the eternal mysteries of a boundless cosmos. They are worshipped as 'gods' by their human followers, but in reality most of them are mere extraterrestrials who are guided by their own motives and purposes."
Hear that, crackpots? "Not to be taken literally."
Lovecraft's stories dealt with the intrusion of a larger mystical world upon our plane, and the damage such an incursion could cause. His most well-known Old One is likely Cthulhu, now regarded as the elder god of elder gods. Cthulhu was winged, tentacled, and soft and cuddly. Wait, what?
Toy Vault secured the rights to make toys based
on H.P. Lovecraft's works, and their first offering was a Cthulhu plush. Yes, a Beanie Elder God.
Standing (or, well, sitting) ten inches tall, Cthulhu's body is made from a soft cotton/poly blend. He's filled with a combination of plush stuffing and pvc beans, giving him the right mixture of soft and study parts. He's made from more panels than I'm about to count - 10 facial tentacles, two segmented wings, a furrowed brow, textured spinal ridge and various other details add up to quite a lot of stitching.
Toy Valut didn't skimp on thread, because Cthulhu's seams hold strong. Granted, this isn't a plaything intended for children, but I did have a friend who gave pillow space to the Elder God every night and he held up just fine. He's got round glass eyes with orange irises surrounding black pupils.
There are several versions of the Cthulhu plush - the original (now called "medium") had two-tone green construction. Soon there was a large (12") and a small (6") version, followed by several sizes of Gothic Cthulhu, cut from black and silver cloth. Then Santa Cthulhu (with a scarf, Santa hat, and jingle bells suspended from his tentacles) and Summer Fun Cthulhu (wearing sandals, a Hawaiian print shirt, and straw hat). For a shambling horror, he sure does get around.
With a variety of sizes and styles, there's a plush Cthulhu that's right for everyone, whether adorning your desk at work or keeping watch over your bookshelves at night. Thou shalt prepare for his coming.
-- 10/14/02
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