Every so often I come back here to check this thread (been following it for a long while now), and I have to say…the plushies are actually kinda cute. The only thing that needs a major improvement is the nose - it looks slapped on and is overall very unappealing to look at. It’s mainly at how it’s just attached at that weird side-view angle.
Also, I’ve recently been reading the Oz books (fellow Oz-autist here) for fun as I’ve never read them before. My mind is still fresh on the second book (I only just finished it a couple weeks ago), and it’s honestly pretty baffling to me to see just how different Cynthia’s take on the Wogglebug is from the original (and not in a good way).
I know others have said this, but the Wogglebug isn’t a great guy in the book. He’s not malevolent by any means, just ignorant and arrogant asf. Even when he first shows up, all he does is interrupt the characters’ journey just so he can brag to them about how smart and superior he is. He brings all of the characters’ irritation upon himself as he frequently makes insensitive comments towards them and is overall very condescending. He is somewhat humbled by the end, but not by much, and it’s only because Tip and co. told him to shut the fuck up more than once.
He‘s not misunderstood and never was, and I still can’t comprehend how Cynthia saw the other characters as irredeemably cruel to him. Maybe it’s because they actually gave him a dose of reality rather than continue to coddle him and stroke his ego.
Im pretty sure the Wogglebug in general was poking fun at those who think that going to a fancy school or having some artsy fartsy degree makes them better than everyone else. (and I remember hearing that Baum in general was one to frequently take jabs at the fancy bigwig authority crowd & the military in his books as he was never really fond of either.)
Having my mind refreshed with the book, it’s weird to see how much Cynthia‘s bastardized the source material, to the point where it may as well not matter anymore. It’s actually kind of fascinating.