R Is For Raj The Rambling Radiator
The story ‘Raj the Rambling Radiator’ was the first film we made, and it involved a lot of experimentation since up until this point, we were still learning how to rig up digital puppets. Raj’s animated puppet was our first so his design and movement is pretty basic.
Although Raj’s cartoon is very simple and lacking in finesse this only adds to its charm and his bedtime story remains a personal favourite.
Raj’s personality traits: Kind, generous, thoughtful, caring
Raj name meaning: A boys name from the Sanskrit raja, meaning “king”. Raj name on Wikipedia
Story Appearances: Raj The Rambling Radiator
Other Appearances: Jump Song / Turkey Song
Ratty
Across all the 26 Boodlebobs stories, there are a few bad guys because, without the bad guys, the good guys wouldn’t shine.
It’s not that Ratty’s bad, it’s just that he’s lazy, cowardly and a thief. He can’t help himself. It’s in his rat genes to be selfish and devious with the single objective to survive.
The only creature he’s afraid of is Crankworth and this ‘cat and rat’ conflict is a constant theme throughout.
Rat Fact: Rats are found in nearly all areas of Earth. The only rat-free continent is Antarctica, which is too cold for rat survival outdoors and its lack of human habitation does not provide buildings to shelter them from the weather.
Ratty’s fellow rodents: The best-known rat species are the black rat (Rattus rattus) and the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus).
Roger the Rolling Pin (a legend In his own mind)
Originally just a support character – a partner for Dorothy the doughnut to dance with – Roger projected himself into the limelight to become a legend in his own fantasy.
When asked, Roger had this to say about himself. ‘I AM ROGER – lover, creator, philanthropist, artist, intellectual thinker, patron of the arts, the voice of a generation, athlete, role model and inspiration to people worldwide. If you look in this dictionary under ‘Legend’, it says ‘Roger!’ I could go on but I have more important things to do… things that need to pay homage to ME!’
You can BUY Roger’s music release ‘Perfect Love Is Me’.
Personality Traits: Roger is an aspiring singer that has NPD and displays the following: arrogance and dominance, feelings of grandiosity, desire for success and power, the envy of others, feelings of uniqueness, a sense of entitlement and the need to be admired.
He’s exploitative by nature and has a complete lack of empathy.
Name meaning: Roger means ‘Fame Spear’ or ‘Renown Lance’? The given name is derived from the old French personal names Roger and Rogier. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements of German words forming ‘fame’ or ‘renown’ and ‘spear or ‘lance’. With the reference of famous or renown and the spear/lance, it’s likely this is the origin of the term ‘a jolly good rogering’. Roger name on Wikipedia
Samuel The Sliding Sausage
Samuel the Sliding Sausage is one of the principal characters featured in the original (1980) first six books published by Thurman Publishing (Mr Men). In fact, he was the first of dozens of characters devised to amuse the local children.
How does one write a story about a sausage that’s funny? Falling off a plate is funny. And a sausage bouncing is funny but there has to be more to it than that.
Bring in a cat ‘who really loves sausages – to eat!’ and you may not have a best seller on your hands but you’ll have a child who’ll laugh and want the story over and over again.
Samuel name meaning. Is a male given name and a surname of Hebrew origin meaning either “name of God” or “God heard”. Samuel’s name meaning on Wikipedia
Story Appearances: Samuel The Sliding Sausage
Scorpion
Our Scorpion makes two appearances in different cartoons and references the animal fable ‘The Scorpion and the Frog’ which originates from Russia.
On account of its dark morality, there have been many references to it in popular culture including films, television shows and books. Scorpion and the Frog Wikipedia
Scorpion facts: Scorpions are arthropods. They have eight legs, two pedipalps, and a tail with a venom-injecting barb. Scorpions have two venom glands that produce venom used in hunting and self-defence. Scorpions do not have bones. Instead, they have an exoskeleton made of chitin, which is similar to the shell of a shrimp. Scorpion Info on Wikipedia
The Seaguls
One could say, our Seagulls are philosophical. Spending all year on a beach they get to witness all manner of human behaviour. Therefore, it’s quite a shock for them when they see a cabinet turning itself into a boat with a moth acting as first mate and 82 House-mites having the holiday of a lifetime.
But they take it in their stride and remain unfazed. Maybe they’ve had one too many ice creams?
Seagull Facts: Over 20 species of seagull have survived on the planet for at least 30 million years.
Seagulls are treated as pests in some parts because they are noisy, release huge quantities of droppings and in some cases can be aggressive (especially if you’re eating chips!)
Snodgrass The Snail
A very favourite character from the first series of books. Snodgrass lends new meaning to slow. He moves slowly, he thinks slowly, he eats slowly – so slowly he often forgets – and even breathes slowly. He never knows where he’s been but, if he can be bothered (not often) he can slowly look over his shoulder and see where he’s been by his trail of slime… yuk!
Carrying his home on his back, he’s never entirely sure if he’s inside or out. Snodgrass is best described as a spectator. Occasionally he’ll offer an opinion but his listener is usually long gone before it’s been formulated.
Snodgrass: A family name from Scotland Snodgrass on Wikipedia
Snail Facts: A Snail is the common name for ‘Gastropod Molluscs’ and can be split into three main groups, land snails, sea snails and freshwater snails.
- Snails can have lungs or gills depending on the species and their habitat
- Snail-like animals that do not have a shell are usually called slugs.
Spencer The Spanner
One of the original book characters from ‘Terence The Terrible Tap’.
In any story, there always has to be at least one cameo appearance of a humourless grown-up. Spencer is that grown-up with no sense of fun or a cheery smile.
What’s worse, when he can see Terrance is stuck – gushing full on – he just clunks poor Terence on the head! True…it does the trick but couldn’t he at least have explored other less drastic avenues?
Like encouragement or maybe a little squirt of oil Ah well… at least Spencer didn’t ruin the adventure and after all, he did save the day.
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Name meaning: Spencer means ‘steward” or ‘administrator’. The word dispenser is derived from this name. Spencer on Wikipedia
Spicer The Spider
Who doesn’t love – or hate – spiders. They are unique with their eight legs… or are they arms… their ability to run very fast, climb very high and hide in the smallest of places.
And they make beautiful webs. Spicer, the spider featured in the stories, is a nice spider. He’s kind and thoughtful. He wouldn’t dream of frightening anyone and most certainly wouldn’t bite. He wouldn’t know how and why on earth would he want to!
Fact: Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae (a pair of appendages in front of the mouth) with fangs attached that are generally able to inject venom, and at the rear, spinnerets that extrude silk.
Note. Spicer would NEVER inject venom unless he had to save your life.
Name meaning: The Spicer name is derived from the Latin word ‘Speciarius’. Translated, this refers to a profession as a seller of spices or a grocer. Spicer name on Wikipedia
Sefton The Soap
One of the original book characters from ‘Terence The Terrible Tap’.
Sefton is one of the gang who cannot wait to have an adventure so when Terence fills Bernard the Bath it’s Sefton who gets carried away first as he chases Louise and sets off a whole chain of events. It’s not always the lead characters that create the mayhem although they seem to be the ones who have to sort it out.
Name meaning: Sefton is a place near Liverpool (UK)
Sudsey The Soap
One of the original book characters from ‘Terence The Terrible Tap’.
In this story, Terence the Tap has an adventure but he couldn’t have this – especially as it was a pirate adventure – on his own.
He needed participants. He wanted everyone to join in and Sudsy the Soap Dish, along with the other bathroom characters, couldn’t wait to share in the fun. Sudsy doesn’t get to say much but he enjoys shooting the rapids!
The definition of sudsy is something full of froth or foam. An example of something sudsy in this case would be our soap dish covered with bubbles. Sudsy!
Socks
From one of the original books ‘Wally The Wobbling Wellington’
The Socks are more enigmatic. They’re not characters as such but they are an entity with the ambition to tickle Wally to death – well, that’s what Wally thinks. ‘Wally the Wobbling Wellington’ is the only story in the series of 26 that includes a human element but as this is abstracted (and because Jo the author can do whatever she likes) it made sense – and it was more threatening – to have feet inside the Socks.
It a simple story. Wally is ticklish and the socks always set him off laughing which sets him off wobbling. He needs to find a cure for ticklishness.
Terence The Terrible Tap
Terence the Terrible Tap is one of the principal characters featured in the original (1980) first six books published by Thurman Publishing (Mr Men).
Bath time is always a favourite time for kids, so here’s a story which relates to this. However, beware of getting carried away.
A story within a story. Always wanting to get into mischief, Terence tells a story about pirates, hurricanes and giant waves. He gets completely carried away – well, all his friends do – and he’s left gushing.
It’s a good job a Spencer is on hand to knock some sense into him.
Terence name meaning. Terence is a male given name, derived from the Latin name Terentius Wikipedia
Story Appearances: Terence The Terrible Tap.
Talbert The Talc
One of the original book characters from ‘Terence the Terrible Tap’.
Just like his other bathtime friends who join in the adventure, Talbot has great fun puffing out great clouds of talcum powder to simulate fog. Honestly, it’s all too silly for words!
Name meaning: Talbot comes from an old German name ‘Talabert’ meaning bright valley. Talbot on Wikipedia
Tessa the Tap
One of the original book characters from ‘Terence the Terrible Tap’
Tessa is Terence’s sister and sits next to him at one end of the bath. Unlike her brother, Tessa is very timid and thinks taps should just be taps – not making up stories and having adventures. But she does find it all quite funny, except when Terence gets clonked.
She thinks this is most unkind which really, it is. But she has to later concede that it was the only real solution.
Name meaning: Tessa has a Greek origin and means ‘to reap or gather’ Tessa name Wikipedia
Timmy the Tea Towel
“You’ll always find me in the kitchen at parties”. This is a popular song which Timmy always sings because it’s like a kind of joke.
Yes, tea towels are ALWAYS in the kitchen at parties drying up plates, cups and glasses when they’d rather be dancing and partying.
Andre doesn’t quite get this and thinks Timmy is popular for all the wrong reasons!
Principally, Timmy appears in two of the stories ‘Andre the Artistic Apron’ and ‘Raj the Rambling Radiator’.
In the Andre story, he’s Andre’s role model but in the Raj story, he plays an important part in helping to keep Fedora’s egg warm. Intriguing? Read the stories!
Name meaning: Timmy comes from the Greek name meaning honouring God, ‘In God’s honour’ or Honoured by God’ Timmy name on Wikipedia
Tina the Tea Pot
Scottish in origin, Tina sometimes lapses into her native dialect but this is only when she feels strongly about something. She’s kind and mumsy. Her solution for everything is to sit down and have a nice cup of tea.
Although not a central character in her own right, she’s very important in quite a few of the stories as the voice of common sense.
She looks out for everyone, she’s the guardian of fair play but at the same time, she’s no pushover and very upright in her views.
Name meaning: Tina is a female given name. It originates from the Old English word Tyne / Tyna / Tina’, meaning river. Tina name on Wikipedia
Tom & Toe the Bouncing Tomatoes
Two of the characters from the original book ‘Samuel the Sliding Sausage’
Not dissimilar to those incredible bouncing balls you can buy, Tom and Toe have the ability to bounce rather than get squished when they land on the floor.
This is very handy since they’re able to bounce about and rescue Samuel who has fallen off the plate and lost his bounce.
Turkey
THE SINGING TURKEY was initially created as a seasonal character that could be re-used for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Boodlebob’s greatest strength is the number of individual unique characters it includes and this is wonderful but brings its own problems since there are so many characters to create and manage. You see, the more complex the digital puppet is in terms of functionality, swap-sets, physics, three-quarter views and so forth, the longer it takes to create.
This means that for the most part, we have to keep things as simple as possible as we don’t have either the time or the budget :(
When we made the Turkey Song featuring the Singing Turkey, he was our first character using Adobe Illustrator (vector image files) and was created because we wanted to produce a seasonal/animal song. The ‘Tur.. Tur.. Turkey’ song was just so stupid we loved it.
Turkey Facts: Turkeys can run at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour and fly as fast as 55 miles per hour.Turkeys on on Wikipedia
U Is For Una the Upturned Umbrella
Being an umbrella, and because it hadn’t rained in ages, Una hadn’t been outside in ages and this made her very unhappy until she decided she was going to go out anyway. What a surprise! Rather than feeling a bit silly – who puts up an umbrella when it’s NOT raining -, Una is informed that she can also serve as a parasol providing shade from the hot sun beating overhead.
She casts a lovely big shadow and everyone is extremely grateful. However, Baby Duck isn’t happy because the hot sun has dried up the duck pond. Una to the rescue…but how?
Name Meaning: Una is an Irish language name. Derived from the Irish word ‘Uan’ (lamb). Una might also mean “the personification of truth, beauty, and unity”Una Wikipedia
V Is For Vera the Voracious Vacuum
Voracious… VOR-RAY-SHUSH. What a fantastic word to use especially if you’re under five years old! It means wanting or devouring great quantities of food so if you have a voracious appetite, for example, it means you’re starving hungry!
Vera has a voracious appetite for cleaning. Nothing in her path is safe VROOOOOOOOM she goes as she trundles along stopping at nothing – Benny, Freddie, the House-Mites but the big question is…. Can she eat an elephant?
Name meaning: Vera is a Russian name and means “Truth or Faith” Vera Wikipedia
W Is For Wally The Wobbling Wellington
Wally the Wobbling Wellington is one of the principal characters featured in the original (1980) first six books published by Thurman Publishing (Mr Men). Wellingtons come in pairs which means they’re identical. Or are they?
They are identical but like brothers – like twins – they have different personalities. Wally has a brother called Willy who is irritatingly clean, tidy and in the right place.
Wally, on the other hand, is always the wellie that’s lost or muddy. This is because he’s ticklish and lives in fear of THE SOCKS! But there is a cure and that cure involves washing – apparently the cure for everything.
Wally or Wallie is a given name and a nickname for Wallace which ultimately means ‘Wales‘ and Walter.
Xavier the Xenophobic Xylophone
It’s a good job there’s such a thing as a xylophone (Z-EYE-LER-FONE) otherwise we’d be pretty stuck for an X character. Xavier is a great name too (say it how it is written) and xenophobic… WOW! This is a fantastic word! ZEN-A-FOE-BICK. Say it a few times while you get used to it then practice using it on your family.
It means being afraid of strangers and/or what they think (or might be thinking!). So, for example, you could say… “Is Uncle Harry ZEN-A-FOE-BICK because he doesn’t like his new neighbours?”
Xavier is xenophobic because he’s scared of those he doesn’t know but when he realises they love his music (and think he’s quite groovy too) he stops being scared and makes new friends.
Name meaning: Xavier is a boy’s name of Arabic (Basque) origin meaning ‘new house or bright’ Xavier wikipedia
Y Is For Yousef the Yearning Yucca
Yousef yearned for friendship. Not just someone to talk to but someone to play-fight with, to sit next to and to hug. We all need hugs – either to give or receive them – but Yousef couldn’t do this because he was covered in very sharp spikes. “Look… I DO like you,” explained Percy the Pot Plant, “But I can’t get close to you. You’re too spiky.”
It was a thorny problem (haha) then Queenie suggested he made friends with Carlos. Being a cactus, Carlos was covered in sharp spines too but when they tried to hug it all went disastrously wrong. So who – if anyone – could hug and play with Yousef?
Yousef name meaning: In piety, power and influence Yosef’s name meaning on Wikipedia
Zac The Zealous Zucchini
Zac is pure theatre. He’s one of those conceited ‘wanna-be’s’ ( wannabe – A person who wants or aspires to be someone or something else or who tries to look or act like someone else) who really thinks he’s got talent.
The problem with these theatrical types is that they tend to be both delusional and highly irritating particularly when they never stop performing. Zac’s crowning glory – literally – is the large flower which grows out of his head.
It flounces and waves as if it has a life of its own which – in many respects – it probably has. By the way, zucchini is an Italian name for a courgette which, in the real world, in nothing more than a marrow in the making. Not many people like marrows…
Zealous word meaning. Zealous, A person is someone who has a passion for what he or she is doing and shows it when they do it. Known to become quite excited.
Zac name meaning. Zac comes from the Hebrew word Zakhar meaning to remember. Zac’s name meaning on Wikipedia
Story Appearances: Zac the Zealous Zucchini
Stories From The Ultimate Alphabet Book
Granny Annie’s ‘Ultimate Alphabet Book’ is a different approach to alphabet books insofar as it’s written to expand children’s vocabulary and their imagination. Every letter of the alphabet is catered for with characters that are engaging and lasting; in situations that young people can relate to in their everyday lives.
