The Evolution of Erik & Erik Prototype Bloopers

Naturally, during production, the Erik plush did not come out exactly as planned on the first try. Or the second. Or even the third. We're not quite ready to post all the failed versions of Erik we have JUST yet, but coming VERY soon are pictures of all the stages in the process, including those where something went terribly, horribly wrong. Here is the evolution of Erik from El's very first rough sketch all the way up to the final product, and all the bloopers that occurred along the way.

	Erik, standing
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Draft #1: If at first you don’t succeed... This very first draft from the factory is not so affectionately referred to by Chérie as "Dr. Seuss Erik" because it's just too darned cute in that "a page right out of Green Eggs and Ham" way.	Draft #2 from the factory. Oh dear. This will never do. Don’t look now, it’s “Short Erik.”
Draft #3: Now we’re getting somewhere! After looking and looking at the incorrect Eriks for a long time, El and Chérie finally managed to convey to the factory that ERIK IS SUPPOSED TO BE YELLOW! After that amazing brreakthough, let’s just call this “Yellow Erik.”	Draft #4: What the hell were they thinking? Chérie photographed the ear of her Universal Pictures version of Erik and asked "Could we make his ears like this? Something was apparently lost in translation because the team received “Elf-eared Erik” as a result. A small adjustment and he could be “Vulcan Erik.” It was at this point that the project was almost abandoned.
Draft #5 In desperation Chérie contacted a second company only to find that her new company apparently used the same factory as the first company. Even so, he looks a bit better than Draft #3, so apparently they paid attention to what we told company #1. We call this “Not that bad Erik.”	Draft #6: He looks pretty good from the front, but this Erik's head is strangely shaped if viewed from the side. It was at this point in the process that Chérie started to wonder if Erik should be a greenish-yellow. We also asked for measurements and realized--horror!--he's too small!
Finally, they’ve gotten the arms and legs to “hang.” Would you believe that the reason they didn’t make them floppy in the first place is they thought the clothes needed to come off and were afraid floppy arms would make it too difficult to get them back on? Dear Erik must be mortified. It’s bad enough his MASK is removable, eh? But this is the point—with the seamstress’s hand in the picture—at which we noticed he’s not quite LARGE enough. Oh dear. Back to the drawing board (or at least the sewing machine)! Also his eyes are misplaced (they should be lower in the sockets, like they appear on version #5)	This is a 19" version of Erik, so he's 12" tall sitting. We still don't have the embroidery on his face or the hair on his head, but for the most part, he's done correctly. We've approved this Erik for the "final prototype" which will be produced
Limited Edition Tag (front view)	Limited Edition Tag (back view)
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