Here’s a crazy story. Back in 1994, I got this strange idea to stash away some Wally mugs for people in the distant future to see. I didn’t set a date for their unveiling and I didn’t hide them in the foundation of a building under construction. They were simply packed away in boxes and stuck under a table in my studio.
I unpacked those boxes this week and took quite a trip down memory lane. All told, there are 80 mugs with a wide variety of designs. I’m putting them all on sale this Tuesday, and I’m kicking my thirty-something self for not making more of the Tonya Harding and OJ Simpson trial mugs. These pieces have real nostalgic value. I suspect they will sell out quickly because I only made two of each.
As we dig deeper into this odd collection, there is some strange, horribly dated and downright demented stuff. I don’t know why I made so many atrocious jokes about disgraced Oregon Senator Bob Packwood. I suspect it was because Twist, my #1 gallery at the time was in Portland, Oregon and Bob Packwood jokes were hot back then. Fun fact for all Wally fans: Wally’s dad is a human!
But the real magic of this treasure trove of Wallialia are the odd mugs that I made just for the hell of it to freak out and confound my fans of the future. You and me, right here, right now are those fans. I love the little messages that I wrote on the bottom of each mug. They are so sweet, genuine and revealing.
So now it’s my chance to feel like a ticket agent selling tickets to an epic rock concert. At 6 a.m., MST all of these mugs will go on sale for just $15.00 each. You can preview them now in the “Vintage Wally Mugs” section of my store. Here are a few important tips and disclaimers:
-The 10% “Fan” discount code doesn’t apply in this section of my online store.
-These mugs are a little smaller than my current mugs. They are about a half an inch shorter and hold 8 ounces instead or 10 ounces. I guess the world was a smaller place 23 years ago.
-All of these items are inventory controlled, so my store won’t sell more than two of each. I haven’t tested my online store under “waves of people ordering all at once” conditions. The process of me switching these pots from “NOT FOR SALE” to “IN STOCK” is a bit untested so there might be some snafus at first. If you can’t buy something at 6:03 a.m., it’s probably because of a technical problem, not because thousands of customers are gleaning the store all at once. Try again, you’ll probably get what you want.
-The messages on the bottoms of the pots aren’t guaranteed as I made two of each and wrote different messages on each mug. If you are the first to buy a design, you will get the message you see in the store. If you are the second person to buy that mug, you will probably get a different message.
-If we are indeed sold out of a design and you really want that design, fear not. You can simply order a mug with that design and I’ll get it in the next firing and ship it out the first week in May. Re-makes cost the standard mug price of $28.00.
I’m really excited about this whole project! It’s been a bit of a chore to photograph all these pots and load them in my store, but it will be so much fun to find homes for these funny little relics from the past. Happy time traveling!
