On March 25, 1998 (see below) we told you about the toywars between the Teletubbies and Wal-Mart’s knock-offs, known as the Bubbly Chubbies. Wal-Mart admitted at the time that the Chubbies were “similar to” the Teletubbies products, but it took a couple of months for the Tubbies to muscle out the Chubbies. Wal-Mart announced on May 20th. that a settlement had been reached with the Tubbies people that Wal-Mart would “pull” the Chubbies off their shelves, and destroy whatever remaining inventory of Chubbies were left. England’s Ragdoll Productions, and their American licensing agent, itsy bitsy entertainment, got Wal-Mart to provide them with information abou the manufacturing and distribution of the Chubbies. Wal-Mart said their itsy bitsy purchased of Chubbies was just a “one-time purchase”, but by now, most of the Chubblies are probably in Toy Heaven somewhere, watching reruns of the Teletubbies TV shows. That leaves Tinky-Winky, Laa-Laa and Dipsy the undisputed Tubby champs over the Bubbly guys. And most important of all, Wal-Mart pointed out that it paid no monetary damages in the settlement. Tinky Winky’s handlers said that money was no the object of the lawsuit, but “protecting the integrity” of Laa-Laas trademarks.
Can you say “trade-marks” boys and girls? I knew you could. Aren’t we all glad that those mean Bubbly Chubbies have been killed off? Don’t we hope that Ragdoll keeps going after the person or persons who made the Bubblies in the first place? The two month war of Tubbies vs. Chubbies is now just a legal chapter in Wal-Mart’s ongoing legal travails.
