Post #370091 by naugatiki on Sat, Mar 29, 2008 3:24 PM

Before pleather Uniroyal invented the wonder fabric naugahyde and I understand they gave away these monsters as promos and with the purchase of a sofa. They were made in 2 sizes and in almost every color you can think of. Soon a guy in a nauga suit toured the country promoting the fab fabric and scaring young children in malls across America at the same time. The fact that you can still find a fair amount of these classic monsters in decent shape shows that this material lived up to the hype. Some where along the ride the Eames crowd got word and they became a mid century collectible. Later the mid 90’s tiki friendly lounge The Gentle People knew a good thing when they saw it and also used the monster as a mascot.

Now Uniroyal had the gumption to revive this monster and still sells them and much like the Cabbage Patch Dolls of the 80’s includes adoption papers. They don’t seem to have the nuance of the classic creatures and saw fit to get rid of the fierce teeth which I don’t understand.
http://www.naugahyde.com/promoitems_nauga.html

I enjoy them for their sense of whimsy and the one I have pictured on the right says “Nauga Flame Blocker” on the arm but I know full well that a cigarette lighter would burn it to a crisp. Just something to think about when you’re lucky enough to find one of those pristine naugahyde saloons. I have sad memories of a long defunct gentleman’s club called Club Hubba Hubba where they gave up on upkeep and I ended up sitting in a booth with the gold glitter upholstery repaired with silver duct tape.