Nauga who?

I stumbled upon this little gal in a garage today, she's a Nauga. Exactly, what the heck is a Nauga? I wondered the same thing as I stared at her. So I found out, and she's actually pretty cool. It turns out Naugas have their own mythological history going on.

In the 60's a company named UniRoyal created a synthetic fabric called Naugahyde that is used as an alternative to leather. To help promote/market the product so it can stand out against the competition they came up with the idea of creating an imaginary creature ( hence, Nauga) to do so. The idea was that the Naugas shed their hide each year, and the result was Naugahyde, the leather-like material.

Today UniRoyal is still using the Nagua, over 40 years on, to promote Naugahyde. The original Naugas have become collector items. Although you can still adopt your very own creature here.

But, adoption doesn't come cheap at $29.95 a pop. It must have been fate between this ugly doll and I because she had the perfect price of just 10 cents. I scooped her up, and gave her a lovely home. The End.