What's that at the bed? It's spookyoky. I'm really sure it's dead. It's coming this way. Wait a minute, I said.
Hyrs ends.
Hey boo, it's me Ra's I thought it would be fun if we did a spooky doll episode because of course, I'm like, I'm kind of obsessed with haunted dolls.
I don't know, I have a thing about him. I'm kind of I just like it. So this whole episode today is dedicated to that. What happened was a couple of weeks back or a couple months ago. I actually happened to be late at night on my YouTube explore page, which always knows exactly what I want to be watching, which is a whole other kind of creepy we don't have to get into. But anyway, I see this video from Vice. It says creepy doll adoption agency, and I'm like,
what is this all about? And it's this wonderful company called Unsettling Toys and it's these two people, Brian and Sarah. He's a bartender, she's a school psychologist, and they have this company where they rehome creepy dolls, not specifically haunted ones, but.
A lot of them.
Are haunted, and I'm like, these people are my kind of people. And then a bunch of listeners start sending me the video and they just have a.
Great approach to it.
Because I have talked many times, especially at my Patreon, about the whole industry of selling haunted dolls and how I think there's a lot of scams involved in it and whatever. These people, what they do is something completely different and it's it's honestly beautiful. So we had a wonderful conversation and I reached out to them. They're like totally down and they came on. So that's what you'll hear. But for this intro today, I wanted to talk more
about other haunted dolls. We've talked about a few on the show, you know, some of the famous ones, of course Anna Belle, and then I got real obsessed with the Haunted elsa doll that popped up in the news a couple of years ago.
But there's a.
Couple more that we haven't talked about it. We never talked about Robert the doll, I don't think, but Robert the doll, that's one that I'm like genuinely afraid of and like just don't even want to talk about him because he's scary. But if you're curious about him, look him up. He's in Fort East Martello Museum in Key West, Florida.
There's this article from mentalfloss dot com about haunted dolls, and they say that Robert used to appear in windows, he would change his facial expressions, and he played in the property's attic where he originally lived before he got to the museum. It says that visitors to the museum have claimed to have fallen into misfortune after quote disrespecting the doll. So I have nothing bad to say about Robert. Robert, you are.
So handsome and.
The best thing going on in Florida. It even says Ozzy Osbourne once blamed his health issues on a replica Robert doll he purchased from the museum. What Robert, You're wonderful Now. One that I had never heard of is this one name renns Me.
I don't know.
I'm not a Twilight person when those movies were out. It wasn't really something that I was into. But apparently in Twilight the Twilight saga Colon Breaking Dawn Part one, Bella and Edward have a baby named ren is me. I think I'm saying this right, And there's a picture of her, and I guess it was a mixture of CGI and an animatronic doll. But the prop has been accused of malevolent sentience by people near the Forever Twilight display at the Chamber of Commerce in Fort's, Washington, where
the movie sets are. There's a quote from Lizzie Andros who's the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, who says one day she might be standing up straight, and then the next you come in another day and she's in a weird position.
It's like, is she moving around in there?
We don't know, but we tell everybody that the display case cover is on her for their protection, all right.
And then there's this one Okeiku.
Who is at the Meningi Temple in Hokkaido, Japan. If you happen to be in the neighborhood and you want to go see Okiku, you're not allowed to take pictures of Okeiku. So legend has it that the doll was originally purchased in nineteen eighteen and the original owner was named Kekuko. At the time, the doll had short hair. Now, when Kikuko tragically passed away the following year. Okeiku's hair began to grow out. When the family moved away in
nineteen thirty nine, they gave Okiku to monks at the temple. Today, her hair is nearly down to her knees. Some observd also report that a close inspection of Okiku's mouth reveals erupting teeth. What kind of hair products? Maybe she's using nutrifoil our sponsor, get that hair looking right? And then of course there is lais lad de las Munecas, which is the island of dolls that's near Mexico City. And I've seen videos and stuff of this. To island, lots
of creepy looking dolls there. Local lore has it that the island's caretaker once came across a young girl who had drowned, though some say that he simply imagined her. He then found a doll in the water he believed to have been owned by the girl. In tribute, he placed the doll on a tree and added more to begin a collection that grew until he was actually found drowned in the same spot into two thousand and one. Some visitors believe that the dolls are possessed and there's
like tons of them everywhere. All right, Well, what do you think are these dolls?
Are there?
Is there such a thing as a haunted doll? I'm convinced. I think it actually is possible. I just don't know what they are, what a haunted doll is capable of,
But we do get into that, you know. I talked to Brian and Sarah basically wondering from their experience having this company, what they've heard is possible and what they've experienced themselves, and they've got stories, And if you go to patroon dot com as dressful as my bonus clip this week is me asking them about other paranormal unexplainable phenomenals like UFOs and Ouiji boards and that kind of stuff, and they actually had some interesting things to say about it,
So go check that out. And in my first tier at Patreon patreon dot com slash Ras dres Feles this week, I did a little video of me going to different stores to see who's got the best Halloween goodies this year, So check that out and let's get into the conversation. Here is me talking to Brian and Sarah of Unsettling Toys on with the show. Oh my god, you guys, I am joined by Brian and Sarah of Unsettling Toys.
Hello, how are you hey?
What's up? Booth?
I am starstruck.
I saw this vice video that you guys were in, and I saw it because actually a lot of people that listened to this podcast sent it to me, and I was like, who are these people?
This is amazing love.
Oh my gosh, we have so much in common, like we were listening to your podcast. We love all the same all the same creepy stuff.
Love that.
Yeah, I I have a thing about haunted dolls, like I'm I'm obsessed with the idea of haunted dolls. I mean, I could say haunted toys to be more inclusive of the haunted object community, but particularly haunted dolls. I've just always loved. I don't want to own one, but I love the idea of them. But the fact that you guys are okay with having them in your house is like, you're kind of my heroes.
Oh my gosh. There are so many of them in Brian's house right now.
I am surrounded by them as we speak.
It's true, it's true.
Well, I also have to tell you something crazy that happened today, So this is like completely unrelated. So I've been watching your Vice video and I get this message today from this person about something completely unrelated, and I click on their Instagram and I'm like, wait a minute, that's that psychic that was in the Vice video with you. Yes, it was Kristen, so her the way she looked was in my mind. And then I saw it all happened today about something completely different that.
Is so weird.
Great with us.
Yeah, my mind is kind of blown by this whole thing. So is that a thing that you guys do? Often you bring in psychics to read your toys.
You know, More often people will use their own psychic to do a reading because it's someone that they already know and trust. So if they're interested in a doll, then they'll either remotely or or bring someone actually, you know, to a pop up shop we do, or to where we have the dolls and do a do a reading with someone that they know.
Okay, well, can you tell us all, like what it is that you guys do the whole idea just in case anyone hasn't seen any of your work yet.
Yeah, yeah, so we take those maybe horrifying, maybe just normal dolls that scared you when you were a child, and we take them in, give them a good home, and adopt them out to people that want to that sort of thing in their life.
Well, how did that whole idea come to be?
It was Brian's idea. We were just sitting there one day and Margarita may have been involved, and we were looking at some weird stuff that someone gave us, and he was like, you know, someone should make a company that takes all the creepy, haunted dolls that nobody wants and you know, gets them to the people who really want those.
And yeah, and then so after that, I had my I had, I had a fortieth birthday, which you know how those can well, I don't know if you know how those can be. Those those are rough. And Sarah surprised me with the business pretty much. You made the website, Instagram, business cards, stickers, stickers, and it kind of started as a little bit of a you know, a little bit of a joke, and then more and more people jumped onto the bandwagon.
And here we are.
Yeah, it was kind of abrupt, like we launched the Instagram and we didn't, you know, we expected it to be family and friends, and then and then it really just kind of took off on its own, and we were delighted and bewildered by how many people have dolls in their homes from their childhood that they're still terrified of, but they keep them.
But so the people are just like trying to get rid of them, right, They're just like, take it, get it out.
Yeah. Yeah, you know, some of them have pretty amazing little stories and with them, and some people just maybe they've had it for a long time and they've shown it a lot of love and it's time to move on, and they don't want to throw it away and they want maybe someone to have a good experience with it, you know, in the future.
So yeah, we definitely get some that people are like, oh, this is all love and positive energy. And then some the people are like, this thing is the devil. You have to take it and don't let it know my address. I'm moving.
So when you guys had this idea, did it cross your mind that some of these could be haunted?
Oh yeah, for sure, Yeah, yeah, I guess you know, you think about it, but once you're staring at them in your room or in your living room, it really dawns on you that some of them are may not have your best in christ.
Yeah, Brian was the skeptic. But now that they're all in his house, you.
Know, I'm freak out all the time.
Yeah.
The whole idea of just being around haunted dolls, it really scares me. And but there's something Okay, So I've always been afraid of the thought of a haunted doll, But then I got really into the whole world of eBay haunted dolls.
Have you guys do you guys you know about all this?
So I have gotten to this point where I don't I don't believe all.
Of the ones on eBay. I'll just put it that way.
There are a lot of them on eBay with really similar stories.
Yes, and a lot of them now I suppose it could be from like a psychic reading, but a lot of them have these insane backstories that aren't They're not necessarily the story of like somebody owned this doll and this thing happened. It's more like these stories of like meet Belinda. Belinda was a waitress that dja I have Fridays and one day she tripped and fell in the fry cooker.
And now she's a doll, and.
He hates the mention of Chili's like, I don't know what, like what is what?
Like?
Where do they come up with this story?
Oh my god?
Oh wow, Yeah, that's quite something.
Yeah.
The once we get tend to be more stories of what has happened to the person while they owned them. You know, people will be like, well, I got this and then I was in a car accident, and then my lights didn't work anymore, and then like I heard voices, and you know, we hear more of the experience of the person who's sending them more often than than a history of the you know, if they if it's if they believe it's with spirit. We rarely get information about whose spirit.
Yeah.
Right, when you guys start this idea and you start to get submissions and you start to find out that some of these are haunted. Did you guys, had you had paranormal experiences before this or were you guys into that stuff? Where were you at on that? I know you said Brian was a skeptic.
Yeah, I've always been. I didn't really grow up in a spiritual home, so I'm really just scratching the surface of some of the knowledge and techniques that go along with them securing these little monsters.
Yeah, and I don't. I'm a little more open to everything, you know. I always tell my kids when they ask about the Easter Bunny or something, I always say, there are a whole bunch of things in this universe that I have not seen and don't know about yet. So it would be awfully, awfully presumptuous of me to think
that I have any of the answers. So when we take them in, we just sort of take the stories that came with them, And it's so linked to people's spirituality, their beliefs about the afterlife, their beliefs about family, and often religion, and so we just take whatever story and beliefs they give us with the doll and pass them on as they are. We try not to filter them through our own lenses at all.
Do you take precautions so that you doubt get ghosted by a doll?
Or Oh, my gosh, Brian is having some trouble right now. Actually, when we have this one named Claudia, that's super She came with like this story where it was given to a little girl under strange circumstances, and then the doll broke its leg, and the little girl a week later broke her leg in the same place, same leg, And then and then some time passed, and then as the girl got older, she started hearing voices calling her at night. And the family was like, oh, no, this needs to
be gone. So we have the leg and we have Claudia, and do you want to say what happened?
Yeah, so I keep Claudia and her leg apart. I know that kind of sounds odd, but I just, you know, out of worry. So when I brought Claudia in to the home here, I have an upstairs it's a duplex that I live in, and I have an upstairs neighbor, and she all of a sudden starting out having problems with like her electron extra computer fried and things like that. And I was like, well, that's just kind of weird, you know. I kind of shrug that off. But I have the foot.
I have pour Claudia's foot in my car.
And since that's happened, since since the foot went into the car, the the back window started just kind of rolling down, you know, electrically, on its own.
I saw it, really, he was like, look, it's doing it. And I look in his back car window on the side that the foot is on is rolling itself down again.
So now I'm afraid to put the the leg with with Claudia. I mean, I you know, I like my electronics. I don't really want him to.
You know, Well, what will happen if the leg is riattaged?
I don't know. Well that's the thing, right, Well, maybe we'll have to do a maybe we'll have to do a big YouTube thing about and like have it repaired, then see if it.
See if it gets weirder or better. I think I think she probably just wants her foot. Her foot's trying to get out of the dang car put it back on.
But a good thing just happened, Roz. So we you know, we probably do have some dolls with some negative.
Energies. But I met someone today.
Someone drove a very long way like and stopped by here on their way to see it.
Yeah, and and dropped off these these amazing little guys that are going to be we'll take pictures of They are what are.
They called shrinking violet?
Shrinking violet?
Have you ever seen a shrinking violet doll?
I can't say I have.
Oh my goodness, they like talk and their mouths move and their eyes blink. But they're from the nineteen sixties, so their mouths.
But I think they they they came from a very positive, a very positive lady and who gave it lots of love and attention. So I'm hoping maybe you.
Know, she even mentioned maybe this will balance it out a little bit.
Yeah, put some good energy back into Oh there you go. Yeah, it might work that way.
I think it's important to have a balance and and a lot of these, you know, we we definitely have some with with an attachment, but a lot of them just bring back memories of people, you know, in their childhood and and uh that always kind of makes me happy when you can kind of almost reunite something with with someone who you know, used to love something that it was very similar.
Yeah.
See, that's what I have gathered from researching you guys, is that it's a really positive thing. It seems, you know, what you guys do. Even though it's these uh, you know, misfit toys or ever, you know, these toys that are so spooky or whatever they're cast out of society, they make people so happy. There's a certain type of person that they very positively affect it seems.
Yeah, that's what That's really our main goal with the business, I think is to promote the idea that not being shiny and new is not a flaw, that sometimes it's the things about you that are a little bit different that really make you wonderful. And I think that applies to people, and I think it applies to the toys, like every ding, every mark or you know, tear is a story and as part of their history, and we like to value them for that.
That's just well said.
Ah, that's gorgeous.
I'm like about to cry over here about these creepy ass dolls.
That's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard.
Don't you want a bunch of them? Now?
Okay, Well I have a thing so I am sort of one of these people that I do like creepy kind of things. Like I have this table that is made out of i want to say, paper mache seals at like two large seals and they have like fishing line whiskers and I saw it in a flea market and it's maybe the ugliest thing I've ever seen, and I love it so much. And I do feel similar to what you were saying, about that, and I see
the beauty in it. There's something so beautiful about the hideousness or the I don't know, there's there's I've always been someone that's attracted to things like that.
An individuality. It would be right, it always says, you know, it would be so awful if everything was the same.
Of course, Oh yes, I mean absolutely, and and and I My dream has always been to own in old ventriloquis dummy that belongs that like it has a story, Like I want to know this story. Not necessarily one that's been that was like uh, mass produced, you know, in a department store.
Not necessarily one of those.
I want one that was somebody's livelihood at one point that they traveled around the world with, Like, you know, I want a story. And I've had no business being in some of these auctions, but I have put a couple of dollars down.
I didn't win.
But that's my dream is to have like a creepy old ventriloquist dummy, which is most people's biggest nightmare.
But right, I just love it.
You were saying you don't have any like that's quite a starter item. Oh my goodness.
But my thing is I don't want one that has a story that it is uh what was it named? Belinda from Fridays that you know, I don't want the ghosts that's coming back to get me in the middle of the night.
That's what I don't want. I'm not trying to bring that into my house.
We found that people really do enjoy those. We have a couple, but we don't have super long histories on them.
No, not on our ventriloquist stummies. Some of them. Some of them just travel with us because people love to see them so much. I think something about them. I think maybe they they hold their their history, the stories behind them, or people relate to them a little bit better because because a lot of people like like what you said, you know, they they give you a sense of the past a little bit.
Yeah, I like that idea of this meant so much to somebody at one point, and I want to honor it, you know.
Okay, So it seems to me that Brian, you're no longer.
A skeptic or you're skeptical, but you believe that this kind of stuff is real.
I'm yeah, I'm really getting there. The more, you know, we've been at this for a couple of years now, and I am a slow learner.
In just about everything in my.
Life, and so you know, give me, give me a little bit more time. But I am definitely teetering towards hell.
Yes, well, but is there a part of you because for me, I do believe in all this stuff, but but I choose to not like live in fear of it twenty four to seven because I talk about this stuff all the time. But I do have this thing in my head where I'm like, just say that it's possible that one of these antique items I just bought could have a ghost attach. I'm just going to sage it. I'm gonna get a couple of crystals. Somebody told me that this will help, Like just why not. It wouldn't
hurt just to have it around. Do you does your mind go there or are you just like, well, we'll see what happens.
I definitely a more of the see what happens. But I think I think, you know, yeah, man, they're just you know sometimes when you see something move out of the corner of your eye and you just you know, you kind of know that it's just your eye playing you. It's just your eye, right, You got to think it's just.
Your eye hope, but yeah, you but you're in the room alone.
And that.
Used to not bother me, but now, man, I am ripping out.
Well, what's been going on? Like, tell me about some of the things that have happened.
My gosh, he has he has a couple of wind up ones that'll just like go off in the middle of the night. He'll just be, you know, like sitting on the couch and all of a sudden, like you know, a few notes of a song will drift into the front room and.
And the first you know, Ross, I would, I would, I would play it off like I'm kind of a bigger guy and at hardwood floors, you know, and and the thing is on the floor, and I figured, well I moved, and you know, it just kind of went off a little bit. But the more I do this, the more I I'm getting there.
I'm getting there.
Ross.
Yeah, Like he won't have moved. That's the thing is, like it's a long ways away and hasn't been wound up in a long time, and like they'll just go off at the strangest times.
I think you can tell who's the believer.
Well from what you guys hear and from what you've experienced, do these ghosts run around like CHUCKI, or is it do these dolls you know do that?
Or is it more.
That there's a spirit that's attached to the doll and the spirit is now in your house?
Is that? Is that sort of what people tend to believe on this stuff.
Everyone's beliefs are so different and so individual, but across a really broad range of our clients. Is the belief in energies, you know, does it have positive energy, angry energy, you know, malicious energy sometimes? And so whether that's history sort of attaching itself to the toy, or whether it's the spirit of a person who can be named, that seems to be a common thread. Is just the sort of the tone of the energy that an object has.
If I see one walk across the floor here, I am out. There's no the business is shut down and no one will ever hear from me. I will become a man nun somewhere that a monk monk, I guess that's a monk I'll become. I don't know.
But you know, the first all well, not the first one of the first that we rehomed. We actually took to the Oregon Ghost Conference, and the people who were appropriate fits and who wanted this one because it didn't have major attachments or backstories or anything, entered to win this particular one. And they were going through all the items, and right when they were about to get to it, they said, and the next item is and the doll on the table just tips over. No one was near it,
nothing had changed, like falls over. Right when it was her turn, it was and the whole room instead of like giggling or like any of the responses I expected, like they gasped in a horror. The whole room of like like a lot of people when like.
They were clutching their crystals.
Well, she was given a performance.
She wanted to be like, this is what you could get, and then she wanted to pop off the table.
It was pretty awesome.
Well, so, okay, another thing I've heard, and I'm just curious, you know, from what you guys hear and what you experience. I've heard this thing in the past where people are like, you have a haunted object.
If you give it to.
Someone, it doesn't like, you know, the the spirit or the demon or whatever is is attached to you. It's not the object anymore? Is that a thing that you guys have encountered with When people give you these these allegedly haunted objects, we've we've.
Had really good luck. I don't even know what that means too, I hope not right. When people send us a toy, then generally like the problems that they've been experiencing have gone away. We've had a lot of cases of that where they're like, oh my gosh, the strange happenings, my child's nightmares, whatever it is that they were experiencing stopped.
And similarly, when we send a toy to someone, they often experience have experiences, uh, electronics being weird or we have a lot of people who are using sort of paranormal tools to communicate with the toys. But in our experience, I think the attachments uh have tended to stay with the doll.
Yeah, I would, I would agree with that. Ye as long as they don't linger here, you know too too long After we we get one rehome, then we are okay.
Well imagined.
It's probably hard to tell when you have a bunch of them in a room which one is causing, you know, like which whose spirit is who?
And all of that, right, I don't know.
We experiment. We experiment too much weird stuff is going on. Then we'll put half of them in a box and take them to my house and then see what happens then. And like, if you keep dividing them by halfs wherever weird stuff's happening, then you can sort of sort it out a little bit.
But wait, so, Sarah, what do you think now here? I was sitting here thinking that Brian was the one that is, like, has volunteered to have all of these spooky ghosts dolls in his house, and now you take them to yours too.
I do they're Brian's right now, because I have kids and my kids kept seeing like a shadow figure sitting on my son's bed and they were totally in agreement. And they can't live at my house if they're gonna put shadow people on my son's bed.
So which one is? Do you know who? Which doll caused that to happen?
We're not sure which did? We did we? I don't think we feel for it.
I don't think we narrowed it that far down.
I think it's one that came without a lot of story. Sometimes people will just drop them off for us and not want to talk about it. And a lot of times those are ones that we just sort of assumed they don't have a lot of backstory, but every so often they drop it offen to want to talk about it because it has the real backstory, you know.
Yeah, That to me is the scariest version where they're like, your problem now, I don't ask any questions and they just like peel out.
Your problem now.
I love that.
But we we had some old composition dolls, and I think I think it's I think we narrowed it down that we thought it might be one of the older composition dolls.
Well what I mean, I know your collection changes constantly, but what percentage would you say are typically believed to be haunted doll?
Give or take?
You know, Yeah, you know, I think it's probably in that twenty Like, if I were gonna put a percentage on it, I would say it's in that twenty percent range.
Impact that's for what percent of them have like stories where people heard voices or pets were terrified, or you know, the ones with the really intense backstories where we feel like haunted is a really good descriptor for that is about twenty percent the ones that come to us where people are scared of them, or you know, they made someone really uncomfortable, or they have kind of a weird history.
Or dogs seem to bark at these things. Yes, no, cats, you know, just don't like don't like. Some of them like the energy, so we get We hear a lot of that.
Sometimes a dog, like or a pet, it's a variety of pets will like bark and bark at an item, or sometimes they'll refuse to go in the same room as it. Like there will be a doll and someone puts it on the piano, and like the dog doesn't go in that room anymore. Like pets, I think are maybe really sensitive to that sort of thing.
Oh my god, that's so funny because right before we started recording, my dog was right next to me and he always has to figure out a way to make a bunch of noise when I'm recording. And now I'm sit here thinking, maybe I do want a haunted doll that when I'm recording I can just put next to me and that will keep him.
Away or it'll bark more.
Yeah, that's true.
Well, okay, so I look at your website, which I love, and there's the thing that stood out to me. It says, quote, if in very rare instances, a toy reappears in the home, we will remove it promptly.
That is a common fear of our clients who send us toys once a month, so we'll get someone's like I'm they ship it like fancy shipping with signature and take all these extra precautions because they're so unsettled by the toy that they're afraid it's going to come back. And toys have occasionally been too intense for their adoptive families and come back to us. But we haven't yet had a toy returned to it's to its person who said it.
Oh my god, it's a pretty funny. Uh. I love that part of the website, Like, well, you know, it's our service is guaranteed, you know, and and if if that thing just ends up crawling back to you, we'll we'll take it back free of charge.
That is that's very sweet of you guys. Uh, well, because I was thinking about this Elsa doll.
I don't know if you guys heard about this like a year.
Oh my god, I totally saw that. I saw that on the internet.
Yes, I was obsessed with it when it happened that there was this Elsa from Frozen Doll that these people had that was haunted.
And they got rid of it, and she kept coming back.
She kept figuring out a way to get back into their lives.
Yep.
Yeah, we we had so many people tag us and that everyone was like, oh my god, they need you because you have the guarantee. And I think it. Don't call us because that thing's gonna go back if the flights are expensive.
Yeah, oh my god, she's got frequent flyer miles.
Well, and I think that.
Annabelle, who you know, is sort of the the Kim Kardashian of the Haunted doll world.
That is the best way of putting that I've ever heard.
I feel like that was sort of part of her story, if I'm not mistaken, is that she kind of found her way back or I know that it's believed that she crawled on somebody and she could move around and.
They just needed they needed the they needed the extended warranty on that one.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, Okay, so I look at your website and you guys have your permanent collection, and so with this permanent collection, I want to talk about some of these dolls and if anybody wants to see they can go to Unsettlingtoys dot com. And this first one is Grace, which Grace. She has got gorgeous blonde hair and it says the Queen of the side Eye and I love that. So what tell us about Grace? Because she somehow got bloodstains on her?
What is that?
Yeah, she's super interesting. Grace is actually sitting next to me right now. She says hello, I say hi, and you look very gorgeous. She looks very flattered. Yeah, you getting some sidey there. Okay. So Grace was owned by a lady who passed away, and when she passed a lot of her dolls were put into storage. And when they went into storage, you know, there was quite a few dolls that were put away and they were only there for I don't know a year or two. I
don't think it was very long. But when her kids to go back through the box and take the dolls out, Grace was on like inside the box, but like on the top of the pile, and there's like it's blood like there's blood drops on her dress. I think I have a close up of them on the website maybe, but like if you look at it, I'm really pretty sure it's blood, just like they were. And nothing else in the box was touched. There was no blood on top of the box or on any of the other toys.
Just Grace went in in good condition and came out looking like that. So they noped her right over to USK immediately.
Yeah, and we're not in the business is sending out DNA. Yeah, we're just going to keep that one nice and safe here.
Well, we like her.
Yeah, so you would say she's got good energy.
She's got maybe medium energy. She's kind of what'd you say, mischievous? Could you describe Grace?
I mean that's the whole side eye in the blood. I mean that.
Yeah right. I wouldn't I wouldn't call her one of our glowingly positive dolls. But she uh, but she is definitely uh, definitely a lot of energy and a little package.
Oh no, she's right next to you. Just say nice things.
She knows.
We've had plenty of conversations with her. She knows her, she knows what is expected of her. I don't know where that came from.
Well, what about mister creepers.
That is our mascot, and and and Sarah is gonna tell the story about because she was there.
She was she actually found it.
But it is.
Horrifying little.
It is really strange. So I was helping right when we right when I had decided to make the business, but I hadn't given the I hadn't launched it for Brian's birthday yet. I was helping one of my friends clean out family member's home and we were clearing out a bedroom and under a child's bed was this, like was Creepertin with And I don't know you've seen Creepertin with like the mouth and the tea.
Yes, I'm looking at it right now. It's a little bunny holding a carrot with red eyes and a little side mouthed situation.
Now, is is it like a doll? Or is it flat? It's flat.
It's just a flat piece of like fake fur that's cut into the shape of like a weird rabbit. And so I pulled this thing out from under the child's bed and I'm like what is this? And my friend's like, oh my god, where did you get that? And I'm like, it was under your kid's bed and she she's like, I have never seen that before in my life and proceeded to check with the rest of the family. None of them had ever seen it before in their lives. He was just, you know, hanging out under the child's bed,
and so I decided. I was like, oh my god, can I throw it away? And she was like, please throw it away immediately, But I kept thinking of it and I'm like, you know, it's kind of perfect for what I've been thinking of. And so I went to get him back out of the trash can. I'm like, all right, can I have the ugly bunny? And she's like, yeah, take it, and I'm Whitney wasn't in the trash can.
But then later as we were doing final check, we went back up the stairs and Creeperton had apparently jumped out of the trash bag and was laying on the stairs up to the bedroom waiting for me, like was not at all where I had put it, and I was like, oh, this is the one and it became our mascot.
Oh my god, what is that?
Yeah.
I have had this conversation with people many times, but I'm always curious. I think the only way you could figure this out really is if you witnessed it with your eyes or if you set up a camera. But do we think that like a toy? Does it crawl on the ground, does it float? Does it slither? What does it do? How does it get from one place to the nags?
You're giving me the you're giving me the goosebumps there?
Okay, Well, speaking of goosebobs, there's also Maria who was in your Vice video and she's also on your website.
And now, what is Maria crash test dummy?
Or Maria is a medical dummy to practice on?
Yeah, and it's.
Kind of taken over the show here, very very popular item, and definitely it's it's.
Maria's just fantastic.
Yet really it's a She's an amazing, amazing piece. Someone in Texas actually went and bought her from an older lady, and the older lady was speaking to Maria like Maria was a person and said, oh, goodbye, Maria, enjoy your new home, you know. And then our client got in the car and started driving home and promptly got in a car accident with Maria. And so I guess now she's a crash test dummy.
But I hadn't thought of that. That's funny.
But and so our client client was okay, made it home. And then this was a person who collects creepy things, and the plan was to make a couple of modifications to Maria, make her a little creepier and keep her as a as an item in the house. But the whole family was just wildly unsettled by Maria and her energy, Like like even in a household that was comfortable with creepy stuff, Maria was way too much. And so and so they sent her to us, and and now she
has quite a following. She We get letters from people for Maria, like, there are a lot of people that are really into Maria.
Is it a coincidence that this woman got into a car crash?
Do you guys think or they didn't think so.
In fact, I took Maria. I took Maria to an event where was maybe I was bringing her over here. I took a picture of her in my car for Instagram the other day and I got an email from the person and they were like, they were like, be really careful driving with Maria.
It was awesome. Yeah.
I mean, have you guys had any experiences that you might think could be connected to the energy of Maria.
She has been a very pleasant little.
Object here. I haven't seen anything from Maria.
I mean, if you look at her it you know it's a little unnerving. But she's probably thinking the same thing about me.
And when Maria was at my house in my basement, she will sometimes move, like shift a little bit, her head will move, her hands will move a little bit, which is always unsettling. But also my brain always interprets her as a human. I would go down in my basement where she was, which was like a wreck room for my kids, so it wasn't like a creepy basement, and like I would startle every time because my brain reads her as a human.
Is she human size?
Yeah, she is totally life size and and and all of her joints move correctly, and she's she's very very lifelike. And her feet have like is there a picture of her feet on the website. They have like veins and like carefulnails. Like some parts of her are like more realistic than my actual body.
Oh wow, I'm looking at it right now. And then her face comes off.
Yeah, yeah wow.
At awkward times, her face if you try to put her face on, she will drop that thing at like really awkward times.
I think she likes it without her face on, I think, and that's generally how we keep her.
Yeah, you guys have the best stories.
These are amazing.
Can you do you have other stories that might come to mind of a paranormal nature?
Gosh, you know they're they're not They're not our stories.
It's great because we get to pass these things on.
We did just get one the other day where the person visited their childhood home across the United States and had a nightmare that she had made fun of this doll and had called the doll names, and then the doll got really mad and like started coming for her in the nightmare, and then she woke up and she could feel something burrowing into her neck, like something was trying to get into her body, and said it was
really terrifying. And so even though she came home and wasn't at her parents' house anymore, she actually had her mom mail us the dolls because she wasn't comfortable having them, you know, anywhere. But I thought that was really fascinating that in her dream she was interacting with the dolls and she was the one who was unkind. I thought that was really interesting.
I'm so scared by this stuff? Should I not be scared? I mean, it seems like you guys aren't that scared by it.
Well, you know, if you look at it through the acceptance and inclusivity sort of lens, we we really just try to appreciate them like they are, and it makes them a little less scary.
Yeah, it really does it. You know, they're just they're just misunderstood objects.
I guess so. But then when they have like.
Don't allow them knives or guns?
No, I don't, and we are very.
Kind to them, so they're not going to act out in front of us.
Well, I give you Claudia back her foot.
Yeah, well we'll see.
Oh my gosh, yeah, give Claudia her foot.
Okay, we'll make we'll make that a rallying point and we'll we'll we'll do something about that here soon.
Well, okay, we do a thing on this show where I play ghost voices.
Do you guys want to hear some?
Yes?
Okay, it's time for oh ev please. So here's what I do.
I go to YouTube and I find electronic voice phenomenal, and then I try to make you guess what you hear the ghost saying well hard. Okay, Well, the correct answer will be what the person on YouTube believes that this ghost is saying.
So we'll see what you hear. Let me pull up first one.
This first one is from Smoky Valley Paranormal and it is at an abandoned house, which is terrifying. An abandoned house in rural I can never say that word. Rural. Rural, rural, ruralware Solomon, Kansas. Okay, the rural part.
Wait, wait, so is the is the recording going to have an accent?
Well, you'll have to tell me. There is a little bit of background noise on it. But listen in and tell.
Me what you hear.
All right, here we go. Okay, Wait, it's a little soft. Let me turn it up.
Do you hear it?
Yeah?
Play it one more time. We just turned our our volume up too.
Okay, you know I'm hearing.
Yes, I want fries with.
That McDonald's, ma'am.
This is an abandoned house in rural Suliman, Kansas.
Let me play it again.
Okay. Oh, it sounded like Cheryl to me, but I don't know or a distinct oh.
Like, Well, I can give you some options, okay, Okay, Okay. The first one is is it A Where'd you Go?
Is it B?
Please don't? Maybe they're just being like a shady teenager.
Please don't. Is it C please vote? Which?
You know?
Maybe they're like, listen, you like to come to abandoned houses looking for ghosts. That's great, but make sure you're registered to vote. Okay, it's much more important to do with your time. Or is it D C.
Low Maybe they're a fan of Sea Low Green. I don't know. Okay, let we play it again.
Where'd you Go?
Yeah?
I think where'd you Go?
I think we both think number one it's.
Yes, where'd you go? That's what they believe. I think it's Please don't let me do it again?
Okay, okay, yeah I can hear that too.
Man, those are always so difficult, I know.
Well, here, let me do one more.
Okay, yeah, yeah, we want to hear another one.
Okay. This one is from YouTube.
The user's name is t H R M s X and it is at the Old Salem Cemetery in.
Laken, l A c O n uh, Illinois. What does it saying? This one's hard?
That is a hard one.
Let me play it again.
Okay, it sounded like, here we go again. To me, what do you hear?
Well? Do you have any guesses?
Brian, No, I I it just sounds like like a like a record scratch kind of to me.
Well, let me give you some options.
Is it a calcium maybe the reminder of me gotta get calcium?
I don't know. Is it B I swear? Or maybe they said a bad word? Is it C? I'm sure? Or D?
Is it just somebody that's crunching on Lay's kettle cooked potato chips?
I only play again.
It's always the.
Food I would if I had to pick from those? Maybe C.
Yeah, I am sure.
I'm not getting anything.
Yeah, I don't. I don't hear a lot in that one.
They believe it says, I am sure.
I am sure. I wonder what they asked.
I yeah, I don't know.
It just says I am sure. I think that it's somebody eating Lai's kettle cooked.
But I don't know. Let me play it again. I am sure.
Yeah, I hear it. It's slower words. Yeah, I can totally hear that.
I guess, so I don't know.
I kind of I have to change my tone on the delivery, and I have to go I'm sure. I'm sure. Well, you guys, I am so grateful that you came on.
This is so fun. Thanks for doing this.
This was a blast. Yes, thank you so much.
Well, can you tell people where to find you and all of that stuff?
Our best platform is probably Instagram and we're at Unsettling Toys. We also have our website Unsettling Toys dot com. We're on Facebook. I think that's that's the main places people find us.
Well, can you just explain how it works, because you guys don't just like sell these items, right, No, people will.
Sometimes people will grows through the Unsettlingly Available page of our website and see if there's something that they're drawn to. Sometimes they'll see one and they'll just be like, oh my god, that's that's mine. That needs to be part my family. Other times people won't be immediately drawn to something, and they'll send us sort of some information about themselves if they're looking for positive energy or something really spooky,
if they like, you know, a particular look. Are they looking for an antique composition doll, or do they want like a goofy looking clown, you know, and then we can sort of help them find one that's a good fit for them, and give them any backstory that we have that we've received with the doll. And so it's it's sort of personalized trying to well because if there's a chance something's with spirit or has a strong energy, then it needs to be a good fit for the household. It's going to you know.
And I'd like to say, just as a plea to everyone out there, just please get these clowns out of my house.
I tell yeah, I saw in the video. You don't like clowns.
I'm not a big clown guy, and I we have a few.
If people keep sending up, we really need.
To get them out of here as soon as possible.
Well, I love I love clowns. And you know that's it's that Uncanny valley. You know, it's the it's all the same thing where people are scared of dolls, mannequins, ventriloquist dummies, clowns. You know, it's that it looks human, but it's not quite human. You know, It's something's a little off there. And I feel like that's that's your bread and butter. Thank you so much to Brian and Sarah of Unsettling Toys. I love them. I think they're great.
I hope I become friends with them. And if you want to see there the video that we reference, just go to YouTube you a type in Vice Creepy Doll Adoption Agency.
It'll come right up.
But it was it was posted four months ago, so it'll be there and you get to see some of these dolls that we mentioned. Or you can go to their website and you can see them there as well. And who knows anybody willing to buy one and tell me what happens.
I want to hear about it. If you do.
If you want to hear a little bit more of my conversation with them, go to patreon dot com slash rozdressfelove on my second tier to hear them talking about various unexplainable phenomenas with me.
Hey, are you subscribe to the show? Please subscribe?
Rate it five stars on Apple Podcasts or wherever you can rate a show five stars. And if you have a ghost story or if you want to say something nice, you could writ it in a five star review, or you could put it in the Facebook group called ghosted by rozdres Valles, or you could email me at ghosted by Roz at gmail dot com. If you want to be in a listener episode, do the same thing, but
just write listener episode in the subject line. I am on Instagram at roz Heernandez and it's Halloween time, so tell everyone you know.
About the show. I love you all, both living and dead.
But if I didn't ask you to haunt me, don't haunt me.
Came bye.
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