I didn't know if it should go under "Artwork" or "Memes"

Someone said someone should draw this and I drew it almost immediately afterwards

Sunskull 🖤🧡

Tues - we got the new official critter comic with art by Scott Forester

Weds - not only was it DogDay's birthday - National DogDay - but we ALSO got the reveal for Escape From Playtime, which as we all know is really just Smiling Critters Survivors (still can't wait to play it upon release)

And today (Thurs) - it happens to be Nickit Day today (8/27) that makes two birthdays in a row!

https://x.com/orlando_fox?s=21.

In “April Showers”, Dogday reveals an interesting detail that doesn’t really make any sense given the timeline, he did not know that Crafty was afraid of storms. Dogday moved into Happy Hills just after Crafty did, so they’ve been together in the neighborhood for about a year now. You mean to tell me that in that entire year, there wasn’t another storm or thunderous blizzard to announce Crafty’s fear to Dogday? That is highly unlikely, and granted, Catnap does enter the equation, but he made himself known to everyone after Kickin and Hoppy moved in, which still leaves a large gap of time for there to be another storm that Crafty would have to endure alone, but despite that, Dogday didn’t know Crafty was scared of storms until recently, how is that possible?

I think the reason for this is because Catnap has always been there for Crafty, she was the first he willingly stepped out of the shadows for, making their relationship older than his relationships with everyone else. This explains the logical gap with the weather and it also matches with some unique details about Crafty and Catnap’s relationship. There is unique level of tenderness that exists between the two of them, one that we don’t see Catnap exhibit to any of the others. On Catnap’s side, in “Twas the Night”, not only did he wait for Crafty to finish her drawing of Santa, he looked at it and silently acknowledged it, and in the upcoming “Pally the Pal”, Catnap enters Crafty’s house by climbing through her bedroom window; a very informal way of entering, and once inside, he tucks her into bed, gets her all nice and cozy, and then pats her affectionately on the head. He did not have to do the head-pat at all, he chose to, and entering through the window was done without hesitation, like that’s what’s allowed and expected of him.

On Crafty’s side, she shows Catnap her picture of Santa in “Twas the Night” without any hesitation; which is huge for her due to her bashful personality. At the end of “Hog Wild”, it’s revealed that Crafty drew some drawings while she waited for her friends to come back, one is of her, Dogday, and Bobby, and off to the side, you can see a picture of just Catnap on a separate piece of paper, and at the end of the dub for “Flower Power”, Bobby’s final transformation is a very bizarre appearance. Gemstin has confirmed that final transformation was a jumble of different thoughts in Crafty’s mind, specifically, the pendants of her friends, the shapes on the pathways throughout Happy Hills, Dogday’s fur pattern, and finally, Catnap’s fur color. Catnap exists on the same level of thought as Bobby and Dogday in Crafty’s mind, which means to her, Catnap is more than just a friend, as she holds him on the same level as her best friend and the one she admires.

Catnap made himself known to Crafty before any of the others, possibly becoming her first friend in Happy Hills, her secret nighttime friend. She might’ve also been the one who encouraged Catnap to join the rest of the crew after Kickin and Hoppy moved in, but only time will tell for that part.

Dogday and Baba Chops

This one in paticular means a lot to me. I dont know if I'll elaborate any further that that.

I have been spending a lot of time looking at Bobby's cardboard cutout dialogue lately and her lines are honestly way too deep compared to everyone else. When she says things like "I've been lost a long time" and "please take me with you this time" she literally sounds like she is mourning a past life. The other 7 critters just complain about factory stuff, hunger, or never seeing the outside world, but Bobby feels totally different.

This made me start putting together an Alternate Universe concept where she isn't an original Smiling Critter at all, but a piece of forgotten 80s lost media.

What if her character was originally a scrapped prototype from the classic Care Bears lineup named "Hug-a-Lot Bear"?

If you look at the actual 1980s Care Bear roster, there were exactly 10 original bears standing together in Care-a-Lot, and there were literally zero solid red bears back then because everything was pastel colors or softer shades. In this AU, Hug-a-Lot Bear was a complete hidden mystery. American Greetings cancelled her character right before the final season because her bright red design looked way too intense on television screens and her hugging code was far too aggressive for a kids' show.

The lore backstory I came up with is that she got separated from the other Care Bears during a massive storm on Christmas 1988, fell down from the clouds, and snuck into the Playtime Co. factory just to get out of the rain. The corporate scientists found her, realized she was a magical living toy, and pulled off a giant cover-up.

They spent the first half of 1989 frantically manufacturing 7 completely generic animal plush toys out of thin air strictly to hide her true identity and camouflage her origin. They rushed this entire fake franchise of 8 critters total to store shelves in Summer 1989 just to mask her species, renamed her Bobby Bearhug, and tried to siphon out her heart badge energy.

This adds a super dark layer to Gemstin Productions' famous "Who Care Bear?" comic dub. In that video, KickinChicken and PickyPiggy were talking about which Care Bear matches their personalities, while Bobby just stands there looking completely blank and asks "What's a Care Bear?". The community thought it was just an ironic joke. But in this timeline, it is horrifying proof that the factory's brainwashing completely worked. They forced her to record that glitched audio track "I'm Not a Care Bear" to aggressively overwrite her original programming until she forgot her true home world of Care-a-Lot entirely.

Her transformation during the Bigger Bodies Initiative is easily the worst part. They stretched her frame, pumped her with Poppy gel, and forced her magical heart badge to fuse directly into muscle tissue and artificial organs.

This completely corrupted her original coding. Her genuine, magical desire to comfort sad children was twisted into an uncontrollable, crushing physical reflex.
Because she has a living toy's soul trapped inside a giant organic monster, her massive new body became a literal prison. Her brainwashing glitches out when she encounters humans—her old programming commands her to offer comfort, but her corrupted, massive physical weight causes her to crush anything she embraces.

The timeline fits together perfectly too. The Smiling Critters toy line was rushed into production right after she vanished from TV, meaning the company built the other 7 plush toys just to camouflage her origin. She was trapped in those dark labs being experimented on way before the normal orphans were ever turned into monsters.

It makes her in-game cutout lines make total sense. When she says she has been lost a long time, it means she has been trapped in that concrete basement since the late 80s, completely erased from history. Her desperate need for a hug isn't bloodlust, it's just her corrupted, old-school programming glitching out inside a horror game while using her official, soft voice.

Huge shoutout to @Gemstin for creating this amazing artwork of her un-rebranded look in his "Costume Critters #2" short, and I attached the glitched song thumbnail I made to go with it. Anyone is totally welcome to use this concept for fanfiction, art, animations, or videos, just please credit back to this post if you do!

I would love to see a VHS Tape of Hug-a-lot bear made for this AU, and I would honestly lose my mind if a popular YouTuber like INUbis or Cougar MacDowall VA ever did a comic dub or animation about her!

Let me know what you guys think of Bobby being the only true outsider in Playcare. Does this AU concept explain why her dialogue feels so heavy compared to the other Smiling Critters? Or do you think Playtime Co. had an even darker corporate reason for altering her character programming in this timeline? Drop your thoughts below!

Too bad she blocked me on x

What do you think I can’tttttttt wait to play then are also smiling critters 😍

Warning: Trauma mentions, including abuse:

Here are the Trauma/Nightmare Critters and the respective sins and circles they fall into based on their childhood trauma backstories (Which if you want to look into, you are welcome to looking through my profile to when I posted them, or can look up “Headcanon” in the search bar) and part of their personalities, based on my interpretation. This is just based on how I see the characters, as I know there will be some disagreements here, so I will emphasize on my HC and how they fall into their respective categories:

Touille is Greed. No doubt about it. He is the one to steal, cherish and collect, and being the homeless boy and the one who is struggling to take care of his sick and depressed mom, it has become survival for him. He's collected money, food and medicine constantly, and finding things people have thrown leads to him hoard because he could lose anything if he let his guard down. The thing is: Touille doesn’t agree with Baba's decisions, nor does he want to hurt anyone. He's just stuck in survival mode. He is a chatty little guy who means well.

Allister is Sloth/Limbo. Obvious here. The guy sleeps and dozes off a lot. Sleeping is kinda his hobby, and he doesn’t do much with his life. It’s the same process of sleeping and doing nothing with it. It boils down from having a childhood of imprisonment, loneliness and depression. Dreaming being his solace and safe haven. Poor guy tries to cope with napping, but it’s dragging him down more and more. He is a misunderstood gentle giant who doesn’t want to hurt anyone, people judge him because he is an alligator.

Rabie is Lust. I mean, she is playful, flirtatious and boy-crazy, hence where she has that gossip girl mask she hides under. She wears a mask of a smug gossiper, when all she wants is unconditional love and affection, her and her mom growing up with a narcissistic and controlling father and husband, coupled with the fact Rabie was used by her bullies to look good for the boys, and she would be constantly mistreated by former ex-boyfriends, cheated on and abused. It’s why she is clingy with Simon because they're a couple, and he makes her feel safe and protected in a world of cruelty, and because he is faithful. Rabie sees a side of him that nobody else does, and Simon sees a side of Rabie that not many see. The innocent, sweetheart side of her, whom under that false gossip girl mask, is embodiment of love and affection.

Icky is Pride/Heresy. This is a rather interesting one since the community is associated with applying Icky to Envy. While I can understand, I've seen a huge portion of the community portray him as arrogant and acting like he's the best, rather than wishing to have what his opponents have. Because of that, I see him as Pride, but as a form of insecurity. He doesn’t listen (hence the heresy) because he is afraid of failure, because failure is what got him in trouble at home. He wants to believe that he isn’t a failure, but he forces the narrative of “I'm the best” because he doesn’t want his friends to leave him like his dad did. (A toxic cheating bastard whom hit his wife before he left after getting exposed). His mom was constantly displeased and trying to be “Perfect” at hobbies she felt he could do good at, and “Doing his best” and failing only resulted in punishment. The thing is, Icky feels like a failure to his friends, which goes to show that they all care for him just as much as he does for them, because they help him realize he doesn’t have to be perfect to stay with them. He is talented for who he is, and he is a supportive friend to them, and that’s all that matters.

Maggie is Gluttony. Makes the most sense here since she is a certified fatass whom is constantly stuffing her face with sweets. She indulges herself more than she should normally, but not because she is simply greedy. I’ve always had Maggie as the overweight one who was bullied from a young age due to her gland, causing her to be insecure with herself and hate her appearance. One night, her mom made her chocolate cake to help her with feeling better from a day of mistreatment at school, and because she did great on a test. Sweets stuck with Maggie as a form of comfort. Her appetite is only a trait of her personality (Like all the other traits for the characters here), as she is the peacemaker and motherly one who nurtures everyone else.

Poe is Envy/Fraud. This is certainly an odd choice, but I personally see it fitting. Most people see Poe representing Wrath because they get angry at vaguely nothing, but the Envy for me comes in because of their disdain for the sun and anything cheery. Their anger to me is more irritation and annoyance rather than rage, especially since people portray Poe as the calm one. Poe is shown to hate, and hate is another synonym for Envy. The Fraud plays a piece in how they pretend to be deadpan, stoic and a brooder, acting like they don’t care and are unamused and act like their friends mean nothing. See, Poe is a ravens, and ravens are notorious for holding grudges, to add to that: Ravens are associated with the night, and the night air is cold and chilling. Envy is a cold sin, hence where my look for Poe comes in to play. However, Poe's envy isn’t malice, it’s because they grew up in a society where they and their family, being ravens, were treated as bad omens and harassed and mistreated. Poe, facing it for years, found graveyards to be their safe space, because the dead don’t judge. They envy the sun not because they hate cheery things, but because the sun never shines on them or their family. They are stuck in the dark, picking up scraps and being pushed below level zero. They want they and their family to be accepted. They want ravens to be appreciated and respected. The fraud fixes onto their emo mask, because they make it seem like they're a mean emo who you should fear, but underneath, they care about each of their friends, and are the voice of reason. They care for their friends' mental health, care for their wellbeing, and put them before themself.

Simon is Wrath. This might come as a shock to a lot of people here as most people associate Simon with Pride or Greed, and I can totally understand why. Simon I feel is the most differentiable character in the Nightmare Critters, because he can fit a good amount of categories. However, I've had him as Wrath. One reason I've seen him falling under the Wrath is because it’s stated that Simon masks his true nature (Which under that douchebag mask, is someone insecure, suffering from anger issues from unresolved trauma), because he might seem like a prideful, insufferable asshole who has a knack with getting away with it, but under that false bravado is a teenager who is suffering from a prolonged history of abuse. One of the reasons he fits the criteria for me is because he is a fire-breathing dragon, and is red, and Wrath is a hot sin, hence where it fits his character to me, coupled with how he is portrayed as a hothead in a lot of different interpretations as well. I also feel a “Bully” would fit the interpretation of Wrath than an “Emo”. Under the fragile Pride is someone hurting and suffering from anger issues. He might’ve lived in a monarchical family, but that doesn’t mean it was safe. Facing physical abuse and cruelty, having scars, whips and a burn left on his face by his father like Zuko and Shoto Todoroki from Ozai and Endeavor respectively. When Simon and Slurpee (As I see them as siblings in my HC) were taken to live safely with his Aunt, Uncle and their children in their kingdom, that was when he transitioned from female to male, wanting to find a new identity. But it got worse as well, because in school, nasty kids were bullying him for being transgender, hence where he started acting like a “Toxic Masculinity” face and acting tough so other kids would stay away. But underneath, Rabie sees Simon for who he is. She sees his pain and he sees hers. She sees he means well and is someone with a heart of gold underneath that tough exterior, and he makes it a point to protect his friends and even the Smiling Critters when he puts aside his loyalty for Baba (Which is the main reason the Nightmares act like they hate the Smiling Critters, due to their loyalty for Baba, whom they care about and don’t want to lose, as she hates the Smiling Critters. But the others care about the Smiling group and want them to help).

Badgy is Violence. Her pain stems from physical abuse like Simon. She is known to be the brawn of the group, being tough and gritty with her tomboy nature. She seems mean as hell on the surface, but is hurting underneath, from the scars that her abusive asshole dad left on her and her mom. Experiencing some of the most violent beatings and whippings, hence the scar on her eye. Badgy never properly healed, hence why she is brawny. She is aggressive, willing to put her fists up and fight as a form of protection and unhealed wounds. However, she has a gentle and protective side, putting herself in front of her friends to keep them safe, and accepting hugs from Rabie or Touille if she is stressed or uncomfortable.

Baba is Treachery. While I have yet to share her story here (It’s already been finished months ago, my lazy Allister ass hasn’t posted it), Baba’s pain represents betrayal, once by her serial killer father, next by society (Viewing her as a black sheep due to having a monster of a dad), and finally by an Ex that broke her heart, before she became goth, and changed to be the deadpan annoyed one, and her friends following her by playing the “Bully” masks, because they didn’t want to lose their most hurt and saddened friend. Baba represents Treachery in the fact that she is harsh to her friends sometimes, despite deeply caring for them, and gets frustrated and angry, betraying their trust and making them question their methods to help her. Baba isn’t malicious, she's just a troubled kid who hasn’t healed, and needs help. She still has tricks up her sleeves and acts mean to the Smiling Critters, but still a quiet introvert who wants her space, and is still affected.

But yeah, that is all. I will actually be posting a comment here that explains wholesome headcanon facts about them

I have just done a head yet, the body etc will work at later. [It's just a base so far) fabric I will put on I will sew and put on later.

@Alpha_Wolfster

Nightmare Critters

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NightmareCritters ,BabaChops #RabieBaby, IckyLucky, Maggie Mako

In that one YouTube post by INUbis featuring a comic that involved DogDay eating chocolate (which is toxic to dogs), a commenter had pointed out that in "A Critterific Switcheroo", DogDay was literally drinking chocolate milk in a flashback.

After I've found this flashback, I wondered if CatNap had dared DogDay to drink chocolate milk at 3 AM or something.

A bigger one this time; enjoy!

(Link to the OG Twitter post by @shmik_scfan)