Surprises – Award Winning, National Children’s Magazine – Subscription 3,500,000

Rubba Ducks was first introduced in BOLDT.’s Surprises Magazine in 1997 – Rubba Ducks became the very first rubber ducks in the world that were designed beyond the plain yellow rubber ducky – we all came to love and learn of via Ernie from Sesame Street.

By 1998 Surprises started offering Rubba Ducks T-Shirts, Stickers, Tattoos and a Music CD, Good Good Good Sounds.  T-Shirt sales were higher then expected from the get go. However, BOLDT.’s Team quickly noticed duck shirts sales increasing dramatically.  More so, we found the majority of the sales were repeat sales from previous customers addresses except, the sizes were slightly larger.  When BOLDT.’s Team contacted the customers to inquire about the additional orders of the larger sizes, they were informed it was their older siblings, coming home from college and noticing the Rubba Shirts being worn by their younger siblings and thought they were retro and cool and had to have one or two for themselves.

The biggest selling shirt with kids under 16 at the time were Lucky, Daisy and Ducky D.  The best selling styles for the older siblings 16+ were Gray Duck (bill pierced on Black shirt), Sitting Duck and Lucky.  Surprises Magazine was a fantastic vehicle for introducing new product lines – Leah and Friends was another successful brand, empowering young girls.  Soap Shoes (shoes designed by Chis Morris – friend of Mark Boldt’s) were designed to allow the individual wearing them to slide/glide on any corner surface – railings, curbs and other similar edges.  Soap Shoes was the inspiration to Sonic the Hedgehog video game – where Sonic wear’s Soap Shoes to slide to victory.  Rubba Ducks, rare style Soap Duck was a compliment to his friends Soap Shoe brand.  

By 2000 Surprises’ sales of Rubba Duck merchandise was beyond what was ever imagined at the time, and then with sales from the Rainbow Foods, Back to School opportunity – provided Rubba Ducks with more then enough capital needed to roll out Rubba Ducks domestically and soon after internationally.  

Years later, Mark Boldt would remark on how disappointed he was with his decision to stop working on the publication of Surprises, allowing it to fold.  At the time, he felt his Team’s time was better spent if it was just focused on Rubba Ducks – it didn’t take more then a few years when Mark believed his Team could have managed booth.  Surprises was such a fun and exciting magazine for children and is still missed today.

(click on any image to enlarge)