WOODY: What's up there?

QUINN: Let's go see.... Here, Manuel, boost me up.

QUINN: Right there, Lea! See it? There's a bug right there! You have to fix it.

MANUEL: Hm. She's right. It looks wrong.

WOODY: Where?

LEA: Yeah, yeah. That's a tool bug. The Tools team already knows about it.

Hi, Chuck! (We have to say hi to Chuck. He's our biggest -- and so far, our only -- fan.)

MANUEL: For a while there, we thought you were a goner.

CHUCK: I'm glad he made it....

LEA: Guys,... Leave my potpourri crystals alone.

QUINN: Who knew someone without a mouth could ingest something?

MANUEL: Okay.... Airway, check.... Breathing, check.... What was the "C" again?

QUINN: I dunno.... Where's his sternum supposed to be?

What on earth...?

Hm, what's in here?

When Lea came back from the holidays, the Grays moved in. Manuel introduced himself, but Quinn is a bit wary.

QUINN (whispering to Manuel): He has no face! How can you trust someone if you can't look them in the eye?

WOODY: These are my buddies: Mr. Brown and Mr. Bean. They sit by the window and do nothing. What a life!

WOODY: Hi! My name is Woody. I live in this office.

About the creation

Woody was the first artist model I got. I don't even remember when or where I got him. I bought him to do some sketching with, but I realized that these artist models are not interesting to sketch. It was more fun posing them. So, I posed Woody in my office once in a while, experimenting with sports positions – golfing, bowling, basketball. Then, in September 2003, I went on my third Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and I had him posed enthusiastically taking a long stride. When I got back after the walk, Chuck remarked about it, as he walked by my office. I had an audience!

That same year, while shopping for Christmas gifts for my nephew Ian at the local Daniel Smith store, I found the more articulated gray plastic ones and I brought them in when I got back from my holiday vacation. I named them Manuel and Quinn, from the word "mannequin". Well, I needed names that were easy to remember....

So, the series began. Chuck remained the sole audience and critic for a while. "They're funny!" he said. So, one night, I had them sit and wave at the door and, when Chuck walked by the next day, I waved too. "You've been waiting all day to do that, weren't you?" he asked. ;-)

One day, Chuck asked if I had pictures of them. He wanted to show them to his wife. Of course, I did! So, I posted them up in the internal web and added captions.

Slowly, more and more people noticed the mannequins. Sheridan suggested letting other people post their own captions; I'm still working on that. Troy suggested starting a marketing blitz with t-shirts and mugs; I'm still working on that too. So, I had to get it out on the World Wide Web. And here we are.