Show Gnomefy greetingt farewell and good-nigh- ts Gnome goods taffy $25 mttktn spent ty V i w " v - - Joffy snickering a favorite pastime jf Suzj Kolttr back Darth Vader Look out and Mickey Moum The tide people have arrived and taken over the product world heretofore dominated by a mouse a beae a villainous foreign In vader and perhaps a pink panther or two Gnome news may be good npvs but It seems that every place you hang your hat is gnome The teeny things have popped up al over and Just may have taken over die country and bewitched you out of 25 mfflon bucks First Introduced by Harry H Abrams' ' artbooks mate than a year ago (accounting for $125 million) gnomes made their Christmas debut this year In 96 department stores across the country on such as coffee mugs picture frames bun Stand mer-chand- se ping paper stationery Items and dol houses (Gnome Homes to be exact) Merchandising a popular character kilo megadolars is an old tradition that grew modem with the introduction of a guy named Mickey in 1928 The first Mickey Mouse products were offered for sale to die public In 1930 and tens of thousands of Hems have now been sold many of which are collectors’ items or museum pieces and worth a lot of money Currently Disneyland cams between $15 to $20 mdbon armualy from Mickey and al of his friends If you make a quarter of a million dollars with a character you’re doing great" explains Marc Fevers the man responsible for Darth Vader sheets cookie Jars dob masks and pajamas "Pink Panther does about $300000 and we used to think that was peat” Fevers in charge of the product arfikes to rangements at 20th Century-Fo- x consider his Darth Vader as the next Mickey Mouse and has already made as much money in producing "Star Wars” products as the movie has earned Just hi ticket sales "The gnomes are budding an empire that wi soon equal Snoopyk” notes Warner Naomi (pronounced gnome-ec- ) Abrams’ chief gnome expert With one Important difference: most of the Snoopy products are bought for or by chldten The gnomes market is universal and dudes adults rich enough first to shell out $1750 for the book (a cheaper edition is coming out in about a year) and then to buy tar themselves thetr friends and their children any of the over 100 gnome products currently In stores In short (ho-hthe gnomes are headed for greener pastures (pastures being a favorite hangout for gnomes) than Snoopy ever dreamed of For those who don't know gnomething about gnomebody gnomes are 15 cm high — without their caps — and live in woods dunes gardens houses farms and even Sfceria (The less said about that the better) They five to be about 400 years old and can be easily recognised with their bright high caps — green for women red far men (Also you might notice that females over 350 begin to show a light beard) They have sightly tumed-inwar- d fact (for fast running over and weigh grass) up to 300 grams Women are fighter of course Their are greetings fareuwfis and good-nighal expressed by rubbing noses- - At age 100 a gnome starts to think about marriage preferring a plump bride usually a girl of 96 or 97 soft-cov- er o) ts Night creatures they come to Me at sunset and ebappear from sight by daybreak Although gnomes are gnomes round stores stocked the gnome phcgnomla to associate the mites with Christmas as a seasonal celebration Some stares spent up to $25000 on Christmas window displays featuring mechanized gnome villages they hope to use In the yean to come If profits matched expectations their efforts might institutionalize the gnomes with reindeer and Mr Claus as part of the holiday season But (hen thank no telling old Santa JsnT perhaps a gnome himself The gnome definitely doesn't stop hen Nod Christmas then will be a TV special written by sci-- fi genius Ray Bradbury as wd as several new products that couldn't be ready for this hofiday season Look for gnome sheets and towels gnome cookbooks gnome cookie cutters gnome lamps and maybe even metrognomes And remember to gnome me is to love me al-yc- ar t ICafeer is on LA bated writer for People magatlns and a towering figure to at gnomes Susy |