BY KAREN BOSSICK

The story of some very unique little animals and their message that what makes us different makes a difference has gone viral following a TikTok and Instagram post by a social influencer in the United Kingdom.

“Within two weeks we’ve gotten 28 million views on TikTok and Instagram. We’ve been overwhelmed with people calling and emailing and trying to message us,” said Nick Harman, the Ketchum man who created the Randimals in partnership with Casey Finegan.

“People have been reaching out from around the world, including Japan, Germany, India, Sweden, France, Italy, Canada and Australia, trying to find out how they can buy the Randimals. We’ve had several calls with producers in Los Angeles about making a film or animated series. We’re getting calls from people wanting to invest in the Randimals.  And we’re getting calls from companies that want to license the Randimals for things like clothing and backpacks and lunchboxes.”

Nick Harman’s “Mum” watches as he catches his breath the day before the trade show in London opens.

The Randimals had their genesis in Nick’s dog Ollie, who was part basset hound and part lab, which made him a little quirky looking. That led Harman, who manages the desk at The Argyros, to create a number of unique animals, including a duck and horse combo named Huck, a gorilla-elephant combo named Elorilla, a zebra-kangaroo combo named Zangaroo, a dog-seal combo and more.

Harman enlisted an artist from Armenia, a website designer from Pakistan, a graphic designer from Nepal, a TikTok creator from Colombia and two toy builders from China, and soon he had a nifty menagerie of plush toys.

Then Harman wrote an accompanying book about a little girl named Sydney whose dog Ollie chews on her toys while she’s asleep, tearing them apart. Her despair spurs invention as she sews the torn animals together, creating Hork out of a horse and shark and more.

When traditional toys make fun of the new creations Elorilla the Gorilla tells her comrades not to hang their heads—“What makes us different makes all the difference in the world.”

A young woman entered the Create Your Own Randimal contest during the London trade show.

Harman introduced the Randimals locally during the pandemic Christmas of 2020. And they got some interest, including interest from Ripley’s Believe It or Not, which recently decided to go national with the Randimals after selling out two store tests a few months ago.

The Randimals also has been picked by Amazon as one of the most exciting, successful companies to watch.

But it was a week-long toy show in London in Harman’s birthland where the menagerie and the message behind them really took off.

Harman had no idea what was in store when his father and mother helped him set up his booth, his mother staying on wearing a trade show badge that said “Vice President of UK Sales” and his father posing as PR director.

Nick Harman wrote this book to explain The Randimals.

The last day of the show a man who had been watching his presentations for a few days asked if he could videotape one of them. And Harman awoke the next day with a video sensation on his hands.

In the last three days alone, he has sold 600 copies of his “Randimals” books.

“The people at the Post Office get nervous when I go in because they know I have a huge stack of books that need to go out,” said Harman. “I’m also in conversation with a literary agent who’s interested in representing me. To date, I have self-published but it’s always my dream to have the book published by a proper publisher.”

Since his Randimals went viral, Harman has been asked to speak at schools about the Randimals message. His work has been embraced by the autism community. He’s even been asked to speak at several conventions, including one in Las Vegas.

Nick Harman introduced Randimals plush toys and even Christmas tree ornaments during the COVID pandemic via a Snow Globe on Ketchum Main Street.

“People are saying that they love the message—the uniqueness of the concept. They say it needs to be an animated series as it can teach children around the world that what makes them different makes all the difference,” he said.

“Casey and I’ve been at it now for four years now and it feels like all of our hard work is starting to pay off,” he added. “It brings me so much happiness to have people connect with the Randimals in the way I had hoped they would, to know that we could make toys that looked humorous and funny with a really good foundational message that is so timely today.”

Want to know more? Visit https://randimals.com/.