I’ve heard of many fictional kings in my life, but never this one.  My first job was with Burger King and, as a kid, King Kong was always kind of scary. King Arthur and his Roundtable has always been intriguing since nobody seems to be certain if he actually lived or not. And then there are the animated versions of Kings. King Julien, from the Madagascar movies comes to mind, the little hyperactive lemur king. The Lion King gave us Mufasa and Simba. The Little Mermaid had King Triton, and the funny and lovable Minions have King Bob. These I have heard of. But never have I ever heard of King Bob-Omb.

Like all of us, King Bob-Omb had to come from somewhere and since I am a self-proclaimed nerd for all things history and even though I thought it was kind of weird to do so, I looked him up. It seems King Bob-Omb is the king of all of the Bob-Ombs from Super Mario 64. Evidently, in the video world if you give something a face it is automatically alive. All kinds of weird things are alive in the Super Mario world, including bombs. But, there is one Bob-Omb that is different from all of the rest. This Bob-Omb has an oversized mustache, arms, legs, a crown and a pretty bad temper. He is King Bob-Omb and, according to our just turned 10 year old grandson, King Bob-Omb is “the ultimate bad guy that you have to jump over three times.” Which brings me to this…

This is our grandson, Gavin. He came to me some months ago with a problem. Gavin talks fast and has no need of punctuation. The conversation, all one-sided since I had no idea what he was talking about, went something like this…

“Nana can you make me a King Bob-Omb because I can’t buy one because they’re super expensive like hundreds of dollars like three hundred dollars or something like that but you can make me one right because they don’t sell him anymore either because he’s very rare but I need him for my Mario plush and I can’t get him so can you please make me one please.” This was all said in one breath. My much shorter, also one breath response, “King Who?”

I had never heard of a King Bob-Omb and knew even less how to make one, but I told him I would try. How could I disappoint this little man who had so much confidence that his Nana could make such a thing as a “very rare” King Bob-Omb.

And so I “Googled” King Bob-Omb and, though I couldn’t find a sewing pattern, I did find a crochet pattern. A very long crochet pattern. A crochet pattern that originated in the UK. A crochet pattern that I couldn’t really understand. That common language that separates us, evidently transfers to the written language as well and even more so to the abbreviated world of crochet. Still, I thought I had to at least try. But first, I had to make sure Gavin understood that crochet was not exactly plush. Kids can be kind of particular. I explained and showed him pictures and Gavin gave me the go-ahead. After many months of googling the different directions and watching way too many YouTube videos to figure out exactly what they wanted me to do. It took months but, I finished it for his birthday. The experience was kind of like giving birth, the process was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done, but the results make it all worthwhile.

This is Gav on his birthday with almost all of his presents. King Bob-Omb was a hit, even with his thumbs on upside down.

Little boys…And big boys, too… They really are a very big deal!