i enjoyed this video! although i don't really involve myself much in the windows scene nowadays, i am the person behind the windows aesthetics projects and i'm happy that my research and archival efforts continue to be appreciated for years to come. perhaps one day the answer to the question "who took frog?" will arise, even if it's buried deep in corporate archives if anyone is curious what i'm up to nowadays, i am still involved with various preservation projects, especially related to music; i'm a trusted editor on vgmdb and have been cataloguing thousands of albums there. i myself am a musician, please consider checking out my work!
@@bjiru_ I have an idea. Do you know those people who sell 3d printed objects online, maybe you can show them images of the windows xp frog, and request him to make a 3d print of that so we finally can get our hands on one.
Hey, I know where this is from! It is a bath toy! I had one when I was younger, before Windows XP even came out, so I assume the toy came before the profile pic. I got it from the dollar store. There were actually three of them that looked exactly like this, down to the exact coloring and paint, along with a large, flat, dishlike "mama" frog the three could ride on made of the same material. I have no idea the manufacturer or anything, but seeing as it was from the dollar store, it may have been produced in China or similar.
So I looked it up because that seemed like a searchable set I looked up "90s rubber frog bath set" and the link to an ebay listing "Vintage Simple Toys Green Frog Rubber Squeak Bath Tub Toy W/ Mini Frogs Floats" and that looks like The frog with a bigger one. I think you might be on to something!
I thought of this toy too! And when I looked it up, the shape appears to be pretty darn similar. The only thing is that they don’t have the bumps on the back like the windows one does. I do definitely believe that this is where the Windows XP frog came from though. We just have to find the right set.
I think it's so awesome there's one guy out there who's dedicated a large portion of his time and effort to track down different windows XP profile pictures and setup a wiki for the wallpapers.
that's me :) i'm a gal, she/they. this was my big hobby during around 2018-20, but it's been on the backburner nowadays. i am involved with other preservation and research projects though, such as editing vgmdb and sometimes archiving ringtones.
@@fusoxide Nice to meet you! Hopefully the lil frog will be found eventually. I will look through some Polish thrift stores, maybe I can find it somewhere. Not any concentrated effort, I just like to browse thrift stores.
@@UltimatePerfection sounds fun, hehe. it is of course possible that it could have been used in books in the 90s and 2000s - and those usually include copyright/author acknowledgements for stock photos used. even bliss was found in a very old russian textbook for example
@@fusoxide The way I see it, if the frog pic is the picture of a real life object, it is out there somewhere. The real frog, I mean. So even if we can't find the original picture, we can at least find the frog.
one thing that always gets me... when thinking about lost things... is that there are probably a bunch of these sitting in various stages of decomposition in a landfill somewhere.... like they're not gone.. just lost............ but still THERE...............
In kindergarten I had some tiny hamster eraser toy I loved that accidentally got thrown away and I cried thinking of it in the dump. Wonder how it is now.
Some are vacuum sealed new old stock in a fresh case of 50 or something. On the 3rd shelf of the 8th rack of the 5th row of the 2nd floor of unit 11 in warehouse 3 of one of countless storage facilities. It's how random sealed lots of retailer 6-packs of Atari 2600 games flood ebay from Venezuela 40 years later. Or how Ant-man's car was left undisturbed for 5 years in Endgame. Or how they hid the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
i am kinda sad that those old windows xp aesthetics died out, i really liked them and i think they are really calming and nostalgic. feels like home i dont know how to explain it. sadly everything nowadays is really modern and simplified which looks okay too but i really miss the windows xp-7 era of things.
I know how you feel, Its deffinatly a lot of nostalgia, but I also do feel those aesthetics of aero glass or charming pixely things of XP genuinly had so much more personality then the flat design of more recent years past
Hello i am from russia and I actually vaguely remember this frog from my childhood it is still on sale I used this phrase to search for it “лягушка игрушка резиновая для ванны” it translates to “frog toy rubber for bath” I added the for bath part because i vaguely remember that the frog was a bath toy . Also I can help with Russian to English translation if you need it.
Shit, I also grew up in Russia, but I remember this userpic very well. But I never wanted one because there were frogs just like them in toy stores. I googled лягушка игрушка резиновая для ванны in the Yandex search engine and the first picture is almost the same frog, except for the back part painted dark green Apparently they were made in Asia, using the same mold for casting
Well, I thought the background was made in some photoshop or indesign material to me honestly but now later, I finally realize it was actually a photo of that Bliss image of a real location that was taken by Charles O'Rear himself which is pretty neat and iconic as a Windows XP default wallpaper. I find the image and the hill from that location is pretty stunning in my point of view.
@@sonicgalaxy27 you replied this to like 10 different comments and all of your replies were unrelated to the comment atleast try to just comment once instead of spamming it in replies making it harder to see actual conversations related to the comment
It was for sale on the russian marketplace. It was released by russian brand "Курносики" (Interestingly, I was recently looking for a mug with a crocodile from my childhood, which was from the same company).
Well, I thought the background was made in some photoshop or indesign material to me honestly but now later, I finally realize it was actually a photo of that Bliss image of a real location that was taken by Charles O'Rear himself which is pretty neat and iconic as a Windows XP default wallpaper. I find the image and the hill from that location is pretty stunning in my point of view.
For anyone interested into looking up if that's true, google "курносики лягушка" because the word курносики by itself won't lead you to the precious frog. Maybe that helps in the search for the image.
@@ErimlRGG "Hey, people really like the XP frog but the toy is long out of production and impossible to find. We should make our own and get rich!" - Some toy company, probably
@@maple201 sadly greenbrier seems to still own the copyright for these frog toys, they're just cheaper looking now (no back paint or spots, just smooth froggy with big round feet)
I still have my plushie frog I won from a Pizza Hut claw machine as a child. He is my prized possession and he has a cute little Christmas hat. Watching this video was very nostalgic for me. I hope you find your Froggy soon 🍀
Little internet searches like these are my favorite kind of content to watch on TH-cam. It’s sooo interesting and fun to watch. It’s like watching a very niche piece of history unfold
Interesting that you thought it was a plush. I always thought it was a rubber frog like a rubber duck even when I was younger. I’m pretty sure I used the frog when we were just using the default before I uploaded my own images. My brother was the skateboarder and mum was the gerbera (the flower) as it was actually her fave flower. I think my sister was the soccer ball considering she played at the time.
I was in junior high in the U.S. in the mid-to-late 1990s. This exact squishy rubber frog was widely available as keychains from places like Claire's sometime between 1996 and 1999! The range may be a little narrower, but it was definitely within that span. Lots of kids at my school had them, and I had one too! Rubber ducks, frogs, etc were really on trend. I think it had something to do with the culture cycle of 1960s/70s 'hippie' aesthetics being quite popular. You could find lots of stuff with ~hippie aesthetics~ at places like the tween accessory store Claire's, Walmart, Target, Limited Too, such places.
@@mentally_meow a lot of parents buy used old toys for their kids or sometimes they even give their own old toys to their kids i had toys made between 1960 and 2005 and a few from before 1960
As a massive Windows aesthetic, Frutiger Aero and 2000's nostalgia nerd....now I'm invested in this frog. I never even thought of searching down the origins of the old Windows profile and stock images.
There was always something charming in this frog and I also low-key wanted to obtain it and swim with it in a bath when I was four. Probably mainly because green's my fav colour and that shade in particular is my fav as well. Back when I had XP and I played solitaire I always played it just for the sake of seeing that frog again. God bless you in your future searches
Hello! A quick search with Russian keywords helped me find that this exact frog rubber toy was released in Russia by Курносики brand, while originally it was manufactured by Zenith Infant Products from Tailand. Probably not a clue for this exact photograph info, but helps to know what exactly was this frog.
I think this mold of frog is not unique and was used by other toy manufacturers. Russian company just bought these toys from factory to sell in Russia.
hello bjiru, thank you so much for making this video xp frog was a huge part of my childhood too since i spent a lot of time playing solitaire on the home computer and i always made the card backs have frog on them since frogs are my favourite animal ^^ it really warms my heart to know that someone else appreciates frogs this much
This is probably a crazy idea, but I have a theory as to how to find the frog. Instead of looking to Windows, look outward. Find the rough date the frog was photographed (based on context clues from the other images taken around the same time), then search for rubber frog bath toys specifically from those years. You're more likely to find that information than anything regarding the photograph itself.
I HAD THIS FROG TOY GROWING UP!!!! or at least one that looks extremely similar. it would light up and play music (i dont remember the music) and besides the electronics in it it was definitely made of rubber or something similar to bath toys from that time. i sadly don't remember anything more about him but knowing my family he might still be in a box somewhere in storage.
It's possible the same photographer took the picture at that angle, but Microsoft bought it out and used it exclusively. And then after making it into their icon, discarded the original.
I have some information that might help (IDK how, but it's related to the frog): My grandpa has a picture of me as a kid, sitting on top of THIS EXACT FROG! The picture was taken some time between 2001 and 2003, so the dates match up. It was taken in a mall, in a store that specializes in taking professional photos of your kids. I'm 100% sure this store doesn't exist anymore (I think the mall is gone too). The frog seems to be a plaster statue with paint on top, and is ~1-1.5 ft tall. I can't remember exactly, but I think it has wheels tucked underneath, so that it can be moved around easily. If it is the same frog, that means that the artist behind it has made multiple versions of it, possibly explaining the differences with the stock photo you found. I don't have access to the photo right now, and I don't feel like asking any of my family members "hey, remember that picture of me sitting on the frog from over two decades ago? Can I have that so I can scan it and send it to a TH-camr?"
It is very possible this was just a set of old bath toy moulds that came out, most of them would have been thrown away or damaged by now and if it was in the 90s not many images would exist, also companies share(steal) moulds and alter them he looks like a big one. My boyfriend remembers a toy with a similar and pose (definitely not the same one though look up specifically 1990s rubber frog bath toy) without bumps and finer details and we were born in 2001 with older siblings. Edit: Other image of the big one being from Alamy makes me believe this may have never been for market and mass-production and was made specifically for stock and commercial images, he might be in a landfill, there may only have been one and they just painted him twice for all we know.
You aren't the only one who loved this frog as a kid, I was very much in the same boat. Whenever I run a Windows XP virtual machine I always choose the frog profile picture as I once did oh so long ago. I also went on a small search a few months back, and while I did correctly assume he was a rubber frog toy and not a plush, I was never able to find anything regarding it either aside from the 2001 article you mentioned. Great job finding "Joseph", it is amazing to see this toy from another angle! I really do hope we can find the full resolution image some day.
Probably the best video Everytime I become happy every time this dude says "Frog" I mean any time, it makes me smile I mean I just like the way he says it sometimes :)
Well, I thought the background was made in some photoshop or indesign material to me honestly but now later, I finally realize it was actually a photo of that Bliss image of a real location that was taken by Charles O'Rear himself which is pretty neat and iconic as a Windows XP default wallpaper. I find the image and the hill from that location is pretty stunning in my point of view.
Big xp frog fan here, just a thought: could the rubber duck profile picture have been from the same photo shoot as xp frog? They both have the white background and are both rubber bath toys, perhaps if we could find the rubber duck photographer we could ask if they took the xp frog picture?
How is he so sure that the picture in the "wife sells frogs to save husband" article isn't the source of the XP profile picture? I say they look the same, especially when I notice the same direction of lighting in the pictures. You can just erase the background of the picture from the article in white to get the profile picture.
@@sqlexp It's the same picture, that is confirmed. The search is for the original high-resolution image that was taken with a professional camera similar to the rest of the images that have been found, as there is very likely no way that the original photo was that grainy.
love the energy of this video. also love frogs. i've seen this frog before but only while looking through frog toys on the internet lol, didnt know he was from xp! what a lovely fella
It’s very funny watching you try and find where this frog was from, because I had the exact same frog as a bath toy when I was younger. Bumps and everything!
1:05 really appreciate the era specific versions of the websites. that old ebay interface takes me back and modern ebay doesn't have the same charm like before 😭
It looks like some kind of prize you'd get from a claw machine when you were actually trying to get the knockoff Discman, so it's probably just some cheap ephemera that hasn't been manufactured in 25+ years from a factory in Asia that now makes bad iPhone clones. Unless there's another person wirh a rubber bathtoy collection, I'd say the chances of finding the original are minimal, but at least you got us one leap closer
Loved this video your enthusiasm is epic. I'm so glad I'm not the only one who takes great joy in deeply researching odd things from childhood. Mine has to be the pre Xbox days, something about it is so awesome.
I thought it was by the same person who did the duck since in my head they were from the same set of bath toys, but this was looked into and they said it wasn't them. So that's news to me but doesn't really help. Obviously the people who found things (Windows Aesthetics etc) will have already picked through the discs and looked in the files, and probably looked at the boxes and documentation in them but that would've been my next suggestion. The sad thing is that with search engines being less helpful at the moment it makes looking for things harder, I do worry that more things might stay lost if it doesn't get better. I always went with either the cat or the dog for my profile, but I did use the froggie deck to play solitaire, and I played quite a bit of solitaire.
my dad has the motorcycle guy pfp, and the reason why i say has is because he has an ancient hotmail email and somehow the pfp synced over to modern outlook (no clue how thats even possible) so everytime he sends an email that pfp will show up
When I was young my mom decorated her bathroom with rubber ducks; we had towels, shower curtain, rugs, and art with them on it. We also had a bunch of actual rubber ducks in a crazy variety of styles and outfits courtesy of a local party store. I remember seeing that exact froggy bath toy in the aisle next to the ducks, but it never crossed my mind it was in WinXP until right now (I always used the spaceman cards in solitaire)
Confirm. File name is "obj28__275.png". But it looks like it's still a different picture, though the same angle. Toy color is different, light is different, black background. Images are 128x128 and i have no success at finding higher resolution version Also, marked as dataset (for CV training), so if they were the ones who made and had the shots, most likely there is no high resolution version at all.
Hey um, have you tried using toad instead of frog in your searches? The bumps on its back seem to indicate that it's a toad. I imagine it might make a little bit of difference if it was sold as a rubber toad
I used to have that frog back in the day. Got it in a bundle of bath toys when I was around 8. I think it’s a pretty generic mould that was used quite widely. All I remember is that the bundle of toys the frog was a part of, was bought at HEMA. A typical Dutch shop that sells pretty much anything.
Have you possibly reached out to the TH-camr called TooMuchSlop? He uses the image of this very frog in a higher definition in his profile pic and many of his videos. It doesn't seem upscaled from the XP icon, as the spikes on the frog's body are clearly visible there.
Isn’t the image from the Russian news article the same as the XP image, just with the grey background removed and filled in white? Maybe the news article is the original source?
I always imagined the frog as a small plastic toy, like what you would get from a capsule toy vending machines, but I guess it might make sense as a bath toy. I also thought the shape was a little too definite even in low resolution to be a plushie, but now that you said it, I want one too
You probably wouldn't wanna hug the Windows XP frog, but you likely would wanna squeeze its cheeks to make it open and close its mouth and look excited.
I'm not saying that this is what the frog is from, but the design of the frog looks similar to the designs of the frogs used in the board game "Froggles." Unfortunately, I couldn't find a picture of the game pieces online.
I spent a lot of time on win xp as a kid and loved the bliss background. I actually ended up moving to santa rosa jus a short drive away from the location the photo was taken. I spent so much time looking at that mountain range as a kid and now I get to see it when I go outside.
Thank you so much for this video! I watch a lot of dark conspiracy/ media theory content during the day and it seems to be nearly impossible to find lighthearted stuff to watch at night but this video was perfect! I wanna know more about the rubber version specifically, I bet someone has it in a rubber duck collection and has no idea how important it is.
Are you sure that frog is the same one? The pupils in the eyes in the XP icon/russian article do not touch the top of the eye, they are surrounded by white completely, while the one you found it seems the pupils extend to the eyelid. Also, the material seems different (the eyes are less shiny), the colour is darker and there don't seem to be lips in the XP icon like your find has. Admittedly that could all be due to lighting conditions, but I think the placement of the pupils is definitely different! Come to think of it though, it's maybe possible that the one you found uses the same mould as the XP frog and was just painted and coloured differently, as I'm sure toy companies reuse or distribute the same moulds for slightly different products.
I just wanted to say that in the thumbnail for Maya Winky's Lord Farquaad ASMR, she is holding a very similar frog. I haven't watched the whole video so I don't know if the frog is part of it, but it looks somewhat like Windows XP frog.
I had this exact frog. It was a rubber bath toy. I had no idea a picture of it was in Windows XP lol. I even had multiple colors. I have no idea where my parents got the frogs, though.
Well, I thought the background was made in some photoshop or indesign material to me honestly but now later, I finally realize it was actually a photo of that Bliss image of a real location that was taken by Charles O'Rear himself which is pretty neat and iconic as a Windows XP default wallpaper. I find the image and the hill from that location is pretty stunning in my point of view.
in other words: it's a different copy of the same toy, rubber toys like this do tend to have slight differences between each one due to their relative cheapness in terms of production
That is just simply how cheap production works. Cheap and quick paint application. It's a common thing amongst doll enthusiasts to find the doll with the best-printed face due to so many coming out a bit wonky. They can be missing certain layers or be printed with a tilt or a shift up/down/to the side. Something even cheaper like a bath frog is sure to be way more varied than that.
You have awakened a distant childhood memory of mine there! I could swear I had the exact same frog as a kid. I don't know if it still exists but I will check when I am at my moms place the next time (where this frog could be)
I one of these frogs from my Spanish class. (Long story) It's the second "wrong" frog shown at 5:17. I gave her the name Maria de la Santa Cruz Rosalina Angelia Rodriguez Cuellar Rẽne.
Just read "Wrong Frog" at first and had a heart attack that I mislabeled something or missed something oh my goodness but that's a beautiful name! I will remember it 👍
I used that frog as an avatar as a kid! I had an irl toy frog that looked like it, but it was a pink from with blue stripes. I don't have it anymore, but I got it from a party grab bag at a friend's birthday party. It had a rubbery texture and when you squeezed it, its roll tongue unrolled out like a partyblower.
![2 phut hon funk (tiktok remix)- mgd [edit audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cuGfR91zaRo/mqdefault.jpg)
i enjoyed this video! although i don't really involve myself much in the windows scene nowadays, i am the person behind the windows aesthetics projects and i'm happy that my research and archival efforts continue to be appreciated for years to come. perhaps one day the answer to the question "who took frog?" will arise, even if it's buried deep in corporate archives
if anyone is curious what i'm up to nowadays, i am still involved with various preservation projects, especially related to music; i'm a trusted editor on vgmdb and have been cataloguing thousands of albums there. i myself am a musician, please consider checking out my work!
Thank you for everything you did for that Windows project, and for continuing to archive things. (By the way, fellow trans person. She/Her.)
Thank you for all you do Fusoxide good luck with your music and whatever else you may do :3 🎵🎶
@@princessCashel trans ppl trying not to day they're trans , lmao
Thank you
Hi btw :3
Even as a child I thought it was a rubber toy like a rubber duck. Never would have thought it was a plushie.
Agreed even the pixely microsoft picture reads as a rubber toy to me, even on the crappy crt moniters of the time.
sam
Same
I just thought it was 3D graphics or some other digital art. Low res enough and the tech certainly existed.
same
As a Russian, I just wanted to say that this Russian article says that the woman had a collection of frogs, not ducks
Explains the picture of the frog then
Yeah the article says husband wants her to sell collection of frogs
And they were Germans aged 68/70.
theres your answer if shes alive we need to find her she must have xp frog in her collection lmaoo
Could be from a kinder surprise
very intrigued by the fact you thought it was a plushie- even at the very low res, its details look too smooth and painted to be a plushie
Child brain
children are dumb lol
@@Persun_McPersonson nah, he stoopid
@@stypie3711
Well children _are_ stuppid, soh...
As a frog, I appreciate the effort and your interest
No problem, it’s an honour mr frog 🫡
@@bjiru_ I have an idea. Do you know those people who sell 3d printed objects online, maybe you can show them images of the windows xp frog, and request him to make a 3d print of that so we finally can get our hands on one.
Hey, I know where this is from! It is a bath toy! I had one when I was younger, before Windows XP even came out, so I assume the toy came before the profile pic. I got it from the dollar store. There were actually three of them that looked exactly like this, down to the exact coloring and paint, along with a large, flat, dishlike "mama" frog the three could ride on made of the same material. I have no idea the manufacturer or anything, but seeing as it was from the dollar store, it may have been produced in China or similar.
So I looked it up because that seemed like a searchable set I looked up "90s rubber frog bath set" and the link to an ebay listing "Vintage Simple Toys Green Frog Rubber Squeak Bath Tub Toy W/ Mini Frogs Floats" and that looks like The frog with a bigger one.
I think you might be on to something!
👀 so invested in this situation
Someone pin this comment! 😂
I thought of this toy too! And when I looked it up, the shape appears to be pretty darn similar. The only thing is that they don’t have the bumps on the back like the windows one does. I do definitely believe that this is where the Windows XP frog came from though. We just have to find the right set.
Oriental trading company might be able to dig something up depending on if they still have stuff from before their bankruptcy.
God damn, that "Chess image is the default dad profile picture" statement was crazy accurate 🎯
That was me as a kid
I grew up as an ultimate dad, my dad was a fish
I remember when my dad was setting up his then-new NEC laptop and the chess picture was automatically assigned by default.
It's the default administrator profile picture
i think even my dad had the chess image as his picture on Windows XP years ago, it's just the universal dad image now
I think it's so awesome there's one guy out there who's dedicated a large portion of his time and effort to track down different windows XP profile pictures and setup a wiki for the wallpapers.
Your pfp though...
that's me :) i'm a gal, she/they. this was my big hobby during around 2018-20, but it's been on the backburner nowadays. i am involved with other preservation and research projects though, such as editing vgmdb and sometimes archiving ringtones.
@@fusoxide Nice to meet you! Hopefully the lil frog will be found eventually. I will look through some Polish thrift stores, maybe I can find it somewhere. Not any concentrated effort, I just like to browse thrift stores.
@@UltimatePerfection sounds fun, hehe. it is of course possible that it could have been used in books in the 90s and 2000s - and those usually include copyright/author acknowledgements for stock photos used. even bliss was found in a very old russian textbook for example
@@fusoxide The way I see it, if the frog pic is the picture of a real life object, it is out there somewhere. The real frog, I mean. So even if we can't find the original picture, we can at least find the frog.
one thing that always gets me... when thinking about lost things... is that there are probably a bunch of these sitting in various stages of decomposition in a landfill somewhere.... like they're not gone.. just lost............ but still THERE...............
In kindergarten I had some tiny hamster eraser toy I loved that accidentally got thrown away and I cried thinking of it in the dump. Wonder how it is now.
Some are vacuum sealed new old stock in a fresh case of 50 or something.
On the 3rd shelf of the 8th rack of the 5th row of the 2nd floor of unit 11 in warehouse 3 of one of countless storage facilities.
It's how random sealed lots of retailer 6-packs of Atari 2600 games flood ebay from Venezuela 40 years later.
Or how Ant-man's car was left undisturbed for 5 years in Endgame. Or how they hid the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Ooof, this hurts my heart
Imagine this being a thing in Toy Story
Sadly, a rubber toy wouldn't decompose.
i am kinda sad that those old windows xp aesthetics died out, i really liked them and i think they are really calming and nostalgic. feels like home i dont know how to explain it. sadly everything nowadays is really modern and simplified which looks okay too but i really miss the windows xp-7 era of things.
I know how you feel, Its deffinatly a lot of nostalgia, but I also do feel those aesthetics of aero glass or charming pixely things of XP genuinly had so much more personality then the flat design of more recent years past
Hello i am from russia and I actually vaguely remember this frog from my childhood it is still on sale I used this phrase to search for it “лягушка игрушка резиновая для ванны” it translates to “frog toy rubber for bath” I added the for bath part because i vaguely remember that the frog was a bath toy . Also I can help with Russian to English translation if you need it.
hello it seems what the frog in question is similar but different sorry
ура
Shit, I also grew up in Russia, but I remember this userpic very well. But I never wanted one because there were frogs just like them in toy stores. I googled лягушка игрушка резиновая для ванны in the Yandex search engine and the first picture is almost the same frog, except for the back part painted dark green
Apparently they were made in Asia, using the same mold for casting
Just type "rubber frog" in images search and you will easily find it.
Fun fact, the Chess image is actually the default profile picture. The administrator account uses it.
Well, I thought the background was made in some photoshop or indesign material to me honestly but now later, I finally realize it was actually a photo of that Bliss image of a real location that was taken by Charles O'Rear himself which is pretty neat and iconic as a Windows XP default wallpaper. I find the image and the hill from that location is pretty stunning in my point of view.
@@sonicgalaxy27 you replied this to like 10 different comments and all of your replies were unrelated to the comment
atleast try to just comment once instead of spamming it in replies making it harder to see actual conversations related to the comment
@@DccToon I don't know what you mean by your comment but ok.
ooooh so that's why it was my dad's icon lol
@@sonicgalaxy27 he means that you're annoying as shit and your comment brings nothing to the conversation.
We gotta 3D model then print the XP Frog.
Froggy!
Froggy!
Froggy!
Froggy!
Froggy!
It was for sale on the russian marketplace. It was released by russian brand "Курносики" (Interestingly, I was recently looking for a mug with a crocodile from my childhood, which was from the same company).
Made in Thailand.
Well, I thought the background was made in some photoshop or indesign material to me honestly but now later, I finally realize it was actually a photo of that Bliss image of a real location that was taken by Charles O'Rear himself which is pretty neat and iconic as a Windows XP default wallpaper. I find the image and the hill from that location is pretty stunning in my point of view.
yes!!! I had him when I was a kid! they're still for sale if you search for a rubber toy frog :3
For anyone interested into looking up if that's true, google "курносики лягушка" because the word курносики by itself won't lead you to the precious frog. Maybe that helps in the search for the image.
@@vallievecan you please send a link? I'm trying to search for it and I don't know Russian.
oh him? that's just Joe. he was head of HR at microsoft when I worked there back in '04. chill guy.
I'm tickled by the idea that a bunch of toy manufacturers might have been inspired by the design of a rubber frog used in a random Windows avatar.
It’s most likely that the frog existed prior to the Windows icon. Rather than being “inspired”
what? What makes you say that? It's obvious it was an already existing toy that someone just took a photo of
@@ErimlRGGhe is just tickled man
@@ErimlRGG "Hey, people really like the XP frog but the toy is long out of production and impossible to find. We should make our own and get rich!" - Some toy company, probably
@@maple201 sadly greenbrier seems to still own the copyright for these frog toys, they're just cheaper looking now (no back paint or spots, just smooth froggy with big round feet)
I still have my plushie frog I won from a Pizza Hut claw machine as a child. He is my prized possession and he has a cute little Christmas hat. Watching this video was very nostalgic for me. I hope you find your Froggy soon 🍀
Little internet searches like these are my favorite kind of content to watch on TH-cam. It’s sooo interesting and fun to watch. It’s like watching a very niche piece of history unfold
Who knows, maybe this could become the "Who took frog?" lost media search.
Ulterior Froggies?
Interesting that you thought it was a plush. I always thought it was a rubber frog like a rubber duck even when I was younger.
I’m pretty sure I used the frog when we were just using the default before I uploaded my own images. My brother was the skateboarder and mum was the gerbera (the flower) as it was actually her fave flower. I think my sister was the soccer ball considering she played at the time.
So Im not the only one!! He does look very much like a plush
@@bjiru_ You are still the only ne, that's not what they said lol
@@bjiru_manifesting ur own answer lmao
@@niamhsurtees9276let him manifest 🙏 🤲
@@bjiru_ Questioning your reading skills. lol
I have this frog, the identical frog. It’s a bath toy. I bought it in a bath toy bundle for my son years ago and thought the frog was cute so kept it
HE DID IT CHAT, HE FOUND IT
oh my god
can you send a picture of it?
Who makes it?
I was in junior high in the U.S. in the mid-to-late 1990s. This exact squishy rubber frog was widely available as keychains from places like Claire's sometime between 1996 and 1999! The range may be a little narrower, but it was definitely within that span. Lots of kids at my school had them, and I had one too! Rubber ducks, frogs, etc were really on trend. I think it had something to do with the culture cycle of 1960s/70s 'hippie' aesthetics being quite popular. You could find lots of stuff with ~hippie aesthetics~ at places like the tween accessory store Claire's, Walmart, Target, Limited Too, such places.
I have a feeling this was a toy that was mass-produced only in the '90s.
Probably the 2000's too, it would feel more fitting to the time period
I don’t know, I was born in 2006 and I grew up with a bath toy that looked just like this.
@@mentally_meow a lot of parents buy used old toys for their kids or sometimes they even give their own old toys to their kids i had toys made between 1960 and 2005 and a few from before 1960
EASY LEGENDARY TIER I LOVE FROG!!!!!!!!!!🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸
YOOOOOOOOOOO POLYGON DONUT
I WAS GONNA SAY I WAS JUMPING FOR JOY WHEN HR WAS PUT WHERE HE BELONGS!!
PONGON
omg is that the polynut
It's pongon omg!!! 🐸 🐸
As a massive Windows aesthetic, Frutiger Aero and 2000's nostalgia nerd....now I'm invested in this frog. I never even thought of searching down the origins of the old Windows profile and stock images.
There was always something charming in this frog and I also low-key wanted to obtain it and swim with it in a bath when I was four. Probably mainly because green's my fav colour and that shade in particular is my fav as well. Back when I had XP and I played solitaire I always played it just for the sake of seeing that frog again.
God bless you in your future searches
I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE ! ! !
thank you so much.
Hello! A quick search with Russian keywords helped me find that this exact frog rubber toy was released in Russia by Курносики brand, while originally it was manufactured by Zenith Infant Products from Tailand. Probably not a clue for this exact photograph info, but helps to know what exactly was this frog.
I think this mold of frog is not unique and was used by other toy manufacturers. Russian company just bought these toys from factory to sell in Russia.
a forg...... used to talk to one back in the days
you talk to an green?
i love green it's my favorite color
@@mrluthfians01green is not a creative color
Froggy?
@@VreyIsGrey nu uh
hello bjiru, thank you so much for making this video
xp frog was a huge part of my childhood too since i spent a lot of time playing solitaire on the home computer and i always made the card backs have frog on them since frogs are my favourite animal ^^
it really warms my heart to know that someone else appreciates frogs this much
After watching this video I now care a lot about this frog and I need to know where he came from and who he is.
This is probably a crazy idea, but I have a theory as to how to find the frog. Instead of looking to Windows, look outward. Find the rough date the frog was photographed (based on context clues from the other images taken around the same time), then search for rubber frog bath toys specifically from those years. You're more likely to find that information than anything regarding the photograph itself.
I HAD THIS FROG TOY GROWING UP!!!! or at least one that looks extremely similar. it would light up and play music (i dont remember the music) and besides the electronics in it it was definitely made of rubber or something similar to bath toys from that time. i sadly don't remember anything more about him but knowing my family he might still be in a box somewhere in storage.
Where is the link to these frogs?
It's possible the same photographer took the picture at that angle, but Microsoft bought it out and used it exclusively. And then after making it into their icon, discarded the original.
Your hyperfixations are inspiring me to make videos of my hyperfixations
I have some information that might help (IDK how, but it's related to the frog):
My grandpa has a picture of me as a kid, sitting on top of THIS EXACT FROG! The picture was taken some time between 2001 and 2003, so the dates match up. It was taken in a mall, in a store that specializes in taking professional photos of your kids. I'm 100% sure this store doesn't exist anymore (I think the mall is gone too). The frog seems to be a plaster statue with paint on top, and is ~1-1.5 ft tall. I can't remember exactly, but I think it has wheels tucked underneath, so that it can be moved around easily.
If it is the same frog, that means that the artist behind it has made multiple versions of it, possibly explaining the differences with the stock photo you found.
I don't have access to the photo right now, and I don't feel like asking any of my family members "hey, remember that picture of me sitting on the frog from over two decades ago? Can I have that so I can scan it and send it to a TH-camr?"
It is very possible this was just a set of old bath toy moulds that came out, most of them would have been thrown away or damaged by now and if it was in the 90s not many images would exist, also companies share(steal) moulds and alter them he looks like a big one. My boyfriend remembers a toy with a similar and pose (definitely not the same one though look up specifically 1990s rubber frog bath toy) without bumps and finer details and we were born in 2001 with older siblings.
Edit: Other image of the big one being from Alamy makes me believe this may have never been for market and mass-production and was made specifically for stock and commercial images, he might be in a landfill, there may only have been one and they just painted him twice for all we know.
I find it incredibly endearing that Gabe referred to the frog toy as "this little guy"
The most prestigious lost media photo to ever exist
You aren't the only one who loved this frog as a kid, I was very much in the same boat. Whenever I run a Windows XP virtual machine I always choose the frog profile picture as I once did oh so long ago. I also went on a small search a few months back, and while I did correctly assume he was a rubber frog toy and not a plush, I was never able to find anything regarding it either aside from the 2001 article you mentioned. Great job finding "Joseph", it is amazing to see this toy from another angle! I really do hope we can find the full resolution image some day.
Probably the best video
Everytime I become happy every time this dude says "Frog"
I mean any time, it makes me smile
I mean I just like the way he says it sometimes
:)
Well, I thought the background was made in some photoshop or indesign material to me honestly but now later, I finally realize it was actually a photo of that Bliss image of a real location that was taken by Charles O'Rear himself which is pretty neat and iconic as a Windows XP default wallpaper. I find the image and the hill from that location is pretty stunning in my point of view.
I used to own this rubber frog as a kid. I lost it one day, sadly.
I've seen that exact frog get sold on street shops in hong kong, it's a rubber toy
Big xp frog fan here, just a thought: could the rubber duck profile picture have been from the same photo shoot as xp frog? They both have the white background and are both rubber bath toys, perhaps if we could find the rubber duck photographer we could ask if they took the xp frog picture?
How is he so sure that the picture in the "wife sells frogs to save husband" article isn't the source of the XP profile picture? I say they look the same, especially when I notice the same direction of lighting in the pictures. You can just erase the background of the picture from the article in white to get the profile picture.
@@sqlexp It's the same picture, that is confirmed. The search is for the original high-resolution image that was taken with a professional camera similar to the rest of the images that have been found, as there is very likely no way that the original photo was that grainy.
good thinking! Also I think that your comment starting with "Big xp frog fan here", is extremely funny.
I admire your level of obsession.
we love xp frog
This video made me realize my childhood rubber duckie is the Windows XP rubber duck
love the energy of this video. also love frogs. i've seen this frog before but only while looking through frog toys on the internet lol, didnt know he was from xp! what a lovely fella
I am so happy about this frog still being relevant decades later.
when i was a kid my sisters and i had the xp frog that came with a set of pool or beach toys.
R.I.P frog
He isn't dead. He just missing
It’s very funny watching you try and find where this frog was from, because I had the exact same frog as a bath toy when I was younger. Bumps and everything!
Love the ever changing “plushie throne” int he background, now with a big ass turtwig and a big ass Wheatley with a Garfield on his head
1:05 really appreciate the era specific versions of the websites. that old ebay interface takes me back and modern ebay doesn't have the same charm like before 😭
It looks like some kind of prize you'd get from a claw machine when you were actually trying to get the knockoff Discman, so it's probably just some cheap ephemera that hasn't been manufactured in 25+ years from a factory in Asia that now makes bad iPhone clones. Unless there's another person wirh a rubber bathtoy collection, I'd say the chances of finding the original are minimal, but at least you got us one leap closer
I think your absolutely correct, finding the manufacturer is likely next to impossible
Loved this video your enthusiasm is epic. I'm so glad I'm not the only one who takes great joy in deeply researching odd things from childhood. Mine has to be the pre Xbox days, something about it is so awesome.
Absolutely deserved to be the first video at the top of my homepage as soon as i opened the app 🐸
I thought it was by the same person who did the duck since in my head they were from the same set of bath toys, but this was looked into and they said it wasn't them. So that's news to me but doesn't really help. Obviously the people who found things (Windows Aesthetics etc) will have already picked through the discs and looked in the files, and probably looked at the boxes and documentation in them but that would've been my next suggestion.
The sad thing is that with search engines being less helpful at the moment it makes looking for things harder, I do worry that more things might stay lost if it doesn't get better.
I always went with either the cat or the dog for my profile, but I did use the froggie deck to play solitaire, and I played quite a bit of solitaire.
I also hate the current state of search engines it’s awful
my dad has the motorcycle guy pfp, and the reason why i say has is because he has an ancient hotmail email and somehow the pfp synced over to modern outlook (no clue how thats even possible) so everytime he sends an email that pfp will show up
When I was young my mom decorated her bathroom with rubber ducks; we had towels, shower curtain, rugs, and art with them on it. We also had a bunch of actual rubber ducks in a crazy variety of styles and outfits courtesy of a local party store. I remember seeing that exact froggy bath toy in the aisle next to the ducks, but it never crossed my mind it was in WinXP until right now (I always used the spaceman cards in solitaire)
ngl, but before this video, I always thought that frog was made of rubber and had a hole on top, like, a hollow frog toy, good video...
I'VE FOUND MORE ABOUT THE FROG. He's the part of Columbia University Image Library (COIL-100)
Confirm. File name is "obj28__275.png".
But it looks like it's still a different picture, though the same angle. Toy color is different, light is different, black background.
Images are 128x128 and i have no success at finding higher resolution version
Also, marked as dataset (for CV training), so if they were the ones who made and had the shots, most likely there is no high resolution version at all.
I love it when I end up on this part of YT. It’s so comforting.
Fuck, i remember having this little fella and i remember it being almost identical to the one from Win XP! I need to call my dad now
Hey um, have you tried using toad instead of frog in your searches? The bumps on its back seem to indicate that it's a toad. I imagine it might make a little bit of difference if it was sold as a rubber toad
genius
A Michael MJD reference but everything goes right
to me the frog looks more like playground equipment. like some big plastic thing kids would sit on or smth
Okay so, MJD/LGR content mixed with Scott the Woz humor/editing? I immediately love this channel!
I used to have that frog back in the day. Got it in a bundle of bath toys when I was around 8. I think it’s a pretty generic mould that was used quite widely. All I remember is that the bundle of toys the frog was a part of, was bought at HEMA. A typical Dutch shop that sells pretty much anything.
Have you possibly reached out to the TH-camr called TooMuchSlop? He uses the image of this very frog in a higher definition in his profile pic and many of his videos. It doesn't seem upscaled from the XP icon, as the spikes on the frog's body are clearly visible there.
It’s using the Russian news article image, notice how the foot is weirdly cut out in the right side.
Isn’t the image from the Russian news article the same as the XP image, just with the grey background removed and filled in white? Maybe the news article is the original source?
I always imagined the frog as a small plastic toy, like what you would get from a capsule toy vending machines, but I guess it might make sense as a bath toy. I also thought the shape was a little too definite even in low resolution to be a plushie, but now that you said it, I want one too
The "Joseph.jpg" filename may indicate that either the frog, the creator of the frog, or the company is named "Joseph".
That would make no sense
I love the existence of such niche historians like WindowsAesthetics. Like such dedication to such a niche piece of media. People are beautiful.
This feels like a video that polygon donut would make lol
You probably wouldn't wanna hug the Windows XP frog, but you likely would wanna squeeze its cheeks to make it open and close its mouth and look excited.
I'm not saying that this is what the frog is from, but the design of the frog looks similar to the designs of the frogs used in the board game "Froggles." Unfortunately, I couldn't find a picture of the game pieces online.
I spent a lot of time on win xp as a kid and loved the bliss background. I actually ended up moving to santa rosa jus a short drive away from the location the photo was taken. I spent so much time looking at that mountain range as a kid and now I get to see it when I go outside.
I have a lil rubber frog that looks exactly like that...
Same, I used to have a ton of them when I was like 5
can you link to a pic of it
The chess image is indeed the default Dad image, its a core memory of mine with our windows xp.
Here's to this video getting a gazillion likes and millions and billions of views, until the guy who has this frog sees it.
I love it when people talk about very obscure and specific computer/internet things from the past.
windows xp frog my beloved
Hey xephrou!
@@CJolieTVHAIII :3
:00 it’s u!!
Thank you so much for this video! I watch a lot of dark conspiracy/ media theory content during the day and it seems to be nearly impossible to find lighthearted stuff to watch at night but this video was perfect! I wanna know more about the rubber version specifically, I bet someone has it in a rubber duck collection and has no idea how important it is.
Are you sure that frog is the same one? The pupils in the eyes in the XP icon/russian article do not touch the top of the eye, they are surrounded by white completely, while the one you found it seems the pupils extend to the eyelid. Also, the material seems different (the eyes are less shiny), the colour is darker and there don't seem to be lips in the XP icon like your find has. Admittedly that could all be due to lighting conditions, but I think the placement of the pupils is definitely different!
Come to think of it though, it's maybe possible that the one you found uses the same mould as the XP frog and was just painted and coloured differently, as I'm sure toy companies reuse or distribute the same moulds for slightly different products.
So I can sew
The temptation to make a Frog plushie is very high xD
I just wanted to say that in the thumbnail for Maya Winky's Lord Farquaad ASMR, she is holding a very similar frog. I haven't watched the whole video so I don't know if the frog is part of it, but it looks somewhat like Windows XP frog.
Different frog, judging by the mouth.
Maybe the real frog was the friends we made along the way
FINALLY AFTER 2 MONTHA SIDOIUFHEIUFHIOUHGIOURHIUGDOUIDFIOUVNDFUIOHNBPDF
YIPPIEEEEE
Your my fav youtuber! ✨
I know alot about 90s/early 00s nostalgia!
P.S I'd love to have a compition of our knowledge.
You found it???? Where is it
Where's the video
@@andrew08 No. He said "FINALLY AFTER 2 MONTHA" because it has been 2 months since his last video (the experimental phones one)
Lmao. That is hilarious.
I didn't expect a video about a frog to be so interesting! I hope you solve the mystery some day.
this was a great video lol I want xp frog now
I had this exact frog. It was a rubber bath toy. I had no idea a picture of it was in Windows XP lol. I even had multiple colors. I have no idea where my parents got the frogs, though.
Well, I thought the background was made in some photoshop or indesign material to me honestly but now later, I finally realize it was actually a photo of that Bliss image of a real location that was taken by Charles O'Rear himself which is pretty neat and iconic as a Windows XP default wallpaper. I find the image and the hill from that location is pretty stunning in my point of view.
6:14 That is not the same frog, notice the pupils which are larger and moved upwards. This is a distant cousin.
in other words: it's a different copy of the same toy, rubber toys like this do tend to have slight differences between each one due to their relative cheapness in terms of production
@@yoymate6316 thanks! its klonoa from the game "klonoa: door to phantomile" :3
That is just simply how cheap production works. Cheap and quick paint application. It's a common thing amongst doll enthusiasts to find the doll with the best-printed face due to so many coming out a bit wonky. They can be missing certain layers or be printed with a tilt or a shift up/down/to the side. Something even cheaper like a bath frog is sure to be way more varied than that.
@@arekrekas213 so a less than distant cousin
@@Chromeno yeah, more like a brother/sister
You have awakened a distant childhood memory of mine there! I could swear I had the exact same frog as a kid.
I don't know if it still exists but I will check when I am at my moms place the next time (where this frog could be)
how did you mention a banger (michael mjds bliss video)
Неожиданно было здесь увидеть русскую статью про жену, что продала лягушек.
FROG!!! POG!!!!!!
I saw it and knew where it was from instantly lol. I had the exact mold of a rubber frog bath toy from a bath bomb made by my mom’s friend. XD
Frog was taken by Gabe Palmer, in December 1999, He may have the original in his personal portfolio.
Did you watch the video?
gabe remembers SHIT about the frog
Really cool video!
I hope someone will be able to make that frog :D (But getting the proportions right for sure won't be easy xd)
I one of these frogs from my Spanish class. (Long story) It's the second "wrong" frog shown at 5:17.
I gave her the name Maria de la Santa Cruz Rosalina Angelia Rodriguez Cuellar Rẽne.
Just read "Wrong Frog" at first and had a heart attack that I mislabeled something or missed something oh my goodness
but that's a beautiful name! I will remember it 👍
@@bjiru_ She's partly named after some random person on the internet
I used that frog as an avatar as a kid!
I had an irl toy frog that looked like it, but it was a pink from with blue stripes. I don't have it anymore, but I got it from a party grab bag at a friend's birthday party. It had a rubbery texture and when you squeezed it, its roll tongue unrolled out like a partyblower.