Arthur Rides the Bandwagon

Summary
Arthur at first ridicules the silly toys called Woogles. But when everyone else has one, Arthur is alone and feels pressured into getting it. Will he get one?

Plot
This episode begins with Arthur and Buster are watching a commercial for a new toy called a Woogle. Arthur thinks this toy is dumb, but looks surprised when he sees that Buster already bought one.

Shocked that Buster actually bought one, he tried to make Buster think one of those things are dumb and useless. Buster is aware of this, but still thinks they are cute. Then Muffy runs in and says that Buster's Woogle is the only one she didn't get.

Arthur thinks this whole thing is a joke, saying that none of those things are cool; Muffy says that Arthur just doesn't get it and walks with Buster. They begin talking about their Woogles, and leaving Arthur out.

The next day at school, Arthur was just about to tell Francine about the stupid Woogles when he sits on one of Francine's red Woogle and doesn't believe that Francine bought one too, she replies with why not, they are adorable!

Francine then tells Arthur he looks Woogleless and offers him one, but Arthur refuses to take it and says he does not need one of those stupid things.

When he is talking to Brain, thinking he doesn't have one until Brain shows him the Albert Einstein Woogle, he bought, Arthur gets annoyed. Later on, he goes to an unknown store and goes to buy a Woogle, but everywhere he goes, they're all sold out. Eventually he finds what he thinks is one, except it's actually called a Poogle.

He buys it immediately and shows his friends. When his friends say that the Poogle is a rip-off and not an actual Woogle, he gets sad. After that, Arthur is desperate to have a Woogle, so he tries to trick Buster into throwing his out so he can take it, but it fails.

Then when Arthur is alone sitting on the bench, Francine comes and tells him he can have one of hers and tells him to play with them, but first he has to say he actually really wanted them. However, he refuses to say that and says that a juice cap is a lot more fun than a Woogle. He then starts playing with it, and Francine says “Oh, yeah — like that old cap is more fun than a lovable Woogle.”

However, everyone else doesn't agree with her, as they're shown dropping their Woogles and going over to Arthur.

Concluding this episode, Grandma Thora gives him an orange Woogle for doing so well on his report card, but he says that juice caps are a lot more cool now, and that lots of people have them.

Major

 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * Francine Frensky
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Thora Read

Minor

 * Binky Barnes
 * Nigel Ratburn
 * The Brain

Cameo

 * D.W. Read (title card)
 * Alex
 * 3rd Grade Female Cat (Number 2)
 * Fern Walters
 * George Lundgren
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Jenna Morgan
 * Mary
 * Jessica
 * Fletcher
 * Maria Pappas
 * Unknown Female Aardvark (Number 3)
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3)
 * Rattles
 * Kiefer
 * 3rd Grade Male Cat
 * Kenny
 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark (Number 2)
 * Beulah McInnerny
 * Lucy
 * 3rd Grade Male Rabbit
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog
 * 3rd Grade Male Rat

Mentioned

 * Dave

Trivia

 * A "Poogle" is a possible pet on Neopets.com, but it is nothing like the Poogles seen in this episode.
 * Maria had a yellow Woogle. Alex and Fern are seen stretching a yellow one on the playground, despite their Woogles being lime-green and purple, respectively. This could mean that Maria lent hers to them.
 * This is the only episode when Robert Shedlowich is a storyboard artist.
 * On current PBS airings, a small part of the signal bar for the ActiMates toys is still visible on the left side of the screen for approximately the first 90 seconds of the episode (until Muffy's line, "You got Bilbo?")
 * At the end of the 2000 rerun intro on PBS Kids before this episode, Arthur’s crashing sound changes to pots and pans.
 * After this episode, the Woogles continue to appear in other episodes. It’s possible that the students kept their Woogles but didn’t play with them anymore.
 * Karma: Arthur didn't like Woogles, so he was the only one without it.
 * Moral: Fads are temporary.
 * Since Arthur learned fads don't last long, his cap fad won't last long either.

Cultural references

 * The Woogles are likely based on Silly Slammers; which also made noises and said things when squeezed or hit against.
 * Buster's Woogle's name is which in fact is the name of the main protagonist of the novel The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, which was also adapted as a trilogy of films. Bilbo is also important to the events of Tolkien's most famous series,  trilogy.
 * There actually was a fad of "Pet Rocks" in the 1970s, and the rocks came in cardboard cages, just as David's old Pet Rock did.
 * Tiny Einy and his line “Fun equals you times me squared” refer to Albert Einstein and E=mc².

Episode connections

 * Arthur's imaginary baby is identical to the one he imagined in "Arthur's Baby."
 * In Arthur's dream, adult Francine wears the same clothes she wore in Arthur's dream in the intro to the episode "Arthur and the Square Dance."

Errors

 * Maria's Woogle is yellow when first seen in the class picture scene, but it turns orange when Arthur is holding the broccoli. When the older Arthur shows the picture, the Woogle is yellow again.
 * In one scene, the Poogle's legs is transparent.

Home Video
DVD
 * Arthur: The Complete Series 4