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. While Arthur thinks this toy is dumb, but 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 talking about their Woogles 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 by this. Later on, he goes to an unknown store and goes to buy a Woogle, but everywhere he goes they're all sold out until eventually finding something called a Poogle.

He buys it immediately and shows his friends. When his friends say that 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, but he refuses to say that and says that a cap is a lot more fun than that. He then starts playing with it and everyone drops their Woogle and goes to him.

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 Characters

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

Minor Characters

 * Binky Barnes
 * Nigel Ratburn
 * Alan Powers

Background Characters

 * Alex
 * 3rd Grade Female Cat (Number 2)
 * Fern Walters
 * George Lundgren
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Jenna Morgan
 * Mary
 * Jessica
 * Maria Pappas
 * Unknown Female Aardvark (Number 3)
 * Dave (mentioned)
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3)

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.

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, The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
 * There actually was a fad of "Pet Rocks" in the 1970s, and the rocks came in cardboard cages, just as Dave's old Pet Rock did.

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.