035 Ralph

Ralph is the caveman.  

His G1 figure is pretty weird.  He has a bone going through the skin on the top of his head.  He has no hair -- the bone is clearly piercing his scalp.  Then he has this long narrow spear attached to his back.  The spear is very odd.  It looks like a devil's tail because of its design, its placement, and the way the thin plastic curves over the figure.  It would have been much smarter to have given Ralph a club instead.

Speaking of which, in the trading cards, he is drawn with arms and a club.  

Another weird thing about the G1 Ralph is that his feet are upside-down.  His toenails are on the bottom of his feet.  Booger and Willy have the same unfortunate condition.

The G1 figure has five toes per foot and the G3 figure has four toes per foot.  When Booger and Willy were re-designed, they were both given shoes.

The G3 Ralph still has no club.  It really makes no sense.  It's like they just forgot.  In fact, they designed both of his hands as closed fists.  Since neither hand is capable of holding any accessory, you can't even give him a club from another toyline.  Doh!

There are five version of this figure.  Two are very odd.  One has pale bluish gray skin.  I guess this is a zombie caveman?  The other has green skin.  Maybe an alien caveman?

The two additional variants are painted to be obvious parodies of Fred and Barney from The Flintstones.  This was the first prime-time animated TV series and aired from 1960 to 1966.  In fact, Fred Flintstone was based on a character from the 1950s sitcom The Honeymooners.  That character is the bus driver with the short temper and big heart, Ralph Kramden.  So, I'm going to bet this is where Ralph got his name.

Plus, the names Fred and Barney were both already taken. 

Ralph has a zood named Ox.  He is not an ox, but a tiny Woolly Mammoth.

I am not sure why his name is Ox, but I can tell you that mammoths were common on The Flintstones.  Characters used them for food and transportation, in addition to analogs for showers, garden hoses, and even vacuum cleaners.  Gross.