LOS ANGELES — Sun-Min Kim and David Horvath are just surrounded by ugliness — of their own design. The two former Parsons School of Design students, using their sickening talents, spawned a creation called Uglydolls, which have reached the hearts of children and adults alike around the world. And on Dec. 9, the duo toiled in their own filth at Uglycon 2006, a convention to celebrate the beauty of ugly.

Giant Robot was ground zero for the Uglydolls in 2002, when its first retail outlet started carrying the hand-sewn figures, and now the magazine’s gallery/bookstore/boutique GR2 served as the dump site for hundreds of Uglydoll fans, many who started waiting in the early morning. They converged to buy collectibles, view the art exhibit and participate in an Uglydoll costume contest. Yes, dozens of people — in Los Angeles, no less — wanted to look ugly.

All thanks to the recently married couple, whose creations came to be when Kim transformed the drawings on the letters from Horvath into breathable, teeming plush. Since then, the Uglydolls, which carry names like Wage and Babo, have gone on to win the Toy Industry Association’s Specialty Toy of the Year Award 2006. Eww, yuck!