This is exciting news – confirmation of an unaccounted-for Danish Mr Blobby. “I wouldn’t get too excited: it was probably thrown away like that picture of Mr Blobby in a skip when the BBC sold Television Centre in 2013.” Mr Blobby in a skip ups the count to seven. Mr Blobby was a success –and people wanted more of him. Paul Pascoe was Edmonds’ solicitor from the late 80s and eventually became his business partner at his entertainment company Unique (Pascoe is company director, Edmonds is no longer involved). He remembers the moment Edmonds realised Blobby was a hit: “Noel said to me: ‘Bobby is going to be huge.’” When he asked why, Edmonds replied: “‘We get three post bags of mail each week and 70-80 percent of the postbag is to do with Blobby’,” says Pascoe. I can’t remember what triggered it at all,” Balcombe says of his 25-year hobby. “Basically, I had some money to spend, and nostalgia comes into this hugely.” Balcombe never hid behind his sofa when watching Doctor Who, but remembers cuddling up with his mum and dad when the Daleks were on screen. We know they produce eggs and we think they guard their nests,” says Kerryn. “We now know they’re an ambush predator.”

It was instantly recognisable as a type of sculpin. These guys have a tadpole-shaped body. Their skin is what we would call ‘naked’; there’s no scales and very few spiny protrusions. The area around Australia and New Zealand provides the perfect sort of conditions for this family.”

It’s best of British, really,” says Scott of his collection – he also owns props from reality competition Britain’s Got Talent. Scott is seeking funding for his own museum, but in the meantime says: “We’re probably going to take the collection out on the road and speak about it to Women’s Institutes and Lions clubs.” We just thought it was funny,” remembers Kerryn. “You gotta remember we’d been working 12–14 hour days, every day, for several weeks. So some unexpected things seem incredibly funny in those circumstances. The most helpful person to verify our Blobby tally would be Edmonds. Is he available to comment from New Zealand? Denson, unfortunately, won’t be playing Mr Blobby in the panto. Instead, he’ll be running a “Blobby school” with some of the cast. “On at least one performance, Mr Blobby will be played by me, because I’m not turning that opportunity down,” says Gordon-Wilson. Kerryn explains the fish looked so comical when it was first caught due to the sharp change in pressure from the deep sea to surface level. With a kilometre of ocean water squeezing the blobfish at 100 times the pressure we experience on the surface, there’s no need for a hard skeleton or scales to hold his body together – the sheer force of the water holds the blobfishes’ body in that perfect tadpole shape as they bob along the seafloor.

I can appreciate why Mr Blobby doesn’t do more than wave his arms about: there’s not much more you can do. At least it’s not too hot: my inflatable version (with an inbuilt fan) is more like walking around in my own personal tent. Maybe I’ll take it to Glastonbury. I’m beginning to wish I had an actual, rigid Blobby outfit. There’s something disconcerting about how mine keeps deflating of its own accord right at the moment when the Guardian photographer Linda is trying to get the money shot. “I’m sure this happens to all the Blobbys,” she says. Pascoe says he’s not surprised Edmonds has retired to New Zealand “after everything he’s been through”, referring to Unique Television falling victim to huge bank fraud in 2017. “Obviously, that impacted our relationship, although I did hear from him the other night.” Has Blobby been to visit Edmonds in New Zealand?” “You realise Mr Blobby is like Father Christmas or the tooth fairy, and not real?” Whatever is he talking about?I’d like to know if it was a male or a female,” says Kerryn, looking down at, possibly, Mrs Blobby. “And I’d love to know how old. This guy could be 50 years old; we just don’t know.” At least there’s some good news. When Blobby appeared in panto in Peter Pan in Milton Keynes in 2021 (played by a variety of actors, but not Killerby), Unique made two new costumes, which Pascoe confirms they still own, along with a “battered, old” original Blobby. Leggo describes Mr Blobby as a “loveable anarchist” and maybe, given the last year and a half, that’s what we need right now. I ask Gordon-Wilson, why Mr Blobby and why now? “I think right now, while people are in a weird place, having a bit of nostalgia is just right,” he says. “It reminds us of a simpler time, when all we had to worry about was Noel Edmonds.” Nineteen years later, the preserved Mr Blobby is far more reflective of what blobfish actually look like in their natural habitat. And thanks to footage captured by submersibles, we’re learning more about their behaviour and biology.

The expedition yielded all manner of fascinating animals, including more than 100 species new to science. But the specimen dubbed ‘Mr Blobby’ became the expedition’s viral star. But at sea level, Mr Blobby melted into the table aboard the NORFANZ cruise, the flesh of his forehead slid down into a ‘nose’ and the corners of his mouth sagged into that iconic frown.

Ichthyology Research Assistant at the the Australian Museum Research Institute Dr Kerryn Parkinson snapped the notorious portrait of the blobfish in 2003 aboard the NORFANZ cruise, a research expedition that trawled deep sea habitats between Australia and New Zealand to discover more about what lurks in our seas beyond the reach of sunlight. (Image credit: Kerryn Parkinson/NORFANZ For now, Mr Blobby is emblematic of the tantalising mystery of the deep sea, the crucial work of museums, and the importance of conservation for all creatures great, small and disturbingly Trump-like. He’s been on display in the museum to the horror and delight of school kids. The museum even had a rubber replica of Mr Blobby created so they’d have something to poke. This data deficiency makes it difficult to establish the conservation status of blobfish, too. People often assume them to be endangered – an unsubstantiated claim perhaps driven by a satirical ‘Save the Blobfish’ advertising challenge on The Gruen Transfer in 2010 – but the truth is we just don’t know. He’ll be preserved forever like this,” she says. “He’ll be compared and contrasted with new specimens for years to come. We’ve got fish here from the 1800s – this is why we have museums.” What does the future hold for Mr Blobby? “I don’t think he’ll achieve the craziness he did in the past, but I do think that over the next couple of years, he will become a celebrity again,” says Pascoe. He casually floats what might be the maddest Blobby idea yet: “What about Mr Blobby and Love Island? I mean, anything is possible.”