Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette
	Dave Noble, left, and Tom Mosser hope their small plush Bite-ables dolls become the next big collectible for kids and their parents. They are showing dolls from the Bed Buggs line, which can be attached to things with a Velcro mouth.

Tom Mosser considers himself more qualified than most artists to create a line of colorful dolls that he's betting will become a collectible craze.

After all, the 43-year-old painter and illustrator spent seven years practically living inside a furry, lime-green bird costume from 1987 to 1994 when he was the Pirate Parrot, the city's baseball team mascot.

"I was paid to be a plush toy," said Mosser, who with partner David Noble created the dolls they call Bite-ables. They fit in your palm and feature Velcro mouths so that they will stick to backpacks, bikes, hats, clothing and computers. The first four characters in a series the partners plan to unveil are "Bed Buggs" that will be promoted with the catch phrase, "Let the Bed Buggs bite."

Mosser and Noble, also 43 and a full-time flight dispatcher for US Airways, were inspired to come up with the toys by Noble's twin brother, Donald, a furloughed US Airways pilot in Richmond, Va. Donald Noble produces a line of youth boxer shorts, and he wanted some new characters to add to his designs. He called his twin in Sewickley, an accomplished painter, and asked for some sketches. Donald Noble turned down his brother's designs, so David Noble suggested Mosser take a shot at some drawings, and the Bed Buggs creatures were born.

Noble and Mosser -- who met after Mosser opened a gallery studio in Sewickley in 2001 and Noble wandered in to look around -- were sipping coffee one morning after an art opening when they decided the bug characters might be a hit as plush dolls. They were trying to think of a way to have the Bed Buggs "bite" the owners when they thought of putting Velcro in each doll's mouth.

Noble put up the capital -- he won't disclose how much -- to get the prototypes produced. Mosser contributed hours of drawings and revisions in his bright gallery studio on Sewickley's main drag that serves as the company's headquarters.

The partners also secured an undisclosed amount of outside financing from Paul Volkman and Laura Neuman, investors based in Annapolis, Md.

	Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette
	Bed Buggs from the Bite-ables plush animal toy line created by Dave Noble and Tom Mosser.

Neuman, who has invested and run several early-stage technology companies, said Bite-ables had a "high novelty factor" that caught her attention immediately, especially the Velcro mouths that make them attachable to other items. She also said the colorful character designs eventually could be used in animated cartoons, clothing and other products. "I can envision a Bed Buggs cartoon on Saturday morning TV."

Bite-ables found a manufacturer in southeast China that is currently working on prototypes.

Karen Massa, an Illinois-based product development consultant who matched Bite-ables with the manufacturer, said she believed that the dolls could fill a big void in the collectibles toy market.

"Everything's gone so high-tech in the toy industry that good, old-fashioned plush toys could be a whole new trend in the marketplace," said Massa.

Sales of plush toys totaled $1.6 billion last year while sales for the whole toy industry were $20.3 billion, according to NPD Group Inc., a market information company in Port Washington, N.Y.

Massa expects Bite-ables to appeal to younger children who want to play with the dolls. She said they should attract teens and perhaps even adults who want to collect the whole line and stick them on backpacks, hats and clothes.

The last big collectible toy craze, Beanie Babies, peaked in the late 1990s.

"Beanie Babies have been dead for a couple of years," said Massa. "It's a great time to add a new collectible. People may be antsy to collect something again." Noble and Mosser are currently revising their prototypes and hope to have their final design on display at the annual toy fair held in New York in February.

Set to be priced at $5.99 apiece, each doll will have a different name and color. The pair needs orders for 5,000 before they can place their first full manufacturing run; they said they were close to meeting that number.

Once the toys are produced, they will be sold through the Internet and in independent gift shops and boutiques. Noble said some local stores plan to sell them, but he declined to name them.

Mosser, who conducts children's art classes at his gallery studio, has tested his ideas for the dolls with his students. "It proved really valuable when I could ask them questions like, 'Is this too scary?' ''

A native of Huntingdon, Huntingdon County, Mosser moved to Pittsburgh a couple of years after graduating from Penn State and quickly gained a reputation for sports illustrations and limited-edition prints, including award-winning portraits he did of sports legends Roberto Clemente, Honus Wagner, Mario Lemieux and Mark McGuire.

A mural he was commissioned to do for PNC Park provided him with the money he used to open his Sewickley gallery studio.

While he worked as the Pirate Parrot, Mosser revised the costume several times by repainting the eyes -- "I thought they were too scary for the kids" -- and adding a few accessories to become a Cowboy Parrot, Beach Parrot and Madonna Parrot.

If Bite-ables take off, Mosser said he planned to make sure Pittsburgh is well-recognized as its headquarters.

Noble, a native of Richmond, relocated to Pittsburgh in 1989 after US Airways acquired his previous employer, Piedmont Airlines. With 25 years of total service at both airlines, Noble said his seniority made him confident enough about job security at financially troubled US Airways to spend his time away from flight dispatching on pursuing the toy venture.

While painting consumes some of his spare time -- he held a one-man show at Mosser Gallery last year -- Noble has a track record with inventions. He holds two patents on a medication dispensing pacifier and shares two patents with his twin brother -- one for a water-filled chair and one for an exercise device.

The Bite-ables business is more like leisure than work, he said.

"Doing this is like art; it's therapy."