Gonk is a term that has had varied meanings depending on the time period and cultural context. Most famously, a "gonk" was a somewhat egg-shaped or spherical novelty toy with furry appearances, sometimes having small arms and legs as well as goofy eyes, which achieved great popularity in the United Kingdom for a time in the 1960s. Celebrities such as Beatles musician Ringo Starr publicly showed theirs off at the time. Initially started as a joke-based personal project, the toys became well known for having a deliberately kitsch appearance due to their strident outfits, some of them dressed as Merseybeat performers with moptop haircuts, and for also being marketed as collectibles. Several of them ended up shipped as far away as nations such as Canada and the United States.