One is never alone with a rubber duck”, this is a famous quote by a very famous author Douglas Adams. Rubber duck is very popular not only among children but also with elders. A rubber duck is a toy made out of rubber in the shape of a duck. It would float happily atop the water in which you bathed, looking at you with happiness filled eyes.

A sudden but short lived spike in sales of rubber duck happened in 2001, when The Sun, a British tabloid newspaper reported that Queen Elizabeth II has a rubber duck in her bathroom that wears an inflatable crown. The rubber duck was spotted by a workman who was repainting her bathroom. The story prompted sales of rubber ducks in the United Kingdom to increase by 80% for a short period.

Rubber duck is sometimes colloquially referred to as a “rubber duckie” or a “rubber ducky”. Jim Henson popularized rubber ducks in 1970, performing
the songs “Rubber Duckie” and “DUCKIE” as Ernie, a popular Muppet from Sesame Street. Rubber Duckie is Ernie’s toy duck and most treasured possession. Ernie frequently spoke to his duck and carried it with him in other segments of the show. Ernie has expressed his fondness for his duckie in several ways, including the song “Rubber Duckie”. The duck has also figured in “Put Down the Duckie” “D-U-C-K-I-E,” “Do De Rubber Duck”, and “The Honker-Duckie-Dinger Jamboree”.

Giant rubber ducks are one of the coolest styles and collections of all rubber ducks. They vary from 32cm wide to tens of meters! In 2007 Guinness World
Record for World’s Largest Rubber Duck Collection stood at 2,583 unique rubber ducks, and was awarded to Charlotte Lee.

The rubber duck existed as earlier as 1920s. Earlier rubber ducks were made up of harder rubber but now Rubber Ducks are actually made out of a thick vinyl, as it is cheaper and more durable than rubber. Most come with a nozzle (usually at the bottom) so that if you squeeze the duck, it will squeak a happy noise at you.

Some charities organize rubber duck race in which anywhere between hundreds to thousands of rubber ducks are dumped into a river, pool, or other body of
water and then floated down a race course marked off with buoys. The first one to float past the finish line is the winner. The largest race in the United States benefits the Freestore Foodbank in Cincinnati, Ohio; over 100,000 ducks are raced to raise money for the organization. Another famous duck race is the fast- growing
Ken-Ducky Derby, held in Louisville, KY, and benefiting Harbor House of Louisville, a training and development facility for adults with disabilities The humble rubber duck has become a symbol for the innocence and joy of childhood and it is a toy which could be a great fun gadget to get close and personal with.