Disney toy

Googly Eye Mickey: a Tale of Many Mickeys

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Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: As it turns out, this birthday was a very Mickey one. I start today with one today I bought myself shortly after my birthday. A Dean’s Mickey I have wanted and lost on more than one occasion. I believe that I have bid on both larger and smaller versions of same, this one measuring in at about 30 inches for the record. There is a puppet version which I am also quite gone on, but have been unable to acquire.

For the record googly eyes seems to be the accepted technical term here and is searchable as such. No one was readily able to tell me when Dean’s switched from the beady eyed Mickey to the googly one, but this celluloid style of eye roughly seems to have been introduced in the 1930’s, the latter period for them.

A cracked eye and tatty shorts are the extent of the damage on this fellow. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

It is the toothy grin of the Dean’s Mickey that made me a fan in the first place. A very early post about Mickey Jazzer’s in my collection can be found here and they were, as such, my gateway drug to Mickey. As a cat collector, I have pointed out, it makes some sense to invest in mice and even dogs by extension and these Mickeys are an actual tributary in my collecting.

Therefore, after checking out my cat/Felix options thoroughly at an auction I stroll through the Mickeys among other things. To be clear, my Mickey collecting is very nascent compared to a real collector. (If we are talking about what qualifies as serious collecting I would reluctantly enter my Felix collection, but might feel compelled to argue that only my Felix photo collection is truly top drawer.) Still, I have some nice select little guys and they generally always put a smile on my face.

There is a rather wonderful online auction via Facebook on an account known as 200 Years of Childhood and they have an online auction late in the year. I believe it started during the pandemic when of course the in-person shows were on lockdown. I am grateful that it continues as an online venue as it gives me access to British vendors I would never see otherwise – as much as I would love to be there in person. It runs heavily to teddy bears and dolls, but I tend to find a gem or two tucked away via earnest searching.

It was via this auction that I bought my rather prized (by me anyway) Popeye Jeep toy, but it also lead me down a wonderful rabbit hole to a dealer who was selling some of his own Felix collection and from whom I purchased two wonderful Felix dolls which sit beside me even as I write. (The Jeep’s post can be found here.)

Mickey Jazzer not in Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

This year I made an inquiry about a nice looking Mickey toy, reminiscent of a Steiff one Kim bought me for my birthday a few years ago. (That post is here.) He was well out of my budget for the moment, however the seller, a fellow named Andrew Greetham, asked if I might be interested in a large-ish Deans one he had. He sent a photo and yes, I now had my fairly large (I think there is an enormous one out there somewhere) googly eyed Mickey.

Aside from his velveteen trousers being a bit shredded and a crack in one googly eye, our man is in good shape. No moth nibbles to his felt hands or damage to the soles of his feet – these are typically vulnerable points. He seems to be sans the usual Dean’s label marking which would be applied directly onto the bottoms of his feet on other items and instead bears a number on the lower right side of his face. It appears to read Reg No 750611.

Close up of registration number.

If I type this number and Deans into the internet I find that it appears on other Dean’s Mickey’s so it was a broadly utilized copyright rather than for a particular style; their licensing number. Deans products, for all their decidedly and charmily off-model appearances, were licensed products under the auspices of Disney – I guess at the time it was more the money than the likeness.

The googly eyed Mickey has a more affable look (slightly charmingly dufus-y, pleasantly so) than the more beady eyed, slightly feral earlier versions. I like both myself but they are different in spirit and expression. This is a hale and cheerful chap, the others look a bit ratty and like they may be plotting against us – in the most interestingly possible way.

Mickey’s backside complete with wire tail.

Remarkably, this fellow maintains his tail, which looking at former auction listings, is usually a casualty. It is wire and no longer stands at attention as it might have early on.

Included with Mickey as a bit of a treat was a rather splendid book of the same period (copyright 1931 by Walt Disney) which is in French which I hope to explore further with you in the near future. I will be limited to looking at the pictures for the most part as I do not read French – but really, it’s all about the pictures anyway, right?

Lucky in Love with Oswald Rabbit

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: A couple of weeks ago I was meeting a friend for a drink on Madison Avenue after work. She had selected an interesting place which turned out to show me to my table via a sliding bookcase door for a speakeasy feel. However, I was early and she was going to be a bit late so before crossing the street I did a bit of window shopping.

The store on Madison from a few years back. Looks pretty much the same now.

I haven’t been to this stretch of upper Madison in a long time. I made it up more frequently when I worked at the Met, but usually a trip to a museum would have triggered a stroll through, but hasn’t in awhile. There’s a wonderful but overpriced store I tend to stop by, Blue Tree, usually to purchase some greeting cards. It is a mash up of clothes, jewelry, toys and baby gifts among other curios. Occasionally I have bought something other than cards, but as already stated and I cannot emphasize enough, it is expensive. Rumor has it that it is owned by the actress Phoebe Cates.

I snatched this quick nighttime pic of the store window more for reference than anything else – in case he was gone before I could come back.

Anyway, the store was closed but there in the window and much to my surprise, was this rather incredibly resplendent Oswald Rabbit doll. Almost the size of an infant, Oswald was perched among some modish clothing and some other gee gaws, atop on a small bench. The incongruity stopped me in my tracks. The store was closed so I took a quick photo and figured I would attempt to find it online or double back when the store was open.

A NEW Oswald short made by Disney to celebrate his anniversary.

Of course the weekend came and it was another sodden mess like the one before. Undaunted Kim and I traipsed out to Madison Avenue between cloud bursts. It is a very expensive store so I girded my loins before entering – how much could Oswald be? There were a lot of eye ball kicks for the likes of me there – a very nice Minnie Mouse baby blanket that I would love if I could figure out what to do with it. (I thought picnic blanket which is an ongoing need for the park, but it’s white!)

However, I stuck to my mission. Although there was a display of (beautiful) stuffed toys in back, the only Oswald was in the window. I found a salesperson and asked and indeed, he was the only one and had just come into stock and been put in the window. I would like to just take a moment to recognize whoever had the wherewithal to purchase him for their stock – I really can’t imagine that many stores would have purchased him and plunked him in the window. It seems they were rewarded for their ambition, by the likes of collector me coming along.

A beauty shot of Oswald! Pams-Pictorama.com.

This Oswald is made by Steiff in collaboration with Disney and is being sold this year as a 100th birthday tribute to the hard luck rabbit who was hounded into obscurity by legal dispute, shortly after his popular debut. He is about 30% larger than I ideally might have made him actually and practically speaking. His high price tag is somewhat justified by his fine mohair outer layer, just what a good toy should boast. However the days of excelsior stuffing are (sadly) gone so he is stuffed with a weighty synthetic something. He is a nicely made item and when I later found him on their website they emphasized that he is not a toy for children, but a collector’s item for adults. (Huh. Go figure.)

A bit of Oswald history via Wikipedia reveals that the first Oswald cartoon hit theaters in 1927 so not exactly sure where the 100 years comes in. Disney and Ub Iwerks took the idea to Universal Pictures after ending the Alice Comedies and Julius the Cat. Too many cats on the market so they went for a rabbit it is said. Also read that the first cartoon submitted was rejected for subpar production although it was slipped into the releases later.

Ultimately 27 cartoons were made at the Disney studio and the income allowed them to grow their staff to 20 animators, their future now secure. Mickey Mouse was created as a replacement after the rights to Oswald were lost in a switch of studios when Disney realized that Universal was quietly hiring his animators away.

This is the link to a slew of original Oswald cartoons.

Kim whipped out his credit card (he is a very good husband indeed) and Oswald was mine, an early anniversary gift. (If all has gone as planned you are reading this as Kim and I travel to Cold Spring for a day of poking around and foliage viewing in order to celebrate the 23rd year of our nuptials. More rain could delay this celebratory event however.)

Side view of the box. Below is the money shot of the top of the box.

Heavy is a theme because Oswald is a solid citizen of a toy. He stands at about 30 inches in height and weighs considerably more than our cat Blackie. As you can see, he travels in a very decorative box. I hesitated to take the box (small apartment and all of that) and I did consider just having him shipped to New Jersey, but I was worried he’s be exposed to the elements before someone could grab him inside. The box is fun even if I don’t know that I have an eventual place to keep it – since I rarely buy new toys the box question doesn’t come up often. With the weather and all we took him, wrapped copiously if a bit ham handedly, and headed home in sloppy triumph with the next downpour just commencing as we got home.

I have written about Oswald previously and have one beloved tatty one in my collection. That post can be found here. He is in some ways (condition!) the exact opposite but he was acquired for a pittance on eBay while no one was looking one day. I think the new fellow will head to Jersey where he can be among the first notable toys as I open the collecting front there.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Kim and I are heading off to Cold Spring shortly to enjoy an anniversary jaunt. More about that later and I hope you enjoyed this very Oswald morning!

Bow-wowzers!

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Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: As much selling and buying has migrated online, I have bemoaned the loss of the sheer joy of browsing amongst the world of detritus that makes up a good flea market or junk store. The ability to run across things you never knew existed or thought of before but now must possess. One of the few online equivalents is the suggestions made by the algorithm for items you might like or sellers other items on eBay. Recently someone sent me a link (don’t remember what it was for as I was immediately distracted!) and a photo for a listing for this fellow caught my eye.

Sans identifying tag, Pluto was listed with the Dean’s Rag Company as its possible maker – more to come on that. Something about him caught my attention and when I showed the listing to Kim (we were in bed at the time) he gave a brief but definitive declaration of buy him. That is a bit unusual for Kim and so, with some misgivings about his size (he’s large, about 24 inches), I hit the buy it now button and soon Pluto was winging his way to me from Britain.

This example from the Novelty Toy Company, undated, has tag. Hind legs more defined, different nose and eye design. Not in Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

Since Pluto does not bear the (rather wonderful) Dean’s Rag Toy imprint on his feet, even before he arrived I asked the seller (@bobbyrocksbazaar) why she thought he was a Dean’s. She responded promptly and it turns out that she is largely a seller of bears and not familiar with Disney character toys and was just making an honest guess. Aside from the tag issue it isn’t a bad one. I have a Dean’s Rag Pluto I wrote about in a 2014 post here.

I reshare a photo of mine below. This is the Pluto that is generally accepted as the Dean’s design and Dean’s was deep into producing Disney and characters with their widely sold Mickey Mouse toys but everything from Oswald Rabbit to Eugene the Jeep. Having come from Britain and given some similarities I can see the case for it being made by Dean’s. I suppose it could have born a paper tag rather than the imprint I am so fond of on their toys.

Dean’s Rag Pluto. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

However, having looked at a lot of Plutos since purchasing him, I am betting on a company called Character Novelty Toys. This company was founded in 1932 by Cesar Mangiapani and Jack Levy in Norwalk, Connecticut. Our friend Pluto was introduced into the Mickey Mouse cartoons in 1930 and won immediate popularity so it is possible he was picked up by the nascent company.

Dean’s Rag imprint on Pluto – plus his charming printed paws! Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

However, it should be noted that said company, despite their name, did not appear to have licenses for a lot of character toys. A quick look shows mostly non-character bears, although I guess I saw a late model Mickey Mouse thrown in there. They definitely had a line of Plutos however and I share some of those kissing cousins which still bear tags, although to be clear, none of the toys I found were this precise Pluto and the more I look at the others of the rough period online the less I think he is made by any of these companies. (Gund toys made one very similar to this Novelty Character Toy version.)

This example is much smaller and also said to be Novelty Character toy. Not in Pictoram collection.
Looking a bit later, this is the Gund toy version. Not in my collection.

My new Pluto is a nicely made toy of somewhat complex design. I would say that his very thin neck seems to have been a design flaw in this (and most) Pluto designs and examples often site a tear there, mine has an old repair. Pluto is made of Velveteen and his eyes are the identifying characteristic I can’t quite match on another version of the toy and careful examination shows the placement of the nose and lack of lines on the nose of mine as different. He may have sported a collar at one time. Aside from Dean’s (a very fine toy maker indeed) I think my Pluto is among the most nicely made. I am even more pleased with him in person than when I saw him online.

A Pluto “headshot” with Kim’s help! Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

As anticipated, Pluto is fairly large once we set him up properly. I am still deciding where in the apartment he can best live and be displayed – even taking photos has been a challenge. Right now he is living on a bookshelf next to a very outsized oil cloth doll of Uncle Walt (future post) which is equally difficult to display. For all of that and the mystery of his true origin, he was a great purchase and we are pleased he is a rare dog to have joined the Pictorama family.

Mickey Mouse-ing

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Back in February (if we can turn the clock back that far which I grant you is a bit tough as I sit here poised on the cusp of this particular June 1), I made a power birthday buy from my friend Jean-Pol Ventugol at The Antique Toy Shop (his website can be found here) and I threw this plate in for the heck of it. This morning I was wrestling with some items on my work table (which has many photos and toys piled up on it – a remarkable and delightful pile in fact) in order to install a desk lamp retrieved from our basement locker and it rose to the surface, clamoring for attention.

I have written about several comics related mugs made by this company, the Patriot China Company. I started with the rather wonderful Little Orphan Annie mug (as shown below, and that post can be found here) and at the same time I purchased this I acquired the Three Little Pigs mug (which I posted about here) also made by Patriot. Unlike the mugs though, this plate has seen some hard use and is in rough shape.

mugs together 2 edited

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection

 

It is so worn that when I bought it I contemplated adding it to the cupboard and I may still eventually; it is so beat up, but I think it would still be very jolly to be eating off of it. I have in fact barely contained myself from making the Little Orphan Annie mug my daily coffee mug and have primarily been held back by the fact that it is somewhat child-sized, and frankly I drink a heck of a lot of coffee in the morning so I would be running back and forth constantly to the kitchen.

There is something deeply comforting and satisfying about this childish china though and the phenomenal popularity of it has made it all still so widely available that I have times when I consider making a big buy and converting our everyday dishes to these, with mixture of comic figures of days of yore.

This change of china would be notwithstanding the fact that I actually have kitchen plates I am emotionally attached to, which came from my great-grandparent’s bar. (I mentioned these in a post awhile back where I considered an all Felix life which can be found here.) Coincidentally those are sectioned as well and while I never thought about the appeal of neatly sectioned plates there is one. I have grown spoiled by our willow ware plates with their deep reservoirs which are handy in keeping our dumpling’s soy sauce safely from the sauce on our fish du jour.

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Willow plate, our daily china

 

The Mickey Mouse plate, like the mugs, is just a bit down-sized a bit for a child – the sort of three quarter size of what I would think of as a luncheon plate. (A good plate for a diet – it would convince you to take just a little less.) This one must have delighted a child or children for many meals, wearing Mickey and especially Pluto down and fading them considerably. Perhaps there was just the one and they fought over it as I remember doing over certain a certain spoon and other items as a kid. Maybe Kim and I could start fighting over who gets their dinner on this one.

While I somehow doubt that I will purchase an entire set, you might expect to see a few more choice items added. As I come across them I find them irresistible and even while researching this I believe I found a pig mug I must have, therefore we will consider this to be continued.

Three Piggy Pail

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: This sharp little number is the other pig purchase made on in honor of my birthday, also from The Antique Toy Shop, New York. It is little, only about six inches high and is just the right size for a pint-size person.

This is a very sturdy little pail and, although it looks fairly pristine, it was well built for days of sand castles at the beach and the like and may have seen days of service. As a former sand castle building aficionado I note only that although the handle moves it does not go all the way down. This would be very inconvenient for the making of towers from piles of wet sand and the like. It looks as if it is nicely water tight however, which is another important feature, hauling water from the ocean to your construction site and all.

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Unlike the mug featured yesterday (see that post here) which shows the pigs having firmly trounced the wolf, this one shows two irresponsible pigs at play and the stolid one with his bricks, building, with the Wolf in his full glory. Whose Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf ?is around the top. The responsible brick laying pig has wolf proof paint (something I think we could all use, right?) and the other two dance a jig in front of the half finished straw house. (This shoddy straw house looks a bit like one of the shacks from the Gilligan’s Island reruns of my childhood. I watched them every afternoon, The Flintstones on one side or the other of it. If I ever saw those again I could probably recite parts of dialogue.)

The stick or wooden house is absent. I have remarked before that the swift collapse of the wooden house confused me as a child who lived in a wooden house. My parents failed to supply a sufficiently comforting explanation to me and I can only hasten to point out that you will find Deitch Studio located in a large brick high rise building.

This pail has a mark from the Ohio Art Company, a tin lithography company still in existence today. It’s a good story and I share an excerpt from their history, from their website:

Dr. Henry S. Winzeler, a dentist in Archbold, Ohio, who sold his practice because he was convinced novelty manufacturing held great promise for him. Renting part of a band hall and employing 15 women, the company was soon shipping picture frames to all parts of the country, as well as Canada and Mexico. Business grew rapidly and Dr. Winzeler needed a larger plant.

Through the efforts of local citizens and the Chamber of Commerce, enough money was raised to build a new factory and lure The Ohio Art Company to a new location – Bryan, Ohio. With larger quarters and better shipping facilities, the firm continued to grow…Soon after the move to Bryan in 1912, the company installed metal lithography equipment, an addition that would shape the company’s future. New items began to appear; advertising signs, scale dials and a few small wagons, representing the beginning of a long and successful run in the toy business.

When WW1 halted the flow of German toys to this country, American manufacturers had a tremendous opportunity to surge forward. Quick to realize this, Dr. Winzeler increased his line of toys and toy parts and business boomed. A quality (and very popular) tea set line was introduced, and in 1923, sand pails appeared. In the early 1930’s, Ohio Art was one of the very first companies to license a character from Walt Disney for a toy; Steam Boat Willie, the precursor to Mickey Mouse. Other successful early metal lithographed toys included tops, shovels, farm houses, drums, globes, checker sets and more.

Once plastic takes over in toys the company diversifies again and makes the film canisters for Kodak and premiums for companies like Coca Cola and Budweiser even today. The mark on this pail, Ohio Art Co Bryan O USA, refers to the company’s post-move location in Bryan, Ohio.

So, my advice is always be mindful of construction materials, build thoughtfully and work hard – and then you too can dance a jig and sing, Whose Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?