Any stuffed animals/plush toy collectors?

[sircrimsonfox]

So are there any stuffed animal collectors out there? I guess it's a more odd thing to collect since there isn't a goal or a list of stuffed animals. Unless you are talking beanie babies.

[countzackula]

Hope this doesn't come across the wrong way, but when my two brothers and I were all young, we probably had more stuffed animals than the average boy should have had...if you go by gender stereotyping "rules". We had mainly random stuffed animals...some store bought, some won at carnivals and such, others gifts. The only brand name plush I had was My Pet Monster...we also had some of those weird "realistic" dinosaurs with the canvas-like skin (they weren't very cuddly at all...kinda hard). I think Applause made them. We used to have all kinds of adventures with our plush animals. Sometimes we played zoo, we had so dang many! I have fond memories of stuffed animal war...where we basically had battles and "killed" our beloved little buddies! To me personally, the most fun I had was more or less the puppetry aspect of stuffed animal play. I still use the voices I made up for a lot of our plush characters to this very day.

[funkyterrance]

Doesn't seem odd to me bro. My brother and I had a good number of stuffed animals as well. Most of them were from fairs and such but we had shirt tails, smurfs, dakin, russ, and a huge teddy bear that my mom won from a raffle the we named "Charlie". He was big enough to wrestle with! I even asked for a Popple (Puffball) for one of my birthdays as my main gift. I had Boglins for good measure anyways. As long as you didn't have barbies I think you are safe . Not that there is anything wrong with playing with barbies...

[bowheadwhale]

I made over 70 stuufed animals myself, so I could say I collect them!

[funkyterrance]

Bowhead, pics of the homemade stuffed animals?

[bowheadwhale]

Apr 24, 2012 18:19:10 GMT -6 funkyterrance said:

Bowhead, pics of the homemade stuffed animals?

Didn't I post any?

[funkyterrance]

I don't know, did you? I asked you first lol.

[bowheadwhale]

Apr 25, 2012 17:42:55 GMT -6 funkyterrance said:

I don't know, did you? I asked you first lol.

I think I posted a lot in my "new members" introduction. If it's not there anymore, I will post them again next time I go to my friend's (Photobucket is blocked by filter service here).

[funkyterrance]

I tried searching for the new members introduction with no results. What forum is that thread in, do you remember?

[sf1378]

I have many stuffed plush toys. My favourites are the ones from my childhood - a hand - knitted woollen Lion I called 'Tom' as he reminded me of Tom Baker of Dr Who and a weird one that no ones ever seen the likes of before or since, best way to describe him is 'ant - like' that I named 'Poochie' as a child. They're best of chums.

[bowheadwhale]

Apr 26, 2012 17:43:45 GMT -6 funkyterrance said:

I tried searching for the new members introduction with no results. What forum is that thread in, do you remember?

It must have been deleted with many others, when the administrator made the clean-up, some time ago, then. Alright. In a week and a half, I'll go to my friend's again. I'll take profit of that occasion to put my plushies' pictures here.

[funkyterrance]

Apr 27, 2012 13:35:29 GMT -6 bowheadwhale said:

Apr 26, 2012 17:43:45 GMT -6 funkyterrance said:

I tried searching for the new members introduction with no results. What forum is that thread in, do you remember?

It must have been deleted with many others, when the administrator made the clean-up, some time ago, then. Alright. In a week and a half, I'll go to my friend's again. I'll take profit of that occasion to put my plushies' pictures here.

Yes! I had some homemade toys growing up (not by me) and they were awesome. Can't wait to see the pics, thanks.

[bowheadwhale]

Here are a few of the plushies Imade, as promised:

RMS TITANIC, RMS OLYMPIC, HMHS BRITANNIC


Tarsius bancanus


Black Widow spider


Pteropus rodricensis


Amphiprion frenatus


Orang-utan


Leatherback turtle


Goura victoria


Diplocaulus


Baiji dolphin


Golden Toad male


Dinornis


Grizzly Bear and Malaysian Tapir


Lucanus cervus


Spix macaw


Lygdamus couteri


Leadbeater's Calao


I'll post a few more in two weeks.

[funkyterrance]

Omigosh, those are AWESOME!!! Its hard to pick but I would say my favorite are the ships, really cool to see something that is usually rigid in plushie form and so coolly done. Thanks for putting these up, can't wait to see more.

[bowheadwhale]

Thank you! Yes, Titanic and her two sisters look comical in plush. One remark: on Britannic, I added six stuffed fabric davits since, like in real life: as a matter of fact, one of the details that seperated Britannic from her two older sisters was the presence of especially gigantic davits that held the lifeboats, davits that looked like some sort of weapons to the untrained eye. You see, at the time those plush liners were made, I knew a lot less about HMHS Britannic than about RMS Titanic and RMS Olympic, since she is the least well known of the sisterships' trio (Titanic being the best known, of course). Very few informations are available about Britannic, whenever we search in books or Internet. The reason is, she was only one of the many ships sunk during World War 1. It seems she stroke a mine, because warships didn't have the right to attack non-fighting ships like the hospital ones, and Britannic was sunk while she served as a hospital ship (the only career she ever had). So, it's probably a mine that sank her. It's very sad, because it means only Olympic never sank in the trio. She had a very long career, both commercial and military. She retired in 1934 and was scrapped in 1935, at the same time as Cunard's Mauretania (Lusitania's lucky sister). There is a picture that exists showing both Olympic and Mauretania side by side, waiting to be dismantled.

Anyway, here is a stern viwe of the Olympic:


and here is a stern view of the Britannic:

[funkyterrance]

Thanks for all the info and pics, I love learning about stuff like that and really enjoy old photographs of just about anything. The pics also reminded me of an unsolved mysteries ghost episode I watched recently. There were actual recordings from the lowest levels of a ship of what sounded like ghosts and man were they spooky!

[bowheadwhale]

May 10, 2012 15:45:54 GMT -6 funkyterrance said:

Thanks for all the info and pics, I love learning about stuff like that and really enjoy old photographs of just about anything. The pics also reminded me of an unsolved mysteries ghost episode I watched recently. There were actual recordings from the lowest levels of a ship of what sounded like ghosts and man were they spooky!

Did you know Titanic had two sisters?

[funkyterrance]

Nope .

[bowheadwhale]

May 11, 2012 16:00:38 GMT -6 funkyterrance said:

Nope .

Britannic, in the beginning, was supposed to be called "Gigantic". Why? Simply because the names "Olympic", "Titanic" and "Gigantic" were chosen for their link with the Greek mythology's descendants of Gaia and Ouranos: the Giants, the Titans and the Olympians. That is the source of the Olympic class ships' names. However, when Titanic sank, White Star Line decided to rebaptise the unfinished Gigantic (she was still in construction) "Britannic".

[funkyterrance]

I am very much interested in Greek and Roman history/mythology so I should have seen the connection but maybe the Britannic one threw me off. At any rate, thanks for the information, I always find that sort of thing interesting.

[sf1378]

An Australian Billionaire recently said he plans to rebuild an exact replica of Titanic as a cruise ship full scale but with modern technology in the engines/safety etc....bit sceptical as at the same time he announced he was running for a post in the regional Govt....but we shall see if it comes to fruition....

[funkyterrance]

May 14, 2012 5:37:48 GMT -6 @sf1378 said:

An Australian Billionaire recently said he plans to rebuild an exact replica of Titanic as a cruise ship full scale but with modern technology in the engines/safety etc....bit sceptical as at the same time he announced he was running for a post in the regional Govt....but we shall see if it comes to fruition....

Sounds like bad juju to me. You won't see me buying a ticket for that one lol.

[bowheadwhale]

May 14, 2012 5:37:48 GMT -6 @sf1378 said:

An Australian Billionaire recently said he plans to rebuild an exact replica of Titanic as a cruise ship full scale but with modern technology in the engines/safety etc....bit sceptical as at the same time he announced he was running for a post in the regional Govt....but we shall see if it comes to fruition....

It's a very common desire, to wish to bring back lost liners like Titanic, Empress Of Ireland or Lusitania, just like bringing back disappeared animals like the dodo, the thylacine or the passenger pigeon: it's the same feeling in both cases. When we see a liner that sinks or an animal that disappears, the common feeling is a sensation of unfairness and premature loss. Titanic, Empress Of Ireland and Lusitania SHOULD HAVE sailed to the end of their careers, just like dodos, thylacines and passenger pigeons SHOULD STILL be among us. We feel we failed to save dodos, tasy tigers and passenger pigeons, as well as we feel we failed to save Titanic, Empress Of Ireland and Lusitania. So, many of us have fantasies to bring them back, because we feel we failed them. This feeling of premature loss is the main reason for the high popularity of both the dodo bird and the Titanic. We ALL WISH we could re-write history... and save them from tragedy.

[bowheadwhale]

Anyway, here are more of my self-made plushies:

Addax


Bungarus fasciatus snake


Chrysaora melanaster jellyfish and Asterias rubens sea star


Axolotl and Bipes bipores


Clown Triggerfish


Eurema nicippe


Dall's Porpoise and Black Swan


Bowhead Whale

[funkyterrance]

Those are all great, I especially like the sea life ones, they're awesome! Something about plushes just works well with the ocean-themed ones . Now do you usually make plushes because you can't find particular ones that you want to buy or do you do it just for the pure fun of it?

[else3573]

I've got the Sqeaky nose vintage Q Bert plush with all the tags in my Q bert collection, and vintage Pacman, mini Donkey Kong and Donky Kong hand puppet plushes. Also some Hanna Barbera (whom I love), a large Huckleberry Hound, Scooby Doo, Dino, plus the whole set of the DQ Hanna Barbera mini beanies, all still in bags except one (they made Touche Turtle, Augie Doggie, Quickdraw McGraw, Peter Potamus, Wally Gator, Secret Squirrel, etc.). Then I have a few Pokemon Plushes I got at yard sales mainly to resell, and TON of Beenie Babys my fathers friend (older lady he helped out) left to me when she died. I don't collect them, they aint worth much, but some are kind of cool looking (the bat, the jellyfish, the shark, the snake, the Chinese New Year Dragon, etc etc.) There's like 3 quilt/blanket bags full of them, all with their tags and all in like new condition. I've give some away during the toys for tots drives in the winter, among other new toys, carded action figures, etc. Eventually I plan on getting the other little Pacman plushes (I have the one in the blue, need the other ones ad the Ms pacman of the same size/style). Also eventually would like to get the BIG Qbert Plus (I Have the 9", there's also a 12 or 14 incher, can't recall which right now) and the Donkey Kong plushes. In general though, I'm not a big plush guy. Too hard to keep clean and dust free unless you keep them in a bag.

[else3573]

*and yeah, countzackula, I don't find that odd at all. In 3rd grade or so I had a TON of stuffed animals (what we called them) and every night, or at least a few times a week my dad would come in and "talk the animals' to me before I went to sleep, giving them voices and personalities. Later on I never had a My Pet Monster, I was already like 12 when that came out, nor a "My Buddy", which was WAY after my time, but those 2 were specifically made for boys, and I believe they sold well.

[bowheadwhale]

May 23, 2012 13:38:30 GMT -6 funkyterrance said:

Those are all great, I especially like the sea life ones, they're awesome! Something about plushes just works well with the ocean-themed ones . Now do you usually make plushes because you can't find particular ones that you want to buy or do you do it just for the pure fun of it?

I most of all made plushies of the animals (and liners) I couldn't find anywhere. Despite the fact that there is a much wider choice of species in plush in the market now than twenty years ago, things are still not perfect. This is why I've decided to make my own plushies. The exception is the grizzly bear: I made it because, when I finished making my grizzly costume out of fake fur, I had lots of fake fur left. I used it to make plushies: a grizzly, a mammoth (sold) and a dinornis. My spotted hyeana and my hemippus have their manes made out of this fake fur also.

[bowheadwhale]

Here are more of my self-made stuffed toys:

Solaster dawsoni sea star


Zebra Muraena


Gasteracantha arcuata and Gasteracantha sturii spiders


Tardigrada Waterbear


Lutjanus sebae fish


Laothoe populi moth

[Captainamerica]

Those are incredible BHW!

My wife and I have a small collection of strange Plushes, most are advertising/drugstore: Pillsbury Doughboy, AFLAC duck, Fleet enema bottle, some internal organs, germs, Rhinocort rhinos, eczema beast, etc. We also have a couple UglyDolls and a few replicas of small plushes from post-war Japan.