I absolutely love these giant cartoon character plush toys and always wanted to collect them! In 2018 I found Bugs Bunny at a thrift store for a whopping $8!!! I actually let out a little scream, "Oh my goodness! Bugs Bunny!", when I first saw him because I've been wanting one of these for so long! LOL I spotted him across the store and ran over to grab him before anyone else could. I was with my boyfriend at the time and he just looked at me like I was a little bit nuts. To be fair, he's not wrong! You have to be a little bit nuts to want these giant plush toys in your house! At roughly 3 feet tall each, they take up the same space as a small child!
Mighty Star made quite a few characters in the jumbo size, between 30 to 38 inches. Bugs, Sylvester, Wile E. Coyote, Taz, and Pink Panther are the most commonly found. Some of the others are hard to find or rare. The Looney Tunes jumbo series includes: Bugs Bunny (38 inches), Sylvester the Cat (38 in.), Wile E. Coyote (38 in.), Road Runner (30 in., rare), Yosemite Sam (30 in.), Pepe Le Pew (30 in. hard to find), Speedy Gonzales (30 in. hard to find), and "Taz" the Tasmanian Devil (30 in. this is the most common Looney Tunes character to find). Hanna-Barbera characters were available in large size as well, including Yogi Bear, Scooby Doo, Huckleberry Hound, and Captain Caveman. However, as I recall the most popular jumbo plush toy in the 70's was Pink Panther.
I've never seen a giant size plush of Hanna-Barbera's Dino the Dinosaur from the Flintstones, which is odd as smaller sized plush toys of the character were made. As such, I can't say for certain if a giant sized Dino was ever made or not. It's still a mystery to me, though currently it seems like they didn't make one.
Shortly after finding Bugs Bunny, within about a month or so, I found Pink Panther at another thrift store for $14!!! I couldn't believe my luck that I had not just found one, but rather two of these giant guys for such an amazing price in such a short period. In all the years that I've been thrift store hunting, basically since the early 90's, I've only found one other one, the Mac's Milk Cat mascot (I talk more about him at the bottom of this page). Regretfully I had to pass on that one which I've been kicking myself for doing ever since. So I'm very glad to have found these two guys!
Even though Porky Pig isn't made by Mighty Star when I saw him on eBay I couldn't pass him up! He was made by Ace in the late 1990's. Ace is the toy company that took over the Looney Tunes license for plush toys in the mid to late 90's after Mighty Star stopped making them. Oddly enough Mighty Star never made a giant sized plush toy of Porky Pig, which is why it's so awesome that Ace made one.
Mighty Star made all kinds of smaller and medium sized plush toys of Porky, and he was included in their series of Looney Tunes hand puppets (shown further below), but for some reason they never made a jumbo sized plush toy of him. The same thing also happened with Daffy Duck and Foghorn Leghorn, both of which Ace made as jumbo plush toys as well. I've seen both of them on eBay but they were a tad pricey for my liking. The Foghorn Leghorn jumbo plush by Ace is quite huge!!!
I paid a tad more for Porky than what I got the other two for combined, mostly because of the shipping for such a big box, but considering how rare this Porky plush toy is I think I did well just to find one. Unfortunately Porky's jacket is made out of a fake leather type of fabric that has begun to break down, so the surface of the jacket is now in delicate condition. Otherwise all three of these guys are in really nice shape for their age. I'd love to find a giant sized Sylvester and Wile E. Coyote to go with them!
Mighty Star made a huge collection of cartoon character plush toys, mostly Looney Tunes but also Hanna-Barbera and other characters, beginning in the 60's right through to the early 90's. They were originally made in Montreal Canada, but at some point the fabric shell of the toys were sewn over seas and then they were stuffed in Montreal. Eventually however, the entire production moved overseas.
Plush toys of the common characters, such as Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, Coyote, Pink Panther and Taz, can be found with numerous production variations. The plush toys made in the 1990's were often completely redesigned from their 1970's counterparts. The type of fabric that was used also changed a lot as fake fur fabric was a relatively new invention in the 1960's. It took some time before a good quality, inexpensive fur fabric was developed that did not shed the fur, and this did not happen until the mid to late 60's. A longer plush fur fabric was not available until the early to mid 1970's, which changed the plush toy industry quite significantly. Mighty Star was one of the leading plush toy companies of the 1970's partly because they moved quickly to take advantage of this new innovation. Below is the rest of my Mighty Star plush collection!
Pink Panther
Here is a front and side view of the 18 inch Pink Panther by Mighty Star. The white Mighty Star tag has 1964 on it as the date but this toy would likely have been made after that in the mid to late 60's. Both the white and blue tags have Montreal Quebec as the location for the Mighty Star company. This Pink Panther was likely made as a carnival prize as it's stuffed with tiny Styrofoam pellets. Usually, carnival plush toys were stuffed with Styrofoam pellets while plush toys sold through retail stores were stuffed with a softer material. Pink Panther was extremely popular in the 70's, as were the various sized Mighty Star plush toys. Pink Panther plush toys are the most commonly found out of all the animated characters that Mighty Star made.
I like how each of Pink Panther's eyes are made with three separate pieces of felt, yellow, black and pink, that are simply glued on, and then a shiny vinyl black dot is glued on as the iris. These types of eyes were later replaced with plastic ones, as seen on the giant plush toy at the top of this page, and on the 10 inch plush shown below.
Mighty Star also made a 10 inch bean bag plush toy of Pink Panther, shown here with the 18 inch plush for size comparison.
Here's a closer look at the 10 inch plush, which has a bean bag in his bum to keep him sitting upright. The odd thing about this version of Pink Panther is that it doesn't have a tail.
Looney Tunes
Here's my 18 inch "Taz" the Tasmanian Devil plush toy by Mighty Star. The jumbo sized Taz plush is 30 inches, so even though this 18 inch one is a rather large plush toy it's still too small to match with the three jumbo sized ones above. I like that they gave him red ears! I found this Taz plush at a thrift store in the early 90's so I've had him for quite a long time now! I like the older style of a manufacturing that was used to make him. He's also stuffed with tiny Styrofoam pellets which is typical for plush toys from the 70's.
His eyes, irises, mouth and teeth are all separately cut out felt shapes that are glued on. The teeth are vinyl rather than felt. The white tag on his side, shown below, says 1971 but he was likely made after this in the early to mid 1970's.
This is the white tag which all of the Looney Tunes Mighty Star Plush toys have. I think it's awesome that Looney Tunes plush toys used to be made in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. That's one of the main reasons why I like to collect Mighty Star plush toys.
Here's where they attached the white tag and the blue tag on Taz, plus you can see his tail!
Here's a very strange early Tweety plush toy from the 1960's or 70's in florescent yellow which I think is hilarious. I just love the shape of this plush toy, it makes me laugh, especially the back view shown below. It's the shape of Tweety's head that is so funny! LOL There are no tags on this 11.5 inch plush toy and it doesn't look like any have been cut off, however it is definitely a Mighty Star plush toy. I found him at a thrift store in the 90's.
Again the eyes are several felt shapes glued together, and the beak is also felt. Four pieces of yarn were added for Tweety's hair. Tweety's feet are supposed to be orange and much larger. Mighty Star updated the feet for later versions of their Tweety plush toys. However, Mighty Star never made a jumbo version of Tweety that I know of. Ace later made a jumbo Tweety in the 1990's.
The 10 inch Biker Taz plush from 1987 and the 9 inch Tarzan Taz plush from 1993, both are made by Mighty Star. A 9 inch Biker Taz plush was also made with lighter brown fur. I bought this Biker Taz brand new from the store when I was 15 years old! I found the rest of these Taz plush on eBay.
In the late 80's and early 90's Taz became extremely popular with his own cartoon series and video game. As a result Mighty Star made a wide assortment of Taz plush toys based on a whole variety of themes. I have a few of these Taz plush in my collection and I'm always on the hunt for more of them.
The 10 inch Tennis Taz plush from 1988 and the 9 inch "Love Machine" Taz plush from 1989, by Mighty Star. Both still have their original hang tags. This Tennis Taz plush is wearing a white tank top that says "Don't Mess With Me!" which is the wrong shirt for this toy. It's supposed to be wearing a white short sleeve tennis shirt with a collar. There were numerous Taz plush made with tank tops that had different sayings on them. A previous owner likely lost the original tennis shirt so they put this white tank top on this Tennis Taz, taking it from a regular 10 inch Taz plush that was sold with just the tank top.
A closer view of the hang tag. This one is from the Tennis Taz plush and is dated 1988. The tag on the "Love Machine" Taz is identical only it is dated 1989.
Additional 9 or 10 inch Taz plush include:
1) Bedtime Taz with a red nightgown and cap
2) Hercules Taz in gold wrestling tights with a large black studded belt
3) Summer Taz with yellow sunglasses and multicoloured shorts
4) Taz with red backpack, green straps
5) Taz wearing a teal shower cap and a light blue towel that says "Shower me with love"
6) Taz as Santa
7) Taz with a leather jacket that has a brown fur collar with a red bandana
8) Taz wearing red boxing gloves and red shorts with a blue waistband.
9) Taz dressed as a biker, 9 inch version
10) Taz Window Clinger with suction cups on hands and feet, lighter brown fur on cheeks and top of head, dark brown arms and legs, 9 inch
11) Taz in a light green tank top that says "Life is a beach" and wearing green patterned shorts and matching bandana
Variations of the 9 inch Speedy Gonzales plush toy by Mighty Star, both with original hang tags. The one on the left is from 1980 and the one on the right is from 1990. The left one has a darker yellow hat, a smaller tuft of hair, and lighter pink on the inside of his ears. It also has a small bag of beans inside the bum, while the other one doesn't which makes the left one slightly heavier than the other. The corners of the mouth for the left one are glued on felt details while the right one has the corner of the mouth stitched on with black yarn. The hang tags are also different.
If you were a kid living in Ontario or Quebec in the early 1980's you probably wanted or had one of these Youpi plush toys! Youpi was the mascot for the Montreal Expos baseball team, and he was very popular with kids from my generation. It didn't matter what city you lived in, these Youpi plush toys by Mighty Star were extremely popular in their day. They were sold as souvenirs at Montreal Expos baseball games. The Expos baseball hats that were worn by the team, which Youpi is also wearing, were extremely popular in their time and became a Canadian fashion trend of the era (along with Toronto Blue Jays hats) for adults and kids alike.
Unfortunately, the Expos disbanded after the 2004 season, so today Youpi is the mascot for the Montreal Canadians hockey team, which makes him the only mascot in history to change which sport they represent. There are other mascots that I specifically adore, such as the Ottawa Senators "Sparty" Spartacat or the San Diego Chicken, however Youpi is the best mascot ever, no contest!
This is the 20 inch plush toy of Youpi that was made in the late 70's or early 80's. He has a separate removable shirt which is often missing from these plush toys. It only makes sense that Mighty Star made these Youpi plush toys as the company was located in Montreal, which is where the Expos baseball team is from. This Youpi plush toy has yarn loops for hair and is filled with foam bits which makes him very soft and lightweight despite his size. I absolutely adore this plush toy!
I've had this guy since I was 8 or 9 years old. He was very much loved and was one of the plush toys that I kept on my bed to sleep with. I played with him outside a lot too, so he's in rough shape and has some dirt marks. I actually hand washed his shirt before I took this photo because it was so gross looking! LOL It's still not as white as it should be. I also had a giant wall poster of Youpi hanging in my room as a kid and regret that I didn't keep it. It seems like a rare thing to find these days.
I've seen a 30 inch version of this toy online which would be so awesome to have! That version has five buttons on his shirt instead of three. The buttons are just felt circles that were glued on to the shirt. All of the different sized Youpi plush toys have the buttons made this way. The blue button at the top of his baseball hat is also glued on.
Here is a side view to show the shape of his face and that he has stripes on his legs the same as the actual mascot character. The 20 inch and 30 inch plush toys are the only toys to have the stripe on his leg, the puppet and 10 inch plush do not have this detail.
One of the funny things about Youpi is that he always wears an exclamation mark on the back of his shirt instead of a number. This detail is printed onto the shirt, as is the Expos logo on the front of the shirt. There is no manufactures tag on this plush toy, and I can't find anywhere that one has been cut off, so it seems as though he was sold with no tags of any kind which is quite odd!
Here is the hand puppet of Youpi that was made at the same time as the other plush toys. The head is slightly smaller than the 20 inch plush toy. The legs are stuffed with the same type of foam stuffing. In this case the shirt was made as part of the toy and cannot be removed.
Here is the back view of the puppet with the tags on the edge of the puppet sleeve.
Originally owned by a lovely old couple that I meet a number of times during NY Toy Fair many years ago.....Not sure who owns the name or the original patterns today.
ReplyDelete