Polar Bears, Polar Brrrrs!

It's freezing cold right now where I live, so there's no better time to write about those ursine neighbors of Santa Claus, the polar bears.

Wagner made a lot of variations on the polar bear, just as they crafted a wide array of brown bears. Many of the same molds were used for both groups, though the workshop did make some subtle adjustments for some versions of the Arctic bruin.

Here's your basic standard-issue Wagner bear, in the about-3-inches-or-so size that describes so many Wagner animals. This same mold was used to make brown and black bears--it's all in the flocking, after all!

Here's a sitting-down polar bear made from a mold also used to make brown, black, and panda sitting-down bears:

Wagner also made more teddy-bear-like bears and flocked them in white, brown, black, and a pale tan or champagne color. They are posed standing,  sitting up in a begging-dog sort of posture, and sitting down. Yeah, I know the fellow at the far left wearing a bow tie is not a polar bear, but I don't have the standing polar polar, so his cousin has shown up to represent him in this pose.

But the typical bears and the teddy bears were preceded by some early bears wearing the M.C. Originals label, such as the one below. They aren't quite as "sweet" as the later bears, but they have a bit more detail, which often seems to be the case with a variety of Wagner species. To my mind, it doesn't make either one better or worse--just interestingly different. This bear below, for example, has more contours in his body. It's not the same mold, either--you can see his legs are in a different position. The ears are also added separately.

Here's another MC Original polar bear, though this one looks as if it's made from a mold similar to the one used to make bears crafted from the 1960s up until the workshop closed. He's also rather dirty. White flocked animals usually get pretty grubby looking over time. They're an absolute mess if they've been played with, but even the dust seems seems to get deep into the flocking of ones that have been displayed on a shelf in the open. Shelved behind glass, they can stay nice and white--though some seem to yellow with age. I think this one's suffering from both yellowing and grime.

Back in the early to mid-1900s and most likely beyond, various German workshops also made little animals out of fur. These ones often suffer quite badly from decay--the leather dries up and curls, the glue gives way, the fur falls off. I've seen some poor little beasts that are really nothing more than a handful of wizened strips of leather and fur. This little polar bear, however, has survived rather well. His label names no maker, only that  he was made in Germany.

Wagner also made a very tiny version of the polar bear, seen below posed with the standard bear. The same mold was used to make brown and black bear cubs.

Wagner also made BIG versions of the polar bear. Here is the large sitting-down polar bear, posed with a standard one; the same mold was used to make--you guessed it--brown and panda bears, and probably black ones, though I've never seen one.

The biggest bear of all is a large standing polar bear. His flocking isn't as dense as the smaller bears' flocking, but his body is sculpted in great detail. You can even feel the ribs in his sides.

What I find particularly cool about this biggest polar bear is that the crafters took the time to give him the distinctive Roman-nose profile of a real polar bear--he looks quite different from the same-sized version of a brown bear made by Wagner.

OK, enough with the ice and the snow and the land of Arctic bears. I'm off to get another hot cup of coffee.

Stork Stories

In honor of Mother's Day (by which time I'd planned to publish this, but did not, so consider this post an overdue baby...I have postpartum expression, I guess), I give you the stork.

White storks are European birds long associated with fertility and the bringing of babies. Many elements of stork life probably inspired this association. The birds build enormous nests, for starters, and they exhibit strong site fidelity, returning to the same nest for years after spring migration.

The stork was the sacred bird of the Roman goddess Juno, who presided over homes and the family. In Christian mythology, storks symbolize peace, piety, and marital happiness.

The stork-bringing-the-baby originated in northern Germany in ancient times, and since then it's been carried (not by storks) worldwide.

A baby-toting stork even makes a brief appearance in a Sioux legend I found online. And supersized logger Paul Bunyan was apparently delivered to his parents by five burly storks.

Today, babies born with red marks on the nape of the neck are said to bear "stork bites." (My daughter had them, as well as a sweet "angel kiss" on her forehead.)

The stork tale's Germanic origins make Wagner's crafting of a stork very fitting. The stork shown above is the version produced in the company's last decade. It has plastic legs glued into two holes in the underside. Unfortunately, these legs have a tendency to pop out, leaving the poor bird rather helpless.

Fortunately, they're very easy to glue back in. They don't usually take any plaster away with them when they fall off, and the Wagner crafters glued them in to start with, so fixing them doesn't make you feel as if you've defiled a vintage item.

While we're on the topic of disembodied storks...the blob below is an interesting item that my friend W. brought back from a visit to the Wagner workshop. It's the raw body of a stork before it gets painted and flocked.

You can see the hole where the excess slip (wet composite material) was drained from the piece after the mold had set for a while.

Below is a much older version of the Wagner stork, from the early 1950s. It's an M.C. Original, an animal made by the Wagner workshop for Max Carl toys. It has legs made of painted lead instead of plastic, and unlike the one-piece plastic legs, which are joined at the feet, the metal legs are two separate limbs. (I am also thinking that some child  picked off the little orange beads that must once have formed this bird's eyes. I can't otherwise explain the white staring orbs he's got. He was like this when I bought him, so I don't know for sure.)

You can see many other differences between the 1950s bird and the 1980s/1990s one at a glance. The new stork, for example, is bigger and bulkier than its ancestor. Also noticeable is the attention to detail on the older stork. It has feather markings painted on its side that the newer version completely lacks. Interestingly, the mold has curves notched into it to indicate feathers and wings, but in the new stork these are just flocked over and not embellished with paint.

We'll end with your laugh for the day. The Wagner workshop, at some point, began selling the stork with a little plastic baby. This stork, however, did not carry the baby sweetly, all swaddled and cozy in a lovely silken bag. Oh, no. This stork had a horrible way of transporting youngsters...or was it preying upon them? What marketing genius came up with this delivery? I ask you.

Happy Year of the Horse, Wagner Style

The Year of the Horse, per the Chinese calendar, starts on January 31, 2014. What better time to take a look at some of Wagner Handwork's depictions of this marvelous creature?

Actually, if you're a horse lover, any given moment is a perfect time to think about/gaze upon/obsess about horses. And perhaps Fritz Wagner himself had a sweet spot for horses. (Indeed, the little brown and white pony depicted in the banner for this blog was chosen because it was his favorite among all his own creations.)

Wagner horses display perhaps the greatest variety in size of all the animals in the collection. There are tiny ponies scarcely an inch tall at one end, and 10-inch-tall horses nearly as big as a traditional Breyer toy horse. In between are standard horses about 2 1/2 inches high, bigger horses that handily step in to be their sires and dams at about 4 inches high, and, rarest of all, some beauties that are about 5 to 6 inches tall.

The horses also range from wild horses free of saddle and bridle to fully tacked-up horses with colorful felt saddles. Usually the tack is white or red, but horses with black tack turn up, too. The black horses are almost always kitted out in white tack, a very striking look. Some horses and ponies were given long reins because they were made to pull wooden carts--small, two- or four-wheeled ones for the ponies, a big blue-and-white wedding carriage for one pair of big white horses.

Colors span the equine rainbow, too. Most common colors are bay, white, and black for the standard-size, 4-inch, and 5-inch horses. The ponies are typically skewbald, chestnut, black, or Palomino. The biggest horses are bay and black.

The company made horses to order for toy sets made by other companies, so maybe that's why you'll sometimes find the odd horse flocked in a different color. The standard bay, for example, is usually a beautiful red-brown with black mane and tail, but I've seen Wagner horses flocked in a dark chocolate brown, too, in both the standard and the large size. Sometimes a Palomino turns up, too.

I once saw on eBay, but failed to win, a chestnut standard-size horse--it had a tan body with a matching, slightly golden mane and tail. To date I don't believe I've ever seen a spotted horse, only ponies. And though Wagner made a big gray horse in its early days, I haven't seen gray as a color among its later abundance of horses.

There are variations in the horses' stances, too. The ponies are always standing firmly foursquare, as if saying, "Nope, not gonna be caught in the paddock today, not falling for that oats-in-the-bucket lure!" The tiny horses, standard horses, and large horses typically do, too. The biggest ones, with plastic bodies under the flocking, have all four feet on the ground in a walking posture.

But sometimes you'll find horses that are posed in more of a running position, a gait achieved only by the Wagner horses that have paper-wrapped wire legs; the wooden-legged horses are always standing still. A few paper/wire-legged little horses are even caught rearing up.

I will put up more pictures of the great variety of Wagner horses in the future.

Ever Seen a Purple Cow?

With all the chocolate that's in our house now that it's Christmas, it seems like as appropriate a time as any to focus on Wagner's purple and white milch cow. Especially after a weekend spent driving around enjoying the countryside in Washington State's Snoqualmie Valley, home to many farms including the original Carnation Dairy Farm. The weekend's got a sort of "moo-tif" going on...

Anyway, here she is, in all her glory:

I am afraid I must be a rather lame journalist at this time, because my paper files are still packed after moving house, but as I recall this sweet lilac cow was linked to Germany's Milka brand of chocolates. I'll update this information when I relocate my correspondence with the Wagners as I can't recall if the cow was an official promotional item, or one created to tie in with the great popularity of the chocolate as well as the famous ditty by Gelett Burgess:

                                                        I never saw a Purple Cow,
                                                        I never hope to see one;
                                                        But I can tell you, anyhow,
                                                        I'd rather see than be one.

The Wagner company was terrifically fond of cattle in general, producing them in a wide range of colors. There are black and white Holsteins in the herd, as well as pretty chestnut-brown Jerseys and brown-and-white cows. 

In addition to these gentle creatures, there exist fierce black and brown bulls, Brahman cattle, longhorn steers, American buffalo (bison), and a rare version that looks to be a European buffalo or wisent. 

And, of course, calves. And a lying-down version of a cow, in the large-size format.

The purple cow also makes an appearance in the form of a comical-looking creature sitting on its backside. Sometimes this version appears sitting on top of one of those moo-cans that you tip upside down, then turn right side up again so that it emits a lowing sound.

Milka promotes its chocolates with plenty of purple-cow parading and features a cow very like Wagner's mauve moo-er on its wrappers, complete with a little bell around the neck.

Some Wagner Kunstlerschutz collectors lament that they "never saw a purple cow" and really hope to see one. However, though this periwinkle bovine wasn't common a few years ago when she first trotted onto sites such as eBay, she seems to have become easier to find, perhaps as the craft shop liquidated its assets and passed along backstock to outside sellers. 

So if you don't find a purple cow in your Christmas stocking this year alongside all the chocolate, you might just be able to track her down online when you're deciding what to give yourself as a little gift this year.

Shutterfly Wagner Kunstlerschutz Photo Site Started

Hello! In response to numerous requests, I've started an online sharing site for people to post pictures of Wagner and other vintage flocked animals. It looks like I have to send emails to people inviting them to sign up (for free)  and then they can post pictures, if I'm understanding the directions correctly. So I'll endeavor to do that in the next little while. I think if you comment here, I can obtain your email address when I click on your name. 

The photo site is http://wagnerhandworkanimals.shutterfly.com/.

And March Goes Out Like a (Wagner) Lamb

OK, technically it's now April, but this is the follow-up post to my one about Wagner lions and March roaring in like a lion!

Which truly has happened in my neck of the woods...the last weekend in March has been full of fluffy, woolly clouds in a brilliant blue sky and sheep-like flocks of blossoming cherry trees.

The Wagner company was certainly fond of sheep.

That's good news for people who like to set up Christmas village putz displays, Nativity scenes, and Easter scenes.

And though sheep are THE image for depicting mass, anonymous, unthinking obeisance, the Wagner crafters always  managed to imbue each sheep with its own little personality because of each piece being hand-painted and hand-crafted.

The standard sheep is the typical Wagner animal that's just shy of 3 inches tall or so. Most of the sheep have a vinyl collar held in place with a silver pin. The collar is typically green or red.

Newer ones often lacked the collar, but seemed to have somewhat chunkier bodies.

The typical sheep are colored either white or beige. Old sheep are often rather grubby, either from  handling or from dust or both.

Black sheep are rare. They don't show the dirt, but they have their own problems. Baa, baa, black sheep! Have you any lint?

Wagner also made sheep in other positions, such as the head-down variety...

and the lying-down variety (shown here in two sizes).

Wagner also made little lambs. These didn't have glasslike bead eyes but just painted-on ones. Personally, I don't like the look this gives them...just don't seem as personable to me.

Wagner didn't want the ewes to be lonely, so the crafters also made rams.

Here are two rams, one with bead eyes and one without. Don't know why,  how often, or when they  made the switch.

The ram also came in a super-sized form. Kind of cool but not my favorite piece...I guess the fabric wrapped around the body, instead of flocking, makes him kind of generic, plus he's got such ostentatiously plastic horns.

Probably all that plastic made him an easy one to copy; here's a vintage piece, a knockoff with its own kooky charm.

"Boo! Boo! Creepy sheep! Have you any ghoul?"

A Pride of Wagner Lions

Standard Wagner lion with two-tone mane.

March is said to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb, so it seems as good a time as any to take a look at the lions produced by the Wagner workshop.

They must have been rather fond of lions--or else lions were just very popular as sales items--because the standard lion (measuring about 2 inches tall, not including his mane, and about 2 1/2 inches long, not including his tail) is one of the most common Wagner Handwork animals you'll find on eBay.

I know he was included in what I always fondly recall as a Kunstlerschutz "starter set"--a little box divided into six compartments by strips of cardboard, which contained the lion as well as a zebra, a giraffe, an elephant, a bear, and a camel. All six of these species, actually, are very common.

Standard Wagner lion with red mane.

Though Wagner lions are plentiful, each one shows the characteristic individuality of a Wagner animal that's due to its being handcrafted using lot-dyed flocking and real rabbit fur (from farmed rabbits, presumably raised for food). Some have rusty red manes while others have dark brown or nearly black manes. You may even come across ones with nearly blond manes, and two-tone manes are very common. This diversity in mane coloration is of course true with real lions, too.

Standard Wagner lion, MC Original version.

The typical, common Wagner lion is the standing lion shown in the pictures above. But before these fellows joined the pride, there was the lion bearing the M.C. Originals label (the green label with a letter C encircling a chimp's face, commonly called "the monkey-head label).

Wagner made animals for the Max Carl company in its earliest days, and the lion then looked quite different. Instead of standing, he is walking, and his tail curls over his back instead of hanging behind him.

It's  fun to see how the lion's face changed over time. The MC lion has a smile and a painted-on white muzzle. He also has green eyes, like a housecat.

The later lion has a wider face, more spots on his muzzle and less white, and a red tongue. He also has orange eyes, more akin to the brown-gold eyes of a real lion.


Less common are Wagner's seated lions. These lions are made with a body mold that is similar to that used for the seated cats: the front paws are separated and the back half of the body is molded into a rounded form meant to evoke the tucked-up position taken by the rear legs and feet of an animal like a dog or cat when it's seated. The face is just like the standing lion's.

Of course, even the King of the Jungle gets tired and needs a lie-down now and then. So Wagner also made a reclining lion:

Early on, the workshop also produced a seated lion in a larger size; the lion below measures about 3 1/4 inches tall but is otherwise just like his smaller brothers.

Not content with simply doubling the size of the standard seated lion, the crafters made an even bigger lion (about 4 1/2 inches tall). They gave him a wide-open, red mouth complete with plastic fangs. Just as with the little lions, each big lion was one of a kind. As you can see with this pair, who look like they're laughing about a trick they've just played, the one on the right has such a thick mane that his eyes are completely obscured. Kind of the Cousin It of the pride. Probably is useless in hunting zebras.

Funny thing I just noticed about these two seated lions, besides the differences in the gapes of their mouths (the one on the left is definitely yukking it up a lot more), is that the mold for the two is quite different. The lion on the left is just like the other seated lions: hind end molded as a "blob," front legs set apart. The one on the right has his front legs molded together as a unit as well as the back.

Right, so you'd think the crafters would be content with lions in three sizes--but no. They decided to supersize him, and so they finished up with a lion-sized lion, a big Leo who sits a full 7 1/2 inches tall. (But lacks teeth!) And they also went to the other end of the range and produced a tiny lion barely an inch tall. Here's the whole array of Wagner lions from jumbo to miniature:

If you look for Wagner Handwork Kunstlerschutz lions on eBay, you will no doubt turn up the odd lion that a seller links to the Wagner variety but actually may or may not be part of that lineage (or lionage, ha ha). Beware that people sometimes list any old flocked lion as being made by Wagner or coming from Germany (this goes for any flocked-animal species, actually), but that many companies have made flockies, and today most of them are made in China.

I'm guessing that this little fellow, however, probably is a Wagner; he's flocked, he's laughing, though he lacks a  mane and is wildly different from the rest of the pride, but he's got the "monkey label."

Then there's the Original Fur Toys version. Original Fur Toys were indeed made in Germany, but I haven't been able to find out if they have any relation to Max Carl or Wagner.

They might, but then again, plenty of companies in Germany and elsewhere, back in the day, made toy animals out of fur and flocking and leather as well as composition or any combination thereof.

At any rate, the Fur Toys version of the lion looks a bit goofy. I'm thinking he's not exactly the Einstein of the Serengeti.

And last, but not least, this subspecies below might strike you as some sort of remade Wagner lion or major mistake from the workshop after perhaps a bit too much Schnapps...

...but apparently weirdly colored lions were made as promotional giveaways for soccer teams. I've seen the color above and also a blue lion with a white mane; surely there are other patterns. Here in the USA you get bobble-head dolls on giveaway days; in Germany you get adorable flocked lions. Who wins? You decide.

Oh, there IS one more lion I know of. He's lurking around here somewhere. Trouble is, he is VERY tiny...scarcely an inch long and 3/4 of an inch tall. He's known as the little leaping lion. And right now he's doing a very good job of hiding. I'll add him when I can find him to take a picture of him. I suspect he may be lying down with the lamb, in which case I may find him when I pull out my Easter animals later this month.