Many generations of rabbits in the real world have come and gone since I sat down to write a blog here. So, rabbits it is. Timely because (a) springtime brings bunnies, (b) Easter Rabbits, and (c) an owl caught a rabbit in our yard last night outside our bedroom window. Poor bunny, but Owl has to eat, too.
Wagner's bunnies, as you know, multiplied like, well, rabbits.
(Which far exceeds the average lifespan of a wild rabbit, which is typically two years, unless they evade the Great Horned Owl in my area, in which case they can make it to four or five years in age.)
His legs are stiff and straight as arrows, and his tail is like a chenille stem--a wire inside makes it moveable, and the outside feels like cotton.
Compare him to the next generation that bore the Wagner label instead (second rabbit on page).
He's also a little plumper and rounder.
(I just noticed that Wagner rabbits don't have whiskers. Can you picture the staff meeting at which such things were decided? "The cat and the badger will have whiskers, but not the rabbits. Make it so.")
The sitting-up posture is the most common stance I've seen in Wagner rabbits, but they also made running bunnies.
The rabbit below is an early Wagner edition. Though with those stiff legs and portly body, I'm not sure how quickly he could run. Most of his tail is missing, so perhaps he wasn't exactly the Secretariat of rabbits.
The company appears to have remodeled the rabbit to a sitting-down position--these three rabbits below are all cheerfully crouched as if enjoying a nice luncheon of clover on a lawn. And a white rabbit has joined the crew.
Some Wagner bunnies adopt a more upright sitting posture. This one surprised me because when I last took a close look at her in the cabinet, she was pure white, and now she's got brown and yellow spots. The best I can tell from a bit of research is that heat and/or UV rays can cause white flocking to discolor--this result mostly comes from online sites discussing how white flocking on flocked Christmas trees can turn brown over time.
Other white animals in the same cabinet didn't turn spotty, though, so I'm puzzled. Perhaps different glues were used by different crafters at different times. Cleaning her up will be a task for another time.
See? This white sitting-up-straight bunny didn't turn yellow and brown. Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have said that. Perhaps I've jinxed this little critter.
It's kind of funny how the sitting-up-straight bunnies improved their posture compared to the first two rabbits on this page :) and they have such luxurious tails.
Of course, Wagner put fabric ribbons on rabbits, too. These ones adorn our Christmas tree and also make an appearance at Easter.
