Packaged MUZAs!

I received an email the other day from Naomi of Sassie's Estate Sales & Antiques. Naomi said she had come across some MUZAs at a home FULL of stuff that she was prepping for an Estate Sale.

Naomi had found my blog while researching the odd little critters and was wondering if I'd be interested in the MUZAs she had found. I of course said "yes" and offered to buy them from her, but Naomi decided instead to give them to me as a gift!

Naomi immediately popped them in the mail to me and they arrived today.

Not only are the MUZAs she sent me in mint condition, but (a first for me) they are all still sealed in their original packaging!

So not only do I now have three new MUZAs so generously given to me at no charge, but I have the first images for this blog of individually packaged Mixed-Up Zoo Animals!

I've seen a lot of loose MUZAs since I started this blog, and sometimes they pop up with little name/price tags wrapped around them, but this is the first I can recall ever seeing packaged MUZAs. Certainly the first time I've seen them in person.

As with the tagged MUZAs, these individually packaged Mixed-up Zoo Animals sold originally for 15 cents. I can't help but wonder if they came in an assortment box with a fold-up lid like so many dime store toys of the seventies. Maybe someday something like that will pop up too.

Each individually sealed MUZA has his/her name in large blue letters across the middle (in this case it's our old friend Kittiorse,) the 15¢ price in the upper right corner, and the following manufacturer info on the bottom:

Steven Mfg. Co., Hermann,
MO. 65041 ©MCMLXXII

Liolope was packaged "upside-down." Now that's a truly mixed-up Mixed-up Zoo Animal!

And here's a minty fresh Kangaboar.

It's simply amazing to see these guys still sealed in their plastic, untouched by human hands since they were plopped in and hermetically sealed sometime around 1972. These guys are older than me!

Tremendous thanks go out to Naomi - who I shall now dub an Honorary Member in the MUZA Collector's Alliance!

If you live or ever visit the Chicago area be sure to swing by one of the Estate Sales run by Naomi and Sassie's Estate Sales & Antiques - and you can find listings for Sassie's Estate Sales at EstateSales.net

When it Rains...

Tracking down MUZAs is tough business. Sometimes I can go months without seeing any (or without actually looking, for that matter.) Then sometimes they seem to pop up all over the place. Well not really "all over the place," but in more than one place at the same time. And for an uber-obscure toyline like the Mixed-Up Zoo Animals, that's no small feat!

I was recently searching through toys on eBay and came across a pile of cows. My eyes fell on one in particular. To quote Sesame Street, "One of these things does not belong here, one of these things just isn't the same!"


So I bid ($1.25) and won and now have a second Chickow (and a bunch of random cows) to add to my collection.

Then I'm looking at the trade boards of a toy forum I frequent a few days later, and four MUZAs appear in a pile of otherwise worthless (to me) plastic figures! Sadly (for me...hey, it's MY blog!) someone beat me to the punch and got these guys for .25 each! But happily they went to the newest member of the MUZA alliance, Patrick, who had been following this blog for a while.

Patrick scored Kangaboar, Catagator, Dacheer, and my personal favorite, Rabbagator! These are his first MUZAs. Congrats Patrick, and welcome to the club!

Meanwhile, my cow collection has been commandeered by my daughters. All but Chickow of course, who is being eyed by someone else entirely: