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:

Beef or Chicken?

Why not both?


My first new MUZA in a long long time comes in the form of Chickow!


I got a good deal on three MUZAs from eBay - and since there's only one human being on the entire planet who is willing to reveal himself as a fan of these guys besides myself (Justin of Weirdo Toys fame,) we've started a two member MUZA collector's alliance and the redundant Dascheer and Kittiorse are on their way to him! Someday he'll return the favor and send a couple redundancies my way. At this rate, we should both have a complete collection sometime in the year 2036.


The MUZAs of my collection have come out in full force to welcome their new genetically altered friend.

"WTF?!?!"

Mixed Up Zoo Animals on Flickr

A recent Google search revealed a few Mixed Up Zoo Animals photographed by a collector on Flickr

Check them out - she has a few other kooky toys as well!

Wow - $75.00!

A recent eBay auction for some really rough MUZAs sold for a whopping $75!

The auction started at $19.99 and with an undisclosed reserve. Personally I thought they were crazy and that they'd never even get one bid. Boy was I wrong! Good for them!

MUZA collectors unite!!!

The Complete Set (so far)

About a year or two ago a complete (to my current knowledge) set of Mixed Up Zoo Animals was sold individually on eBay. This auction brought up two points:

1) Contrary to what I was told by the employees at Steven's about a packaged assortment, I also recall purchasing the Rabbagator individually as a child. Each figure in this auction has a tag around it's neck suggesting they too may have been sold individually. No packaged images have yet surfaced.

2) The Kittiorse I have was molded in black plastic, however the one in this auction was molded in grey plastic. The Rabbagator is also apparently a lighter tan than the one I had obtained (and more in line with my memory of what color the figure from my youth was molded in.) This suggests possible multiple color combinations for all or most figures, which could have each been molded in different colored plastics.

NOTE: I did not win these auctions nor are these my animals, the images are borrowed from the (now long ended) auction. However, since the auctions borrowed my info to identify the toys, I think it a fair trade ;) ...and dig that funky wallpaper!

They are (from left to right, top to bottom)

Chickow
Dachsheer (note the "15 cent" price for the individual figure)
Catagator
Rabbagator (lighter plastic than the one I own, more in line with the one I remembered.)
Giraphant
Kangaboar
Sealag
Ostraphant
Liolope
Kittiorse (grey plastic, not black like the one I own)

Research

For years, all I had was a memory.

A small plastic figure, with the head of an alligator and the body of a rabbit. Purchased in Santa Maria California sometime around 1978 and last seen in West Jordan Utah sometime around 1984.

That's all I had. I remembered exactly what it looked like, and had the name "Rabbagator" in my head (but was that the name of the toy? Not sure.) That's it. Oh, and that there were others in the "series," similar mixed up animals. That's really all I knew.

I can't say I really "looked" for the Rabbagator after that, but I did look, at yard sales and antique stores. I looked through thousands of toys (being a toy connoisseur) and never found it or anything like it. For over two decades.

Then came eBay. Again I "looked." I started seeing lots of plastic toys. Piles of the old figures I had buried in the bottom of my toybox for years. Dinosaurs, army men, farm animals. I started to look really closely, seeking the familiar Gator head. Yes, now I was really looking.

I had nothing to go on. Ebay searches for "rabbit bodied gators" didn't get me far. I tried everything I could think of at the time, but still the best solution was to look. "Lot of plastic animals" was my best bet. Look through the pictures of piles of plastic figures.

Finally a breakthrough. An auction for two strange looking plastic figures...one with the head of a cat and the body of an alligator and ONE WITH THE HEAD OF AN ALLIGATOR AND THE BODY OF A RABBIT! There he was! But better still, the auction details were the "Rosetta Stone" that made everything fall into place: "figures labeled "Steven Mfg. 1972" - I had the manufacturer information and date! Success!

I didn't win that particular auction (surprisingly it ended at over $20 for only the two plastic figures!) but armed with the information presented, I began the proverbial Google search. Nothing. I contacted toy sites and antique sites. Nothing. Nothing until I contacted Steven Mfg. of Hermann Missouri.

I got through to two friendly ladies (who clearly thought I was crazy); Janet and Debbie.

I discovered that Steven Mfg. was initially producing normal plastic zoo and farm animals when a developer thought kids would love it if they were to offer toys of "mixed-up" animals. They didn't know the complete dates of the series' run, but the figures had been dated 1972. The figures were designed in Missouri but produced in China (Hong Kong to be precise.) They are solid plastic and about 2-3" tall. They were packaged in an assortment and titled "Mixed Up Zoo Animals" with the Item #1753. The ones I had discovered on eBay were indeed called the "Rabbigator" and "Catagator." Janet and Debbie did not know how many different figures were made, but they estimated 12-24.

Armed with this knowledge (and eBay) I have since identified the following figures:

Rabbagator (Rabbit body Alligator head)
Catagator (Cat head Alligator body)
Chickow (Chicken head Cow body)
Dachsheer (Dachshund body Deer head)
Giraphant (Giraffe head Elephant body)
Kangaboar (Kangaroo body Boar head)
Sealag (Seal body Eagle head)
Ostraphant (Ostrich body Elephant head)
Liolope (Lion head Antelope body)
Kittiorse (Kitten body Horse head)

And soon won an auction for a Catagator, Kittiorse, Dachsheer, and yes, my "Rosebud," a Rabbagator.

Portions of this entry have also been published at www.toynfo.com

It begins...

Grandpa loved the Swap Meet. In truth he loved getting out of the house and being left alone for a while. Sometimes he took me along.

These special times together are the most vivid memories I have of Grandpa. He and I would leisurely peruse the wares at the local Drive-In/Sunday Swap Meet. Me in my orange vest reminiscent of a boater's life preserver and he in his Alpine hat-with-a-feather-on-the-side.

Each trip also meant that Grandpa would be buying me a toy. Of course that toy usually had to "do something", but that wasn't always the case. Apparently Grandpa had mellowed through the years.

I can vividly remember the Pinochio marionette, the Ostrich marionette and the tumbling Jester (akin to a slinky - it somersaulted down an incline). I still own the Jester, boxed away and buried in the garage like so much pirate booty. The marionettes have long since tangled beyond repair and faded into oblivion. But my most precious, my "Rosebud" was none of these. My favorite Swap Meet toy was a simple plastic animal figurine.

Not just any animal figurine mind you. This figurine was unique. It was a "Rabbagator." A mixed-up zoological wonder with the head of an alligator and the body of a rabbit. I was in three year old awe. What an awesome concept! There were many to choose from, the Catagator, the Chickow, the Ostraphant. No thank you, I'll take the Rabbagator please - no need to wrap it.

I loved that freakish creature for years, and still think fondly of my Franken-toy. (I no longer possess my original Rabagator, but thanks to the magic of eBay, I was able to replace him; along with three friends - more on them later.)

But most importantly, I still posess and cherish the memories. They are more precious than anything tangible.