Erik's Chickow

I recently received an email from Erik, along with his recollections on the Chickow and a picture too!

"Hi,  As my eye roved across my messy desk just a few minutes ago I spied my chickcow. It is the last of maybe five of them that I originally had. Noticing the Steven Mfg embossed on the leg I thought it was a good time to see if I could scare up anything on these.

It was back in the 80s, living in Boston and along the way to a bar where we used to go eat sometimes we stopped in at a hole in the wall junk store that was open. On the counter was the box of mixed up animals and this is what caught my eye, particularly the chickcow. These, to me, stood out for some reason and I picked out and bought all of them. The shop owner, seeing my selections, burst out laughing and told us that the last time he had a box of these someone also bought all the chickcows!

 I really don’t know why I only have one at this point but I’m glad I do. A few more would be better, of course but that’s the way it goes. To think about it I can’t imagine deciding that I have too many chickcows, one is enough. Did some friend or housemate taking a casual poke through my stuff think hey that’s cool, he’s got a few of them, he won’t miss one and so on?

No, I have to say that at this point I really am of a mind that to have as many chickcows as possible would be a worthwhile endeavor.

Cast iron flies are more plentiful but that’s another story for another time."

Thanks for the awesome Chickow memory, Erik!

Sam's MUZAs

Reader and newest MUZA collector alliance member Sam sent over a link to a photo of a couple MUZAs he received as a Christmas gift from his inlaws, found at a toy fair in Philadelphia!

Cool!

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?!?!"

Another One Bites the Dust!

Another eBay auction ended today for a lot of four Mixed Up Zoo Animals.

It included Chickow, Giraphant, Ostraphant, and Dachsheer.

These four sold for a modest, but still surprising amount, at about $30 with shipping.

I didn't bid high enough to win, but gladly a fellow blogger and Weirdo Toy lover appears to have been the high bidder! Congrats!

Goooo team!

Another auction ends

I was recently watching an eBay auction that just ended: $32.00 for three Mixed Up Zoo Animals!

The auction used the information I've discovered about these toys (almost verbatim) and I am glad they did - it makes me feel like I've contributed to the cyber world in some small way ;)

I can't help but wonder though, is there some underground collector's cult for these guys? There were 14 bids on this little set of three! And at $32.00, that's more than $10 each! (Me am smart! ;) )

So if you're someone who is collecting these toys, or bidding on them, or looking for them, or if you have them all, say "hi," leave a comment, or email me with pics of your collection. I'd love to hear from other mixed-up collectors ;)

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)