Hagen Renaker Caterpillar

Last, and certainly not least, is the Caterpillar. Finally! This is the only vintage caterpillar that I am aware of. What a rare figure indeed. I would argue that this is the rarest of all the Disney Hagen figures, rarer even than Samson. Over the years I've only seen 3 Caterpillars for sale, but I've seen 6-10 Samsons.

There has been a lot of speculation on how this guy was originally sold. If you look at the underside of him, you will see that he is curved in shape, as if he were meant sit on something rounded. The story I heard from a knowledgeable collector who interviewed the sculptor on the Disney line, was that he was originally intended to have a mushroom to sit on, but that it was deemed too expensive and the mushroom was dropped. Some will point to the photo in Tomart's as proof that he was indeed sold with the mushroom, but I have spoken with the owner of that particular figure and he has confirmed that he just put the caterpillar on a random mushroom figure because it looked good. We may never know.

Hagen Renaker March Hare

Third up is the March Hare. I just love the half cup of tea. Again, very fortunate to find him on the original card. And quite the bargain at 75¢ original price compared to his hatter companion.

Hagen Renaker Mad Hatter

Second of the Hagen set is the Mad Hatter. What a fragile little guy, they must have designed him with replacement purchases in mind. Such tiny little feet, and long skinny arms holding a tea pot no less.


I was fortunate enough to find this guy on his original Disney card. Notice the ridiculous original price, souvenirs at Disneyland were outrageous! What I wouldn't give for that ol' time machine and a fist full of quarters.

Hagen Renaker Alice

Most people are familiar with Hagen Renaker, even if they are not familiar with their Disney figures. They produced - and still do produce - a huge range of miniature animal figures. I remember seeing lots of these little animals on paper cards at my local Hallmark store when I was growing up.

Hagen Renaker held the license to produce Disney figurines for 7 years (1955-1961), and they were only available for purchase at Disneyland, at least initially. A set of four figures from Alice in Wonderland were added to the line in 1956.

This Alice figure is different from most Hagen figures in that she never had a paper card. Rather, she was the very first Hagen figure to bear a named character label, the only one of the miniature line to have such a label, although several figures in the larger Designer's Workshop line had similar labels.

As time went on, the named label gave way to the generic WDP label found on lots of Hagens.

And I even have one that has a Disneyland Emporium Label on the underside.
Alice is by far the most common of the Alice in Wonderland set, but she is very difficult to find with the named label still intact.

Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes, it's true, I am a Halloween baby. Go ahead, just try to come up with a joke that I haven't heard in 45 years (yikes, I'm 45!?).

Since I was too lazy to dig out vintage Halloween costumes this year, I'm settling for a birthday card for today's post.

I think this is from the 1970s, it is a Hallmark card, stock number 50B 71-4. It has a 'Productions' copyright, so can't be any later than 1986. Cool thing about this card is that it is a popup. The tea party table pops out at you when you open the card. How cool is that?

Sorry for my lack of posts this past week, it has been review time at work, and I hate writing reviews. But I have some posts already planned for next week, and I bought myself a large format scanner (finally!), so stay tuned for some cool items that wouldn't fit on my regular scanner!

Tweedle Metal Pin - Unknown Maker

When I got this pin, I thought it might be from the same series as this Alice pin. But, there are no maker's marks on the back, it is not sterling but some sort of pot metal, and the quality is nowhere near that of the Alice pin. Still, it is a cool pin, and I love the fact that he has his little flag on his hat.

Alice in the Movies - Lewis Carroll Society Fall Meeting Tomorrow

I'll be in Fort Lee, NJ on Saturday October 17th for the annual Fall meeting of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America (LCSNA). Fort Lee has an interesting place in Alice history, the very first sound film adaptation was filmed in Fort Lee, and it will be screened at the meeting. The meeting is free and open to the public, so if you are going to be in the NYC area, drop by. Details of the entire agenda are located here.