Friday, November 6, 2009

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.

3 comments:

Kevin Kidney said...

Matt, I've never seen one of these! Aww, he's really great.

Major Pepperidge said...

The Caterpillar has always been one of my favorite characters. Reminds me of the amazing ride vehicles!

TokyoMagic! said...

These are all incredible! I remember the various miniature animals that were attached to cards and for sale at Hallmark. I also remember them being available at the Emporium at Disneyland for years. Love these Alice versions!