When Bear Country was renamed Critter Country for the arrival of Splash Mountain in 1989, Disneyland created a line of plush toy critters that were sold in The Briar Patch store (they may have been sold at Crocodile Mercantile, too--I can't remember). Here we see a frog (which I found on Ebay years ago) and a mouse (which I bought in 1989 at the park). There was also a turtle, hedgehog, and another little rodent. At some point, there was a "Critter Country" animated series planned--not sure if these little guys were part of that. The unknown critters were kicked out of the Briar Patch a long time ago.
Sometimes these little critters show up on Ebay.
Fuzzy memories of fuzzy characters!
Whatever it is, it's cute. But not cute enough to stay in Disneyland.
This little guy always has a bad hair day.
I'd love to know the history of these characters. They certainly weren't flying off the shelves. And these were pricey, too!
It's too bad these little mystery characters never took off. Maybe someone can explain their story.
UPDATE 3/31/2024:
After all these years, I finally found the missing character in this collection, the Turtle.
The Turtle is one of the plush Critter Country toys that I actually remember kids carrying around Disneyland circa 1989.
I just acquired many vintage Disney items from a lifetime collector. And this hedgehog from critter country label 1988 Disney price tag at $12. Was in the collection. Plush in very very good condition.. I thought it was just one of the country bears did not know it was a hedgehog thank you for that info. I am definitely going to ask the woman I got it from about it because she seems to know just about everything about every Disney item she has. I will get back to you on that.
ReplyDeleteThat is fantastic! I sold the mouse and frog that I had to an ebay reseller (along with most of my collection) in 2019, and I had to explain to the buyer what they were.
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