Once upon a time, there was a retail giant called Sears. Sears was well known for selling hardware and appliances. But there was also a softer side to Sears. In 1965, Sears began an alliance with Disney to exclusively sell Winnie the Pooh merchandise. In the 1970s and 1980s, Pooh and his friends were essentially mascots for the children's section of Sears. Among the clothing and toys sold at Sears were Bucilla Stitchery Kits. If produced, these were probably the best looking plush representations of the characters that Sears designed.
The kits were not simply patterns. They contained the materials to make the characters. While they were sort of early versions of the Build A Bear concept, these look to be a lot more work, and curiously, some include wooden dowels. So they were not exactly cuddly plush toys. They were craft projects.
Winnie the Pooh seems to be the easiest of these kits to find. Pooh's kit includes a Chenille Bee--these Bees are pretty common even today in craft stores. And a cuddly wooden stick.
Eeyore is also a kit that seems to be easy to find. Eeyore is made using a denim material.
Eeyore features printed eyes, nostrils, and other facial features. They did the main detail work for you on these projects.
Eeyore doesn't include a wooden dowel rod.
Stuffing is also not included with these kits. I can't remember if Sears sold stuffing.
Kanga and Roo are kind of difficult to find, and are generally a bit more expensive.
Kanga and Roo seem to be made of the same thick, furry material as the Winnie the Pooh project.
No Wooden dowel for Kanga and Roo. This project seems like a lot of work, considering it is two characters.
The toughest character to find in this series is Tigger.
Tigger is made from a chic Tiger print material. Perfect for a Jersey Shore housewife's coat, or a toy tiger!
Like Pooh, the towering, tall Tigger requires a wooden dowel rod for his construction.
I'm not sure if there were any more characters in this set, but so far I've only encountered these four.
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These are some fun "Pooh" items, Dan! Are you going to assemble them?
ReplyDeleteI have a Sears Christmas catalog with a Pooh theme on the cover and some of the pages, inside. I posted some of it in the past, along with a few pages of "Pooh" toys. I bet these build-it-yourself items were located in another part of the catalog, rather than the toy section. I'll have to get it out and see if I can find them. I want to do another "Pooh/Sears" post, but have been dragging my feet on it. I have a picture of the Disneyland costumed Pooh character, greeting people inside of a Sears store, and also a free Pooh coloring book that was handed out at the stores.
Here's a link to that post that I did in 2019: Sears Christmas Wish Book - 1972 There are a lot of comments about people's memories of shopping at Sears, but also some mentions of a three-dimensional Pooh display that many of the stores had. It was in the shape of a tree, which went from floor to ceiling, and had animated figures of the Pooh characters on it. I need to find photos of one of those displays!
Hey TokyoMagic! I don’t have the skills to actually build any of these.
ReplyDeleteI definitely have to look at your post! I do remember display figures being in the stores. I am nostalgic for Sears now!