Angry Eyebrows Pixie

This guy is one of my favorites.  It’s the angry pixie.  At least his eyebrows and sinister grin suggest to me that he is angry, or maybe a sociopath.  I first saw one at the National Christmas Center in Paradise, PA (Go if you are in the area!).  They have a pixie tree in their Woolworth’s Display (which is awesome!), and probably have no idea how excited I got when I saw this pixie.  I wanted to track one down.  Thankfully my mom found one in her travels, and I got him as a Christmas present last year.  If Elf on a Shelf isn’t getting your kids to behave at Christmas, this terrifying little guy might do it!  His eyebrows will haunt my nightmares!

I will haunt your nightmares!

Wind-Up Drummer Pixie

This one is truly weird.  It is a pixie head on a wind up drummer toy.  This toy is made in India, which is not something you see everyday.  It has a few condition issues, but I had to buy it since I had never seem one like it.  Pixie heads got used on everything!

Flat Pixies

Yes, the pixie head was even flattened for Christmas stockings and wall decorations.  Take these two decorations with flat pixies.  One is a stocking and the other is just a wall decoration.  Both are kitschy to the extreme!

Giant Headed Pixies

I have some big headed pixies, but none are quite as impressive as these.  While there are a lot of pixie designs that you see many times over, these are a little bit more unique.  I don’t think it makes them much more valuable, but it does make them more interesting to me.

Mrs. Claus Knee Hugger

I see Santa knee huggers occasionally, but rarely do you find a Mrs. Claus.  Here she is in all of her glory!  Again, not terribly valuable, but just fascinating that she exists.

Winking Devil Knee Hugger

Not all Knee Huggers are for Christmas, and this guy eluded me for some time.  More, I didn’t want to pay eBay prices.  He is a more valuable pixie, and fairly coveted by knee hugger collectors.  This one is missing his collar, but he was $1 at the flea market.  I will upgrade him eventually, but I was just happy to find one in the wild.

Ridiculous Looking Hillbillies

For some reason there are a lot of hillbilly dolls that use pixie heads and/ or are knee huggers.  I could do an entire article on hillbilly knee huggers, I am not even kidding you.  These fellas are a bit more unusual since they have unique head sculpts.  They have a bit of a Mortimer Snerd vibe going for them.

Big Eye Knee Hugger

With the big eyed paintings and dolls of the 60’s also came some big eyed knee huggers.  While this one doesn’t have terribly sad huge eyes, the aesthetic is definitely there.  She has some literal flower power going on there.

Witch Candy Container Knee Hugger

This one, I think, is pretty special.  Halloween knee huggers tend to be a bit more desirable, and the Witch with the black body from my last article is pretty well known.  I had never seen one with a clear body until we found this one, though.  She has a zipper on the back, so I assume she is a candy container.

And finally, to bring it back to Christmas in my favorite pixies I have found in a long time I present to you…

The Three Wise Pixies

Yes, someone thought that these were the appropriate heads for the three wise men of the nativity.  Not only are they pixie heads, but they are the “Dopey” style heads often used on hillbilly knee huggers.  In a Kitschmas miracle I found these a few weeks ago, and I was way more excited than I should have been.  Now I have to wonder, though, if there is an entire pixie Nativity.  I can dream, can’t I?  These are in such poor taste!  Ultimate kitsch!

Are there even more ridiculous pixies out there for me to collect?  Absolutely.  Have a Merry Kitschmas from all of us at The Collector Gene!

The post For The Love Of Christmas Pixies: Part II appeared first on The Collector Gene.

New to our Christmas display this year but not new to our collection is this Bliss Adirondack Cottage circa 1905.  When we bought it from a small local antique shop almost three years ago, we weren’t sure how to display it, but we said even then that it would make a great Santa Claus workshop.  That vision was finally realized this year.

Here you see the front of the cottage with German bisque elves playing on the upper and lower porches while a nice old composition German Santa sits on his wooden sled.

Here you see the back of the cottage just filled with toys and decorated Christmas trees and another playful elf.

This doll house came with a paper from an auction when it was purchased by someone else in 2005.  It was described thus:  Bliss Adirondack Cottage – an unusual doll house with lithographed paper exterior, stained wood roof and base, 4-room interior with period wallpaper, 17.5 inches tall.”

We have loved Bliss doll houses from the moment we first saw them early in our collecting years, and we have been fortunate enough to acquire about four of them at affordable prices.  Bliss doll houses are characterized by their wood construction and beautiful chromolithographed paper coverings.  The peak of production was at the turn of the century, and the most elaborate houses are beautiful miniature renderings of highly Victorian-style houses in all their gingerbread glory.  This “cottage” is unusual and, we believe, rare because it is quite simple in style and decoration.  The very realistic-looking logs are, indeed, just printed paper.

Rufus Bliss went into business as a carpenter in Pawtucket, Rhode Island back in 1823.  He was highly skilled and inventive in his carpentry techniques, becoming best known for his lathe-turned wooden screws and clamps.  He took on a partner, A.N. Bullock, in 1845 and the name of the company became R. Bliss and Company.  In 1867, several years before the company first advertised the making of toys, Mr. Bliss withdrew from the business.  In 1873, Mr. Bullock died.  However, the company continued on with Mrs. Bullock retaining an interest, and a stock company involving Bullock family members among others was formed in 1874.  The company continued to make practical things like wooden screws, clamps, and tool handles, but they expanded further into croquet sets, tennis racquets, and paper-lithographed toys.  Today, their doll houses, wooden boats, and pull-toys are among the most prized and expensive of American antique toys.  A Massachusetts company bought out the toy-making end of the business in 1914 and kept the name, but it ceased production in 1935.

The post Season’s Greetings from Santa’s Workshop – Our Bliss Adirondack Cottage appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Yes, that toy is constructed of a tiny baby doll shoved inside a larger doll leg. This little beauty was made by legitimate toy company Uneeda toys. Uneeda made dolls from 1917- 1991. They also made Wishniks, which were knock off Troll dolls, but were still very popular and are sought after today.

I wish I could have been a fly on the wall in the pitch meeting where someone pitched the idea for the Toe-Kin, which sounds like a clever name until you think about the fact that this doll is in a foot, or even more a lower leg, not a toe. Uneeda toys tried to disguise the fact that this toy is clearly made out of a left over baby doll leg by putting a pretty yellow ribbon around the mushroom plug at the top of it, but they aren’t fooling anyone. For those of you who might not be as familiar with toy construction techniques, mushroom plugs are often placed where two movable joints connect on a toy. If you have ever pulled the head off of one of your Barbie dolls or action figures, you will most likely find a mushroom plug where the neck connects to the body. It looks kind of like a mushroom most of the time, hence the name. In the case of this doll leg, it probably would have been sewn onto a soft doll torso and the indentation from the mushroom plug would be where they stitched it into place. Now, if you thought that the cute little doll sitting inside of the foot, which is about the size of a Kiddle doll, was removable you would be WRONG. That little lady is permanently fixed to that doll foot for better or worse.

There are so many questions I have about this ridiculous toy. Is the concept of this thing supposed to represent a little girl with a hideous deformity where instead of having a normal lower torso she just has one giant leg? Is she piloting a giant leg as her own mode of completely awesome transportation? Is she just chillin’ inside a giant leg just because she can? The poor execution and lack of a back story make it impossible for us to truly know. Do Toe-kins come in both right and left feet? Are there more Toe-kins in the series? Probably, but I haven’t found any more to prove whether or not that is true yet.

I know it might seem like I am hating on Toe-kins, but I can honestly tell you that I was truly excited when my brother found this for me at a toy show. Yes, Uneeda toys deserves to be scolded for trying to market such a lame concept to children. And I pity the poor kid whose grandma or weird aunt gave them one of these things for their birthday. At the same time, this toy is hilariously bad, and any object that can make me laugh or put a smile on my face is worth owning in my book. That is why I am sharing the Toe-kin with you, internet community. I hope it makes you laugh and puts a smile on your face, too. If so, the Toe-kin is doing its job.

The post One of the Worst Toys I Have Ever Seen: Toe-kins appeared first on The Collector Gene.

In the early 1990s, the sketch comedy show In Living Color was enormously popular. It was the first truly well-received sketch show alternative to “Saturday Night Live” in a long time, running for a total of five seasons on the Fox network, which at the time was a relatively new network trying to find its footing as it tried to compete directly with the “big three” networks. It also ended up launching several very successful careers, including Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, and Jennifer Lopez, as well as those of the Wayans siblings.

Of course, like any sketch comedy show, the cast members were responsible for several very memorable characters, such as Carrey’s Fire Marshall Bill and Damon Wayans’s and David Allen Grier’s “Men on Film.” While Saturday Night Live had characters such as the Blues Brothers, the Coneheads, Toonces the cat who could drive a car, and Ed Grimley (although Martin Short created him for SCTV, the character rose to fame when Short brought him over to SNL) that would go on to receive merchandise, these characters seemed somewhat tame and even kid-friendly when compared to Carrey’s burn victim or Wayans’s and Grier’s overtly homosexual stereotypes.

That’s why I was shocked to learn that In Living Color did receive one piece of somewhat kid-friendly merchandise: a 24” tall plush doll of one of their most popular characters, Homey D. Clown.

Since In Living Color ended its run nearly 20 years ago, I feel like the premise of the Homey D. Clown sketches is not nearly as well known as it once was. Played by Damon Wayans, Homey is an ex-con who works as a clown as part of his parole agreement. Not surprisingly, Homey isn’t thrilled with having to perform as a clown, and if anyone attempts to cajole him into doing typical clown things like juggling or making balloon animals, an agitated Homey takes a black sock full of tennis balls, smacks whoever is bothering him, and says his signature phrase, “Homey don’t play dat.” Throughout his appearances, he frequently expresses a desire to get back at “The Man.”

Why on Earth Acme Supply Company thought that Homey was a great character to turn into a doll is beyond me. However, back in the early 1990s, there were stores like Spencer Gifts where you could buy “toys” that had sort of a risqué or overtly offensive or political quality to them. That’s why it’s so depressing to walk into a Spencer’s store these days. Those of us who remember how great it was in the 1980s and 1990s long for the kind of store it used to be, since that was before online ordering was commonplace and the store was perhaps the only place you could go to reliably find oddball items like Homey.

I bought this at an antique store in Cape May County back around the 2009 holiday season. I think I paid about $20 for it, so it wasn’t exactly a bargain. However, for a plush toy, it’s in remarkably nice shape with its original hang tag. If you really want a Homey D. Clown plush for your own collection, they’re not incredibly hard to come by, but they do command a pretty hefty price tag (approximately $40 to $50) for an old plush toy that’s only a little more than 20 years old.

The post In Living Color Homey D. Clown Plush Doll appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Somehow, though, I think more Americans think of their Uncle Sam in April when the deadline to file taxes comes along. I think nearly every family has a relative like Uncle Sam. He always seems to want your money. He’s not too good at living within his means and before you know it, he’s back wanting more! But he is family and we all want him to succeed. He is the personification of the United States of America itself and we all have a stake in his future.

Uncle Sam doll made in Germany around the turn of the century.

The origin of Uncle Sam can be traced back to 1813 when Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, New York supplied beef for the army during the War of 1812. The barrels of beef were marked “U.S.” for the United States, but the soldiers began referring to them as “Uncle Sams”, a nickname for Samuel Wilson.

The image of Uncle Sam as we know him is attributed to Thomas Nast, the prolific political cartoonist of the nineteenth century who also gave us the image of Santa Claus. The most famous image of him, however, is attributed to James Montgomery Flagg, who created the Uncle Sam made famous on the World War I recruiting poster pointing sternly with the caption “I Want You”.

This plaster figure of Uncle Sam is dated 1917 and is captioned “Rollin ’em up,” referring to preparations to fight in World War I.

With his tall, lean and lanky physique matched by his colorful attire, Uncle Sam is a natural for collectors if you can find him out there in Collectorland. His popularity was at its peak from about the late nineteenth century (especially around the Spanish-American War of 1898) through World War II. He was usually portrayed in a positive light during that time when America was becoming a stronger and more influential player among the family of nations. During the Vietnam War he wasn’t quite so popular.

Uncle Sam pin tray from the early 20th century.

Poster from World War II

Artist-made figure of Uncle Sam in a Pickle. It’s hard to date exactly because historically Uncle Sam always seems to be in a pickle!

German candy container of Uncle Sam riding a rabbit. This well-detailed piece was probably made around the Spanish American War (1898).

Today the image of Uncle Sam can often be found in craft shops as a patriotic decoration. Unfortunately he is often portrayed with a Santa Claus type beard and moustache instead of the long thin beard grown only on his chin. How did the song go – “Don’t know much about history”!

Many of our Uncle Sam items were purchased back in the seventies and eighties. Today, finding them is difficult and can be expensive. As always with collecting, however, you never know what lies ahead at the next flea market, auction, or yard sale.

This flask is a souvenir from Canada during Prohibition when many Americans headed north to get a drink!

This Uncle Sam on a bicycle toy was made between the wars by the A. C. Gilbert Company. He would ride along a string moving his legs.

This decal is dated 1933 and reflects the optimism that the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt would soon put an end to the Depression.

This piece of “Uncle Sammy” sheet music is dated 1904 and shows Uncle Sam with a map of the U.S. and its territories, some of which were acquired at the end of the Spanish-American War.

The post Uncle Sam – He Collects From Us So Why Not Collect Him? appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Just as Sally Starr was a television personality closely associated with my Philadelphia area childhood, so, too, was Dick Clark. As a first and second grader, I clearly remember coming home from school and tuning in “American Bandstand” which was being filmed live just across the river in Philadelphia. I think I was fascinated by the dancing teenagers more than the rock and roll performers, but I also liked Dick Clark. He had a likeability factor that was off the charts, and it served him well in a broadcasting career that spanned seven decades and earned him accolades galore.

Just before Dick Clark died last year, Jim and I were in an antique shop in Pennsylvania when we encountered, for the first time, a 1950’s Dick Clark autograph doll. He was nattily dressed in a sports coat, vest, and slacks with a plaid tie and matching plaid socks (which we now know are actually plaid legs) and nifty black and white saddle shoes on his feet. Most amazing, however, was the doll’s vinyl face. It looked just like Dick did back in the 1950’s!

We couldn’t afford the doll when we saw it last year, but a few weeks ago, we found an example in very good condition at a much more affordable price, so we bought him. Here he is.

The only marking on the doll is a very tiny word “Juro” just below the hairline at the back of Dick’s head. This is the mark of the Juro Novelty Company, a New York based toy company that specialized in ventriloquist dolls such as Charlie McCarthy, Mortimer Snerd, Jerry Mahoney, and Knucklehead Smiff. The company was in existence from the 1950’s until 1977. The Dick Clark doll is not a ventriloquist dummy, but he’s obviously a very well made doll with a lot of attention to detail. According to my research, this doll sold for $7.49 back in 1958, which was a considerable amount of money at the time. Photos of the original box that the doll came in show that it was billed as an “autograph doll.” The doll’s jacket does have “Dick Clark” written on it. I guess the idea was for a teenage girl to get her friends to put their signatures on the jacket as well.

I found some additional information from a December 2009 entry on Kovels.com. According to their answer to a query, there were two sizes of Dick Clark dolls. The smaller size, which is the one we have, is 25 inches. There’s a larger one that’s 45 inches. That’s practically life-sized!

Dick Clark’s impact on American music in particular and American pop culture in general is inestimable. We’ve already had one New Year’s Eve without him, but at least at our house his memory will be kept alive this New Year’s Eve by this very life-like doll.

The post The Dick Clark Doll – An Amazing Likeness appeared first on The Collector Gene.

One of the most popular Krampus collectibles is Krampus postcards.  Krampus became a very popular subject for holiday postcards in the mid-19^th century as postcards became a huge craze in Europe.  Even though Krampus’ job was mostly to punish and scare children, many postcards of Krampus exist that show him reacting more to the sins of adults.  The only card I have obtained (because Krampus postcards can get mighty expensive) is this one from about the 1960’s.  It is a great card with a sort of child Krampus sitting on a pretty girl’s lap.  Clearly, this Krampus is being seen as a more humorous figure than a scary one, and this card was made for adults to send to one another.  Another thing to note about Krampus is that, because he is an Austrian figure, almost everything you find with Krampus on it is in Austrian or German.  “Grub vom Krampus”  translates to “Greetings from Krampus”, and is found on almost every Krampus postcard you find.

This next Krampus piece I have is a paper cutout of the Christmas devil himself.  He is seen here with red skin, but the switches in his hand, the shackles, and the tongue let you know that this is Krampus, not an ordinary devil.  Paper cutouts were used for a variety of purposes in decorating, and there are several designs out there that are being reproduced today.  This piece is one of the more common Krampus pieces that I see, so it is a little bit more affordable for a new Krampus collector.  I found mine in a local shop, but they show up on eBay fairly regularly.

Little fuzzy animals made in Austria similar to this fellow were very popular in the 1960’s, so it isn’t too surprising that they produced a Krampus.  Again, this is a red Krampus, but you still know it is him because he has a little orange tongue sticking out, and switches in his right hand.  This might be the cutest Krampus ever made.  There is nothing imposing about this little guy at all.  He stands about 4 inches tall, which is fairly large for the little creatures made by the ARA company.  Clearly Krampus took on more of a comical role in the 20^th century, which is why some of these cuter and less ominous Krampus items can exist.

My mom found a few of these Krampus ornaments at a flea market.  The dealer she got them from said he bought them in the Czech Republic.  They are really cool, but pose a bit of a mystery.  This ornament is made in the Dresden style, but looks awfully clean and new for a vintage ornament.  I have always heard talk about people finding warehouses with vintage holiday stock and toys in them in Germany and Eastern Europe, but there are also a lot of reproduction holiday pieces that look a lot like the original pieces floating around on the market.  This can make you wonder if the “warehouse” stories are true, or if they are made to fool people into spending more money on reproductions.  Could this Krampus be a great, vintage piece?  Maybe.  Could he be a new piece done to look old?  Maybe.  The bottom line is, he is really cool looking, and I haven’t seen any others on the market to compare him to.   It is probably best to error on the side of caution and say that there is a good chance that he isn’t too old, but he looks great and we love putting him on the tree.  And if he is old warehouse stock, that is a bonus.   There is a whole discussion that could be created right now on vintage a reproduction Christmas decorations coming out of Europe right now, but right now I want to divert into a conversation about some of Santa’s other ominous sidekicks from Europe.

Before learning about Krampus I was in introduced to Knecht Ruprecht, a similar character from Germany, by one of my high school friend’s mom who happened to be a German teacher.  Knecht Ruprecht is a very similar character to Krampus in that he punishes bad children, but he has a beard and looks more like a creepy and mean Santa.  Another similar character is Belsnickle, who is also associated with Germany and the Pennsylvania Dutch.  I think this ornament most likely represents one of those two fellows. He is just another one of St. Nick’s friends doing all of the dirty work, while Santa rewards the good kids.  There are many other mean Christmas characters besides Krampus, but I think Krampus fascinates the public so much because he is so scary and disturbing.  I mean, I wouldn’t want a scary old man hitting me with switches, but I would take that over a devil licking my face and hitting me with switches.  This nice early Knecht Ruprecht/ Belsnickel ornament is a perfect segue into our favorite Krampus piece, a fairly early unassuming box with a fantastic surprise.

This little paper lithographed box holds a secret, and since you already know that we are talking about Krampus, I am sure you figured out that there is a Krampus in that box…

I am a little bit embarrassed to say that we did not know that this piece was most likely a Krampus when we bought it.  The dealer selling it made no mention of Krampus on his price tag, and we just took it for a really neat gag gift with a devil.  After several years of owning this piece, we learned about Krampus and started putting two and two together.  This devil head has black skin and a pronounced tongue, his box has Christmas colors on it, the sentiment of “Think of me” could mean that children should be thinking about Krampus to help remind them to behave at the holidays.  It really makes sense for this piece to represent Krampus.  The one thing that throws me off more than anything is that the box is in English.  Krampus didn’t infiltrate the pop culture of Americans much at all until probably within the last decade.  In Europe his reign of terror was seen only really in Austria, some of Germany, and a little bit of Eastern Europe, but not English speaking countries.  This piece isn’t marked, but is probably German, and the Germans imported a lot of decorations and toys to America.  I propose that this toy might have been produced as a Krampus piece in Europe, but that they sent it to America to represent more of a novelty.  It does work as such.  You don’t have to know who Krampus is to see the humor in handing a person a box with a sentimental message on it, and then laughing at their shock when a devil pops out.  Anyway, that is my thought on the matter.  It is a great Krampus piece, and by far the favorite in our collection.

I am all about festive cheer at the holidays, but I can’t help but be fascinated by Krampus.  Clearly I am, because I made a Krampus knee hugger this year…

…which is sold out on Etsy.com at the moment, but more will be available soon.  There is always something interesting about learning about strange traditions and characters, and that is why Krampus has become a part of our holiday decor.  He is just a scary little reminder to be extra nice at the holidays.

The post When Your Holidays Need a Little Less Cheer and a Little More Fear, Bring in the Krampus. appeared first on The Collector Gene.

In recent years, 1950’s-60’s Christmas pixies have had a huge resurgence thanks to a little book called “Elf on a Shelf”.  That’s right, for all of you hiding a red and white elf all over your house for your kids that don’t already know this, the design of that elf is based directly on the cute little Christmas knee hugger pixies of the 1950’s and 1960’s.  I have been collecting pixies since I was a kid, so I will admit that it can be frustrating at times when people see my collections and say “Oh, like Elf on a Shelf, right?”  No, not like Elf on a Shelf, because the vintage pixies I have been collecting predate “Elf on a Shelf” by forty to fifty years.  At the same time, it is nice to know that a new generation of kids will be growing up with an appreciation for kitschy Christmas elves just like I did.

My first Christmas pixie was given to me when I think I was about four or five (I can’t remember exactly when).  My father has two antique cars, and belonged to a local antique car club.  Every year the club would have a Christmas party and my whole family would attend.  Usually it was just an excuse for Ben and I to each get one Christmas present early, as every year there was a Pollyanna and my mom would put a gift for each of us in the pile of presents to make a party with no other children but us a little more bearable (my dad was among the younger members of the club, so he was the only one bringing young kids to the party).  One year the women of the club said that they were going to throw out the Christmas tree that they had been using for years and replace it with a new one, so any ornaments anyone wanted were up for grabs.  On the tree was one small pixie elf that my mom took for me, and that is what started my collection of 1950’s and 1960’s pixies.

This is Elfie.  Yes, I know, what a clever name for an elf, right?  I never was terribly clever when it came to naming my toys as a kid.  Elfie is what is known as a “knee hugger” pixie.  If you look at the picture you can probably figure out why, but if you can’t it is because his arms loop around his knees like he is hugging them.  To me a pixie is a toy or decoration with one of those sappy and cute little elf heads, and not all vintage pixies are knee huggers.  They come in all shapes and sizes, and I have found them with all sorts of different bodies and designs.  Some pixie collectors only go for the knee huggers, but I enjoy all 1950’s and 1960’s pixies in my collection.  Knee huggers and pixies also exist for other occasions besides Christmas, but we will get into that a little bit later.

This is Elfie’s cousin.  I never gave him a name beyond that, but he was the second pixie I got.  He is not a knee hugger.  He just has wires in his legs that make him poseable.  Most of the non-knee hugger pixies I have come across have wire bodies like this one, but some of them have plastic bodies, and others have no poseability at all.  For many years these were the only two pixies I had.  I wanted to give them a little bit of prominence in my Christmas display as a kid, so I took a small log cabin doll house I had and turned it into “Elfie’s House”.  I took miniatures and doll house furniture and tiny Christmas decorations and decorated it, and that is how Elfie is displayed each year.  Now there are a plethora of other pixies surrounding the house since I started collecting them more, but the only two elves inside are Elfie and his cousin.  It is a tradition.  Every time I bring it out it reminds me of being a kid and creating it in the first place.  That is my pixie tradition at Christmas, and now that that story is out of the way I want to talk about all of the other cool and interesting pixies I have come across over the past 20 years.

I put this group together to show the various shapes and sizes that pixies can come in.  Only the drum major pixie pictured is a knee hugger, and the rest are pixies with mostly wire bodies.  They range in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and there is even a cute little snowman pixie in the picture that I found at a flea market.  All of these qualify as pixies in my book, and all of them are equally kitschy!

Here are some weirder pixies.  Even though most pixies were made to hang on a tree, several of these are approached as more traditional ornaments than most.  They are lacking the plush doll bodies, and are lacking poseability.  There is also a pencil with a pixie head on top and pixie head on a wire that was most likely used for some other decorating purpose, though I am not sure exactly what.

Pixies come in all shapes and sizes including GIANT PIXIES!  I threw in a few more traditionally sized knee huggers for comparison, so these guys are pretty big.  They range from 14” – 18” in height.  The large pixies are tougher to come by, and when I see them they are usually not knee huggers, even though we have found one giant knee hugger (the guy on the right).  I think that these guys were more likely given to children as dolls rather than used as traditional decorations in their day.

In this grouping I have decided to show a few more unusual pixies.  The one with the closed eyes in the middle doesn’t have a terribly elf looking face, and reminds me more of Elmer Fudd.  He is not a design I come across too often.  With the little blonde guy next to him, the dealer I bought it from thought it was one of the Rice Krispies mascots, Snap, Crackle, and Pop.  I don’t think so, but it is a bit more unusual a face and I see where he was coming from.  The little red and white guy is an example of a pixie with a plastic doll body.  He is one of the smallest in my collection standing about 2” tall.

Obviously Christmas is the time of year for most pixies, but they do sneak into other uses throughout the year.  Why create new head sculpts for your holiday decoration company when you can reuse the same thing over and over again?  Pixies and knee huggers exist for almost every holiday, and were used for other souvenir doll purposes as well.  Some of these next guys are pretty strange.

None of the non-Christmas pixies are easy to find, but I have come across the Hillbilly knee huggers a few times in the wild.  I love the guy in the middle with the little plastic feet!  I am assuming that these were sold as souvenirs somewhere because I am not sure why else they would exist.

“Mexican Elfie” is one of my favorites.  Why you would put a poncho and sombrero on a pixie is beyond me, unless you are purposely trying to be ironic.  The other little guy is a sailor.  Again, I assume these were sold as souvenirs somewhere because I have no other explanation as to why they exist.  I can just picture Mexican pixies lining the shelves at South of the Border…

I mentioned earlier that they made pixies for almost every holiday.  Well, here are some that I have come across.  The Easter Bunny is a more unusual form, and the Halloween knee huggers like this witch are very popular.  Most of the other holiday knee huggers I find don’t have pixie heads, so the pilgrims are kind of interesting in that regard.  Collectors really go for the non-Christmas holiday pixies and knee huggers, and they are not easy to come by at all.

One great thing about pixies gaining popularity again thanks to “Elf on a Shelf” is that sometimes you get cool new ideas for pixies.  My mom and dad found this alien knee hugger on their cross country trip.  As far as I know, they didn’t make a vintage alien, so this is a really cool new idea.  Of course I prefer the vintage pixies for my own collection, but sometimes the new stuff can be really interesting as well.

Speaking of new pixies that are super cool (get ready for some very shameless self-promotion right now) I have produced my own Krampus pixie!  You know Krampus.  He’s the Austrian Christmas devil that punishes bad children while Santa rewards the good ones.  This little guy is made right in my studio in the heart of the Collector Gene archive (our house).  I do everything myself.  I sell them on Etsy.com and eBay, in case anyone out there is interested.  Now that I am done shamelessly plugging my business (which is called Plastictastic, by the way and you can like it on Facebook) I can get back to talking about Christmas pixies.

One of the best parts about collecting pixies is that, in general, they are pretty inexpensive.  They were popular in their day, and a lot of them show up at flea markets and yard sales.  Of course, the non-Christmas knee huggers and pixies are a bit tougher to come by and that adds some expense and challenge to collecting pixies, but I think it just makes it more fun.  Whether you buy them to hide around your house for the kids for a month, or buy them for the love of kitsch, it really doesn’t matter.  To me, they will always remind me of Christmas because of my silly little tradition, and it is nice to see other kids creating Christmas traditions with knee huggers and pixies today.

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Before writing about the Now and Then Second Hand Store in Orange, CA, I left off with a blog about Abilene, KS.  We visited a few other antique malls in Kansas and made some purchases, but I’m going to jump to the state of Colorado.

Florence, CO: We had never heard of Florence, Colorado, but we picked up a little booklet that listed Colorado antique shops, and we noticed that it billed itself as the antique center of the state.  When we looked at the map, we realized that it would be within a few miles of our planned route.  Naturally, we made that slight detour, and we’re glad we did.  Not only were there multiple shops to check out, but we happened to visit on a Friday, the first day of an antique street fair.  Below are photos of a few of the things we found.

The larger doll pictured is a 1940’s composition Madame Alexander doll in what appears to be her original clothes.  She cost $5 at the street fair, a real bargain.  The smaller doll is an inexpensive hard plastic doll from the 1950’s.  Normally, I wouldn’t buy a doll like her, but she’s dressed in a really nicely detailed felt cowgirl outfit, so I look upon her as an appropriate souvenir of our trip.  Discounted 40%, she ended up costing about $9.

Jim has been doing very well finding political items on this trip.  Florence came through for him.  He bought a very nice Benjamin Harrison pin in porcelain with a metal border, dated 1888, for $75.

Leadville, CO: This old mining town is at the highest elevation of any town in the U.S., and we were flying high with some of our purchases.  The very first shop we went into was the winner.  It was an old hardware store that retained all of its original fixtures, so the atmosphere alone was worth soaking up.  We walked out with two pieces that we liked a lot and felt were reasonably priced.

This cardboard sign advertising KC Baking Powder has some condition problems and likely had something else hanging from it, but we love the image of the baker and we will find a place for it in our kitchen.  Best of all, it only cost $25.

As those who know us know, we love to decorate for Christmas, and we love our Christmas tree with genuine Victorian/turn-of-the-century ornaments.  I was hoping to find something to add to our collection, and Leadville came through.  Pictured is a beautiful blown glass, hand-painted little girl’s head ornament.  According to the shop owners, it came out of a local estate.

Virginia City, NV: Once again, an old Western mining town came through for us.  Tourism is what’s keeping Virginia City alive.  Mixed in with the bars, restaurants, and souvenir shops are several antique shops.  We checked them all.  At the last one, Jim was very happy to find three nice political/advertising pinback buttons priced at $35 for all three.  Best of all, he doesn’t already have any of them!

The largest button is the most unique.  It pictures Spanish-American War hero Admiral Dewey advertising soap.  There’s also a nice Bryan-Sewall jugate from 1896 and a McKinley Club of NY button.  It isn’t often that you find one of these nice vintage buttons at the average antique mall, let alone three.

We did do a little antiquing in California, principally in Orange, and we did purchase a few things.  However, I have no photos, so we’re going to move on to Arizona.

Prescott, AZ: While staying in Sedona, we took the recommendation of an antique dealer we know and went antiquing in Prescott.  Prescott is a neat town.  It was the original capital of the Arizona Territory, and there’s an interesting museum complex, the Sharlot Hall Museum, to tour.  The downtown business district, which surrounds the courthouse square, is vibrant and alive.  About two blocks of it are devoted to antique shops.  We can’t share Jim’s favorite find yet because it’s still wrapped up in paper in the back of the car, but he was very happy to find an original political cartoon that appeared in the Los Angeles Times in October 1950.  It shows President Truman wearing the “cloak of secrecy” in regard to a meeting with Douglas MacArthur on Wake Island.

The other find we made there was an oyster tin right from our own neck of the woods.

These photos show the front and back of the Captain Jack’s Cape May Oysters tin.  The back mentions the Maurice River, too.  Actually, we like the back better than the front of this tin.  Not only is it in better condition, but the graphics are more interesting.  And we found it in Arizona – how weird!

We didn’t do any antiquing in New Mexico – none!  We did stop briefly in Amarillo, TX, and we did buy a few small items there.  Oklahoma was yielding a handful of small items, too, until we hit a shop in Shawnee, OK at the very end of the day.  We were very pleased with the cardboard standee advertising sign for Remington rifles that we found for $40.

The sign is in overall very good condition for its age.  On the lower left corner, it looks like there might be a tiny “31” and that might indicate that it dates to 1931.  It sure looks like it’s from that time.  What better gift for little boys than a rifle?

North Little Rock, AR: One frustration we’ve been having in particular on the return portion of our trip is encountering “antique” malls that have very few genuine antiques in them.  They have faux antiques and decorator items, but that’s not what we’re looking for.  When we saw an ad for the Twin City Antique Mall that asked the question, “Are you tired of antique malls that don’t have antiques in them?”, we knew that was the place for us – and it was.  We came out with several items that we were very happy about.

Jim has a couple of these Roosevelt Bear plates already, but this was a different one, and it was priced at only $25.  The inscription underneath says, “Teddy and Rosa on their way to the White House.”  Above the bears it says, “We want to see our President Who’s always on the square and whose good rule of living is bear always and forbear.”  It goes without saying that this plate dates to Teddy Roosevelt’s tenure in the White House.

This interesting bisque ashtray and match holder caught our eye.  A cheap souvenir from Galveston, TX, most likely in the 1930’s, it shows a nattily dressed skeleton sitting in an armchair.  It isn’t meant to be a Halloween decoration, but in our house it probably will be.  We thought it was a good buy at $25.

The last thing we bought at Twin City was a cardboard advertising sign for a product called Papsin.  We liked the graphics and the fact that it was hand-painted by a commercial artist from Fort Smith, AR.  He even signed it on the front.

Whew!  That was a lot of catching up to do.  We still have several states left to cover.  One more blog might do it.  Of course, it might not get done until we actually get home.

The post Travel-Log #8: Broad Summary (Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Oklahoma, Arkansas) – Submitted by Carol on 10/3/12 appeared first on The Collector Gene.

This bunny, which stands nearly two feet tall, is smartly dressed in his blue collegiate sweater and gold corduroy pants.  He is also holding his Playboy pennant.  We aren’t sure exactly where he came from, but he does have a tush tag that says Commonwealth Toy & Novelty Co. of Brooklyn, NY.  There is no zip code which would lead us to believe that he dates from the late 1950’s or early 1960’s.  He may be a souvenir of The Playboy Club, a store display for the clothing line, or possibly something you could order out of the magazine.  Whatever he is, he’s certainly happy.  Maybe that’s because he was at the forefront of the sexual revolution.

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