Missing chicken.

November 2, 2007 11:00 AM

Longshot stuffed animal of yore finder filter.

I'm looking for a stuffed animal I had when I was a kid.

He was a chicken. His face, hands and legs were yellow. He had an orange rooster's comb and an orange beak with a little red tongue inside (comb and beak were made from felt). Me wore a light blue shirt that had the words, "Chick-a-dee" written in a light cursive across the front in yellow stitching. He may or may not have been wearing pants. Answers to the name, "Chicky"

I remember the day I got him. It was Autumn, 1975 in New York City. My sister bought him for me from a bin at Wainwright's.

After a conversation with younger cow-orkers about childhood stuffed animals, I was filled with wonderful memories of Chicky.

While I would love to find one just like him, even just a picture would make me happy (really extraordinarily happy, really. Stupid happy.) It would make up for the horrible way in which I lost him. (I just found a pic of my dog Henry, and that has gone a long way towards bringing me to joy. CHicky would make it complete).

Hope a creepy old man's childhood back into place, hive mind!

posted by Cat Pie Hurts to grab bag (9 comments total)

Could it be the one listed below? I hope not, since a recall was issued. Might make it a bit harder to find. The date is a bit late, too. Still looking.

From a recall notice:

Product: Stuffed Toys. The toys include a monkey, Curious George; the Easter chick, Chick-A-Dee; and the puppies, Puppy Love and Scab-Do. The toys can be identified by the numbers K-20, K-21, K-22, K-23, K-25, and K-32 imprinted on a tag affixed to the toy's seam, and the style numbers include 5465, 5466, 5467, 9750, 2270, 2271, 2285, 2286 and 9416 imprinted on the toy's packaging.

Problem: The toys were found to have an excessive amount of lead in the ink that was used to letter the toy's name on its sweater.

Distribution:Sold in retail stores nationwide.

Dates Sold: March 1977 through April 1978.

Company: Knickerbocker Toy Company, 10 Clear view Road, Rewritten Center, Edison, New Jersey 00817; [phone].
posted by routergirl at 11:32 AM on November 2, 2007

You do realize that you now MUST tell us how you lost Chicky.
posted by milarepa at 11:49 AM on November 2, 2007

Whoa, routergirl's comment reminded me of the stuffed Cookie Monster I used to have, made by Knickerbocker, and the tag said "Knickerbocker: The Toy That Loves You Back." Do you remember what it said on Chicky's tag? That might help.

(I used to chew on Cookie's googly eyes when I was a toddler. Considering the above recall on Knickerbocker toys, that might explain a lot about my personality.)
posted by Metroid Baby at 11:59 AM on November 2, 2007

routergirl - While it's entirely possible, I'm fairly certain the lettering was stitched on with yellow thread. Then again, it's been 15 years since I've seen Chicky.

I have this image of the tag - the silky stuff that plushy tags are made of, I remember something very faded, but the lettering used to be orange?

The tale of how Chicky (and friends) were lost. Short story long, I had a giant bag filled with all the stuffed animals from my childhood (easily 50 different creatures. It made it difficult when I was a child because my Mom told me that I would have to kiss every one of them goodnight EVERY night or they neglected ones would kill me in my sleep. I'm ok. Really, I am. *shudder*).
This bag o' aminals was in a storage unit that I had rented. I moved and my SO at the time had the task of clearing out the storage closet and, if unable to finish that by month's end, to pay for an extra month of storage (I was really busy at work, and was very grateful that SO would do this for me.) I thought it in capable hands, and put it out of my mind. One day, SO had told me that the moving out of stuff was complete. I asked about the stuffed animals. SO said, "OOPS". I went to the storage unit, and they told me that the unit rent had not been paid and everything had been thrown away. I found out later that SO HATED the fact that I had all the stuffies from when I was a kid and conspired to trash them. Considering that they were the only positive remaining shred of my childhood left, it hit me fairly hard, and SO became XSO in short order.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 12:31 PM on November 2, 2007

Also, routergirl - I'm 90% sure that I got him in 1975 (then again, I'm old and the neurons don't fire like they used to).
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 12:32 PM on November 2, 2007

I am, unfortunately, unable to provide any resources for you but just wanted to say that I do hope you find Chicky.

It may sound silly but your post makes me happy in a way to hear there are other people out there who long for the "magic" parts of their childhoods that seem to have faded away. I also have a bunch of stuffed animals, saved from years and years, in a storage bin in my closet. I don't care what any SO says - I'm keeping my toys. ;)

But I feel your pain. When I was a child, my family had cleaned house and we put several old toys in a trash bag that was going to be stored in the attic. Unfortunately my father didn't know there were toys in the bag, and put them out with the trash. I was heartbroken.

And in that same vein... that Velveteen Rabbit story? Tears me up. Still.
posted by Ruby Doomsday at 12:49 PM on November 2, 2007

everything had been thrown away...

Ex-girlfriend of my brother-in-law had a similar story. She kept all her old stuffies in a garbage bag. One day when her brother was having a bonfire he collected some bags of non-toxic trash to burn. An unfortunate and honest mistake occured and when the trash bag melted away and all the stuffies came tumbling out into the bonfire... apparently it was pretty upsetting for everyone.
posted by GuyZero at 1:05 PM on November 2, 2007

my Mom told me that I would have to kiss every one of them goodnight EVERY night or the neglected ones would kill me in my sleep

Your mom is awesome.
posted by nax at 1:50 PM on November 2, 2007

I just happened to be Googling my old stuffed animals, Knickerbocker Curious George and Chick-a-Dee, and saw your post. I can provide pics, but he's pretty beat up! Not out of hate, but from years of fun play. I've had to repaint his eyes a couple times and did my earliest suturing on his sweatshirt.
The lettering is painted not stitched, and that recall notice was another shocker from the Google search.....!

How do I post pics here?
posted by FamDoc at 8:32 PM on November 22, 2007