Random Saturday - The new gang member

I can't believe it has been almost exactly nine years ago that I introduced you to a new face on my fan wall of bead loomed portraits - Margarete Steiff.

I had also talked a bit about how my ex and I became collector of Steiff toys, thanks to a fleamarket that took place twice a year on the grounds of the university we both worked at. It was a huge fleamarket and we didn't have any particular interests, we just looked around.
Then we came to a table with a small plush mouse, a bunny, and a guinea pig, all of them Steiff which we were familiar with, but had never owned ourselves in our childhood. We were informed that people collected Steiff, something we had never thought about before.
"Pieps", the mouse, "Manni", the bunny, and "Swinny", the guinea pig, came home with us. We didn't even haggle. We had fallen in love and it was not curable.

Little did we know what those three little animals would start, not only visits of fleamarkets, fairs, auctions, but also meeting new people, and doing a lot of research pre-Internet.
We looked through price guides and catalogs, we learned about different buttons in ears or sometimes feet or tails if there weren't ears, different tags, different kinds of fabrics, glass or plastic eyes, and more.
We visited the Steiff museum in Giengen - still the old small one - and had I been a child, I would probably would have wanted to press my nose against the glass or drool on the floor. We watched the short movie about Steiff shown in a small room within the museum every single time we went there. Afterwards we went to our favorite restaurant and dreamed about owning some of these animals.
I have always been fascinated by collectors and their stories, but I'm afraid I may have bored more than one person with my stories.

One animal we couldn't resist was Pieps (who is named after the sound mice make - best translated as Squeak). Whenever we saw one we liked, we added it to our little gang of mice until they overran the place as mice sometimes tend to do.
They sit on dogs, climb up giraffe necks, play with cats, talk to foxes, sit in teddies' laps, peek out from under deer, and keep goats company.
Once I brought them all together for a reunion.
All the white ones with the red eyes ...

... and all the grey ones with the black eyes ...

... and sometimes if one jumps out at me, I'm fine with it joining the gang.
"Pieps, meet Pieps, this is Pieps and Pieps, oh, and that is Pieps, Pieps, and Pieps. Have you met Pieps yet?" Okay, I think you got the idea.

This week a new squeaker has arrived and after a big hello and introduction, she chose to go ride a boar. She's a tough one 😉
Can you believe she is at least 55 years old?

If you now think I'm crazy, you are probably right, but that's how collecting works - it doesn't matter if it's stamps, bottles, toys, books, clothes, shoes or movies!