Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Special Edition 2007

Back in my post on June 6, 2009, I showed two photos of Oswald items created by Kevin Kidney, and said how much I wanted both! Last month, I was finally able to add this amazing 2007 Disney Store exclusive Oswald the Lucky Rabbit hand finished soft microfiber figure to my collection. The box is 17 inches tall and Oswald's ears stick out of the top of the box, so this is a fairly large figure. Part of me wants to pull him out of the box and display him, but the box is really cool, and I love that his ears stick out the top, so he will probably stay in the box. I love the look of the Oswald, but its a bit distracting that there is a line just above his nose and below his eyes where the top and bottom part of his face is joined. It would have been so much better if they could have done it without this right thought the centre of his face. But, other than that, he looks awesome! 

There was a mini big fig (is that a thing?) for sale at Disneyland back on my last trip in 2015 that I didn't buy because I didn't have room to bring it home in my luggage. Been kicking myself ever since. But that one was more similar to the image that Disney is using for Oswald now, and I much prefer the vintage looking one that Kevin created. so, I'll keep my fingers crossed for an Oswald big fig based on the sculpt Kevin did back in early 2000. 

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in "Ye Olden Days"

Here is another faux Oswald the Lucky Rabbit poster I made for myself. I always liked the poster for Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse in "Ye Olden Days", so I decided it would be fun to re imagine the image as an Oswald the Lucky Rabbit animated film. Here is my faux Oswald poster, along with the original poster. I hope you enjoy!

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in Banjo Blues

Back in June I came across the Heritage Auctions site which was auctioning off a huge lot of Disney animation artwork, production cells etc. I downloaded a bunch of the amazing artwork, including this great background painting from The Black Cauldron. On the same site were some great images of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. I have scanned and printed a few of the old Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon movie posters which are hanging on my wall. I decided to make one more to add to my collection of Oswald movie posters. Above is the poster I made for my faux Oswald cartoon titled "Banjo Blues". Below you can see the original background painting from the Black Cauldron, a second version shows the Oswald drawing I used. While I was at it, I also made a "Banjo Blues" desktop wallpaper for my iMac.

 The last picture is a faux title card I made a long time ago, for the Oswald cartoon "Cats Me'Ow" which you won't find in a history book because I made it up!

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Club Membership Card

Sometimes I find myself obsessed with the idea of something or other. Recently I was thinking about Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and how interesting it would have been if Walt Disney had not lost the rights to this character and had built his media empire on the back of Oswald instead of Mickey.
In the 2005 Disney Editions book "The Disney Keepsakes" by Robert Tieman, there is a replica of a Mickey Mouse Club membership card from 1929. The front of the card shows a smiling Mickey Mouse and lists the club chapter number and name, and has a space for the members name to be written along with a membership number. There is also a place for "Chief Mickey Mouse" to sign the card. The back of the card has the Mickey Mouse Club Creed:
I will be a square shooter in my home, in school, on the playgrounds, where-ever I may be.
I will be truthful and honorable and strive, always, to make myself a better and more useful little citizen.
I will respect my elders and help the aged, the helpless and children smaller than myself.
In short, I will be a good American!
After seeing this, I started thinking about what it would have looked like if there was no Mickey Mouse and instead we had an Oswald Club. I took a photo I found online of a Mickey Mouse Membership Card and turned it into an Oswald Club Membership Card which now has a spot in my collection! It makes me smile every time I see it there displayed amongst my other official Disney collectables.

Oswald the (Lucky) Rabbit

At the Seattle Comic Convention a few months back I picked up this neat old Oswald the Rabbit issue #458 from Dell comics for $1.75. I am a little surprised that I can not find a date inside, and I could not find the answer online. There is a small 53 written on the price sticker of the comic, so I am going to assume this issue is from 1953. Again, I could not find much info online about the Oswald Dell comics, but I find it pretty amazing that there were 458 issues!
This post is mostly an excuse to show the two Oswald the Lucky Rabbit items below. There used to be a great Disney blog site that I would visit almost daily to see great new items that the blogger was working on for the Disney stores (the site has since been removed on Disney's request). These two items, the Oswald Big Fig and Plush were both supposedly available though the Disney stores about a year ago, although I phoned my local Disney stores repeatedly to see if they had these two items in, and all they ever had were some awful looking Oswald Christmas ornaments. If they had ever gotten these items in, I would have happily forked over the large sum of cash I am sure they would have been charging to add these to my collection. But unfortunately they never did show up in my local stores.