John Lewis' Penguin Ad Causes Toy Penguin Sales to Skyrocket

It takes a lot to surprise me and I have to say that I am not really surprised that the sales of and searches for penguins on eBay have skyrocketed on eBay since the release of the John Lewis Christmas advertisement for 2014.

The ad shares the story of a boy and his love for his toy penguin, Monty. You can watch the ad for yourself here:

Apparently, the toy penguins representing Monty and Mabel sold out at John Lewis’ stores within 24 hours.

People quickly turned to eBay to see if they could find a plush Monty and Mable and to see what other penguin toys are available that are similar to that new celebrity couple.

According to The Independent, 2,638 penguin toys were sold on eBay in the time frame of November 6 to November 17 or approximately 240 stuffed penguins per day. Of course, the Monty & Mabel John Lewis' stuffed penguins started showing up on eBay Immediately after they sold out at John Lewis. 

If you just want an attractive plush penguin, eBay presents a huge variety of new, used and vintage penguins.  My search just now for plush penguins turned up more than 15,000 penguin toys to choose from. You might narrow that search down a little bit by using the name of a brand of plush toys that you like. Perhaps Steiff, Gund or even Hugsy though Hugsy is far from a realistic stuffed penguin.

Who is Hugsy? Hugsy is yet another celebrity penguin. He is famous from the television series Friends. However, Hugsy's story is material for yet a blog post in the future.

Anyway, I do see a few Monty and Mabel themed listings on eBay here. Since John Lewis is a British company, you will have to shop on eBay.co.uk and you will want to shop carefully if you want to have a real John Lewis plush penguin. 

This fun Monty and Mabel shopping tote bag shown here was from eBay seller BeMineClothing, who does not appear to have a shop on eBay anymore. I think it could be part of a great gift set. Simply use a tote bag like this one as a handsome reusable gift bag and include a couple of other interesting Penguin-themed items, perhaps a plush toy and a copy of the documentary film, The March of the Penguins.

Brenda
Treasures By Brenda
You never know what treasures
I might have in store for you!

How To Clean Your Gremlin Gizmo Plush Toy Pillow

I'm not sure why the Gremlins Gizmo or "Giz" as he is sometimes called is eternally popular but he is. I guess it might be because he's furry and cute, he's not wicked and he's quite smart being very talented with electrical devices and weaponry. Of course, that makes sense because a "gizmo" is actually another word for a gadget...

Anyway, I digress. This page wasn't meant to be a biography of Gizmo but rather a helpful page about how to wash your giant stuffed plush Gizmo.  He's pretty big, measuring about 20 inches across, which adds another complication when you're trying to figure out how to clean him. 

Those who own this Gizmo, love him a lot, which means he is often in desperate need of being cleaned. Mine was actually in very good condition and clean but I washed him anyway since I like knowing that all of the plush toys in my home and in my eBay store are clean and fresh.  

Anyway, a friendly query arrived in my email last month from Amanda in the United Kingdom. She called her question cheeky but I did not really consider it so. Besides, I am always happy to answer any friendly cheeky question! 

Amanda said that she has a Gizmo pillow desperately in need of a cleaning so I shared my experience with her of how I cleaned my Gizmo. My answer is shown below but please don't take it as a guarantee. It is what I did with my Gizmo and what I have done with countless other plush toys but of course there is no telling what might happen when you wash yours... 

If Gizmo will fit in your washing machine, you should be able to wash him in there.  I washed my Gizmo in my slightly-oversized washer with hot water. Choose a gentle cycle, if you can, though I cannot remember if that is what I did and throw something in like a towel or two to counter the weight. If Gizmo doesn't fit in your machine, I would take him to a laundromat (a coin-operated laundry facility) where they usually have an oversized washer.  

I air dried him in my dryer which has actually has a setting called 'air' that is perfect for stuffed animals when you don't know how their fur will react to the heat of a dryer.  I actually may have dried him with heat because I often forget to use the air cycle, though I cannot really remember. I do know that some plush fur, particularly long, fluffy fur, like that around Gizmo's eye sometimes cannot tolerate the heat of a dryer so I recommend using an air cycle if you can.

If you're washing your Gizmo, I wish you luck! If you're interested in buying a plush Gremlin Gizmo pillow on eBay, just click here.

Brenda
Treasures By Brenda

Mother Goose & Grimm's Grimmy Plush Toy

Meet Grimmy of Mother Goose & Grimm fame. 

Mother Goose & Grimm is a comic strip by Mike Peters that first appeared in 1984 and eventually went on to appear in 500 newspapers.

The cartoon became a CBS television series in 1991 and, as evidenced by the year 1987 on this large plush Grimmy's tag, toys were being produced fairly early on.

The comic strip is still in production today and vintage toys like this one are in demand on eBay. Click here to see the plush Grimmys available on eBay right now.

Brenda
Treasures By Brenda
You never know what
I might have in store for you!