gumby!

i was asked a question again at gumbyland about how to identify an original lakeside gumby bendy toy, so i thought i'd answer here so people who search can refer to it in the future ~

first of all, if you want to be certain you're getting an original lakeside gumby or pokey bendy from the 60's, you can look for one 'on card' (still in the original package) but i've seen these go on ebay for $75+, so be prepared to battle other bidders.. these are nos: a new old stock superflex bendy fresh out of an old unopened lakeside case ~

here's pokey, you can click on the photos to see the larger size ~

these 2 had some real wear so i was able to snag them for under $20 each ~

an original gumby or pokey bendy feels different than the more modern ones, the rubber is.. well, rubbery-er.. lol, less smooth, & pokey is a dark red. pokey gets orangier & they get more plastic feeling in the later versions. gumby's eyes are smaller, his headbump is pointier & his thumbs are prominent. there's a 60's date on the back and usually 'lakeside ind. inc. made in hong kong'..

mark ~

another ~

  

pokey has a little 'smile mark' on the bendy & the bitty..

these original lakeside bendys came with the jeep playset & are almost identical to the packaged ones.. 

the identifying mark on the back ~

this pokey has a lakeside ind inc. 1965 marking ~

original lakeside bittys follow much the same pattern ~

  

then there are the jesco versions that came in the 70's & 80's ~ also made in hong kong..

jesco bittys ~

  


jesco became trendmasters in the late 80's ~ gumby's headbump became smaller, his thumbs stubbier, pokey's mane is now up over the front of his forehead & his eyes are blue ~

made in china..


in the 90's jesco/trendmasters transitioned to the prema toy co. ~

   
toys will have both company marks on the back..

  

slightly smaller than most bendys is the applause version, he is a different shade of green & looks off to his left ~

  

prema/applause ~ identifying mark is on gumby's right foot ~ made in china..

same with the bitty version ~

from 1989, he's a tad taller than other bitties at 3 1/2" tall ~

i've found the applause toys to be less common ~

there are bittys, bendys & giant bendys ~

 
& pokey's pupils are black again ~

other contemporary makers include the nj croce co. & playskool (ri) ~

50th anniversary bendys ~

60th anniversary collector's edition gumby ~

2016 pokey looks a shade redder ~

playskool bittys ~

  

there are lookalikes that are often keychains, kid's meal prizes or game pieces, sometimes by 'sher stuff', 'applause'' or 'art clokey' ~

i call these my mystery gumbys, i don't know whether they are originals or counterfeit or what, but they are super-rubbery & have no identifying markings, almost like they're homemade. the bittys may have been coin-machine prizes?

update ~ check out the comments here! as it turns out, these unmarked bendies may actually be the rare 1964/1965 original clokey productions released early superflex bendies? ~ thanks, gumboflexo!

   

another one ~

he's a little beat up ~

saving possibly the best for last ~

here are some great examples of gumby rares ~

this is a nice vintage rubbery gumby that looks like the first lakeside superflex toys but has no marking at all ~

& rarest is this pre-lakeside gumby from 1964 ~

he was made by the gumby toy company by art clokey before all the others, found in the la area ~

as you can see by the tiny gtc mark on the back of his left foot ~

g.t.c. & a copyright c in circle above ~

update: click here for more about the rare vintage prema heart bendy :D ~

this is not even going into all the side characters that are available ~

visit gumbyland for more photos!

see also: gumby bendys & bittys & pokey bendys & bittys

disclaimer ~ these are just my best observations as someone who has been collecting gumby stuff for a long time, so if you note any mistakes or can add anything to this guide, feel free to let me know. for now, i hope this helps..

have a gumby day!
ghost & toxic

UPDATE!! Clarification from Joe Clokey ~

Great Blog Bren!

Here's the different bendables over the years:

1964-1968 60's shape Gumby. First a Run by Gumby Toy Company, and then all the rest by Lakeside toy Co. licensed by Clokey Productions. This, and all bendables were designed by Art.

1976 - A special "Super-Flex". This had a unique shape were Art combined the 60's design of the body and made Gumby's bump and face more like the '57 gumby. This is the most rare bendable, except for the run before Lakeside.

mid 70s - Jesco makes a run, the first of which look like the 60's gumby's, I think they used the old lakeside molds, then by the late 70's the new more modern design was produced and sold through the early 80's.

80's - I have to do some checking on this, but I think Playschool made some bendables, then by the mid 80's NJ Croce started making them. The modern shaped gumby is what these are like.

90s - Trendmasters makes the bendables.

Late 90's to present - NJ Croce makes the bendables.

2005/6 - Prema Toy (Clokey Productions) designs a 50th anniversary retro Gumby Bendable with a shape like the 60's Gumby character and a blister card with that period in ode to.

Soon to come a new 60th anniversary bendable made from the '57 Gumby mold. The first time ever!

relevant link

update: fellow gumby collector gumboflexo, who has commented here in the past, sent me this great lineup of various gumby models starting with the 1964/65 clokey/lakeside and the basic lakeside styles through 1973 (a few are missing because they are still mint in packaging :) ~

check out the subtle differences over the years, i'm fond of the slightly wider eyed version in the middle, which is the one i have at the top of this post :) anyone feel free to share information here, please leave comments regarding molds & models, markings etc as we still don't have a definitive list of all the old bendys that were available.. 

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Comments

[Sally]

Someone actually paid $86.00 for this Gumby. =( Even worse, there were 2 bidders. Starting bid was $85.00.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/224720228278?hash=item34525e8fb6:g:oO8AAOSw9cBhp8sR

There have been a few other "1965 Patent Pending 1st Version Gumby" listings lately as well that have not yet sold. The one that sold must've seemed like a bargain to those 2 bidders =(.

I believe they all come from this listing for this Gumby listed for $250 (which I ironically found on another website marked down to $37.50!) :

1965 PATENT PENDING GUMBY by GTC 1st Version RARE! | eBay

Here are the others that I've seen:

This one for $199.95:

Vintage 1965 Patent Pending 1st Version Gumby Action Figure | eBay

And this one for $169.99:

Vintage 1965 Patent Pending 1st Version Gumby Action Figure | eBay

I will send you screenshots through Instagram.

[Sally]

For some reason the other links did not go through, so trying again:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/124451713091?hash=item1cf9e67043:g:zl8AAOSw3RlfueJp

https://www.ebay.com/itm/265395449078?hash=item3dcacd2cf6:g:zNcAAOSwL8Vhh9ut

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133932654616?hash=item1f2f022018:g:sR8AAOSw04phjqf8

[ghost]

that's right, it is also up in the weird gumbys post.. lol

[ghost]

so i can't see the makers mark on the back of the leg of the supposed gtc one, but these prices don't surprise me really, sellers are always going to get what they can, & i've always said old gumby bendies are worth whatever collectors are willing to pay for them.. there's never been a standard price, it has fluctuated & gone up over all the years as they get harder to find. the glow gumbys went up to hundreds of dollars for awhile & then settled back down to a more reasonable price again, that's how it goes, it's always buyer beware.

[Sally]

None of them are gtc, all unmarked. In my opinion, these are all later, at least 1966. I don't believe any of them are patent pending and one just like them sold with 2 Pokeys for $20 something just recently too. I've gotten some unmarked ones like these in the past couple of years for $10. I saw the glow ones going for high and then went way down, I think even for $10. I didn't buy one. Now stuff has gone up again. It's so strange how it flucuates in just the 2 years that I've looked. It's just sad to me that some of the buyers are going by what that one seller wrote in his listing and then other sellers think it's true and that's what they write too/copy. It's terrible. I've way overpaid for things too, but it just is sad to see for me sometimes, because I don't like people getting taken advantage of, but you're right, it's buyer beware!

[Sally]

Well, I guess I shouldn't say too much, since even though I love Gumby and have been a fan for as long as I can remember, I was not a collector. I only have the past couple of years seeing what is available and what it sells for, not 20 or 30 years like you and some others have. So since I don't have a lot of experience, I shouldn't say anything about what stuff sells for! HaHa! :D Most people think I'm crazy for what I've bought, collected and paid for things! I've paid a lot of money for broken glass that was dumped into the ocean! HaHa! :D So what do I know?! =)

[ghost]

sally you know as much & more than most gumby collectors by now! yeah i was selling on ebay right at the start, selling my vintage toys to buy gumby items, & there was SO much more available then it's not even comparable, & cheap! i snagged lots that the seller had no clue what they were (now those super rares :) so it balances out, the seller who doesn't know what they had, you know?
ebay's unregulated regular people, so i think of it like yardsales, i can't count how many .25 old gumby bendies & trolls i found in the dim past out yardsaling, & i've sold lots of my own stuff holding yardsales, when we needed space, but then there are those yardsale houses where they think their items are special & super valuable, just because they're theirs? whatever, you learn to walk past those houses & watch the same stuff appear back there the next year lol.. like the ebay relisters' items that go on & on for years, until someone wants something bad enough to pay for that convenience..

[Sally]

Yes, I understand about it balancing out. When people want something badly enough, they will pay more than it should be worth to have it, which I have done with some things I've bought as well. I have also sold or given away many things not knowing the value until later, so you're right, I shouldn't feel bad about it, especially about what others have paid for something, especially if they're happy about it. Maybe the $86 gumby was someone's version that they remembered from childhood. =) Just because I don't want to pay that for that one doesn't mean that it's not worth that much to someone else! You would cringe at how much I've paid for some things, especially the newer items that aren't even vintage!

[ghost]

i've gotten ripped off a few times, but i know i've snagged treasure for pennies Wayyy more times so i'm good.. lol
it's funny i use to 'snipe' ebay items at auction, you know bid in the last seconds & snag the items before anyone had time to react & outbid me ;)
but i don't even buy ebay auction items anymore because my heart pounds during that last minute you know? like karma?? lol
& i have a heart condition (cardiomyopathy) so i just don't do that anymore.. i love the convenience of 'buy it now' even at a higher price :)

[Sally]

I understand. I'm too busy and miss a lot of auction endings. One good thing with the Buy It Now as opposed to an auction for me personally is that I don't have to worry about possibly bidding against a fellow gumby collector that I like. HaHa! I'm glad we can't see who buys things or is bidding on things any more. In the past, people would drive up the prices on something else if you outbid them on something. That happened to me a lot with composition dolls way back when. The good thing for me with Gumby is that a lot of the collectors I communicate with only like the vintage stuff, not the newer things, so if I buy or bid on something newer, it's most likely not going up against someone I communicate with here online. I like to buy or recommend new Gumby DVDs and toys to help keep Gumby alive for future generations and really like that people can watch Gumby with their kids and grandkids and play with the bendy toys with them. I think a lot of the vintage bendy toys have been passed down in families until poor Gumby falls apart! HaHa! There were millions made back then and a lot of people still have and kept the ones they played with as a kid. =)

[ghost]

sally,
yes, in the past jeff w & i have alerted each other to cool auctions so we won't both bid against each other too! :)

[Sally]

That's cool that you and Jeff have done that. =) I have a nice Gumby collector named John that I bought stuff from, and communicate with on ebay that sends me an ebay message when he sees a listing that I might be interested in that he's not interested in getting, since he's collected for a long time too like you and Jeff and knows that I haven't been collecting that long. I really appreciate it. =)

[Sally]

HaHa! :D I just thought about what you said about sniping! I tried it this morning on a listing I had an earlier bid on and was outbid on and lost, (it wasn't gumby related), but was a lot of stuff and I only wanted a few items and would have to add the rest to my "re-sell at some point in the future stuff" which I have too much of already, but I thought about the rapid heart beating, etc., which I'm not fond of either, plus the shakiness! HaHa! :D Anyway, happy holidays, Bren! =)

[ghost]

:o
there's techniques to the perfect snipe, for example if i were going to bid on something i absolutely wanted at any price & felt particularly death-defying, i'd wait till the last seconds & drop a Very High Bid, an odd number too, with 7s in it.. even if other bidders tried to snipe as well, they didn't have time to outsnipe me! lol.. but it's definitely not for the faint of heart..
i'm too old for that now.. haha

[Sally]

Hi Bren, I just posted the comment below on your recent prema gumby post from June 22nd about the unwired, unpainted, unmarked, factory reject, prototype prema gumby, so wanted to post it here too, since as you mentioned, this is the post we all come back to comment on and it's still my favorite gumby blog post of yours! <3 Referring to the prema heart Gumby's/1976 bicentennial Gumby's and the diffrent versions I wrote on your other post: "I'm glad we were able to get these; they're definitely a very cool addition to Gumbyland! <3 When I asked Holly about these unwired, unpainted, unmarked ones, she said that the light green Gumby wtith no wires was never marketed much & "It was a stretchy Gumby that you could stretch out really long, about almost 3 feet. It was not suppose to have wires. The Sankrit writing is Prema which means Love in the heart. They created that in China on their way to India to see Sai Baba. It was not ever very marketable. It was done after Moody Rudi." So these could possibly be the older version of the newer stretch Gumby's, but the arms on mine that I got stretch out, but not the legs and bodies, maybe because most of the ones I got were definiely factory rejects and have flaws, but even the decent ones I got aren't very stretchy. They are rubbery though and floppy. =) I read in the Gumby book that Art & Gloria went to see Sai Baba in India in 1979, so if the wired, painted, marked Prema Heart Gumby's in the packages were sold in 1976 and then Moody Rudy in 1977 and then these unmarked ones in 1979, then they were made after the marked ones, not before like I thought. So I asked Holly again and she said that "They were made after India with the Heart. Maybe in the process in China. Not sure….. They used the heart Art as a logo first. Then I did a second logo and then a third Logo. All for Premavision and Prema Toy." (She also did the Gumby's Pizza Logo.) The book mentions Joe packaging them in the living room. There are different header cards though with different product numbers. Remember the photos of the different versions that we saw too not long ago with different shaped heads, a different heart logo (raised) and differrent colors? And all of the 80's merchandise they were featured on? I think there are several versions and just like with the Lakeside versions, it's hard to figure out the timeline. I think the Prema Heart Gumby's were still made in the early 80's too and maybe even before those 1976 ones. I checked the trademark filing for the prema heart logo online and it shows the application date as being filed in 1978 (February 21st) and it shows the date of first use and the date of first use in commerce as September 12, 1976. It also says "the foreign words in the mark are Sanskrit for "universal love". It was cancelled in February 1986. Art could have made them and designed them prior to 1976 though and just not used them. The filing date of 1978 for the logo is consistent with what Holly remembers though, since this is after Moody Rudy. I looked up the Trademark application for Moody Rudy and it was filed on June 15, 1977. It shows the first use and first use in commerce as March 28, 1977. I think it's cool though that these may actually be the first stretch Gumby and maybe the ones that look good in these rejects we got were considered rejects because they weren't stretchy enough? Gumby toy history is so mysterious! And Holly confirmed for me that Art did make a toy Gumby in 1957, so that Gumby in the films may be the first one! Who knows! Nick asked Joan about the bendy toys and that one from 1957 and said: " I asked Joe's wife about the use of a bendable puppet. This is what she wrote to me:
- I don't know for sure, however, Art did experiment with puppets made of other materials. I have a foam Prickle that he used in a few episodes so it's quite possible that he used a Gumby toy prototype for animation. Art created a number of Gumby toy prototypes during his experimentation in the '60s and '70s. I don't know what he worked on in the '50s." So there is a Prickle too like this 1957 foam type bendable Gumby that may be in the films too! <3"

[Sally]

I wanted to add that due to that undated yellow printed letter, (that I believe was sent out with the packaged prema heart gumby's sold through the mail), that I got that we had found online and I bought from the collector that then had it and what it says on the header card, that I believe that those prema heart wired and marked packaged ones that Joe helped package were made here in the USA. After that Moody Rudy was made in Hong Kong and so it would make sense what Holly wrote about these being made overseas as well at that time.

[Sally]

Another update from Holly, because the bodies don't stretch much on mine, she said "The legs and the body did not stretch that much on the lighter green one either." which was the one she had and doesn't have any more.

[Sally]

I just pulled harder on the legs holding onto the head, and they DO stretch pretty far! The arms are easier to pull and stretch farther, but the rest stretches pretty far too! =)
Try one of yours, Bren! :D
So I think these really are the first stretch Gumby! <3