Michael's Pets (Ideal)

 

Michael's Pets
Ideal
1987

Put the name, "Michael Jackson" on anything in the 80's and it was pretty much guaranteed to sell out. Topps did it with trading cards. LJN did it with dolls, and Ideal did it with stuffed animals, just to name a few.

Known as Michael's Pets, Ideal took the famous animals from Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch, slapped adorable clothing on them, and watched as the cash river flowed. Though all of them sold relatively well, of the ten released, Bubbles, Cool Bear and Spanky were the biggest sellers of the bunch.

Each plush came in its own red "L" display box, deco'd in hand drawn artwork, and featured a cassette recorded with its own unique children's story and song tucked inside. However, kids and fans alike quickly discovered that Michael was nowhere to be found on any of the tapes.

Though I didn't personally collect or play with plushy stuff, I remember my sister had a handful of these. Inf act, it was the most popular ones that I mentioned above.

Bubbles The Chimp

Cool Bear

Jabbar The Giraffe

Jeannine The Ostrich

Louie The Llama

Mr. Bill The Security Guard

Muscles The Snake

Spanky The Dog

Suzie The Bunny

Uncle Tookie The Frog

Though challenging, one can still put a set of these together these days. Complete in the box, they can sell for anywhere from fifteen to one hundred dollars. But, do make sure you're getting the cassette tape with it if you pay the high end price for them. 

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