Early Model MAGNIFICENT Coloring BIG Steiff 5xJointed Jocko Chimpanzee (NOT Monkey) All ID LOUD SQUEAKER

This fantastic ape is the 50-cm Jocko chimpanzee. This is denoted by the “50” in his article number 5350,2. That number belongs to the second earliest series of Jocko, made sometime between 1954 and 1958. Jocko is quite large. He is only third down from the largest size of this beloved chimp and seventh up from the bottom. He is definitely the largest I have ever seen in person, who number only five, one of whom lives in my vitrine. I would have liked to give you my typical “in my hand” image, but I am suffering the effects of my recent Covid booster and my shoulder is killing me. I can barely lift my arm up even with nothing in it, let alone raise and hold still this huge guy. Even if I could have done that, you would not have seen much of him since he is way too big to capture that close, even with a wide-angle lens.

Jocko’s catalogued size is a little misleading, since he cannot be straightened out to stand, as, for instance, the Original Teddy bears can. If you rotate his legs down from his seated position, you get a measurement of 18 inches, or 46 cm to the tips of his toes; and that is cheating. 😉 If he were really standing, his feet would be level with the ground, and the measurement I get when I measure to his heals is about 15 inches. That would be the end of his legs if he were truly in a vertical, standing position. In terms of the vitrine space Jocko will need, it is similar to the measurement I just gave, since his legs really don’t rotate down very much. You should allow him at least 14 inches, and, of course you can vary his posture.

It might take you a few minutes to put him in a nice sitting pose, and only part of the reason is his somewhat loosened hip joints. Even if Jocko’s hips were factory stiff, you’d have to work at getting him to sit erect. That is because his behind is pointy, and he really needs to be posed with his arms extended out to his sides. Jocko does not HAVE to have his arms coming down at the outsides of his hips, as you can see from my various poses. But putting his arms on the far sides of his legs is probably the way he is most stable.

As I say, Jocko’s legs do show some freer movement than they once did, but Jocko’s arms seem to have borne the brunt of his play. I can just picture a small child dragging him around by one arm, and, indeed, Jocko’s right arm is looser than his left, and that must have been the arm his former young guardian grabbed onto.

As you can see in my pictures, Jocko can hold his left arm over his head (but, of course, that messes up his stability). His left shoulder joint is not tight enough to allow him to hold his arm midway down his side, and his right arm is pretty much destined to be posed in a way that does not depend on its resistance to gravity. 😉 However, since Jocko’s main “problem” is his factory-given pointy anatomy, the tightness or looseness of his shoulders and hips really is not a critical issue. In fact, if I were not so intent on telling you every detail, I could have left out the two previous paragraphs!

Jocko’s coloring, both his auburn mohair and his ripe cantaloupe felt parts (with all of their wonderful airbrushing) is what makes him so collection worthy. Not only is his mohair nicely colored—and lustrous—it is full too.

I have to mention Jocko’s chest tag. Even though I did the best I could to hold it together with my cardboard reinforcement in back, you can see the many creases in the tag if you look closely. On the other hand, I think my reinforcement does a lot to make his tag look presentable and feel a lot better too. The real issue is how his tag looks when Jocko is viewed from a display distance, and I think it is really not a distraction. You might notice that the attachment string had already torn through part of the periphery of the tag, and while I could not maneuver is completely back inside the main part of the tag, I did manage to pull it back somewhat in that direction. You can see how I protected my improvement by slipping a curved piece of cardboard under the string that is separate from the main part of my reinforcement. I did not have much to work with when Jocko arrived, and I am pleased with the results—as you should be too.

I usually save my discussion of an animal’s (most of the time) missing voice for the end, since its silence has no effect on its visual appeal. HOWEVER, Jocko’s squeaker is strong and loud! 🙂

I can’t think of anything else to tell you, but please write if you have a question. No serious Steiff collection should be without several Jockos (and, as you can see if you browse through my shop, you can adopt several of his relatives too, including his puppet cousin). Because this size Jocko appears so rarely, I am guessing that, although you may own some others, this guy is not present in your Steiff jungle.

WHATEVER YOU DECIDE TO DO ABOUT JOCKO OR ANY OF MY OTHER STEIFF ITEMS, PLEASE BE SURE TO SEE THE ARTICLE I HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT STEIFF ID FRAUD—INCLUDING COUNTERFEIT CHEST TAGS—(AND OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR COLLECTORS). YOU WILL FIND THE LINK ON THE BOTTOM RIGHT OF MY SHOP HOME PAGE UNDER “FAVORITE LINKS.” IF YOU HAVE NOT LOOKED AT IT RECENTLY, I UPDATED AND EXPANDED IT MARCH, 2023.