RARE Handsome And Sweet Steiff Big Brother Yuku Springbock (NOT) Pronghorn Antelope 2 IDs 1962 And 1963 ONLY

Extremely rare (especially in this larger of two sizes) and exotic, Yuku is correctly identified in German, but Pfeiffer names the wrong animal in English. The name Pfeiffer gives is “pronghorn antelope,” which is definitely incorrect. There is an animal called a “pronghorn antelope,” who looks very different from Yuku, and he is taxonomically not related. There is also a “springbok,” and Yuku is clearly one of those. You can check him out in Wikipedia. There is one thing for sure, whatever his zoological classification is, Yuku is beautiful (or, as I say in the title “handsome,” since he is male. ) 😉

I said this Yuku is especially rare, and just to be clear, both he and his little brother were made for the same two years, only 1962 and 1963. By those dates alone, you could reach the conclusion that they are found with equal frequency in the secondary market, but that is not true; you can search the Internet and see for yourself. And if you do search, you are not likely to come across any Yuku who is as nice as this one!

Yuku has a few minor issues, but even all considered together, they are still not sufficient to make me want to say that he is anything less than “excellent,” and I don’t mean “for his age,” whatever that is supposed to mean. If you want to bring age into it, you can say that Yuku is in excellent condition DESPITE his age, which is now 60 at the youngest he could be.

The most serious issue—because it is the largest in area—is the damage to Yuku’s left horn. My closeup inset in my fourth image is significantly brighter than the affected area of his horn, and you can see from the area I circled in Yuku’s full picture that the damage is small compared to Yuku’s whole size. The damaged area takes up a little over an inch of Yuku’s horn, and if I did not go out of my way to bring it to your attention so glaringly, you might have missed it altogether in person.

What you would definitely miss in person—because it no longer exists—is the looseness in Yuku’s horns. They were still attached to his head when he arrived, but they rotated really easily. I had to go back to my description when I thought I had finished to add this piece of information, because Yuku’s horns are now firmly attached (with a tiny touch of epoxy), and the repair is so good (invisible) that I forgot that I had done it!

In descending order of seriousness, the next minor booboo I am pointing out can be seen enlarged in my third image. It appears a moth might have been very hungry, since the damage to Yuku’s side is deeper than a moth nibble would typically be. The hole goes through his mohair and almost, but not quite, down to the excelsior below. Although this SOUNDS terrible, you should be able to see from my pictures, that this blemish, whatever its source, is tiny; it is about 2 mm. wide.

Finally, you can see the horizontal “run” in the mohair of Yuku’s behind in my second (composite) image. The left side of the run abuts and is perpendicular to the seam going vertically down his behind. The whole opening is about 4 mm. wide and the same size as the seam in thickness, about 1 mm.

Other than those minor issues, Yuku is pretty near perfect; his coloring is fantastic (including the rose-colored accents on the velveteen linings of his ears). And his expression is particularly sweet. That sweet look is enhanced by the fact that Yuku’s head is cocked ever so slightly to his left side. His head doesn’t swivel, but the effect is the same.

Back to his ears, you can see that Yuku’s button and flag are attached to his left one, with article number 1335,00. The “35” in that number indicates Yuku’s catalogued size, measured to the top of his head. His actual height is 30.5 cm, or just over a foot. Whether he conforms exactly to his “official” size is no big deal, but it WOULD be a big deal if you did not allow him enough display room to include those now-erect horns! They are about 16 inches from Yuku’s standing surface, so you would want to have at least another inch of display space beyond that.

Speaking of making Yuku look nice on display, I am reminded of one last thing. That is the fact that his squeaker is now silent. Unlike his other, barely visible, tiny detractions, which have essentially no impact on his handsome presentation, his silence is NOT visible, and so, of course, it has no impact at all on his display: -)

I can’t think of anything else to tell you, but please write if you have a question. Yuku is a must for any serious Steiff collection, although there are probably more serious Steiff collections out there than there are Yukus! If you could possibly part with him once he arrives, Yuku will make the Steiff person in your life who receives him as a gift scream with delight.

WHATEVER YOU DECIDE TO DO ABOUT YUKU 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 IN MARCH, 2023.