Rare Little Brother Steiff Koala (NOT BEAR) 2 IDs

I am so delighted to present this rare “bear” to you. You may know that calling him a bear is a misnomer, since he is a marsupial. I say “he” because Koala has no pouch, which makes him equivalent to the two male Kangoos in my shop. Koala is certainly as cute as any teddy bear I have ever seen, but he is a lot more special since he was made for such a short time.

This sweetie is the smallest size of the three koalas Steiff made in this design. He measures about 4 3/4 inches high to the top of that adorable swivel head, which makes him almost precisely in accord with his catalogued 12-centimeter size. This is denoted by the “12” in his article number, 4312,00, printed on his flag. The number is faded, but it is absolutely legible. The koalas, in any of their sizes, were made for very few years—only from 1955 to 1961. This sweet guy was made for the last three of those years.

I am going by the tiny picture of the three koalas in Pfeiffer’s book, and of course, he had to use critters that people lent to him, which may not always be the newest and most pristine that a given animal looked. Since koalas are so hard to find, I am sure that Pfeiffer did not have many samples to choose from. This sweet koala looks better than Pfeiffer’s example! He is still obviously two toned, not an overall beige, as Pfeiffer’s example seems to be.

I guess I should not dwell on the koala in the book, since the picture is so tiny and it is probably not fair to make such a comparison. What I can tell you is that my guy has a white chest—with that color extending to his inner arms and legs. His hands and feet are felt, and they still contain airbrushed accents (that is not dirt!). Koala’s back and the back of his head are tan, which I believe is close to the original color, although he once had a small dollop of dark brown airbrushing on the back of each ear. He retains some of that same dark brown on his face, but those areas are somewhat faded. You can see Koala’s eyebrows and the horizontal line across the boundary between the top of his gray felt nose and his mohair forehead. The bottom of his nose has additional little brown curlicues, which very cutely represent his nostrils. Below them is his smiling mouth, with two halves of a brown floss “V” coming together to form the smile.

Koala has a touch of wear between his nose and chin, but it is not severe enough to have affected the floss comprising his mouth. That wear and the lesser intensity of his brown facial areas, while neither is extreme, combine to make me conservatively say that Koala is in good-plus condition. I am sure there are others who wouldn’t hesitate to call him “very good,” or even “excellent.” What (most) others DON’T do is evaluate his condition in a way that makes any sense. I use the same absolute criteria to rate my Steiff animals no matter when they were made. My condition assessment of Koala was made DESPITE his age, not the silly “for his age” you often see.

Oh, I almost forgot! I guess you can see that Koala allows for versatile posing possibilities. His arms and legs are not jointed, but they are flexible. His posture is also variable, with the ability to change it by bending him at the waist.

I can’t think of anything else to tell you, but please write if you have a question. I mentioned that Koala was the smallest of the three sizes Steiff made of this general design, and you can see that his two bigger brothers (which comprise the whole family) are also in my shop. It would be wonderful if they could stay together, so I hope you’ll consider adopting all of them. 😉

Having at least one Koala is a must for any serious Steiff collection, whether that collection is yours or the one belonging to that special person in your life. You (or that person) will be delighted with the baby and even more so, all three!

WHATEVER YOU DECIDE TO DO ABOUT KOALA 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.