Rare Steiff Gogo Chinchilla Only One Size Only 3 Years 2 IDs

Gogo is a first for me. I have never even seen him in person, let alone be lucky enough to have him seek me out to help him find a new home! He is the title character in the picture book Around the World with Gogo, written by Terry Shannon and published in 1964. I am showing you a picture of the cover of the book, but Gogo will be traveling alone this time.

If you want to take Gogo up on the suggestion on the back of his chest tag, it should be possible for you obtain a copy of the book; I have seen several available on the Internet.

Gogo was made in one size only, 15 cm tall. He is pretty close to his catalogue designation, measuring about 14.5 centimeters to the top of his head. Because his curled ears are such a cute and interesting part of him, perhaps they are are meant to be included when measuring his height. If that is the case, Gogo is almost right on with his Steiff numbering, just a tiny bit over 6 inches; His size was given in his article number which was 4615,00. You know about the “15;” what you may not have known is that the “6” tells you his covering fabric, which is Dralon.

Because I have never seen a Gogo in person before, compared to many of the pictures I have seen, he is in really nice condition. His main color is snow white, and that is accented by deep charcoal gray on the top of his head, which extends down to his forehead, curves around his eyes, and continues down his nose. His felt paws have rose and gray airbrushing on their outsides, and while I am in the vicinity or Gogo’s arms, I will tell you that they are flexible, although you can see that without my help.

Gogo’s back and sides are gray, with some of that really dark gray mixed in, like the stripes on his arms. Those stripes are on top of the same medium gray that covers most of his back. Gogo’s long-haired tail has a mixture of grays and white. His tail is the only part of him that shows some thinning, although that seemed to be the case with all the Gogo’s whose pictures I saw online—some quite a bit worse! Because I have never seen a Gogo in person before, I am basing my assessment of his tail on the similar tails one finds in Steiff squirrels. I would say that the thinning is about average, but I don’t think that one little imperfection is reason to rate Gogo’s condition as anything but “excellent,” and I mean that absolutely, not “for his age”

Since I have now (with his tail) gotten down to the nitpicking level, I will mention two other things, which you can see yourself. Gogo’s chest tag turns inward a bit, and this causes a very slight crease down the center. The tag has a few tiny stains on the bear’s head, and the string pulls up from the hole a tiny bit, but does not even enter the red periphery—and thus does not threaten the security of the attachment at all. All things considered, I would rate Gogo’s chest tag an 8 on a scale from 1 to 10.

My last bit of nitpicking concerns Gogo’s button. It shows a bit of corrosion. It was actually worse before I worked on it, and if you are a stickler for things like that, you can try to improve the button still more. I am fine with it the way it is.

I can’t think of anything else to mention, but please write if you have any questions. Gogo is rare and special critter, and you may not see another this nice for a long time!

WHATEVER YOU DECIDE TO DO ABOUT GOGO 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 DECEMBER, 2022.