Since the frenzy of Mary Rushton plushies began in the early 2017 because of a resurgence of collectors following a particular singer. Seeking Rushtons these days are not as crazy for many collectors anymore.
In fact, even for myself. I've long sold off most of my rare Rushtons and have only held onto a small few. But, recently, a Rushton I had thought was never in reach for me, finally popped up on an auction site!
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| google photo of Blue Rushton Crying Bear. |
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| IG Cry bear that sold. |
A quick prelude, back in 2018, I found a post on IG that had a blue bear up for grabs! Sadly, someone had already claimed him! Darn. I have seen one sold fast on a Japan site as well one on ebay. I guess at the time I was just not going to acquire one and I told myself long ago, that it is, what it is... Haha! Fast forward to now...
Even the price was quite a shock! But considering it will need a lot of TLC! So I used BIN and I knew he would take a month to get to me. I finally got my hands on the elusive Blue Crying Musical Animated Rushton Bear!! When he finally arrived, I began to work on him when I wasn't babysitting my grandson. Haha! He quietly sat on my computer desk waiting.
Poor baby, missing most of his fur, this little bear has the arm mechanism sticking straight out from his palm! I was surprised to find he still had his hanky!! Practically shredded though, and his music box key didn't wind up at all and was frozen. Most of his face paint had faded as well, and he has a few holes at the back side. He was definitely well loved and according to the seller, she found him at an estate sale. She wanted to have him restored but just never got around to it. Until I adopted him...
A positive is that he still had his original Rushton Tag! Yippee! I began with his face first and cleaned him up. While he sat a few days at my computer desk. I was trying to decide if I will use his old fur to use as a pattern to cut out from new fur and give him a new plush body? But in the end I decided to wash him first and see what he'd look like afterwards and go from there.
I began to remove all his stuffing and placed them into a bag for later. I took out his music box and began with washing him first. It took two soakings to get most of the dirt and grime off him. While he was air drying, I began to work on his music box. The music box was made of wood and tin metal. I took apart the main box. The mechanical arm stuck out of the main music box as shown below. Sadly, I forgot to take photos of me working on the innards of the music box. Ugh. The music box is made in Switzerland, and it says that it plays "Frere Jacques".
After taking apart the music box, I began to wipe off the excess dust
and stuffing particles that were caked onto to the gears and mechanics
of the music box. I used alcohol wipes and than started to oil the gears
up with baby oil or mineral oil. I tried to see if I could get the key
turning, but no dice. Darn!!
So than I started playing with the part
that looks like a propeller or fan, and started to use my flat screwdriver to move the
gear close to it and sure enough the fan started to rotate a bit! Could
this be helpful?! I didn't know, but it was worth a try. As I pushed
onto the roller with the musical note picks or at least tried too, it made a
sound!! I was thrilled! I must be doing something right! Haha!
I worked on the gears about thirty minutes or so and slowly, the gears began to move a bit at a time. Sadly, the gears where the key was didn't budge! Ugh! No matter what I did. So I decided, if I couldn't get it to work, it was okay. At least, I had tried. I decided to pour some more oil inside the mechanism for the key. Then, I let it set. Whilst I watched Tron Ares with my family.
After the movie was over, I went back to the music box. So perhaps about an hour had past. I tried to turn the key once more... Sure enough it moved! Yay!! I began to wipe off the excess oil and clean up where I could. Now, when I turned the key the gears slowly but surely started to move. It was playing a little bit better, but still not smoothly.
I just let it set for the night and allowed the bear to continue air drying. By the next morning, the music box played and the bear was dry! Yippee!! It was a success and even the mechanical arm still moved! What?! Yup!! I was so happy. Now, I just needed to re-stuff him and do his face paint. Will I make him a new body or not?
To Be Continued... Part Deux here!
Thank you for reading! ~ ggsdolls
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