Edward Gorey &
The Toy Works

Here at Goreymania, it is our aim to create the most factually accurate and in-depth collecting guides into Gorey memorabilia - this means if you spot anything that doesn't look right; if you have additional information; if you have photos to fill in our gaps; or, if you have better photos to replace our current ones, we would LOVE to hear from you! (Contact us)

This Collector Guide was originally written by Xandy Hand with additional information and support from Patrice Miller, corrections by Robert Wyke and additional photos from Chris Miller.
Thanks to Nina de l'Etoile for pointing out we were missing a section on colour damage in Major vs. Minor Variations: Colour-Hues.

{Change Log}

Contents:

• What is The Toy Works Collection?
• Who were The Toy Works?
• The Toy Works Product Line
• The Gorey Collection:
• Major vs. Minor Variations
• Colour-Hues
• Materials
• Sewing Technique
• Size
• Identifiers:
• Labels
• Tags
• Printed Text
• Ready-made:
• Cats (No. 3000)
• Purses
• Pigs (No. 3100)
• Bats (No. 3200)
• Flights of Fancy
• Rabbits (No. 3300)
• Frogs
• Bahhum Bug
• Sew-it-Yourself:
• Cats (No. 3001)
• Shape Variations
• a-Spacing Variation
• Kit #3001
• Pigs (No. 3101)
• Kit #3001
• Bats (No. 3201)
• Bats Ragtoy (No. 3201)
• Rabbits (No. 3301)
• Kit #3001
• Frogs
• Kit #3001
• Museum Reproductions Collection
• Other Related Ephemera:
• Stand & Backing Board
• Leaflet
• References
• Books & Catalogues
• Magazines & Newspapers
• Gotham Book Mart price lists
• Supplementary Points, Opinions & Anecdotes:
• Telling apart Ready-mades & Home-mades

What is The Toy Works Collection?

The Edward Gorey Toy Works Collection refers to multiple different beanbag doll animals designed by Edward Gorey (between 1978-1981) and hand screen-printed (and sometimes hand-sewn) by The Toy Works company.

Who were The Toy Works?

The Toy Works were a small independent screenprinting and sewing company founded in 1973 by John Gunther, Gay Gunther and Jeff Bailey in upstate New York, about 200 miles north of NYC. John Gunther (who would become the sole owner) initially came up with the concept after seeing an exhibition of 19th-century toys printed with engraved copper-roll techniques at the Museum of the City of New York. These long out-of-print items became the basis of the first set of designs for "The Museum Collection" in 1974. Gunther’s operation was strictly wholesale, except for his annual seconds and potential overruns sales, which were open to the public and held at the factory between Thanksgiving and Christmas. These were extremely popular events and supplied the craft-fair market for miles around. Gunther’s extraordinary fabric-printing quality was recognized widely, resulting in regular stocking in international museums and department stores.
After four years of success with "The Museum Collection", they started developing designs by Edward Gorey for The Gorey Collection.
The Toy Works would go on to create officially licensed dolls based on the work of some of the most iconic children's illustrators in popular culture including characters from: DC Comics (1978), Wind in the Willows (1981), The Velveteen Rabbit (1983), Alice in Wonderland (1986-1988), Beatrix Potter (1989), Babar the Elephant (1989-1992) and Raggedy Ann (1991).
In the early 2000s as Chinese mass production methods (such as those used to manufacture Beanie Babies) and Amazon low prices took over the toy market, The Toy Works briefly started trading under other names, such as Home Works and Craft Works, before then moving onto the name Fiddler's Elbow, where they started selling household printed items such as aprons, tea towels, and tablecloths. Licensing for pillows and other goods continued as part of the business and included collaborations with big names such as: Dr Seuss, Where the Wild Things Are and Curious George.
In 2021, they officially closed their doors after 47 years.

During the nearly 50 years of trading, they used the same building for production and operation - a converted chicken coop at: 101 Fiddler’s Elbow Road, Middle Falls, NY 12848.
Until 2023 there remained a sign on the driveway pointing toward The Toy Works building, which was sold to a food charity named Comfort Food Community:

Google Satellite	Google Street View

The Toy Works Product Line:

The Toy Works product line fell into three groups: Sew-it-yourself (which are flat-pack kits meant to be sewn and stuffed at home); Ready-made (which were hand-sewn and stuffed (if required) by staff at The Toy Works premises); and fabric bolts.
The Sew-it-yourself kits were generally packaged with a card header which was stapled to a flat plastic bag with the folded imprinted cloth within. While the products are generally referred to as "kits", only the imprinted fabric sewing pattern was included.
The range of wholesale customers for these kits varied from museum gift shops to craft stores. The Ready-made items were carried at museum stores, literary catalogues, and gift shops.
Also, at craft stores and fabric shops, a small selection of items were sold printed on bolts. These bolts featured holiday themes such as St. Nicholas and Christmas stockings.

The Gorey Collection:

The Toy Works: The Gorey Collection contains both Sew-it-yourself kits and Ready-mades. Because some of the Sew-it-yourself kits have been used to create the dolls as intended, it becomes difficult to tell these apart from the true Ready-mades. Focusing on dolls with tags/labels and special colour variations helps determine whether they are true Ready-mades or Home-sewn.
The collection consists of five main animals designed in the late 1970s and early 1980s: Cats, Pigs, Bats, Rabbits and Frogs, although The Toy Works went on to make the Bahhum Bug dolls for the promotional release of The Headless Bust in 1999.
It's very hard to tell in which order things were released but, using the numbering system that the The Toy Works used, it appears that the Cats came first (likely starting with only the Orange & Yellow and Blue & Lavender striped jumper/sweater variations).
Pigs probably came next, possibly with both colour variations of Yellow Bowtie/Coat-tails & Lavender Bowtie/Coat-tails.
Bats presumably then followed - although the Bats definitely have the most confusing (and possibly longest) run: they have by far the most diverse collection of packaging, fabric-labels and are the only doll that came with a variety of cardboard-tags.
It then seems that the Rabbit was released and was seemingly less popular than the rest as it is by far the rarest of the creations.
Frogs were likely the final release - and are the only pattern that was not available in single Sew-it-Yourself packages; it was only available as part of a set of four: Cat, Rabbit, Pig and Frog (although some of these sets are known to be missing the Rabbit).

Major vs. Minor Variations:

Before going any further I want to clarify Major variations and Minor variations.
Major variations are what this Collectors' Guide is trying to define - things where there are clear, indisputable changes to colour, text, shape or packaging.
Minor variations include things like minor changes in: colour-hues, materials, sewing technique and size. These minor variations are outlined below:

Colour-Hues:

Colour-hues denote a slight variation in colour within the major colour variation.
All of the animals have colour variations, but these are probably most noticeable in the Frogs:

Minor colour differences

Colour-hue variations are dependent on ink manufacture, ink colour mixing, and substrate (the fabric on which the image is printed, which might vary in colour and texture - the same ink formulations will absorb differently onto different substrates, and therefore the end product could have different colour-hues because of this).

Another important factor in colouring is damage. The ink is prone to fading from sun-damage as well as wash-fading and staining.
Below we see the same variation of pig - one kept out of sunlight and the other which has been damaged by the sun. On the damaged pig, you can see the folds on the legs showing the real colour but everything else appears lighter and faded:

Minor colour differences - Damage

Materials:

Labels attached to the Ready-made dolls have different colours suggesting the use of slightly different threads.
Arguably, the type of fabric used in the creation of the sew-it-yourself kits and the Ready-mades should be considered a major variation. The older (I presume) dolls are created with yellow fabric whereas the newer are a pale bleached white. However, storage conditions can blur the lines between these colour variations so I will treat it as a minor variation.
Below we can see three bats which appear to use three different fabrics - the yellow on top, a mid-way in the middle and a bright bleached white on the bottom:

Minor material difference

Sewing Technique:

When it comes to the Ready-made dolls it needs to be noted that these were hand-sewn by staff at The Toy Works. The staff used the same sewing patterns as the sew-it-yourself kits (so things like the "Opening" notation are sometimes visible).
This means although all the major variations listed in the sew-it-yourself section likely apply, they cannot easily be differentiated from the sewing technique.
Good examples are variations in size and how some cat ears are sewn shut and others allow the ears to be filled with beads:

Differences in sewing techniques

Size:

There are very obvious size differences in the plastic pockets used to package the sew-it-yourself kits, which causes more or less of the fabric inside to become visible.
There are also some very minor variations to size of the sewing patterns themselves which can only really be noticed when measuring with high accuracy or when placing two items on top of each other. These small variations are likely due to the manufacturing process.
As an example, below two Gorey Rabbits have been placed on top of each other, with the cut-out line at the top of the hand lined up. It is clear that the rabbit below is slightly larger than the one above; the bottom cut-line of the hand is misaligned and by the time we get as far down as the foot the lines are a couple of millimetres out:

Minor size differences

(Hover/Tap to see where the line between front and back examples are)

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Identifiers:

An Identifier here refers to Labels, Tags and Printed text on the fabric.
Ready-mades sometimes had Labels and/or Tags attached, although the words are somewhat interchangeable; from this point on I will make a distinction between:
  - Labels: Fabric sewn on to the doll
  - Tags: Cardboard attached using a plastic barb tagging gun.
It is likely that the earliest Ready-mades had no labels/tags at all, then fabric labels started to be attached (during the hand sewing process) and then later still there was mass attaching of cardboard labels with a barb-gun (which would've been quicker and require far less skill).
However, it certainly seems that it is not quite as linear as this. Some labels that clearly came much later were attached in place of tags and thus this is not a reliable way to date the dolls.

Labels:

The Toy Works used an abundance of different labels throughout their long production time. Although I am aware of further designs that can be seen on other collections, I will only be discussing the labels that have made it onto the Gorey dolls.
I have put these into what I presume is a roughly date-appropriate order. However, it is clear that the labels do not truly denote a period in which an item was made.
I will not be changing positions if earlier labels come to light. They will instead be appended to the end of the list. This way the list can be used to denote label type without fear of the order changing.
All labels that I am aware of have been used on the Bat dolls; when I am aware of them being used on other dolls I have mentioned this in the Features column.

Fabric Labels (sewn into the seam of the doll)
	Label Features	Label Front	Label Back
Label 0	No Label	-	-
Label A	This label is used on: Bat dolls Cat dolls Frog dolls	THE TOY WORKS® Fiddler’s Elbow Road Middle Falls, NY 12848	CONTENTS: ALL NEW MATERIAL PENN 463 N.Y. 45103 OHIO 9391
Label B	This label is used on: Bat dolls	THE TOY WORKS® Fiddler’s Elbow Road Middle Falls, NY 12848 MADE IN U.S.A.	CONTENTS: ALL NEW MATERIAL PENN 463 N.Y. 45103 OHIO 9391
Label C	This label is used on: Bat dolls	(The Toy Works Logo)	All New Materials Polyester & Kapok Fibers Plastic Pellets NY45103 PA463 OH9391 Made in USA
Label D	This label is used on: Bat dolls	(The Toy Works Logo)	All New Materials Polyester / Kapok NY45103 PA463 OH9391 Made in USA
Label E	This label is used on: Bat dolls Cat dolls	(The Toy Works Logo)	All New Material Kapok Stuffing & Plastic Pellets NY45103 PA463 OH9391 Made in USA
Label F	CE Mark (EU Certification) Note: The 'E' is often not visible Flights of Fancy UK Postcode This label is used on Bat dolls Bahhum Bug dolls	The Toy Works® Middle Falls NY 12848 Made in U.S.A.	All New Material Polyester Fibers & Plastic Pellets PA463 (NY) F.O.F.CV31 1HP
Label G	Portrait orientation on reverse This label is used on: Bat dolls Cat dolls Pig dolls Frog dolls	(The Toy Works Logo) DESIGN© THE TOY WORKS, INC.	THE TOY WORKS MIDDLEFALLS N.Y. 12848 (518)-692-9666 CONTENTS: ALL NEW MATERIAL PENN 463 N.Y. 45103 OHIO 9391

Tags:

The majority of the cardboard tags used by The Toy Works were specific to the collections. They would be folded over and have The Toy Works logo on the front and the collection name and a description of what the collection was on the inside and back.
This is the same for the majority of The Gorey Collection with Tag A being the only tag used on most of the dolls, with the one exception of the Bats which used a huge variety of different tags.
I have never come across a Frog with a cardboard tag, so I presume these never existed.

Cardboard Tags (attached to the doll with plastic barb)
	Tag Features	Tag Front	Tag Inside		Tag Back
Tag 0	No Tag	-	-		-
Tag A	Small folded Yellow Black ink This tag is used on: Bat dolls Cat dolls Pig dolls Frog dolls	(Toy Works logo) Middle Falls, New York 12848	THE GOREY COLLECTION Edward Gorey was cata- pulted to fame in 1977 by his stunning designs for the Broadway production of “Dracula”, which won him both a Tony Award and an international reputation. To his cult	followers, it was recogn- tion long deserved.    Since 1953 Gorey has written and illustrated some fifty witty, macabre and altogether disquieting little books that creep into the mind and stay there. These books are available in two anthologies, “Amphigorey” and “Amphigorey Too.” His work also includes set designs for the Royal	Ballet, Andre Eglevsky Ballet Company, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo and a Broadway production of the play “Gorey Stories.”    The Toy Works has pro- duced this bean bag in collaboration with Mr. Gorey, adding a new dimension to the artist's fanciful humor. © 1978 Edward Gorey

Cardboard Tags (attached to the doll with plastic barb) - Bats only
	Tag Features	Tag Front		Tag Back
Tag B	Larger Pale brown Brown ink	(Toy Works logo) Fiddler's Elbow Road Middle Falls, NY 12848		???????? O??????? chara??? (Likely similar to Tag E)
Tag C	Smaller White Black ink	(Toy Works logo) Fiddler's Elbow Road  Middle Falls, NY 12848		THE TOY WORKS® 1-800-237-9566
Tag D	Larger White Black/Coloured ink	(Toy Works logo) Fiddler's Elbow Road  Middle Falls, NY 12848		(Eagle/flag in colour) MADE IN USA
Tag E	Larger White Coloured ink	(Toy Works logo in colour) MADE IN U.S.A.		“A Brief History of Rag Toys in America”    In 1892, a dignified Tabby Cat, printed in realistic colors by the Arnold Print Works, appeared in toy stores across the U.S.A. Tabby was quickly followed by her kittens. These irresistible creatures became “the rage” and quickly paved the way for a long procession of cuddly animals and dolls which are America’s first and most important toys. This lost art form was revived by The Toy Works® in 1973. Our museum reproductions and classic storybook characters are lovingly handcrafted by: THE TOY WORKS ● Fiddler’s Elbow Rd ● Middle Falls, NY 12848

Printed Text:

Both Ready-mades and Sew-it-Yourself kits have text printed on the fabric. For Ready-mades this is limited to the copyright information. For Sew-it-Yourself it includes copyright, logo, sewing instructions and various other text.
For example, there are variations in sewing "view letters" (this specifically applies to Cat - Sew-it-Yourself), the spelling of Manufactured (this specifically applies to Pig - Sew-it-Yourself) and Copyright information.
With copyright information there are three variations present on Ready-mades and Sew-it-Yourselfs - two differences in spacing ("1978byEdward  Gorey" and "1978 by Edward  Gorey") and a third that only applies to Cats. This is what I refer to as "The Signature Collection" where Gorey's signature has been printed on the copyright instead of his printed name (Note: There are a small number of dolls where Gorey has actually signed the fabric).

Cats: Copyright
Signature	Printed spacing1	Printed spacing2

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Ready-made:

The Ready-made collection was probably released at the same time as the Sew-it-Yourself kits, but I will discuss these first.

Cats - Ready-made (No. 3000)

The "Signature Collection" (mentioned in Printed Text) only seems to exist in Ready-made form with cardboard tags and not fabric labels.
Cats came in four distinct jumper colour variations with: Blue & Lavender and Orange & Yellow seeming to be the originals.
Cyan & Gold and Brown & Yellow striped jumper/sweater variations appear to have come later, with a fifth Navy Blue & Lavender seemingly being a distinct variation from the original Blue & Lavender. This Navy Blue variation also seems to have been sold in plastic-bag packaging which I am not aware of happening with any of the others.

Plastic Bag Packaging

Amongst these five colours there is quite a bit of variation in skin colour/jumper colour, but this is likely due to ratios in the ink mixing (as discussed under Major vs. Minor Variations: Colour-Hues).
It is also important to note that there are three distinct size differences in Cats (I go into more detail about these in Sew-it-Yourself Cats) and although you can see these (especially around the feet) on Ready-made dolls, because of the Major vs. Minor Variations: Sewing Technique I have chosen not to make the distinction between these.

Cats: Ready-made, printed spacing1
	Blue & White/Lavender	Orange & Yellow	Cyan & Gold	Brown & Yellow	Navy Blue & White/Lavender
Label A	[No photo]		Doesn't exist?	Doesn't exist?	Doesn't exist?
Label E	Doesn't exist?	Doesn't exist?	Doesn't exist?	Doesn't exist?
Label G			Doesn't exist?	Doesn't exist?	Doesn't exist?
Tag A	Doesn't exist?	Doesn't exist?	Doesn't exist?	Doesn't exist?	Doesn't exist?

Cats: Ready-made, printed spacing2
	Blue & White/Lavender	Orange & Yellow	Cyan & Gold	Brown & Yellow	Navy Blue & White/Lavender
Tag A	[No photo]			[No photo]	Doesn't exist?

Cats: Ready-made, signature collection
	Blue & White/Lavender	Orange & Yellow	Cyan & Gold	Brown & Yellow	Navy Blue & White/Lavender
Tag A					Doesn't exist?

Cats - Purses

An oddity with the Cat design is that it was also used for Purses. These were created in a satin-like material with a white cord shoulder strap.
I believe these may have only been created in two colours and are all part of the "The Signature collection" (mentioned in Printed Text).
Although they have no copyright stating this, I presume they were created by The Toy Works.

Cats: Purses
Brown & Yellow	Cyan & Gold

Pigs - Ready-made (No. 3100)

Pigs came with two main colour variations. These can be seen most clearly on the Bowtie/Coat-tails and are either Yellow or Lavender. There is also a subtle difference between the background base colour on the jacket - the Yellow bowtie/coat-tail has a greenish tint and the Lavender has a more pinkish tint.
There do seem to be two distinct colour variations of pink - a light skin colour tone and a bright pink tone; however, the bright pink definitely fades to the light skin colour and I have never seen a Sew-it-Yourself of the lighter colour.
There is also a very sought-after Lavender-skin pig which comes in a few different hues - this is possibly only available with the yellow variation and I'm also not aware of any Lavender-skin pigs with tags or labels.

Pigs: Ready-made
	Yellow Bowtie/Coat-tails			Lavender Bowtie/Coat-tails
	Lavender Skin	Light Pink Skin	Bright Pink Skin	Bright Pink Skin
No Label		-	-	-
Label A	Doesn't exist?		Doesn't exist?	Doesn't exist?
Label G	Doesn't exist?		Doesn't exist?	Doesn't exist?
Tag A	Doesn't exist?	Doesn't exist?

Bats - Ready-made (No. 3200)

Bats are often attributed to the Broadway revival production of Dracula where the sets & costumes were designed by Gorey. I think this is probably a misconception stemming from a comment in Goreyography: "... and bats from Gorey's Dracula sets". This seems unlikely since the Bat design for The Toy Works was created in 1980 and the Dracula (first performed at the Cyrus Peirce Theatre in Summer 1973) came to Broadway on the 20th of October 1977 and ran until the 6th of January 1980. I would say the dates don't really match up and although the designs are "similar" to the ones used in Dracula, they are not the same. Gorey loved to draw bats (especially with floppy ears) but the bats used in Dracula did not have feet. This is in contrast to many of his other designs through the years such as The Toy Works design and the many bat illustrations featured in Son of the Martini Cookbook in 1967.
There is only one widely printed bat illustration that I would suggest was definitely an early representation of what would later become the bat design for The Toy Works. This illustration was used on several postcards created by Gotham Book Mart (c. 1978) which featured a self-portrait of Gorey standing upon a bat which looks VERY similar to The Toy Works bat design:

1967 Son of the Martini Cookbook	1978 Frank Langella Broadway Poster	1978 Gotham Book Mart Postcard Design

Bats are certainly the most successful of The Toy Works creatures and had the longest run of over 16 years (according to Goreyography) - because of this they have by far the highest amount of packaging variation with at least 7 types of label and 5 types of tag. However, amazingly, there seems to be only a single variation in the Ready-made collection (despite a minor printing colour variation in the Sew-it-Yourself kits).
All American bats come with red-gem eyes but there does seem to be a variation in styles - the (presumably) earlier eyes are a bit more dull and less transparent, they also have a less sharp finish to the design; whereas the more common eyes are bright, vibrant transparent red with a very well finished design:

Bats: Eye variation
Dull red translucent	Clear red transparent

There is also a strange black-eyed British release that is mentioned on the Label F locations: F.O.F. CV31 1HP (Flights of Fancy) which we will speak about more after the tag/label variation table.

Bats: Ready-made
	Tag 0	Tag A	Tag B	Tag C	Tag D	Tag E
Label 0	-		-	-	-	-
Label A		-	-	-	-	-
Label B		-	-	-		-
Label C	-	-	-		-	-
Label D	-	-		-	-	-
Label E	-	-	-	-	-
Label F		-	-	-	-	-
Label G		-	-	-	-	-

Bats - Flights of Fancy

The Bat uses the exact same design as the American bats but Flights of Fancy have opted to attach black eyes instead of the red-gem eyes.
There are two definite variations in wing tension - one has floppy wings and the other has rigid wings (something has been placed inside the wing).
It also seems like the Floppy-winged bats always have wide feet with no legs and the Rigid-winged bats always have thin legs and little feet, but I will consider this a sewing technique variation (see Major vs. Minor Variations: Sewing Technique).

Bats: Flights of Fancy
Floppy wings (Can be folded)	Rigid wings (Can support their own weight)

The Flights of Fancy bats also have a unique label and educational tag:

Flights of Fancy Tag
ABOUT BATS	There are nearly 1000 known species of bat and probably many more undiscovered. Bats, like us, are mammals. They have a backbone, hair, and feed their young on milk. They are warm blooded, have front and back legs and a skin membrane covering their arms	and hands. Bats are the only mammals to have wings that flap. The only places in the world you won't find them are in high mountains and polar regions. They roost in colonies in caves, holes, trees and in the open hanging upside down and are nearly always active in the dark.     Most bats live on insects but larger ones also eat small animals such as frogs, mice, lizards, fish, fruit, flowers etc. A few bats live on blood from mammals	and birds which has led to many myths and horror stories, nearly all untrue. To find their food in the dark bats use Echo-Location. This means they give out high pitched squeaks (much higher than we can hear). Their squeaks bounce off objects back into the bats very sensitive ears, enabling them to fly in the dark without hitting anything. The squeaks of	a small bat can vary from 10 to 60 a second when they are close to their prey, so they can detect the smallest objects. Bats are harmless creatures and serve a useful function in the animal world. In North and South America, over 500 species of plants are pollinated by bats. Many bats are endangered and organisations such as Bat Conservation International are working to protect bats.	FLIGHTS OF FANCY 15 New Street, Leamington Spa, Warks CV31 1HP, England Tel: 01926 423436 Please remove hook if given to child of under 36 months. Please retain this information for future reference.

Flights of Fancy Label
	FLIGHTS OF FANCY TEL: 01926 423436 FAX: 01926 311925 ©1980 Edward Gorey MADE IN ENGLAND		Cotton Outer Lining Man Made Filling Plastic Pellets ─────── CE

Flights of Fancy (F.O.F.) was a UK based company in Leamington Spa (15 New Street, Royal Leamington Spa, England, CV31 1HP). This unassuming private residence created educational bat dolls using The Toy Works designs. I suspect they also had something to do with getting The Toy Works their EU Trade certification since the CE label also mentions the F.O.F. address.

Google Street View 2008

Rabbits - Ready-made (No. 3300)

Rabbits are probably the rarest of all the dolls. There seems to be at least three distinct jacket colour variations: Jade green, Light green, Dark green; with possibly three skin-colour variations: White (very pale pink), Pink and "Chocolate Brown" although I have yet to see one of the latter.
However, the kilt colours never substantially change, so it is likely that all of these variations are due to ratios in the ink mixing (as discussed under Major vs. Minor Variations: Colour-Hues).
As far as I am aware, Rabbits only came with the Tag A tag and no label.

Rabbits & Bats are the only animals in The Toy Works: Gorey Collection where Edward Gorey used the exact same template to create some of his own hand-made dolls (despite creating other Frog & Bat designs).
He did use a couple of other Rabbit templates and Rabbit-like templates, but shown below is a Rabbit that clearly shows the use of the same template:

Rabbits: Ready-made
	Jade Green Shirt	Light Green Shirt	Dark Green Shirt
White Skin		-	-
Pink Skin	-		-
Brown Skin	-	-	-

Frogs - Ready-made

Frogs are also fairly uncommon. Due to the four distinct colour variations and at least six distinct eye variations (and I am even aware of some with mixed eye colours!), the possible permutations are quite high although it's likely not all were created.
The frogs have an F logo on their shirts in the style of the Harvard insignia.

Frogs: Ready-made
	Burgundy/Brown jumper Grey trousers	Brown jumper Yellow trousers	Light brown jumper Yellow trousers	Orange jumper Blue trousers
Rounded Green eyes		-	-	-
Rounded Brown eyes		-	-	-
Flat Green eyes		-	(Image from NewYorker.com)	-
Concave Silver eyes		-	-	-
Shank Red eyes (with no indentation)	-
Shank Red eyes (with indentation)		-		-

There are some very rare frogs with Label A and Label G labels. I am not aware of any Frogs with tags.

Frogs: Ready-made: Labels
	Burgundy/Brown jumper Grey trousers Label A	Burgundy/Brown jumper Grey trousers Label G
Rounded Green eyes		-
Rounded Brown eyes	-

Bahhum Bug:

An Edward Gorey item created by The Toy Works that is often overlooked is the special Bahhum Bug doll created for the book launch of Gorey's last non-posthumously published work: The Headless Bust (Harcourt Brace & Co., 1999). The book launch event was held at Gotham Book Mart, NYC.
There were two versions created: Left-facing and Right-facing (although there is some disagreement as to which is which; is it the way the doll faces to the observer or to the doll itself!).

The lettered (out of 26) & numbered (out of 750) editions of the book The Headless Bust (which came in a green slipcase and were all signed by Gorey) all originally came with a doll (anecdotally you could choose the doll facing-direction as you bought the book, otherwise it was chosen at random).

The Headless Bust special edition

All dolls were manufactured with Label F labels but almost all dolls have had their labels snipped (this was done before they were sold and likely at Gotham Book Mart itself).
It has been stated that The Toy Works sold some dolls with intact tags separately from the book launch. It has also been stated that all dolls sold with the book had their labels snipped. I am not sure if this last statement is true, because I have seen numbered editions resold with intact tag dolls.

Bahhum Bug
	Left-facing	Right-facing
Label F		(From MOE #425 March 2015)

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Sew-it-Yourself:

Sew-it-Yourself dolls are flat-packed, do-it-yourself, home crafting kits. They contain the same selection of dolls as the Ready-mades but with fewer colour variations.
The Bats came with eye-gems ready-fastened to the template and the Frog came with eye-buttons taped to the template.

Cats - Sew-it-Yourself (No. 3001)

All Sew-it-Yourself cats are dated 1978 on the leg and header board.

The Sew-it-Yourself cats seem to have been originally entitled: Categor Y (so-called because of the book with the same name which was created from the hand-painted panels inserted into each of the 50 Amphigorey special edition books).
Later these Sew-it-Yourself cats were re-titled: The Gorey Cat.
Some have Edward Gorey’s signature printed. Some have text starting with “Manufactured ...” printed on the pattern.

Shape Variations

There are variations in shape, which are noticeable in the cut-out lines of the: ears, armpit, feet and crotch. The three variations are here termed thin-eared, medium-eared and thick-eared.
These variations undoubtedly also exist on the Ready-Made: Cats but because of Major vs. Minor Variations: Sewing Technique I have chosen not to include these in this guide.

Sew-it-Yourself Cat differences
	Ears	Armpits	Crotch	Feet
Thin-eared	Pointed ears 9.5cm across ears	Round armpit	Diamond-shaped with line	Small Rounded feet 8cm across
Medium-eared	Rounded ears 10cm across ears Black line doesn’t go to edge	Pointed armpit	Rounded	Large Ovaloid feet 9.5 cm across
Thick-eared	Ears even more round 10cm across ears	Very pointed	Diamond-shaped without line	Large Rounded Wide feet 9.5 cm across

a-Spacing Variation

Above the cut-out line over the head, there are some guide ‘a’ letters. However, there are two distinct alignments on different versions of the cat – some are centrally justified around the cut-out line, and others are not. Here these are termed a-spacing1 and a-spacing2:

Sew-it-Yourself Cat a-spacing
a-spacing1	a’s are centre-justified a’s are 1.8cm apart	a-spacing2	a’s are not justified a’s are 2.3cm apart

The medium-eared cats always have Edward Gorey’s name printed with copyright spacing variant 1 (more about this in the Printed Text section), whereas the others have his signature.
The medium-eared cat is sometimes entitled “The Gorey Cat” (instead of “Categor Y”) - there is a separate table under this one for these.

Cats: Sew-it-Yourself: Categor Y
	Blue & White/Lavender	Orange & Yellow	Cyan & Gold	Brown & Yellow	Navy & White/Lavender
Thin-eared © Signature a-spacing1				[No Photo]	[Doesn't exist?]
Thin-eared © Signature a-spacing2	[No Photo]				[Doesn't exist?]
Medium-eared © Printed space1 a-spacing1			[Doesn't exist?]	[Doesn't exist?]	[Doesn't exist?]
Medium-eared © Printed space1 a-spacing2		[No Photo]	[Doesn't exist?]	[Doesn't exist?]	[Doesn't exist?]
Thick-eared © Signature a-spacing1	[Doesn't exist?]	[Doesn't exist?]	[Doesn't exist?]		[Doesn't exist?]
Thick-eared © Signature a-spacing2	[Doesn't exist?]	[Doesn't exist?]	[Doesn't exist?]		[Doesn't exist?]

The next table shows examples entitled "The Gorey Cat" and has lettering starting with “Manufactured ...” printed on it. "The Gorey Cat" variation all seem to be medium-eared, with a printed name and copyright spacing variant 1 but they do still have both a-spacing variations:

Cats: Sew-it-Yourself: The Gorey Cat
	Blue & White/Lavender	Orange & Yellow	Cyan & Gold	Brown & Yellow	Navy & White/Lavender
Medium-eared © Printed space1 a-spacing1			[Doesn't exist?]	[Doesn't exist?]	[No Photo]
Medium-eared © Printed space1 a-spacing2			[Doesn't exist?]	[Doesn't exist?]

Cats - Kit #3001

The Sew-it-Yourself cat in Kit3001 appears to always be a medium-eared "The Gorey Cat" design:

Cats: Sew-it-Yourself: The Gorey Cat (Kit #3001)
	Blue & White/Lavender	Orange & Yellow
Medium-eared © Printed space1 a-spacing1		[No photo]
Medium-eared © Printed space1 a-spacing2

Pigs - Sew-it-Yourself (No. 3101)

The Sew-it-Yourself pigs come with the same main variations as the Ready-mades with yellow or lavender bowties/coat-tails. I have never come across the light pink or lavender skin variations in the Sew-it-Yourself kits.

One interesting feature of the Pig Sew-it-Yourselfs is an unusual variation with a typo in the spelling of Manufactured:

Pigs: Manufactured misspelling
Manafactured	Manufactured

I have never seen a Manafactured pig with purple/lavender bowtie/coat-tails - so there are possibly only three variations:

Pigs: Sew-it-Yourself
	Yellow bowtie/coat-tails	Purple bowtie/coat-tails
Bright Pink skin Manufactured
Bright Pink skin Manafactured		[No Photo]

Pigs - Kit #3001

The Sew-it-Yourself pig in Kit3001 appears to always be a yellow bowtie/coat-tails with Manufactured, although the pig is often not visible past the other animals:

Pigs: Sew-it-Yourself
Yellow bowtie/coat-tails	Purple bowtie/coat-tails
	[Doesn't exist?]

Bats - Sew-it-Yourself (No. 3201)

The Sew-it-Yourself bats had two main varieties: with or without a cut-out line.
There is also a distinct colour variation where there is a grey background colouring - this is most clear on the flap where the bat was to be stuffed:

Bats: Sew-it-Yourself
No cut-out line White & Black (with white flap)	No cut-out line Grey & Black (with grey flap)	With cut-out line White & Black (with white flap)

Bats - Ragtoy - (No. 3201)

There is also a particularly rare Sew-it-Yourself bat which is inside the Ragtoy collection packaging - this comes in both vertical and horizontal format:

Bats: Sew-it-Yourself
Horizontal No cut out line White & Black (with white flap)	Vertical No cut out line White & Black (with white flap)

Rabbits - Sew-it-Yourself (No. 3301)

Sew-it-Yourself rabbits, like Ready-made Rabbits, come in a range of Green hues (for example, see a Light Green and a Dark Green below). However, it is important to note the kilt never substantially changes colour. Because of this it is likely these are just Minor variations in colour as discussed under Major vs. Minor Variations: Colour-Hues.

Rabbits: Sew-it-Yourself
Light green shirt	Dark green shirt

Rabbits - Kit #3001

Although always listed on the cardboard, Rabbits were often omitted from the kits and sometimes the text on the card was blacked out or crossed out.
There are kits with Rabbits included but so far details are not known on their colours as all examples I am aware of are hidden behind the other animals inside the kits.

Frogs - Sew-it-Yourself

Individual Sew-it-Yourself Frogs are possibly the rarest item in all of The Toy Works: The Gorey Collection - unlike all the other animals, they actually appear to be much more common in the Kit #3001 than individually packaged.
I believe all Sew-it-Yourself Frogs are the Burgundy/Brown jumper/sweater with grey trousers variation. I have only seen examples with flat green eye beads.
Sometimes the eyes are stuck in the wrong place - they should be on the side of the frog without the "F" emblem where there are two dots showing where to attach them, but they are sometimes taped under "The Gorey Frog" heading instead.
I have only seen one type of tape holding the eye buttons on the Individual Sew-it-Yourself Frogs - this is a 1.2cm transparent tape.

Frogs: Eye tape
Clear tape 1.2cm

Frogs: Sew-it-Yourself

Frogs - Kit #3001

Like the Individual Sew-it-Yourself Frogs the Kit #3001 Frogs seem to always be the Burgundy/Brown jumper/sweater with grey trousers variation. I have only seen examples with either rounded brown or rounded green eye beads. Sometimes the colours are very hard to tell apart, and it does appear possible that you can have one of each colour as well.
The tape used to stick the eyes seems to come in two forms: a rigid 1.3cm translucent tape which has likely not denatured with age, and a more standard 1.9cm clear tape which is likely to have denatured, turned yellow and lost its adhesive, meaning the eyes are loose:

Frogs: Eye tape
Clear tape 1.9cm	Translucent tape 1.3cm

It is important to reaffirm that despite the wide range of colour-hue variations of the Burgundy/Brown jumper/sweater (see below) I consider this a minor variation as discussed in Major vs. Minor Variations: Colour-Hues.

Frogs: Sew-it-Yourself
Eyes in correct place	Eyes in wrong place

Museum Reproductions Collection

A later reprint of The Toy Works original non-Gorey collection (Museum Reproductions) was created with a yellow header board and included a collection sheet inserted at the back which, inexplicably, lists the Edward Gorey Bat despite it not being part of the Museum Reproductions collection!
The collection possibly includes: Rosie #1401, Bunny #401, Baby Bunny #451, Black Lab Doorstop #525, Tabby Cat Doorstop #101, Tabby Kitten #201, Green-Eyed Kitten (Kittens) #1001 and Seven Kitten Draftstopper #211 - I believe there is no Edward Gorey Bat #3201 in this collection.

Museum Reproductions illustrations and caption

Museum Reproductions Collection
Tabby Cat Doorstop #101	Tabby Kitten #201	Seven Kitten Draftstopper #211	Green-Eyed Kitten (Kittens) #1001
Bunny #401	Baby Bunny #451	Black Lab Doorstop #525	Rosie #1401
[No Photo]		[No Photo]

Other Related Ephemera:

There are a few other pieces of directly related The Toy Works: The Gorey Collection ephemera, namely a stand and backing board and also a promotional leaflet. I am not aware of any kind of The Toy Works catalogues or buying sheets but it is plausible these also exist.

Stand & Backing Board

Quite a few backing boards have survived and these are not too hard to find. However, I am unaware of a single remaining stand and only know of their existence from the photo accompanying the Leaflet shown below.

Backing Board

Leaflet

The leaflet gives a lot of insights into The Gorey Collection.

Leaflet

References

These are items that are not directly linked to The Toy Works company but either reference or include photos of the collection.

Books & Catalogues

Books & Catalogues
Goreyography Henry Toledano 1996, Word Play pg.153, 156			pg.153 Contains text: "...Early in my Collecting I came across a couple of irresistible items: the beanbag dolls from Toy Works, which included cats similar to Gorey's characters from Category, (pictured below) followed by beanbag pigs and frogs, and bats from Gorey's Dracula sets. Many years later, like the early Toy Works that proceeded them..." This page also contains black and white photos of: Orange & Yellow Cat Navy & Lavender Cat
			pg.156 Contains text: "Dolls: 1. Beanbag Animals  A. The first beanbag animals were manufactured by Toy Works,     Middle Falls, NY. They were a pig, a frog, at least three differ-     ent colored cats, and a bat. They ranged in size from 6-1/2", to     14" for the bat. Introduced from 1978-1980 (the bat is still in     production), they were sold either as Sew-it-Yourself kits, or     already made. The bats are inexpensive; the others are rare and     valued at moderate to fairly expensive, depending on condition."
Looking For Edward Gorey John A Carollo/Joseph Stanton 2011, University of Hawai'i pg.130, 146, 159			pg. 130 Contains photos of: Right-facing Bahhum Bug
			pg. 146 Contains photos of: Two Blue & Lavender Cats One Orange & Yellow(?) Cat
			pg. 159 Contains a photo of the Edward Gorey House which contains: Blue & White Cat left-facing Bahhum Bug
Swann Edward Gorey Collection of Samuel Speigel May 7, 2014 Sale #2349			Lot #220 Contains photos of: Right-facing Bahhum Bug Which contains text: LETTERED COPY WITH BAHHUM BUG BEANBAG 220 • THE HEADLESS BUST: A Melancholy Meditation on the False Millennium. Illustrated by Gorey. Square 8vo, decorated boards: dust jacket; cloth slipcase. New York: Harcourt Brace, (1999)   [500/750] FIRST LIMITED EDITION. MARKED I OF ONLY 26 LETTERED COPIES SIGNED BY GOREY AND WITH A STUFFED BAHHUM BUG, reserved for the author and publisher, from a total edition of 750. The doll measures about 14 inches from head to toe.
			Lot #261 Contains photos of: Burgundy/Brown jumper, Grey trousers, Rounded Brown eyes Frog Which contains text: 261 • BEANBAG ANIMAL. Frog. Stuffed beanbag green frog in lettered ("F" for Frog) maroon kneesocks, laced shoes, green button eyes. Approximately 7½ inches tall. Toledano page 156 (for stuffed toys). [Middle Falls. NY.: Toyworks, 1980] [350/500]
Swann Art, Press & Illustrated Books October 1, 2014 Sale #2358			Lot #120 Contains photos of: Left-facing Bahhum Bug Which contains text: 120 • GOREY, EDWARD. The Headless Bust: A Melancholy Meditation on the False Millennium. Illustrated by Gorey. Square 8vo, decorated boards; dust jacket; green cloth slipcase.New York: Harcourt Brace, (1999) [400/600] FIRST LIMITED EDITION. MARKED 437 OF 750 NUMBERED COPIES SIGNED BY GOREY AND WITH A STUFFED BAHHUM BUG, reserved for the author and publisher, from a total edi- tion of 750. The doll measures about 14 inches from head to toe.
エドワード・ゴーリーの世界 (The Wonderful World of Edward Gorey) 30 August 2020, 河出書房新社			Contains photos of: Left-facing Bahhum Bug Bat Navy & Lavender Cat Which contains text: 『The Headless Bust【A-120】』に 登場した、大きな昆虫 < Bahhum Bug > のヌイグルミ。 同書の750部限定版と セットで販売された。 舞台劇『ドラキュラ』用に デザインされたコウモリの ヌイグルミ。 このページの3体とも、 そばがらが詰まっている。 ゴーリー・キャットのヌイグルミ。 現存数は多くなく、 今では貴重品。 ちょっと<オマヌケ>な 愛嬌があり、人気が高い。 These roughly translate to: A stuffed toy of the large insect, the Bahhum Bug, that appeared in "The Headless Bust [A-120]". It was sold as a set with the book in a limited edition of 750 copies. A stuffed bat designed for the stage play "Dracula". All three of the figures on this page are stuffed with buckwheat husks. A Gorey Cat stuffed toy. There are not many left, so they are now valuable items. They are very popular for their slightly "silly" charm.
The Theatrical Adventures of Edward Gorey Rare Drawings, Scripts, and Stories Carol Verburg 2024, Chronicle Books pg. 139			Contains photos of: Left-facing Bahhum Bug Which contains text: The toy Bahhum Bug sits on Edward Gorey's deck chair from the Queen Mary, a favorite spot of his cats and now mine.
Edward Gorey Großmeister des Kuriosen Walter Moers 2024, Die Andere Bibliothek pg. 259			Contains photos of: Bat Which contains text: Diese Fledermauspuppe wurde nach der Vorlage von Gorey als Fanartikel umgesetzt.

Magazines & Newspapers

Magazines & Newspapers
The Post-Star 15th December 1979 pg.9	-	-	Text includes: "...as well as others like a bean bag designed by Edward Gorey who won a Toni Award for the set design for "Dracula."" [sic]
The Post-Star 1st December 1983 pg.21	-	-	Text includes: "The Toy Works also makes beanbag bats, pigs and cats based on the drawings of car- toonist Edward Gorey..." "Retail prices range from $7.50 for a six-inch Edward Gorey cat..."
The Standard-Star 4th December 1983 pg.84	-	-	Text includes: "The Toy Works also makes beanbag bats, pigs and cats based on the drawings of cartoonist Edward Gorey..." "Retail prices range from $7.50 for a six-inch Edward Gorey cat..."
Print Jan/Feb 1988 XLII: I pg.63			Contains photos of: Yellow bowtie/coatail Pig Red-eyed Bat Orange & Yellow Cat Brown jumper & Grey trousered Frog with Shank Red eyes Navy & Lavender Cat
MOE March 2015 #425 pg.29			Contains photos of: Navy & Lavender Cat with Label E Brown & Yellow Cat Brown jumper & Grey trousered Frog with Rounded Brown eyes and (what appears to be) Label G Bahhum Bug right-facing with Label F

Gotham Book Mart price lists

Gotham Book Mart was a historically significant bookshop in NYC that had close links with Edward Gorey - they produced many Gorey-related price lists which, on occasion, included items from The Toy Works collection.

Gotham Book Mart price lists
Title/Date	Photo	Text related to The Toy Works
WHAT'S NEW, EDWARD GOREY? ~1983		9. Gorey's unique bean-bag animals: cat (orange or blue), frog, pig. $5.95 each. Bat (with ruby eyes) $7.50
Edward Gorey Exhibition 1992 1992		Gorey stuffed bat   not for sale (I presume this is a The Toy Works bat, but could also be one of Gorey's hand-sewn examples)
Edward Gorey 1994		Gorey's famous Stuffed Bat. Ruby glass eyes, low diet. Friendly. $10.00
So Many Books ... So Little Time ~Summer 1994		[Photo of Bat] STUFFED BAT $10 RUBY GLASS EYES / 14" WING-SPAN
So Many Books ... So Little Time ~1994		[Photo of Bat] STUFFED BAT $10 RUBY GLASS EYES / 14" WING-SPAN
Edward Gorey Christmas Suggestions ~1995		17. Gorey stuffed bat, with ruby glass eyes. 14" wing-span. Great. $10.00
Gotham Book Mart Winter 1997		[Photo of Bat] STUFFED BAT $10.00 RUBY GLASS EYES 14" WING SPAN

Supplementary Points, Opinions & Anecdotes:

This section is for additional discussions related to the main Collectors' Guide.

Telling apart Ready-mades & Home-mades

Written by Patrice Miller.

The most significant reason for size variance I believe is seam allowance differences. Only the rabbit and some bats have a second printed outline for cutting. The rabbit instructions call for a ⅛” seam allowance which means that kit rabbits sewn following instructions should be the same size as the Ready-mades.

The same observation will probably hold for bats with secondary cut lines.

For kits without secondary cut lines: sewers may cut along the printed outline and sew into the printed animal, or establish their own seam allowance, cutting some distance into the unprinted area around the animal. Given that the pig instructions call for a ⅛” inch seam allowance, there could be some size variance. However, the cat and frog instructions call for a ¼” seam allowance into the printed animal. This dimension can make for significant differences in both size and shape; just consider a ¼ inch in from the outline of frog feet shod and unshod. Following directions will result in tiny feet.

To illustrate the seam allowance issue, consider a circle with a 4 inch diameter. If I provide a seam allowance outside of the circle so that I can sew the circle without impinging on its area, the resulting circle is 12.56 square inches. If I cut the 4 inch diameter circle out and sew into the circle with ⅛ inch seam allowance, I reduce the diameter by a ¼”, and the overall area is reduced to 11.04 inches. However, if I establish a ¼” seam allowance (as per the printed kit instructions for the cat and frog), I reduce the diameter by ½” and the resulting circle area is reduced to 9.6 square inches - a reduction of 25% of the overall area. Obviously, the animals are much more complicated shapes than a circle, but it makes the point. Assuming that Toy Works staff would follow the directions printed on the kit fabric, it is not an unreasonable conclusion that if there is a perceived substantial difference in size of two of the same animal, the larger will be Home-sewn from a kit, and the smaller the Ready-made. Further, tagged and/or labeled of the same animal tends to have little size variation.

An animal may be missing its label and tag but if sewn closed with plastic thread, filled with small plastic pellets, and on the smaller size compared with other animals of the same type, it’s likely a Ready-made.