5 Pieces of Vintage Bambi Merchandise Every Fan Wants

Bambi opened in August 1942 into a world with other things on its mind, and its first run famously underperformed. The merchandise had no such trouble. Across the wartime years, the re-releases of 1947, 1957, 1966 and beyond, and decades of home shelves, vintage Bambi merchandise built one of the most quietly beloved corners in all of Disneyana — soft-eyed ceramics, rubber squeeze toys, velvet plush. Ask serious collectors what belongs on a Bambi shelf and the same five categories come up every time. Here they are, with identification pointers and honest ranges for each.

1. Sun Rubber squeeze toys

The Sun Rubber Company of Barberton, Ohio held Disney licenses through the 1940s and 50s, and its Bambi and Thumper squeeze toys are the entry drug of this category. Molded in rubber with painted details, they were bath-and-crib toys, which means they were loved to death: hardened, cracked, chewed and faded examples vastly outnumber good ones. Look for the molded "Sun Rubber Co." and "© Walt Disney Productions" marks, and check the seams and paint. A rough Thumper is a $10–$20 toy; a supple, well-painted pair can reach into the low three figures. The company's Donald Duck output is even more famous — our old Donald Duck toys guide covers it — and collectors of one usually end up with the other.

2. American Pottery and Evan K. Shaw ceramics

Here's the blue-chip tier. In the 1940s, American Pottery Company — closely tied to Evan K. Shaw, whose operations also connected to Metlox and later American Character — produced glazed ceramic figurines of the Bambi cast that many collectors consider the most beautiful Disney ceramics ever made in America: Bambi standing alert, Thumper mid-thump, Flower demure, with airbrushed shading and hand-painted eyes. They carried paper labels more often than stamped marks, and the labels are usually long gone, so attribution rests on sculpt, glaze and shading style. That's a learnable skill — our vintage Disney ceramics guide and our pre-1968 manufacturer marks guide walk through it — and worth learning, because unmarked Shaw-era pieces still get priced as generic at estate sales.

Value-wise this tier is serious: common poses in clean condition bring solid three figures, and large or scarce figures — the big Bambi with butterfly, the Faline pieces — can push toward four. Crazing, chips to the ears (always the ears), and restorations knock prices hard, so read our grading guide before paying a premium price. And handle every "attributed" piece skeptically: the same soft-focus fawn subject attracted plenty of unlicensed 1950s copycats, and the difference between a Shaw-circle original and a lookalike is several hundred dollars of glaze quality, airbrush subtlety and sculptural confidence. Side-by-side photos teach the eye faster than any written description will.

3. Steiff's Bambi plush

Germany's Steiff — the button-in-ear teddy bear house — held a Disney license in the 1950s and produced Bambi in velvet and mohair, in several sizes, with airbrushed spots and those unmistakable Steiff proportions. A Steiff Bambi with its ear button, yellow tag and chest tag intact is the plush grail of this category; examples missing IDs still carry value because the velvet body and quality are recognizable, but complete provenance multiplies the price. Watch for velvet rubs on the haunches and fading along the spine. Steiff also made Thumper and Flower, both scarcer than the deer — a complete Steiff trio in matching condition is the kind of thing that anchors an entire collection, and it comes up for sale far less often than the individual animals do. The broader world of early Disney plush — Charlotte Clark, Gund, Character Novelty — is covered in our vintage Disney plush and dolls guide, and Steiff's Disney output sits at the top of that market alongside the early Mickeys.

4. The books

Bambi was a book before it was a film — Felix Salten's 1928 novel — and the tie-in publishing runs deep: 1940s storybook editions with gorgeous plates, Little Golden Books (Bambi was among the early Disney Golden titles and stayed in print for generations), linen-like picture books, and school readers. Early printings with dust jackets are the targets; later printings are common and cheap, which makes this the most affordable lane on this list — most vintage Bambi books cost less than lunch, while true early editions in collectible condition reach respectable prices. Our guide to vintage Disney books and comics explains printing identification, the difference a dust jacket makes, and why inscriptions ("To Bobby, Christmas 1948") charm some collectors and deter others.

5. Production art and cels

The summit. Original production cels from Bambi — actual celluloid sheets painted for the film — are museum-grade Disneyana, and the film's lush multiplane backgrounds make setups from it especially coveted. Courvoisier Galleries sold Bambi cels to the public in the 1940s with distinctive airbrushed backgrounds and labels, and those setups are the classic collectible form. Prices run from strong four figures into five and beyond depending on the character, pose and provenance. This is also the lane with the most reproductions — sericels, later commemorative editions, and outright fakes — so buy documented pieces from reputable sources and study our reproduction-spotting guide first. For context on how animation art fits the broader hobby, the Walt Disney Family Museum coverage at The E-Ticket is worth your time, and the Wikipedia overview of Disneyana sketches how cels became the hobby's high end.

Dating vintage Bambi merchandise: the re-release trap

Because the film returned to theaters roughly every decade, "vintage Bambi" spans forty years of manufacturing, and each wave brought new merchandise. A few anchors: "© Walt Disney Productions" marks run from 1939 into the mid-1980s, so the mark alone won't pin a decade. Materials help — 1940s rubber and heavy slip-cast ceramic give way to 1960s Japanese porcelain with foil stickers and 1970s vinyl. Style helps too; the further from 1942, the more simplified the character models. Our overview of Disneyana eras from the golden age to modern gives the timeline that makes sense of it all. When a seller says "1942 original," verify; when a mark is ambiguous, price for the later date and be pleasantly surprised.

Building the shelf

The pleasure of Bambi collecting is that all five categories display together: a Shaw Bambi flanked by a Steiff Thumper, a Sun Rubber Flower, a stack of Golden Books and — someday — a cel on the wall behind them. Whole collections built this way come through our doors, and our Disneyana archive of 1,300+ pieces shows how deep a focused animal-films shelf can run. Film merchandise like this pairs naturally with the park material documented at The E-Ticket — the same families that bought a Shaw ceramic in 1947 bought Disneyland ticket books in 1957.

At Main Street Collectibles — 4070 Washington Rd in Martinez, Georgia — Bambi pieces cross the counter constantly as part of the largest Disneyana selection in Georgia. The ceramics case and the plush shelf are where to look first, and if you're hunting something specific, tell us; we see hundreds of new pieces a month.

Next: The Best Old Donald Duck Toys to Add to Your Vintage Collection