The Flintstones Celebrate Christmas the Plush Way

 We've looked at ornaments and stockings, now it's time we look at a few Christmas-themed plush toys. For The Flintstones, there's been several; far more than for any of the other Hanna-Barbera series (not counting Scooby). Here's a look at all of the ones that I've seen, starting with two made for Fred and Barney in 1989 by Nanco. Nanco made several Hanna-Barbera plush dolls and also made a few Halloween-centric ones as well. Like their Halloween plush toys, they're pretty standard. Just the characters with presents in hand and Santa hats on their heads. Beyond the two Flintstones characters, George Jetson was also produced for this line.

Near the end of the 2000s, a company appropriately known as the Toy Factory produced four Flintstones plushies for the holidays. Among these were Fred, Dino, Pebbles, and Bamm-Bamm. If that lineup looks odd, that's because it is. For whatever reason, Barney didn't get a plush in this series. I looked, and it doesn't look like he exists. Very strange, but considering he was covered by other companies, it's not too much of a loss. This set looks pretty nice, and it's fun seeing characters like Dino get into the holiday spirit.

Around 2011, Sugar Loaf, a titan in the plush toy world, decided to give The Flintstones a new holiday makeover. Like Nanco's effort, they only did Fred and Barney, though we did get two different versions of the former. The plush toys themselves also heavily resemble Nanco's take, though these match the show designs much better. Ignoring the fact Fred and Barney are the same size, these are easily the best of the bunch. Barney is especially good, but the two Freds are also quite good. These could be found in claw machines around the time, which I assume is also how the other sets were made available. 

As a quick side note, before I end this post, you might have noticed that the above plush of Fred dressed as Santa doesn't match how he looked in the Christmas episode of the original Flintstones series. It does, however, match a similar design that's been used in numerous pieces of art and other merchandise. Here it is being used for a rubber toy that was released in the early nineties. Kind of interesting most merch tends to use this design, rather than any of the ones seen in official media.