Dream Pets were originally manufactured in Japan in 1957 to be used as packing material around toy electric trains. When R. Dakin & Co. opened the boxes of trains and found six velveteen stuffed animals as the packing material, a phenomenon was begun.
The packing material stuffed animals were dubbed "Dream Pets" because they were whatever the people making them imagined, according to Japanese company officials. When Dakin began manufacturing the Dream Pets, it kept the original names the Japanese had given each pet.
By the mid seventies, the original six Dream Pets were joined by almost 2,000 different additional pets.
In 2004, the Dream Pets once again were manufactured by R. Dakin & Co., following the purchase of Dakin by Applause.
The original toys were stuffed with sawdust, the more modern ones were stuffed with Polyester fibers.
No complete catalog of Dream Pets exists because of the loss in an earthquake of Dakin manufacturing records and because companies that made the original pets have long been out of business.
Matilda Kangaroo and Joey Dream Pet
**5 1/2 inches long, 3 1/4 inches wide, 7 1/4 inches tall**
**Green kangaroo with yellow hat with flowers, long eyelashes, brown purse over right arm**
**Yellow joey is sewn into Matilda's pouch, very little detail to baby**
**Wires in arms to enable posing**
**Yellow felt hat has slight discoloration, no other signs of wear**
**Velveteen feels like a very soft suede**
**Has all tags: An oval and square folded tag are attached to Matilda's neck with a string. Folded tag has a picture gallery of 24 Dream Pets. The listed website no longer exists**
**Tush tags are intact. One has a list of materials, the other has "Dream Pets; R. Dakin & Co.; Woodland Hills, CA.; Made in China"**
P-008
