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.
Donkey Dream Pet
**3 1/2 inches deep, 3 inches wide, 7 1/2 inches tall**
**Gray donkey has soft yarn mane and tail; red, green and white blanket with yellow fringe on left shoulder; brown felt hat with gold rick-rack around rim**
**Very little wear**
**Velveteen feels like a very soft suede**
**Tush tags are intact. One has a list of materials, the other has "Dream Pets; R. Dakin & Co.; Woodland Hills, CA.; Made in China"**
**Note: While some sources have labeled this donkey as the Dream Pet "Pancho", there are several differences. Two of the main differences is that Pancho is brown with the blanket over his right shoulder and this donkey is gray with the blanket over his left shoulder**
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