1993 WDW Teddy Bear & Doll Convention - Donald

Event Date

Fall 1993

  Donald is a 30cm mohair bear, fully jointed and has a squeaker. His EAN number is 651205 and is edition number is 01280/ 1,500.

Donald's Surprise Release:
Donald was the first Steiff created as a Disney character. He was a surprise release at the 1993 Walt Disney World Teddy Bear & Doll Convention and was a huge hit with collectors. Nobody knew that Steiff created a bear for the first time ever to resemble a Disney character. They mentioned him in the convention book, but didn't put in his picture so collectors had no idea what the bear would look like. Click here to see page.

Note: in the following years until 1998, other Disney character bears were created by Steiff for the yearly convention but eventually stopped because of complaints by Steiff collectors that these kinds of releases were not in keeping with the Steiff bear tradition. That lasted until 2006 when the Mickey and Bear was released, followed by Minnie and Bear in 2007 and finally Jiminy Cricket in 2008.

After the 2008 convention, the powers to be at Walt Disney World made the decision to end the annual event. We were told the convention lacked the interest Disney needed to keep it in the  venue line-up. Now you know the rest of the story.

History of JR Junginger:
JR Junginger, the great grand nephew of founder Margaret Steiff, attended the convention and he signed many of the bottoms of Donald's paw.

He passed away in 2001 so Steiff asked Tweed Roosevelt to be the spokesperson for the company at future conventions. Tweed was the great grand son of Teddy Roosevelt. Steiff chose Tweed because Teddy Roosevelt was credited for coining the name "Teddy Bear" which remains today as a household name.

Related Merchandise:
Also made available at the convention was a watch with Mickey holding a doll and bear limited to 1,000. Also there was a convention book, a convention catalog, a convention flyer and convention button. Lastly with the purchase of the bear, a convention pin was given with it. It was not sold, and could only be gotten with his purchase.