Lost, PLEASE help!

[skie]

My 4 year old daughter has lost her number one toy, (a cuddly strawbery with green arms and legs) her boy, her main man, the thing she has slept with and kept close to her since babyhood. (She even had a birthday cake in his image last year, and he is in just about every photo ever taken of her...) It happened four months ago (only explanation is that he went out with the rubbish) and she's actually getting worse, not better (we convinced her that he was lost temporarily in the house, lying waiting to be found, which she believed.) Now she beginning to doubt it and talks about him every night, and first thing in the morning. Last night she started to cry and said, 'I don't think we'll ever find Strawberry..' Whenever anyone says anything like, "We've got a surprise for you..", her first reponse is 'Have you found Strawberry??' I am so desperate, and HAVE to find her another - trouble is he came from a charity shop for 20 p, and all it said on his label was 'PEEKO', which appears to be a toy manufacturer in Korea! He has eyes, a big smile, a red handle and a few leaves on his head! He is about the size of an adult hand! We have photos we can email if anyone has a spare (unloved) toy that fits this description. PLEASE, if there are any mums out there with any ideas on how to find a toy like this, please, please let me know!

[Posey]

You poor things. My heart goes out to your daughter (truly). Our dd lost her "Jakey" and fortunately it was only temporary, a matter of several days. It actually turned up in my dads coat sleeve, which he was wearing when he arrived for a holiday with us but didn't need again for the duration of his visit. So are you absolutley sure you've looked in every unobvious place. Sorry that sounds really patronising, didn't mean to.
Anyway, I've put in my mind your description and as I visit charity shops and car boot sales, not to mention baby and toddler groups, I'll see if I can spot anything like it.
Just one question. Are you hoping to pass any replacement off as the original or will it be strawberry's friend coming to keep her company? Just needed to know if a slightly different strawberry would be okay.

PS have just read your message to dh and he was really sad about it
He said have you searched ebay. could be worth a try

[Beccarollover]

Is this any good? or this

[CountessDracula]

www.vectis.co.uk may be a good starting point skie, they have toy auctions. How sad your poor dd, It makes me want to cry

[emkaren]

I had tears in my eyes too reading your post. Another idea might be to find someone who could replicate the toy, if you have so many photos of it? Aren't there people out there who can do that for you? I'm not sure where I read this, but maybe somebody else will know!
Good luck! Your poor daughter

[collision]

Please let us know asap if you are able to replace Strawberry. I am so upset for your dd and cried when I read this. I know how desperate I become when Swindon (Ds's little brown ELC bear)is 'lost' somewhere in the house and it is now the rule that he doesnt leave the house at all. (Not that this helps....sorry) Your poor daughter.

Where the ebay things any good?

[collision]

I looked on freeserve and typed in 'handmade soft toys' and found a lady who makes soft animals. I emailed her and told her your predicament and asked if it was at all possible to make a replica of 'Strawberry'. If I hear from her I will email you tomorrow.

[aloha]

What kind people you all are!

[skie]

Thanks SO much for all your messages. Those pictures (whoever managed to get them and how??) are close but not close enough! He doesn't have spots, no nose, just two big black felt eyes and a huge black smile (the kind children draw on suns in the sky) My mum tried making a similar one and it just wasn't similar enough - if we had given it to dd it would probably make her worse (almost not quite, kind of thing, and also she'd realise the original is really lost if we try to offer replacements). I'd love to know if there is someone who could make an identical one. We would have to pass it off as the original though, which wouldn't be impossible as he had been loved to death, and so much of him had come off and faded away, if we got an identical one, we'd pull it apart and roll it in mud and say we'd found it in the garden! We looked at ebay but there didn't seem an obvious place to put it, we have emailed 40 toy manufacturers and had one hopeful response - which was 'sorry, can't help, that line was discontinued four years ago!' (that's hopeful, when you have nothing!) We are trying to find out what line this was. We never thought we'd lose him as we had a strict rule about him not being allowed out but we still messed up.. it was on my husbands birthday, so we think he got hidden in wrapping paper and thrown out. Of course, the bin men came 6 am the very next day, before we'd realised how lost he was...

[Kayleigh]

Aaaaahhhh, this is what Mumsnet is all about
Makes all the other stuff that's been going on on some of the other threads completely insignificant.

Skie, I so hope you can find a replacement Strawberry for your little girl.

[Blu]

Would it help if, while the 'clone' is being ordered and made, a postcard or two arrived from Strawberry, saying 'I'm having a lovely time on my holiday, I'm getting a haircut, I'm eating lots of real strawberries so i can get nice and pink again, and do you know? A kind lady is making me a new nose? and i'm all nice and plump because i've been eating ice-cream etc etc", THEN Strawberry could send a holiday photo of him/her with her new image, in order to set a picture of the slightly-different Strawberry in your DD's mind?

[JanH]

Goodness, Blu, you should be writing detective novels or something!

I am feeling sadder than ever now imagining poor Strawberry on the tip...I love Blu's idea about the holiday postcards!

[DSW]

That is a great idea Blu - you should post it on the tips page for all the other lost "Strawberries" and the like.

[oliveoil]

What a good idea Blu! And Beccarollover, how on earth did you find those pics so fast?!!

[Beccarollover]

Because Im a geek!

[skie]

We may do the postcards thing - but only if we were SURE an identical replacement was coming! (Has anyone read Tatty Ratty by Helen Cooper? Brilliant book with the same bitter sweet solution to a lost toy, trouble is dd has read it too, and may suspect !). The other thing is she'd be very hurt that he had chosen to leave her for a jaunt round the world! The other day, gazing out the window, eyes full of tears and lips trembling, she said, 'Maybe he doesn't want me to be his mummy any more.'
Is anyone here a regular user of Ebay? Is there an obvious place we could put a request on or doesn't it work like that? Thanks for all your help.

[Beccarollover]

oh no - this is just too sad i wish we could find it

what about everyone who visits any sort of message board sends a link to this page - somebody must be able to help

[oliveoil]

Stop it, you are making me blub. Hopefully someone will come up with a solution for you, your poor baby

[CountessDracula]

No luck tracing Peeko, the manufacturer, I suppose? The only thing I can find is on the danish babynet site, it gives an address/number in the Isle of Man

PEEKO-New Manhattan Ent.Ltd.
100 Market Street
GB - Douglas/Isle of Man
Tel: 07034/31541
Fax: 31540

May be worth trying even if they are only the reg co or importers they may be able to point you in the direction of collectors etc.

[clairabelle]

skie,
is there any chance of posting a picture of Strawberry so we all know what we are looking for?

[oliveoil]

Good idea, work is v dead today (boss free zone) and I have been searching for things but not too sure what to lok for

[Blackduck]

Me too....

[SoupDragon]

If you do go down the postcard route, it shouldn't be difficult to get enough MNers around the world to send them. If you're really clever, you should be able to insert a picture of Old Strawberry into a postcard type picture and then change the colour/nose/hair to match New Strawberry by the time he returns.

[oliveoil]

How clever! God, I would never think of these things, if dd's teddy dog goes, I'm in trouble.

[CountessDracula]

If you mail some of us pix of strawberry we could mail them on to friends, ask them to mail on to their friends etc and sooner or later one will turn up surely?c

[Kayleigh]

CD, good idea. Gosh, think how many people would know about it if we all mailed it to 10 people or so.