In the 60s:Gumby creator Art Clokey himself responded to the countless letters from curious mothers, asking about a toy companion of the character for their children; by crafting a number of unique rubber bendy figures himself, from his very own California studio.
These were very smooth, soft and squishy; as well as incredibly poseable (similar to Gumby's true flexible characteristics in the T.V series). While they often had some QC issues (in terms of extensive seam flashing, uneven footpads,and even hasty paint jobs); the toys were near perfect replicas of the onsceen clay puppets used throughout the 1960s episodes.
Clokey would continue to go onto produce a limited amount of these bendables between late 1964 into 1965, as patent pending prototypes for children mostly around the Southern California area; under his newly found Gumby Toy Company (GTC). When the demand grew too out of proportion all over the nation for Clokey to handle alone, he then licensed the production of these figures through the widely known Lakeside Toy Company.
From then on Gumby's 1960s figure sculpts would constantly change, and unitedly become less and less accurate over the years; until the modern day, when the most recent reissues bare little to no resemblance to the originals. Along with the devolution of onscreen accuracy: the softer more poseable rubber was replaced over the years, to a more solid restricting soft plastic for the body. Although there are other modern day Gumby bendables that perfectly represent the shape of not only his 1980s, but even 50s styles; no Gumby licensed company has attempted to create a perfect replica reissue of Mr Clokey's classic first edition Gumby bendables, he crafted back 55+ years ago.

This here is one of those few first edition Gumby bendable toys, created by Mr. Clokey in the mid-60s; cleaned up and repainted by my own hand. I was lucky enough to snag this rare gem off a casual eBay listing, upon a random search of vintage Gumby merchandise. I restored it as best I could to it's former glory, and then some; to modify it enough for an even higher level on onscreen accuracy. Just like the true clay puppets Clokey would have been using around that time. It's also probably one of the best of it's kind; for not only it's well crafted shape for the time (no flashing or uneven feet) but age overall. I almost assume it wasn't even owned by a child; but rather crafted specifically for the magazine adverts of the upcoming Gumby bendables, in the 65' Lakeside catalogues.

I'm looking forward to bringing this piece of memorabilia to life, through my own stop motion animations; on my personal YouTube channel!


Here's to hoping one day soon a Gumby bendable licensed company decides it might be a good opportunity to reissue the figures from the original Clokey 60s era molds
Have a "Gumby" Day!