Animal House : Stuffed-Toy Collector Poses for Family Photo With Cast of a Thousand
Stanley Resnicoff recently introduced himself to his Redondo Beach neighbors as he readied his front steps for a family portrait.
Some of the neighborhood children even helped him carry out the little ones and pose them just so.
It took a while, because Resnicoff said he wanted to make sure that each of the thousand or so second-hand stuffed animals--only about half of his collection--had a good view.
Resnicoff, a 43-year-old toy designer for Mattel Toys Division in Hawthorne, plans to mail his friends copies of the portrait, attached to cards that say, “We’ve moved!”
About 50 children and adults stopped by during the photo session to stare at his colorful menagerie of bunny rabbits, rag dolls, lions, wolves, kangaroos and, of course, teddy bears. Among the rest of the clan was just about every kind of animal, several dolls, a stuffed carrot and a Humpty Dumpty--who kept falling off the wall where Resnicoff perched him.
“I notice all my neighbors decorate their houses with lights and everything, and I didn’t want to seem dull on the block,” Resnicoff joked.
“It was a beautiful display,” said Hester Riley, who lives across the street. “I’ve never seen anything like it . . . very, very colorful.”
Teri Reed, another neighbor, agreed. “I think it’s wonderful. . . . It’s a way a lot of the neighbors have gotten to meet him.”
She said her two daughters--Kelly, 8, and Tera, 6--and other neighborhood children helped Resnicoff display his collection on his front steps. For their efforts, each got to choose an animal, vegetable or doll for his or her own.
“Selecting them, I think, is more fun than getting them,” Resnicoff said.
He started collecting the second-hand animals about two years ago when he stopped at a garage sale. “I saw a bunch of stuffed animals lying face down in the grass and it was kind of sad, and they were a dime each,” he said. He bought four or five animals there and stopped at another garage sale on the way home and picked up a few more.
Resnicoff, unmarried with no children, took them home and propped them on his couch. “Everybody had a view,” he said, “and the next time I looked at them, they looked like they were all smiling.”
In his last home in Hermosa Beach, the stuffed toys were spread throughout the house, he said. In his new home on North Guadalupe Avenue, however, they will have their own room, which Resnicoff is filling with shelves.
Like the well-worn fur of many a stuffed toy, there’s a soft spot in his heart for the discarded animals.
“These animals have already helped some kid grow up and now they’re being turned out,” he said. At first, he bought every stuffed animal he found at garage sales because he did not want to discriminate. Now, he tries to buy only those that are different from the ones he already has.
“Some that really have their insides hanging out, I try to do something for. I have them repaired, but the bears with one eye are more lovable that way,” he said. “The used ones just seem to have that much more personality.”
10 Cents to $20
He said he has no idea how much he has spent on his collection, but the stuffed toys have ranged in price from 10 cents to $20.
“People didn’t like giving these away and when I took one, they’d say, ‘God bless you,’ and ladies would kiss me. Nordstrom’s doesn’t even do that when you buy a suit,” Resnicoff said.
He also takes police-style mug shots of the stuffed toys because, he joked, “I want all these guys to be wanted.”
Each toy wears a “booking number” on a tag around its neck. Resnicoff keeps corresponding lists detailing when and where he bought each and how much he paid for it. He also notes its name if the seller had given it one. Usually, a parent is the one selling the toy and does not know the name, he said.
“Parents give away anything of value as soon as you turn your back on them,” he said.
Resnicoff remembers only one stuffed animal from his youth--a blue teddy bear that he suspects his mother got rid of when he went to college.
Asked if he plans to expand his collection beyond the 2,000-plus he has now, he said, “I don’t think I have the room anymore, but I have a hard time not doing it. I have a hard time passing a garage sale. The car kind of veers out of my hands. . . .
Looking for Blue Teddy
“If I could ever find my blue teddy, that’s when I would stop and retire,” he said.
Standing in the center of his front yard, admiring his collection spread out on either side of him, Resnicoff said, “You can see as many animals as this in Toys R Us, but it’s not the same feeling. I always thought that the plastic doll boxes were kind of suffocating. They all wanted out.”
He dreams of starting a business called Second Chance to find new homes for the stuffed toys and said he would like to donate some of his animals to needy children.
But whenever he gives one away, Resnicoff said, there is always a restriction that goes with it--he gets it back if the person no longer wants to care for it.
“I don’t want to have to buy them back again,” he said.
