Hello jammers! Asteralium here, and today I have some very, very special news for you all. A new Animal Jam toy has been discovered! And not just any toy, this is a toy from the old Jazwares line. Allow me to present to you… Gallant Prettygoat!
So, obviously I have some explaining to do.
How I got it
I bought this figure off of eBay in September 2021. Sorry it took so long to get this post out! I had to wait on it for a while for research purposes. I tried contacting the seller for more information on where this came from, but they never got back to me. So everything from this point forwards is technically speculation, or educated guesses. I’m not sure the seller would’ve known anyways.
What it is
Taken from an old AJA post, which linked this image to the now defunct ChesterToys page
This figure was never released to the public. Due to a discovery I made once I had the toy in hand, I believe this figure is a prototype. Prototypes toys are made to give companies an idea of what the final product would look like. The prototype is created, changes are made, and the cycle continues. Eventually the designers settle on a something closely resembling what the final, mass produced product will be.
The figure I have heavily resembles a toy that was discovered back in 2017. This presentation slide(?) shows that at some point, this toy was planned to be yellow and also include a pet lion. Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know if the toy I own was made before or after this concept was made. It’s really strange that my version of the figure has a pattern, as those were usually reserved to only be on the Light-Up Friend and Gem Squad figures. Some things carried over all the way, though. The hat, wings, and spike all stayed the exact same.
The unboxing
I’m sure that some folks won’t be happy to hear that I unboxed this one-of-a-kind toy, but I tried my best to preserve the box. At the time I also wasn’t completely sure what I had, so there was a chance I could redeem the code for some super rare item. Also, I have a display of these figures, and I wanted to include this one within it.
Without further ado, here is the unboxing:
It feels very weird to have my voice heard by the whole world…
The Code
I guess in hindsight I should’ve expected this. There was no code underneath the scratch-off part, it also just said “Sample”. I actually ended up contacting AJHQ about this, to see if I could still get any kind of item from it despite the lack of code. This was their response:
Taken from the Animal Jam Classic Wiki
I’m not really sure how I feel about this answer from AJHQ. See, in the files for Animal Jam Classic, there exists an item called the “Tiny Sombrero” that is unreleased. It matches up with the common themes of the toy line fairly well! It is:
A nonmember item
An item that the figurine itself actually wears. This is a consistent thing across all the basic figures in the line, such as the Posh Raccoon awarding the hat it wears, or the Sunny Bunny awarding the wings it wears.
It has particle effects, which most promo items have.
But, I don’t exactly blame AJHQ for not giving me anything. It would just lead to more questions they would have to deal with. They probably either just don’t want to give out unreleased items like that, or didn’t know of the Tiny Sombrero’s existence.
Other Discoveries
It turns out the seller had more up their sleeves. Shortly after the seller sent over my item, they listed two more unreleased Animal Jam toys. Unfortunately, I was not able to purchase them, due to being a broke college student. I just couldn’t justify spending more. I hope that whoever grabbed these was able to give them a good home. You can click on the images to make them bigger.
These toys have some fascinating details. The first of which being that the gingerbread house den was never recorded online anywhere before this! It was not teased anywhere. Llama figures (as well as the clothing and furniture) never made it to market, meaning that this is likely the only official AJ llama figure in the world. The back of the box for the gingerbread house also teases some more unreleased products, such as the art studio den, and the rhino and polar bear light-up figures. These have been documented previously on The Archives.
The octopus is a little less interesting, if only because we knew it existed before. It’s very odd that the octopus comes with a land pet, though, especially when underwater pets were produced as part of the Adopt-a-Pet series. The back of the box also advertises unreleased figures, like the goat, turtle, owl, seal, and itself. All of those animals would go on to be featured in the Gem Squad series instead, albeit with different colors and accessories.
These toys also have items in the files that go along with them that are unreleased. The octopus only has an AJ classic item, while the gingerbread house would give items in both games. Here is a gallery of them all, and each image links to its respective wiki page.
Box Pictures
Thank you for reading and going on this little adventure with me! I’m proud to own a piece of Animal Jam History in my room! I promise you it’s in a good home, and it looks great on my display shelf with the rest of my Animal Jam setup. Before I sign off, here are some more pictures I took of Gallant Prettygoat, just for the sake of preservation. (The box came beat up). And hey, if you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it!
- Asteralium