OVERVIEW: Get Along Gang

PVCs of Lolly, Bernice, Flora, Braker, Rocco and Rudyard

The Get Along Gang was produced by Tomy and ran from 1984-1987. There were several types of products: PVC figures, plush, poseable figures with fabric clothing, wind-up toys, ceramic figures, magnets, banks, clip-ons. You name it, the Get Along Gang probably had it. Including a cartoon!

The original anthropomorphized animal characters were Montgomery Moose, Dotty Dog, Bingo Beaver, Zipper Cat, Portia Porcupine and Woolma Lamb. Later additions included Flora Fox, Bernice Bear, Rocco Rabbit, Lolly Squirrel, Braker Turtle and Rudyard Lion.

Dressable Bernice, Flora and Lolly

The later additions to the Get Along Gang's cast of good guys didn't get nearly as much merchandise. No plush were ever made of them, though they were included in the PVCs, ceramics and magnets. Bernice Bear, Flora Fox and Lolly Squirrel were part of the dressable figures line, but they're much harder to find than the original six characters.

The show's frequent antagonists were Catchum Crocodile and Leland Lizard. These two were made into PVCs and each got a plush doll, but they were only sold in the UK. The UK also sold Hocus Hare and Pocus Possum, another two characters the US never saw.

Bingo Beaver in three different styles

I've been collecting the Get Along Gang on and off for years, and I still haven't figured out the plush line entirely. The US plush line came with removable clothing and plastic roller skates. They're about 13" tall. The UK offered a smaller plush style that are about 8" tall. I think the UK versions have much cuter faces than the US plush. There were a couple large pajama cases found of Dotty and Montgomery, too. But a couple years ago, I found both Bingo and Montgomery in the UK style but in a 12" size! So I have no idea how many of the characters were made in this 12" size. You can tell the different between the two easily. The US toys have shoes that are removable and the UK ones do not. The UK ones also have more ill-fitting clothing.

Some of my plush. US in the back, UK in the front.

When I was a kid, I only had one Get Along Gang toy: a Zipper Cat plush. He was pretty well-loved. I got back into the line at the same time as a lot of my other 80s obsessions. I now have the US plush of Zipper, Bingo and Portia, plus the small UK plush of everyone but Dotty. I have the 12" UK plush of Bingo and Montgomery. I have all the PVC figures except Hocus Hare. Never got around to buying her. And I have all the dressable figures, which are my favorite items, because Lolly and Flora are my favorite characters. Oh, and I've got a ceramic Lolly Squirrel bank and all the books. I bought the DVD of the cartoon when I was working at Toys R Us, but I haven't rewatched all the episodes yet.

Leland and Catchum PVCs

All in all, the Get Along Gang is a very cute, very extensive line, but it could easily have been even more extensive by offering all the characters in plush form (I would love a plush Flora, Lolly, Braker and Rudyard in particular) and by having all the boys included in the dressable line.

I will probably always collect Get Along Gang, even though I haven't had an active ebay search for it in over a year. I'm always going to want more of the 12" UK plush though!

PHOTO CREDITS: All mine.

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