Birthday Package From Heathersmoo: 2021

 Heathersmoo from Livejournal, a dedicated keychain collector if there ever was one, kindly sent me a package of keychain goodies for my December birthday. Thanks, Heather! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get this post up. I had a lot more prep work to do for this Christmas season compared to last year, since members of my extended family reinstated their annual holiday get-togethers after putting them on hiatus for the past 2 years due to Covid-19. I'm still trying to catch up on all of the projects and other things that got pushed to the back burner during the Christmas rush. So without further ado, let's bring on the keychains.

 

I absolutely love this puffy, furry, greenish-blue teddy bear keychain. The head and limbs seem to be made from some sort of pleather or textured vinyl material that is stuffed, and the body is one of those faux fur pom-poms that were all the rage for purse accessories a while back. The color is unique and fun for a teddy bear, in a subdued shade that strikes just the right balance between a pale pastel and a vibrant jewel tone. However, my favorite part of the design has to be the facial printing. For some reason the face makes me think of Bearemy, the Build-a-Bear Workshop mascot. I doubt that that resemblance was intentional though. According to the product tag, this bear was "Distributed by Kalan LP".

 

I had a lot of trouble photographing the eyes on this dog head keychain, even though I deliberately placed a white backing sheet behind the black metal to better highlight the details. I think my issues were largely due to overcast weather reducing my lighting. While I don't know enough about dog breeds to say for certain what type of dog this keychain is modeled on, maybe someone reading this post can help to narrow it down for me.

Since this dinosaur is holding half of a heart with the word "Best" on it, I'm assuming that it was part of a 'best friends' keychain set, and that Heather has the matching half. The yellow and orange color scheme reminds me a lot of Cheesasaurus Rex, the 90s era mascot for Kraft Macaroni And Cheese. The raised markings on the back of this keychain identify it as another "Kalan" product, this one made in Bangladesh.

Even though it's the first guitar pick keychain in my collection, I've actually been intrigued by this keychain's concept for a while now. Also, I'm pretty sure I've mentioned here before how much 'brand nostalgia' I have for My Little Pony, even though I'm not all that invested in more recent iterations of the franchise. The fact that this keychain is my favorite color, purple, doesn't hurt either.

Lastly, this final keychain is shaped like a silhouette of the United States and patterned like an American flag. I tend to be drawn to country and state silhouette shaped keychains, although I have no idea why. Maybe I should try accumulating enough of these keychains to do some temporary map setups to photograph. That might make for an interesting future project.

There's also an advertisement on the back of this keychain for "Patriot On-Site Services Inc" in Ellenboro, North Carolina. However, I wasn't able to find additional information about the company. The web address listed on the keychain no longer seems to be valid, and online searches got me nowhere. Such is the transitory nature of cyberspace I guess. Internet based resources frequently disappear into the ether, unless we're talking about old social media posts that you actually want buried. Then they hang around forever.

I'd like to thank Heather once again for her gift. I appreciate her generosity in sharing some of her treasured keychains with me, since it's a known fact that once a keychain finds its way into her possession it rarely leaves. So thanks Heather, and I wish you good luck with your keychain hunting in the coming year.

Signed, Treesa