Why the Peek-a-Pooh’s are awesome:

1. When I was a kid, a toy like a Peek-a-Pooh would have been all hard plastic fused together. This toy is well-made. The plastic Pooh (all with different winky faces) comes out of the rubber costume so that you can put it into other rubber costumes.

2.You can find them in vending machines at Asian stores and restaurants all over San Francisco.

Peek-a-Pooh Machines

I’ve found them in my Sunset neighborhood at Wonderful Foods Co. I’ve found them in the inner Richmond at Genki Crepes on Clement. (Genki is an awesome little Asian market and Crepe place which sells all kinds of hard to find products for the serious Asia-o-phile. For instance, Japanese Ramune soda with the marble inside the bottle; when you drink too fast, the marble stops up the bottle. Oh the Asians, models of self-control. Also, Pocki, lychee gummies, mochi ... all the usual suspects).

You can also find Peek-a-Poohs in China-town (duh) and apparently, Bernal Bubbles and Larkin Express in the Tenderloin. Bring four quarters!

3.Peek-a-Poohs are awesome because of the suspense involved; because it’s a vending machine, you never know what you’ll get, so you might be there for hours trying to get the awesome Coconut Tree peek-a-pooh from the Tropical Collection…

Na na na na na…I have the Coconut Tree, the Sand Bucket, and the Beach Hut!

4.They have a billion different collections of Peek-a-Poohs, but only release a few collections at a time. Right now, the School Supplies Collection, Hundred Acre Wood Collection, Circus Collection and the aforementioned Summer Splash Collection.

Circus Pooh

Anyway, so now I have these little rubber Poohs on my keychain, and have become the kind of person I hate.

But back to that precocious eight year old. She has 63 peek-a-poohs, one or two of each one from each collection. What got me actually interested in the damn peek-a-poohs in the first place was that one of the collections was the Zodiacs.

I’m a Gemini, I enjoy long walks on the beach…

I was ecstatic to see she had two Gemini peek-a-poohs, which were awesome: green with two little twin bumblebees. This little girl is a Leo, so I automatically assumed she would give me one of two little Geminis she had. Why would she need two when it’s not even her sign? But NO, she didn’t. She gave me a jester she had named Roger, which was nice, but, even after various, increasingly obvious hints, no little Gemini Pooh. Grrrr….

Then, I discovered what I’ll call the Confusing Poohs. These Peek-a-Poohs get into bizarre territory: Pooh is in a Tigger suit, Piglet is in a Pooh suit, and so on.

What the fuck is going on here?

Now, the little sea shell Pooh, the pencil sharpener Pooh, the hippo Pooh? Not weird. Even the clown Pooh isn’t scary. But as a child, I might find these identity-issue Poohs a little disturbing. Like, why did Pooh have to skin and wear Piglet and Eeyore? That is one sick bear.

Pooh claims innocence; he didn’t take his Hunny that day.