Being December we’re now at the height of the holiday season and so for my next couple of reviews I’ll be featuring seasonally appropriate animals. “But this is a cat”, I hear you say, “what do cats have to do with the Holidays?” Well, if you’re asking that question then you’ve apparently never heard of the Yule cat, my favorite piece of Christmas folklore.
The Yule cat hails from Iceland where it is called Jólaköttur (Jól= Christmas, köttur= cat). It is an unnaturally large cat that is said to prowl the snowy Icelandic streets and countryside during the holiday season, searching for and eating people (and kids in particular) that did not receive new clothing in time for Christmas. The exact origins of the Yule cat are unknown, but its earliest known reference is from a poem in the 1932 book Christmas is Coming by Jóhannes úr Kötlum.
A giant cat that eats people that aren’t wearing new clothes might seem random, but it is thought that the Yule cat was used to encourage wool production, since wool has historically been important to the Icelandic economy. The threat of being eaten by a giant cat would incentivize laborers to process wool and produce clothing in time for Christmas. For the most part, the Yule cat has only really been prevalent in Iceland. Icelandic musician, Björk, even has a song about it. In recent years the Yule cat has grown more popular abroad, in part due to the original poem’s recent translation into English. I was a bit taken aback to see it featured in the 2020 film, Christmas Chronicles 2.
So that’s a brief rundown of the Yule cat and why I’m using it as an excuse to feature a cat figure for the holiday season. Of course, the cat I’m reviewing is hardly a frightening child-eating giant but it’s the one I had on hand. It’s the orange tabby cat by Safari Ltd.
This orange tabby is a repaint of Safari’s 2018 gray tabby but according to Toy Animal Wiki the orange tabby was released in 2002 and retired in 2016. Whatever its story, it has “gray tabby” stamped on the belly with the year 2018. It measures about 2” (5 cm) from snout-to-rump which puts it at 1/7.5 in scale for an average sized 15” (38 cm) house cat (tail not included).
The figure is presented in a static stance, with the tail curled upwards, and the head looking up and inquisitively towards the right as if watching his pet human open a can of tuna. I’m designating this cat a male because although he lacks the proper anatomy 80% of orange cats are male.
The figure is fine but nothing extraordinary. It comes across as a cutesy kid’s toy and has an “early Safari” aesthetic, which makes sense if it was originally released in 2002. Details are not as refined as you would expect from a newer figure. I also have the Safari cat TOOB and the figures within it are superior to this one. Commendable features include a nicely detailed ruff of wavy fur around the neck, sculpted (but not painted) toepads, and eyes that are almost symmetrically painted. It’s also cute and as I discovered while photographing it, rather photogenic.
The figure is orange with a white face and underside. Pale orange stripes are painted around the face, along the flanks, and along the tail. The striping is simple and unconvincing for a real tabby. The eyes are orange with black elliptical pupils and the nose is pink. The mouth, nose, and eyes are outlined in black which I generally don’t like on animal figures.
The Safari tabby is not a figure I would purchase for my own collection, and I didn’t, this one belongs to my daughter. She likes it well enough, and she is the target demographic with a toy like this. Even if you don’t want it on your shelf, it would be a great choice for a stocking stuffer this holiday season, just make sure you also put a new set of clothes in there, so your little one doesn’t get a visit from the far more menacing Jólaköttur.
As you said, it’s perfect for its target demographic, but it’s a cat and it’s by Safari, so what’s not to love about it 🙂