Babar the elephant is a fictional character who first appeared in children’s books in 1931 in France. Written by Jean de Brunhoff, Babar’s first adventure – Histoire de Babar – was a huge success and led to further stories being published. In 1933, Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne introduced Babar to British and American readers with an English-language translation – The Story of Babar.
The popularity of the adventurous little elephant has never waned since the 1930s, and today Babar continues to gather a huge and worldwide fanbase for his books, animated films, TV series, toys and merchandise. TVTA is pleased to present a selection of 1960s and 70s print adverts from the French comic Le Journal de Babar, along with other Babar related merchandise.
Babar school bags and stationery, 1998
Mattel Babar Maroquinerie et Papeterie catalogue. 1998.
Mattel Babar Maroquinerie et Papeterie catalogue. 1998.
Mattel Babar Maroquinerie et Papeterie catalogue. 1998.
Babar pre-school mini vehicles and figures by Lansay
Lansay Babar mini vehicles toys. From the collection of TVTA.
Thanks for looking 🙂
The Vintage Toy Advertiser 
I had a brief fling with Babar books when I was a kid. Neat the he’s still around! 😀 x
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Yes, he’s still popular as ever, especially in Japan, with a number of standalone high street stores dedicated to Babar merchandise – just like the Disney stores!
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Thanks for the memories – I did love the books, never saw the cartoon. I get why some might find them boring, but they are soothing.
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Oh how cute! Thanks for posting. I love Babar with the kittens.
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Thanks RetroDee. The ads are really cute aren’t they.
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Hi TVTA, I remember Babar, I had one of the story books. I bought it from a Book Club run at my primary school. If I recall, the story was about Babar looking for a missing tiara. The Babar family were having a gala or dinner event (I think the father was the Mayor of the town?) and his sister lost her headpiece. Unfortunately that book was the only one that was on sale. And I do vaguely remember the cartoon but it didn’t seem to have the charm that the book had.
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Hi FT. I kind of agree, the books seemed to have a greater charm than the cartoon. I remember hiring a fair few from the library as a nipper but never got into the cartoon so much.
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I’d forgotten about Babar! I remember thinking this was the boring cartoon when it was on TV during the school holidays!
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I never got into the cartoon but I did hire out a fair few Babar books from the library as a kid.
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Asterix and Tin Tin were pretty much the only books I grabbed from the library as a kid!
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I used to hire those two out as well, and Dr Seuss. Happy memories of Saturday at the library 🙂
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