Ossie Ostrich plush toy

Ossie Ostrich was a staple on Australian television for nearly three decades, co-hosting the iconic Hey Hey It's Saturday with Daryl Somers. The character spawned merchandising, including plush toys (as seen here), children’s books and comic books. He had a weekly comic strip in TV Week magazine and featured on the 1975 album Hey! Hey! It’s Daryl & Ossie, followed by Keep Smiling with Daryl and Ossie in 1976. Designed by Axel Axelrad, Ossie had a body of pink fleece covered in feathers, a neck made of a cardboard tube wrapped in pink cotton, and long pink legs. 'My mum ate too much fairy floss,' Ossie would joke. The plush toy captures Ossie's likeness well, but inexplicably downplays the pink.

Hey Hey It's Saturday started out in 1971 as a Saturday morning kids' show, produced by Ernie Carroll and hosted by Daryl Somers and Ossie Ostrich. The series was organised chaos. Ossie became the sideline commentator, cleverly deconstructing the madness around him, always with a wink to the audience. The chemistry between Daryl and Ossie was undeniable, and the show’s popularity soared, prompting a move to a Saturday evening timeslot where it became a television fixture for decades.