The bobblehead people are after me to promote again… and I’ve told them I’ll only show their product when I have something relevant to say about it. So they sent me their latest request, and I have something to say about it.

AAUGH!

As part of their line celebrating Peanuts 75th anniversary, they are offering a limited-edition “first comic strip appearance dual bobblehead” featuring the February 28, 1970 strip.

Now, tracking Woodstock’s appearances strictly from the strip has some difficulty. After all, the character was clearly around for a while before being granted a name in the June 22, 1970 strip, and perhaps any birds you saw before then were similarly-situated, similar-looking, but not Woodstock himself. For a long time, official sources listed his first appearance as April 4, 1967. But I and some others found that date in error — while the bird in question was likely Woodstock, he seemed to be a returning character. In my book The Snoopy Treasures, I started pushing that Woodstock was one of the two birds who hatched on Snoopy’s stomach on March 4th, 1966. Other key folks seemed to agree with me… and then Schulz Museum curator Benjamin L. Clark pointed me to a 1980 TV Guide piece where Schulz said that Woodstock was indeed one of those two birds. Absolute confirmation. And that as Woofstock’s origin is now reflected on the character,’s Wikipedia page, in new storybooks, and in various other sources.

And then this claim of “first comic strip appearance” shows up. February 28, 1970? It’s not even their first appearance sitting together on top of the dog house as head beagle and secretary (here is that, from eight days earlier.) And it’s frustrating to me to have done work trying to set the record straight, and then have this inexplicable wrong date, wrong strip foisted off on. product. I don’t know why the bobblehead people thought this was right, where they might have gotten this information from.

Anyway, if you want to preorder one of these limited-edition items or other Peanuts bobblehead, here’s where you go: : FOCO – Peanuts – Collection

I am being bribed with the promise of a free one of these to tell you about the item… and I’m not sure they’ll like what they’ve gotten for that bribe.

Share the news!