Yogi Bear Walkaround Costumes

For over 50 years, Jellystone Park has been franchised all across the country based on the famed Hanna Barbera cartoon, Yogi Bear.  These campgrounds include a big swimming pool, camping activities, water slides, mini golf, and of course....meeting Yogi Bear.  But Jellystone Park wasn't the only place Yogi would be, so today we take a look at the different costumes Yogi had over the years.

NOTE: 1.  The list is for Yogi Bear only.  No Boo-Boo, Cindy, or Ranger Smith covered here.
             2.  While bootlegs were few and far between, this only covers official costumes made by the copyright holders.
             3. The names given to these costumes are chosen by me.  No official names have been given to any of these costumes.
             4.  All dates are approximate, not official.  Many of these costumes have overlapped each other.

Traveling Fair Yogi (early 1960's)

The Hanna Barbera cartoons quickly became popular that all of the characters were made for hire at events such as fairs and carnivals.  However, like every other product by Hanna Barbera, quality of the merchandise varied, and each and every costume had at least one thing different about Yogi.  Sometimes his eyes are facing to the side, sometimes they're straight.  Generally speaking however, Yogi was skinny and had a small head with extra fur on the bottom to help cover up the neck.  Sometimes if done correctly, he wears his green hat and tie making it a not too bad costume for the time.  If done INCORRECTLY, he wears no tie but at least he's wearing a hat.....not really the greatest costume.

A....better.....Yogi????? (mid-1960's)

One picture shows a Yogi costume looking more plum, a much rounder head, along with his signature green hat and tie, making him more on model than before.  How often that costume was used and if massed produced, however, remains a mystery.  Once again, consistency is lost at Hanna-Barbera, so it may be the only costume that flew by night and disappeared.

Jellystone Yogi  (late 1960's-mid 1970's)

When the very first Jellystone opened at Wisconsin in 1969, Yogi Bear was there.  The deal made between one man and Screen Jems (who still owned some piece of the Hanna-Barbera pie) became a hit, and Jellystone became a franchise.  The costume was a little bit rounder than the previous traveling Yogi, but his head seemed to remain standard.  A bit of a long snout and big pupil eyeballs, he was an ok looking bear, but at least he was there.

However, it was still not as consistent.  One postcard shows Yogi with a much longer snout and eyes much smaller looking away.  The zipper also appears in the front of the costume, not the back.  It looks terrible.  It too may have flew by night after a few years.

Coney Island Yogi (1969-mid 1970's)

Meanwhile in Cincinnati, OH, Coney Island was looking to have Taft Broadcasting to buy the park and help move it to a new location, and also to incorporate the newly acquired Hanna Barbera characters.  The deal was struck, and by 1969, the Hanna-Barbera characters began making appearances at the park.  However, this has to be the most off model Yogi Bear costume I ever saw.  Rough fur, a very head but with little eyes, and his snout is the same color as his fur.  He only wore cheap gloves.  This costume would then be moved along with Coney Island to the new park named Kings Island

Kings Entertainment Yogi (1975-mid 1990's)

At last they came up with a standard costume to help celebrate the opening of Kings Dominion, and by far the most popular costume of Yogi ever used.  Being more on model with the character, Yogi gets a big nose, big eyes, and a big smile.  Everything about his costume is just right giving the illusion that Yogi Bear is real.  There were also small details to the costume such as snout spots on his nose and a tongue.  This costume would be used everywhere in many different theme and amusement parks, Jellystone Parks, special appearances, and even on television.  Hanna Barbera was becoming the king of cartoons like Disney was, and Yogi Bear was a top name for years.

Universal Studios Yogi (aprox. 1990-early 2002)

When Universal Orlando opened, they teamed up with Hanna-Barbera with a new attraction and hopes that MCA/Universal would acquire the studio (the deal fell through and Hanna-Barbera ended up with Turner.  To celebrate, new costumes of the Mount Rushmores of Hanna Barbera were created, and Yogi Bear was one of them.  Very similar to the Kings Entertainment costume body wise, the head was much different.  Yogi now has big ears and a longer snout.  He had a pretty big smile on his face and his eyes were big and horizontal.  There were some differences at times with the eyes.  Sometimes they look down while other times they look straight ahead, but the concept of the costume remained the same.  This costume was only used at Universal Studios, but it made some TV appearances as well such as promotional material for both Universal and Turner as well as an appearance on Coach and Kids for Character.  The costume was discontinued when The Fantastic World of Hanna Barbera was replaced with the Jimmy Neutron ride.

Promotional Yogi Bear (approx. 1991-1995)

In addition to the costume used at Universal, Hanna-Barbera also had one for promotional purposes.  Yogi's head is rounder but flatter.  His mouth isn't open that much as previous costumes but still maintained a big smile.  This costume was first used to promote Hanna-Barbera Home Video as well as the 30th Anniversary of The Flintstones.  By the time the costume ended appearing, it was used to help promote Cartoon Network.  

Paramount Yogi (mid-late 1990's-present)

On the other side of the theme park spectrum, Paramount who bought the Kings Entertainment parks decided to get new updates of the Hanna-Barbera characters, or at least the Mount Rushmores (retiring not so well known ones like Dynomutt and replaced them with the growing popularity of the Nickelodeon characters that they own).  At the same time, the Jellystone franchise was growing opening new franchise locations across the United States.  It was only natural to have a new Yogi Bear costumes.  This one was more cuddly.  His eyes are a lot smaller, making it a must for the performer to only see out either the mouth or nose.  There were some moments that screamed cheap at times since his great details are gone, but he still was on model.  Since these costumes were cheaper and because Jellystone was still growing and still popular, they were able to crank this costume out and continue to do so to this day.  The last time the costume made an appearance at Kings Island was in 2009 for their Halloween event.  Cedar Fair took control of the Paramount Parks by then and all references to Hanna-Barbera and Nickelodeon were replaced with Snoopy in 2010.  But today, this costume can be seen at a Jellystone Park near you.

WB Yogi (early 2000's-present)

As part of Hanna Barbera being absorbed into WB, new costumes were made to promote the product.  This included Yogi Bear.  Yogi now has much darker fur with a bigger snout and some minor details return.  He has big eyes and a big nose.  His body is slightly skinnier (but not that skinny).  This version had been used to promote Boomerang and is currently being used at the Warner Bros. Movie World Park in Madrid, Spain.  It could be suggested that Six Flags Great America used this costume for their Camp Cartoon Network, but I have seen no proof of that yet.

BONUS:

Happy Hour Yogi (1978)

This specially made Yogi dates back prior to when Disney was doing articulated heads.  Very similar to Kings Entertainment Yogi, this costume had a moving mouth and moving eyes.  The performer would operate the mouth and eyes the same way (I guess) as Carol Spinney did with Big Bird.  The hands would move the mouth and there's a section where the finger can move a rod to make the eyes go left and right.  One arm is null while the other can do everything else.  Unfortunately, it was only ever used once and only once, and that was the failed Hanna Barbera Happy Hour Show in which classic characters would be the guest stars and the stars were these two puppet ladies that sing, dance, tell jokes, and look creepy as sin.  No cartoons aired on it, it aired on prime time, it was gone after a few episodes.  Take a look at it in action, but I must warn you....it's weird

In the meantime, if you ever do visit a Jellystone Park near you......watch your pic-a-nic baskets.