Purple Panda's Perplexing Package

First, I'd like to say thank you to Tim for extending his invitation to me to contribute to his blog. I'm exceedingly proud to be able to contribute in some small way to spreading the great things that Mister Rogers Neighborhood has given me. Actually, that makes it sound like all my posts will be really deep memorable things, which probably couldn't be further from the truth. Oh well, anything can happen in make-believe.

I've been agonizing over what my first post should be. I wanted it to be something interesting, but different from the sort of thing that Tim has done before. I was developing some ideas, but nothing was quite ready to post. Then as I was browsing blogs the other day I found my subject. First a little backstory though:

In episode 1696, Mr. McFeely is trying to deliver a mysterious package to Purple Panda. This package is in the form of a knobby orange ball, and has the words "Do Not Open" written across it.

I've always idly wondered where the prop people for the Mister Rogers Neighborhood got this unusual ball, though it wasn't farfetched to believe that they simply went down to the local toy store and picked up something off the shelf. But at the time, I was a kid and pretty much new what toys were out there. So like I said, I was browsing one of the blogs I frequent, Dinosaurs and Robots, and came across a post for "Bump Ball" a toy that was made by Milton Bradley in the 60's.

As soon as I saw this, I knew it must be what was used for Purple Panda's package. Besides the obvious similarity in color, it had the same knobby protrusions. However on preparing this post, I went and gathered the screenshots you see here, and notice that the Neighborhood version has a detail I hadn't noticed: it almost has veins running along it's surface. The pattern they follow reminds me of the stitching on a baseball, almost as if the Neighborhood ball was pieced together from fabric and then perhaps covered with a thin rubber skin. So was I wrong and this wasn't in fact an off the 1960's shelf Bump Ball? I wonder if perhaps the Neighborhood people took a Bump Ball and then cast it, or covered it to make their prop, adding these seams.

Throughout the week's episodes, the Package changes- whenever someone throws it up in the air 2 times, it disappears and then reappears sporting a new patch of color. Since the Make Believe portions of the show were usually all filmed together, it makes sense that several of these packages would be made, instead of one package which would have to be painstakingly painted each time it changed. I don't know what to think. I am still pretty convinced that in some form, this Bump Ball was the basis for the Package. The proportions are just too similar to be a coincidence. I wonder if in fact Milton Bradley produced a later version, maybe in the 80's that had these added seams on it's surface. One things for sure: anything from Planet Purple is sure to be interesting. But that's a post for another time...

*Edit 6-3-09

Upon watching this episode again, it turns out that this package may not actually be from Planet Purple. Queen Sara is first seen asking Mr. McFeely to deliver it to Purple Panda, but it doesn't sound like she's it's sender either. Unless I missed something, the true sender is never mentioned.- Eric