This is one of the original Card Ducklings released by Rich Bloch c. 1984. I prefer it to the early ones created by George Robinson with the googly eyes however, I think recent releases from George are closer to the early CW ones.
There have been many versions of the Card Duck over the years. It was invented by Laurie Ireland and marketed by him as Otto, The Automaton Duck.
This duckling looks adorable and works well as long as you maintain the beak and ensure that the cards are not too sticky. When I opened this the cards were clumping badly and the rubber pads on the beak were completely solid – forty years is a long time to wait between picking a card. After trying various pieces of rubber and pads with no luck I placed a piece of black felt on the top and double sticky tape on the bottom beak and it started picking up very smoothly.
You do have to make sure his beak travels the full distance and don’t rush things. But after some trial and error my little guy was picking cards like a champ 🙂
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