Gemmy 2003 Really Wild Wildlife - Get Down Gary the Groovin’ Gorilla - “Jungle Boogie”

I posted this 5 years ago, and it has been desperately awaiting a re-upload since. The original video was terrible lol.
I somehow came across this thing at a pop up flea market a looong time ago, maybe 2013-2014 ish? I still remember it like it was yesterday though- the guy had a bunch of early 2000s animatronics under a table (nothing else Gemmy) and one of them was this gorilla. I bought him for $2, and I would’ve bought the rest too, but I was still pretty young at the time and wasn’t allowed lol. I chose this guy because I already had my Groovin’ Chihuahua at the time and idk, wanted him to have a friend I guess. The coolest part of this story though, is that while I was buying the gorilla, the owner of the booth was telling me about how his dad used to collect toys like this, and had shelves full of them in his basement or something along those lines. Still today, I’ll randomly think back on that conversation and wonder just what else the guy had, or where he is today.
Anyway, this ape came in great physical condition, and still had his original try me button plugged into him. I still have that button by the way, I just took it out for this video. He didn’t move much at first though, there were split gears in both mechanisms as expected. I remember being pretty disappointed at the time and not really using him much, which was probably a good thing. I didn’t fix it until around 2017, and I’m glad I didn’t try any earlier or I would’ve ruined it. Even in 2017, I didn’t assemble him right the first time and he didn’t walk correctly. I finished him off properly in 2018, and he’s been perfect ever since.
I love this guy, and not just because I’ve owned him for at least a decade now. This mechanism has always been a favorite of mine, the sliding movement it produces is just so cool to me. I like the little embroidered kiss stain on his face too, it adds a pop of color to his otherwise dark color scheme. It’s almost weird to imagine this as a plain gorilla lol, that kiss mark gives him so much personality. But this begs a question. Look at the size of the gorilla’s mouth. Look at the size of the lip stains. Who was Gary gettin’ down with???
Thanks for checking out the video! Hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you think in the comments, and I hope to see you again soon!