This summer, the Eames Office and Vitra issued a limited-edition, molded plywood elephant based on an early, experimental design that Ray and Charles Eames made for their own kids, but never put into production. [Two were made; the Eames family has the only known original. Andy just tracked down a flickr photo of the OG elephant from the Eames House. Wow, the patina's the color of a perfectly baked McDonald's apple pie.]
Anyway, the Eamses made a number of other molded ply animals, too, none of which seem to have survived. But Formwerks has posted a photoset from the Eames Gallery in Venice, which includes sweet, vintage black&white photos of a plywood bear, some plywood seals, some cardboard [?] maquettes of a herd of elephants humping [??, but probably SFW] and an incredible-looking, mop-headed plywood rocking horse.
I hope someone at Vitra's firing up the CAD/CAM software.
Vitra Plywood Elephant @ Eames Gallery, in Formwerks' flickr stream [flickr]
Eames Plywood Animals (Super OG) [stork bites man]
Previously, but still apparently available: Eames Plywood Elephat, EUR1000, by Vitra
EUR1000? Does modmom know how to mold plywood in her garage?
[let's hope so; I don't want to spend a penny over EUR900. -ed.]