Yuzuru Hanyu’s Official Winnie the Pooh Collab Continues with New Collector’s Edition Plush
Image by James RichardsonYuzuru Hanyu and Winnie the Pooh are continuing their official collaboration with a new collector set that dresses Pooh in recreations of two of the figure skater’s most famous Olympic costumes.
Created as part of the celebrations marking 100 years since Winnie the Pooh’s original literary debut, the completely made-to-order release combines a dress-up Pooh plush with a new 40-page memory book devoted to Hanyu’s long-running connection with the Disney character.
Hanyu is a two-time Olympic champion who won consecutive men’s singles gold medals at Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018 before moving into professional figure skating in 2022.
Winnie the Pooh has also become closely tied to his career, with Hanyu regularly keeping a Pooh tissue-box cover beside the rink during competitions and fans famously responding by throwing huge numbers of Pooh plush toys onto the ice after his performances.
That tradition became widely known as the “Pooh Shower” and recently inspired “SHOWER OF HEART – Gift of Shining Light –,” an official Hanyu and Winnie the Pooh anniversary project featuring around 100 pieces of merchandise and a touring series of pop-up events across Japan.
The newly announced collector set takes their connection in a different direction by recreating costumes from Hanyu’s own skating career for Winnie the Pooh rather than using the original outfits created for the wider SHOWER OF HEART collection.
The included Pooh plush measures approximately 20.5 cm tall and comes with miniature versions of the costumes worn by Hanyu for his SEIMEI free skate and Ballade No. 1 short program at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
Pooh arrives already dressed in the SEIMEI outfit, while the Ballade No. 1 costume is included separately and can be swapped onto the plush, allowing both of Hanyu’s PyeongChang programs to be represented with the same figure.
The accompanying hardcover book contains 40 full-color pages following Hanyu and Pooh together, including photographs taken at Ice Rink Sendai, where Hanyu regularly trains, alongside more relaxed outdoor photography.
An exclusive extended interview goes deeper into his affection for Pooh and the memories attached to his personal collection, while also revisiting the SEIMEI and Ballade No. 1 costumes and programs recreated by the plush.
Two additional collector bonuses are packed with the set, beginning with a reproduced handwritten letter from Hanyu addressed “To Pooh” and presented inside its own original envelope.
A large B2 poster is also included, using a photograph of Hanyu resting among Pooh items from his own personal collection that have rarely appeared publicly.
The “Yuzuru Hanyu and Winnie the Pooh Memory Book with Dress-Up Costume Pooh Plush” is priced at ¥22,000 (approx. $138 USD / £101 GBP), with reservations available through participating Japanese booksellers including Amazon Japan and Rakuten Books.
Orders are being accepted from August 18 through October 20, 2026, with the completely made-to-order set currently scheduled for release on May 27, 2027.
Kodansha also plans to continue adding material to the project’s dedicated website throughout the reservation period, including behind-the-scenes footage from the shoot and new video interviews with Hanyu discussing Winnie the Pooh.
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