Kroesje Bear

Kroesje Bear is a friend of Flipje from Tiel, together they had many adventures. There are 46 original books of the adventures of Flipje made. Kroesje Bear was on the cover of four of them. We have all titles of the original books, the four covers with Kroesje Bear on them and we also have some pages for you from the original books.

The birth of Flipje

Gardener Pip and his son Pipje have a raspberry plant in the Betuwe. They provide the plant with love and there grows an enormous fruit on the plant. They pick the raspberry and bring it to the Summer Fairy, where they go at the table with the other gnomes. When the large raspberry comes on the table as dessert, the gardener and his son start to cry.

Summer Fairy began to laugh
“Wipe your tears away quick!
I will do something really nice out of him.
Look, with this wand.”

She just touches the beautiful fruit
With her golden wand.
“Look” said the Summer Fairy, “here you see
Tielsch Flipje in front of you!”

Flipje wanted to broaden his horizons and went balloon sailing once. The wind took his balloon and Flipje sailed further and further away. After hours of sailing, Flipje saw his chance to jump out, right on top of a tent. It soon became clear that he was in Animal Land and it was there that Flipje lived most of his adventures. He went to live with Mrs. Schaap, who was kind of a mother to Flipje and made many friends. His best friends were Bigears Elephant, which was not the smartest, Bert Pig, a big glutton and Jasper Monkey, a rascal full of mischief.

Besides those three, a lot more characters were in the comics: Agent Bulderen, Baas Piet Bul, de Greengrocer, Barend Bok, Farmer Os, Mayor, Doctor Poedel, Gerard Giraf (green jacket), Giraf Langhals (grey jacket), Grauwtje Ezelin, Miss Geit van Geitenstein, Miss Schaap, Kabouter (green trousers), Captain Rob, Kees Konijn, Klaas Ram, Krelis Krokodil, Krent Kruidenier, Kroesje Beer, Mauwmauw, Madam Kangeroe, Mol, Paashaas, Platzak, Reinaart Vos, Schoorsteenveger, Sjoerd de visboer, Treesje Boe, Trein Konijn, Tuinman Pip (orange trousers), Witter Kwast

Flipje from Tiel

Flipje was a moralising little fellow, he warned his friends in advance if they were planning something. If it went wrong again, there was always Flipje with his wise advice. After that, he treated everyone on lemonade, jam or apple juice from ‘company de Betuwe from Tiel’, because there had to be advertising.

Flipje changed in appearance with the years. Flipje in 1935 was a big raspberry on clogs, with no facial expression. On his head was a tall, straight toque. Flipje in the fifties was less heavy, with boots and a toque hat with more folds. He had more human proportions, apple-shaped rosy cheeks and a mischievous smile. Flipje from the seventies is a Flipje with a mop of hair and no crest. The facial expression is gone again. In the eighties, a new Flipje was design, a guy with a blond strand and since 1994 with a shadow.

the Betuwe

Flipje is the face of the jam factory De Betuwe in Tiel, which in 1935, were looking for a logo to differentiate them from increasing competition. Publicity agency ‘Van Alfen’ invented a man with a thick raspberry as a body and arms and legs of red berries. This little fruit man with the name ‘Flipje’ on his hat was the recognisable logo for the Tiel jam factory. To introduce the public to Flipje, he appeared in a puzzle and one could (especially for those days) win big cash prizes.

Henk Rotgans made the first series of booklets about Flipje with his friend Jasper Monkey. In 1936 the stories were told at 1-meter long filmstrips. These stories were illustrated and provided with rhymes by Martinus Eelco ten Harmsen van der Beek. Except in small booklets, Flipje also appeared in the windows of the grocery store, in ads and on labels. The adventures of Flipje and his friends appeared in 48 cartoons till 1954, published by Tiel jam factory ‘De Betuwe’.