Baloo Costumes Through the Years

Costume evolution of Baloo (1967–present).
Picture	Year 	As seen at 	Notes
 	1967-1970 	 	Baloo is taller than later versions of the costume, has black fur, a black nose, and small round eyes positioned closely together. The performer peers through his neck with a vision hole on it in order to see out.
 	1969-1974 	 	The Disney on Parade version. His fur is blue instead of grey to give a colorful effect to the Jungle Book segment.
 	1970-1978 	 	Baloo is slightly shorter than the previous counterpart, and his grey fur still has a blueish hue.
 	1978-1992 	Various Disney Parks	Baloo's neck becomes shorter again and his fur becomes a bit shaggier. His eyes shrink a bit and his eyebrows become straight and pull a bit closer together.
A more grey, less shaggy version of this costume appeared in Walt Disney's World on Ice: 10th Anniversary.
 	1991-present	Various Disney Parks	Baloo's eyes and eyebrows are farther apart and his pupils are smaller, but his nose initially remains black. This costume debuted in The Disney Afternoon Live! at Disneyland, where he sported his TaleSpin outfit (although he wore it earlier in Florida, in Christmas 1990). Though there was an articulated version of this particular costume, the mouth mechanism (similar to that of purple dinosaur character Barney from Barney & Friends) was rare, almost not present. Aside from the duration of TaleSpin airing, he also wore this outfit during Carols of the Domain in 1998, Mickey's Halloween Party Parade in 2002, Disney Fan Daze in Paris in 2018, and 90's Nite in California again in 2019. His hat was flatter and shorter and didn't have a badge on it either in the former and latter events.
Also, in 1992 at Walt Disney World and beginning with Disney On Ice's Beauty and the Beast, his nose became brown, but this change did not apply to the Disneyland version until 1998.
Unlike the other suits, this one aligns with his TaleSpin persona and ditches the claws on his paws for having normal fingers. It also has a tan-colored muzzle instead of a grey muzzle, unlike the one in the actual franchise.
This body pattern was also used for the polar bears in the 2015 edition of the Magic Kingdom castle show Celebrate the Season.
 	2011-present	 	The articulated version of Baloo, seen in the Disney Cruise Line show Believe, and in Mickey and the Wondrous Book. He looks more accurate to his animated version though his head is enlarged a bit to give room for the animatronic triggers inside, has a bare thumb, is slightly pot-bellied, and has shorter, rounder, legs.
Unlike the other versions, he has no vision hole on his neck.
Category:Costume variants
Category:The Jungle Book
Category:Characters in Disney parks
Category:TaleSpin