Congratulations! Those jets reindeer are simply the best! A good shape, wonderful vinyl, and are wonderfully cute. *goes on Ebay to check which reindeer it might be* The one that sold for $30 from Mansfield actually looks like a Topcat reindeer. His design was copied by both jets and iw but that looks like an original. Take good care of him.

As for the repairs, if they are a simple seam split, I insert a small triangular object into the hole with vinyl cement on both sides in order to get glue on the two sides. I then pinch the two sides back together again. In addition a bit of clear vinyl over the top also helps. I'm no expert repairer though but this method seems to be effective.

I really didn't know that Jets and IW copied Topcat's design, really interesting to know. Also, I'm not planning to actually ride him, very high chance he'd get a split from that. It did look a different color than the Jets reindeer I've seen photos of, thought it was the lighting.

By the way, who/what is Mansfield?

Oh, Mansfield was simply the town that the reindeer was sold from. I'm not sure of the specifics (like if it was with permission or whatever) but there are at least 4 versions of the reindeer. Not counting the intex reindeer that the topcat one is probably based off of. There are two versions of the jets one with one having the white teardrop on the head and the other witihout. The Topcat one has the teardrop and a slightly different eye positioning and shape. The IW one has 7 valves. Finally, the intex one is small, far darker and the white spots are far less pronounced.