Toy OTD: Messemaennchen "Convention Man" Figure (1964)

It's been a while since I picked this up, so I don't remember where I bought it (maybe at the San Mateo toy show) - I think it cost me about $40. I knew nothing about it then, but an internet friend doughyboy did some digging and found this guy's back story:

It's called Messemaennchen, and it's an East German mascot for the Leipzig Convention in the early sixties. The phrase Leipziger Messe refers to a convention center/area in Germany (Leizpig), that has been around forever - since before World War I. They host a famous book convention, games convention, car convention and a few others. The double M on the character head is the logo for the convention center itself (the logo was designed in 1917).

I'll bet William Joyce has one of these figures in his collection, don't you think? It's very much the aesthetic that he's fond of.

I thought these figures would be harder to dig up, but if you can read German, it looks like you can buy a similar figure here for six Euros, or about $8.27 USD + shipping.