I was so disappointed to find that the design of this elf has changed since we got ours in 2009. Unfortunately, ours had a mishap this year (got too close to a lightbulb), and I needed to quickly replace him. I was impressed with Amazon at the speed with which he arrived. However, the new one looked NOTHING like the old one!! The quality of the painting was sub-par and messy, and the face shape, paint colors, eye shape, and hair were not as colorful or cute as our original one. The felt used for the body and hat on the new one is cheaper and rougher, more of a thick, scratchy felt than the soft one we had. He just seemed so dull and cheap, comparatively. Sadly, it seems they have let the quality go in favor of mass production. Luckily, only the body of ours had been damaged, so I was able to do a full head transplant, and my kids were none the wiser. When my kids noticed these new ones in the stores this year, they actually commented on how different they looked from theirs at home! Additionally, I looked for just the elf without the book, but found that I had to repurchase the entire set, so now I have an extra book and box. I wish I could find another of the older design elf- I would pick it up now and save it, just in case I need it in the future.