This loveable guy is Pretzel Boy. He was first released in the U.S. market in the fall of 1999 as a companion piece to Hummel 2004 and rightly so at that. Modeled by master sculptor Helmut Fischer in 1999.
It has an incised 1999 copyright date along with the Trademark 8 and the "First Issue 2000 Millennium" backstamp. It was listed as a Special Event Collector's Set with a Free "Bavarian Bier Garten's HummelScape (Mark #1016-D) with a $75 value at participating retailers.
I believe we got ours on a QVC special. This cute guy is signed by master painter Christina Goihl at a Hummel Signing we attended. I guess you can tell by now that we like to have our hummels signed.