Rare Elvis Presley

Rare Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley-Rare Home Movie 1957

Teddy Bears- the Weird and Wonderful World

Teddy Bears have been around for over 100 years, but that doesn't stop designers and inventors from coming up with wacky new ways of using, altering, or (in some cases) destroying them!

From the innovative to the kitsch, the world of Teddy Bears is full of inventive new ideas, ranging from the wonderfully touching, to the downright weird!

The Teddy Bear Gun

Surprisingly, this isn’t a joke! This Japanese 'toy' has actually been designed to make life easier at your wedding! Instead of throwing confetti at the bride and groom, the Japanese go one step further and throw Teddy Bears!

Naturally, someone somewhere in Japan realised that this tradition could be made a whole lot easier if they had a gun to 'throw' the Teddy Bears for them, and so created the Teddy Bear Gun.

This contraption-- produced by Japanese paintball gun manufacturers, Sunamiya-- utilises the science behind their paintball guns to thrust the Teddy Bear through a transparent barrel, high into the air with a simple ‘click’ of the trigger.

Fortunately, no Teddy Bears are injured with the use of such a contraption as each bear is fitted with their own mini parachute, so they glide safely and gracefully back down to Earth to wish the bride and groom well on their journey.

USB Teddy Bear

That's right, a data-storing Teddy Bear! At a first glance this is just a normal, cute Teddy Bear, but once you pull its head off (Yes, you are required to decapitate this poor Teddy Bear!), it suddenly becomes a USB memory stick, with the head acting as the cap.

When plugged in, it appears as though the Teddy Bear is being sucked into your computer! Poor thing. Maybe someone had a score to settle?

We’re not too sure when, or even if these Teddy Bears will come on to the market. So if you don’t feel like waiting to find out, it can’t be that hard to pull apart one of your much loved cuddly toys…

The Huggable

The 'Huggable' Teddy Bear definitely fits into our 'wonderful' category!

This Teddy Bear is being developed to act as a robotic companion for the ill, elderly or infirm who are unable to enjoy the presence of real animals, and the benefits this can bring. The idea of the 'Huggable' was born after clinical trials proved that animals can reduce stress levels in patients, but some- due to allergies or local restrictions- are not able, or allowed to have access to such animals.

Making use of the latest sensate-skin technology, cameras in the eyes, microphones in the ears, wireless technology and data collection techniques, the Teddy Bear has been intelligently designed to respond to touch in the way a real animal would, and then communicate in an appropriate manner.

The aim is to provide a helpful tool for care providers that is emotionally pleasing and provides real, measurable health benefits to patients.

This has to be the most advanced, forward thinking, technologically packed Teddy Bear we’ve ever seen!

Teddy Bear MP3 Player

Appealing to Teddy Bear fans the world over, this nifty little Teddy Bear MP3 player, capable of storing 128mb of audio, with a USB connection, and a liberal $78 price tag, seems set to become one of the most useful and practical Teddy Bears available, without compromising on cuteness.

Created by Tomy, and weighing in at only 50g (excluding battery), this rather retro looking product will offer you up to 8 hours of playback from a single AA battery!

With this MP3 player making Virgin Media’s Top 10 Strangest MP3 Players list, we couldn’t resist mentioning it!

Teddy Bear Chair

As soft and as comforting as a 'real' Teddy Bear, this eccentric Teddy Bear Chair was designed by furniture designer Matti Klenell.

Perfect for any Teddy Bear lover looking for something completely different to furnish their home with, 'Mido' is an upholstered Easy Chair, shaped like a Teddy Bear, originally displayed at the Agate Gallery, Stockholm as part of an impressive solo exhibition.

This Teddy Bear Chair just looks so cosy. It’s tempting me to just snuggle up to it and have a nap!

The Evil Spy Robot Teddy Bear

No, this isn't the latest military project, but a Teddy Bear fitted with the latest and most advanced technology. The Teddy Bear is being developed to respond to the Teddy Bear's owners' voice, movements and even facial expressions!

With Microsoft showcasing a high-tech Spy Robot Teddy Bear at the TechFest trade fair, the stage looks set for further investment and development into intelligent Teddy Bears capable of recording moments of your child's day, reading them a book, and even connecting to a parent's system in a remote location to enable them to 'program a repertoire for a child'. The possibilities seem endless!

Initially, this Teddy Bear was designed to plainly track someone’s movement around a room, but since then, the whole project has exploded, and future plans for the Teddy Bear will take this toy to an amazing level of sophistication.

The Creepy Teddy Bear

This may be the strangest and most disturbing Teddy Bear I’ve ever come across, and slots into our 'weird' category perfectly!

Called the somewhat reassuring 'TeddyBearBand', this 'cuddly toy' was surprisingly designed by Philippe Starck who claims that 'an overabundance of toys fosters infidelity' in children, leading him to create this kind of hybrid of Teddy Bears/soft toys that apparently meets all of a child's needs!

With this Teddy Bear having a bunny for a hand, and a dog for a foot, it certainly packs more animals into a cuddly toy than the average Teddy Bear, but I'm worried about the dreams I'll be having tonight after seeing this thing, let along the effect it'll have on a young child.

The Teddy Bear Remote Control

This slightly odd-looking Teddy Bear, designed by the innovative designer Leah Culver, doubles up as an all-purpose remote control.

While maintaining it's softness and child-like appeal, this Teddy Bear makes a surprisingly effective, fully functional remote control. Squeeze the Teddy Bear's chest to play/pause your program or film, and change the volume with a soft pinch of the ear.

If you’re really tempted, you can follow this online guide to make your own Teddy Bear Remote Control!

We really like this one! Slightly weird, but also somewhat wonderful!

GPS Navigation Teddy Bear

This cheeky but fun GPS-fitted Teddy Bear (Navirobo) sits on your dashboard and directs you to your destination. But heaven forbid if you take a wrong turn, for your cuddly companion-- who even does a little jig when you finally reach your destination-- will mock you!

This is a great, laugh-out-loud Teddy Bear, designed and manufactured in (you guessed it!) Japan, will be a great addition to your dashboard that will make your long journeys home far less tedious!

'You Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog'

When Barney the guard dog went on a rampage at Wookey Hole Caves, it was no ordinary Teddy Bear that became one of her victims

Mabel, made in Germany in 1909, who previously belonged to none other than the King himself-- Elvis Presley-- lay mortally wounded, surrounded by the remains of almost a hundred rare Teddy Bears, destroyed by the foul-tempered Doberman Pinscher.

The Teddy Bears were on loan at the time of the attack, displayed at Wookey Hole Caves, Somerset. Mabel-- bought for $40,000 by Sir Benjamin Slade, an avid collector of Elvis memorabilia-- was, not-surprisingly, the star attraction.

Barney, who was supposed to be guarding the Teddy Bear collection, worth over £400,000 was wrestled to the ground among the remains of the Teddy Bears, with "Heads pulled off, arms, legs here and there, it was a total carnage really. I've never seen such a mess, there was stuffing, fluff and bear bits everywhere."

Sir Benjamin was, understandably, not best pleased!

Do our Teddy Bears have feelings too?

With so many weird and wonderful things happening in the Teddy Bear world, it makes you wonder whether our cuddly friends have feelings and emotions of their own. What would they think of the crazy ideas we have for Teddy Bears? Do they come awake at night and remember our moments of cruelty?

Perhaps it is sometimes true that we form connections with the inanimate objects that we surround ourselves with and eventually humanise our Teddy Bears, and by doing this, we begin treating them as if they have human emotions- pain, fear, love.

Whatever the case, here at Funky Bears, we’re sure the crazy Teddy Bear inventions will continue, and we can’t wait to see the next weird or wonderful ideas that people in the same industry as ourselves will come up with!

About the Author

Paul Lakeman of Funky Bears produces completely personalised Teddy Bear gifts for all occasions, and is holding a FREE PRIZE DRAW to win a GIANT FUNKY BEAR. For more information, please contact us.

How do I find the re-sale value of collector items from Bradford ExChange, San Fran Music Box Co, etc?

My parents passed away, and I have a rather large collection of items they purchased from Bradford Exchange, Franklin Mint, San Fran Music Box Company, and a few other companies. I wouldn't say the items are antiques. I do know some are well over 10 years old. My mom collected Gone With The Wind pieces, and my dad collected Elvis Presley. I have started to research some. I started on eBay, and I didn't see any of the pieces that I have. Some of the items came in collection of 6 or so {I have the entire collection of many sets}. I have tried some on-line research, and it hasn't been very successful. I need to know what to do. If I have a rare piece, I would like to KNOW that it is. Where should I start? Should I use a seller? How do I know if they are a respectable seller? Would I get more money if I sell them, versus letting someone else?

The companies that sold these items are successful marketers in product. They have created an image in the minds of buyers that their 'limited edition' collectibles will be worth a lot of money some day, when the reality is that 99% of it will bring pennies on the dollar in the secondary market. That 1% of items that for some reason had the right mix of desirability and scarcity to the aftermarket collector is by far the exception.

I learned this myself, the hard way. My parents were antique dealers, and they learned their trade well, over years of study and buying and selling. But they were only moderately successful, because they started out as collectors, and even as they became more learned and experienced, they still tended to buy things that they liked that were not antiques, hoping - not knowing, not having any proven track record - that the stuff would actually grow in value.

One such thing they bought was Bradford Exchange collector plates. And they bought a lot of them. They were doing this in the 1970s, right when I was getting started, got married, bought a house, and had a little discretionary income. They convinced me that the plates were a good investment, because they had seen the value of their 'Gone With the Wind' plates go up substantially. It was true, at the time, those plates had, and a few of them I think are still worth more than what they cost. But those were gone with the wind by the time I got started so I had to find something else. I really liked the Wizard of Oz plates, so I bought each in the series. They cost $20 each in the late '70s, except for the finale, a bigger plate, which cost $28. Today, I can get maybe $100 for the whole set. The rest of what I bought, about 90 more plates, some individual and some sets or near-sets, many of which cost more than $20. I figured out that I put about $3000 into plates between 1978 and 1983. That $3000, adjusted for inflation only, forget about what it would have done in the stock market, is worth close to $8000 today. If I take the time to sell them on eBay, the only place I know of outside of a flea market, I'll be lucky to realize $800.

The flea market or other local venue is probably the better place to sell. It just takes longer and requires moving all that stuff around, with the risk of damage. The problem with eBay is the shipping. Usually, complete sets are worth more broken up, the total of the individual pieces is higher tha the set price. This is true with coins, sports cards, and many other sets of collectibles. It may be true with some of the other things you have, and doing the eBay research is a good idea. With plates, though, if you have a set, sell it as a set. The Oz set of 8, at $100, is $12.50 per plate. Even at $85, the lowest set price I saw, that's $10 each. With the buyer paying shipping. Well, the individual plates were selling for far less than that, because of the high shipping cost per individual plate. So if you've got that individual piece that you can sell locally for $10, because it is worth $10, no one is going to pay $10 online and have to pay another $6-$10 for shipping. They take the shipping off of what they'll pay in total, leaving you with $4.

Again, some of what you have may not suffer from this shipping expense issue and you'll do OK with eBay. Especially Franklin Mint silver coins and medals. If you have any of that, you may do very well with it compared to what your parents paid for it. Other Franklin Mint items, like porcelain figurines and plates and cars and such, you will not get close to the original cost, and you may face the same problems with cost of shipping eating into what you can sell for. Finding exactly what you have may take more time. The thing to do is enter the specific keywords for what you have and save those searches, so you're notified when something comes up.

Beyond that, I have not found any credible source for determining true value of collector stuff. You can buy the various Franklin Mint guides. I bought one on eBay, from 1981, because it included a majority of the silver items that I track, from the 1960s and '70s. It's useless as far as value, but it's pretty good at giving information on issue size, which you need to determine scarcity.

Any searches I've done on Bradford or BRADEX turn up what they're pushing now, nothing on older stuff.

You will definitely get more selling by yourself, except for that truly rare item, which needs professional exposure to the right group of buyers.

If you don't want to sell by yourself, consult several local auctioneers. See how knowledgeable they are. Judge how interested they seem. My gut feeling is that most of them won't see Bradford Exchange as anything more than items to be sold by the lot.

Best of luck with it.