B is for Bears; Teddy Bears

There are three types of bear: real bears (and models of them), cartoon bears (and models of them) and teddy-bears, which shouldn't need models as they are already toys or playthings, but you get them anyway! It is this last lot we are looking at today, a real Picasa-clearance post!

 

These first three shots all came in a lot from a Charity Shop about a year ago and represent one of life's little mysteries - if you are a logically driven person like me - the desire of normal functional humans to go into their local high-street jewellers (we're talking Ratner's or their ilk here, not Hatton Garden!) or 'gift' shop and pay 5, 10 even 15-quid for a small lump of poured resin!

These are made by Lammermuir Designs in Scotland, [possibly soon to be a foreign country . . . fortunately I have McDougall (or McDougal? Must find out!) relatives, so my bolt-hole beckons wetly, but with stunning scenery from the far end of the M74!], and like the next two shots are made of poured, polyurethane-resin, a material we all know from aftermarket accessory and conversion-kit manufacturers, although in the case of these 'Objets d'Art' usually called 'polystone' or something equally pretentious and misleading! A much over-priced material and equally over-rated technology.

Jordan Frazer (or one of his supplying technicians!) poured a similar amount of planet-destroying two-part epoxy into this guy's mould, he's called 'Tiny Ted (blue)' which is a bit of a mouthful but makes him easier to track-down online. Actually I found all of them online, and none of them retain - as second-hand collectables - the value they were/are priced with in the shop windows of the nations jewellers as 'adult collectables'.

The other ID'd examples from the lot are these two from RR Hill, same size (30mm'ish), same customer base.

On the right are the last of that Charity Shop lot, I can't tell if they are resin or polystyrene but they were glued together after separate manufacture, to create a vignette almost certainly titled 'the kiss' or something equally mawkish!

 

While on the left is a 1970's Hong Kong predecessor of the Kinder 'animal family' collectables, sold in gum-ball machines and as carded sets, we saw the cats before on the blog, last Christmas?.

 



 

I found this (original - top left) in the street the other day, and not knowing what else to do with it (it's an unmarked lump of ethylene), threw it through the Picasa effect-tools catalogue!

 

As it was lying near a day-nursery I guess it may have sailed over the hedge, and is probably from a set of similar, simple toys/objects for early-learning dexterity, counting and colour-sorting type play-exercises, bulk-bought by educationalists from suppliers like Galt?

 

Moving further afield; the larger of the two pairs are vintage Kleeware babies rattles, filled with a pinch or two of small beads and glued together, the smaller two bears are actually naked, the forth type of bear - the bare-bear!

 

You may well be more familiar with them as flocked bears, where they used to appear in little paper-bags, with a balloon or two and some sickly aphorism or 'life-affirming' slogan on the side of the bag.

 

These have retained their flock, except for a few patches of ware and their bums, which is where they are hot-glued into their little bags, the first shots were awful, this flock attracts tons of fluff you can't really see until you flash-it under macro. I had to spend 20 minutes picking it all off with a pair of tweezers, so they'd be properly fluffed for their 2nd photo-shoot!

 

Strictly - the pencil-rubber (eraser) is a cartoon bear, not a teddy-bear but he got in under the radar while I was still formulating the bear rules! He was from Wilkinson's I think, again a while ago now and he may already have appeared on the blog?

 

The Band has definitely appeared here, but they are amusing so they can return for a curtain-call. The irony - of course - being: bears . . . in bearskins (with their ears sticking-out!). If I find a second set, I'll repaint them in reverse colours . . . black bears in honey-blond bearskins!

 

The final one may be almost as old as the two Kleeware's, it's PVC, but quite crude and with flaws in, and looks a bit like the old Thomas mule, or babies, I suspect therefore it may be a dolls house accessory of that era, if not that company?