I can't say there's ever been a special bear in my life. At least none that I am aware of.
Of course, I loved TV and film bears like Rupert, Pooh, Baloo, Paddington and Issi Noho [can't remember what that was short for].
Toys eluded me.
I very nearly got hold of a toy Paddington like this about 15 years ago but the deal fell through.
Paddington Bear, the great literary creation of the late Michael Bond, was made into a toy by no less than Jeremy Clerkson's Mum down the road from Moonbase in Doncaster!
I did get hold of a Teddy Ruxpin mint in box from a mixed lot that came in when I was a full time Ebayer. It was an animated Teddy with a cassette player in its back I think. I remember it sold well circa 2005. Made in the 1980's it must have been a very early animated toy.
Talking of Ebaying I once picked up a Sooty glove puppet at a car boot sale. Having listed it on the bay it was snapped up by an Ebayer called I am The Real Sooty! I just hope I didn't actually sell the Real Sooty as it went for a song!
Oddly enough there was a Sooty Museum in Shipley about an hour away from Moonbase. It closed down around 2011.
Was or is there a toy bear in your life readers?
YOGI !
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ReplyDeleteBut Yogi was only smarter than the average bear!
ReplyDeleteWho said 'only'? He's also smarter than Ranger Smith and just about the entire human race. Yogi for president!
DeleteI adored Yogi Bear Kid. Did he have a catch phrase? I forget.
DeleteI think it was "I'm smarter than the average bear!" (Note the lack of the word 'only' in that sentence.) Did you see the live-action/CGI movie from a few years back, Woodsy? Well-worth watching.
DeleteNot seen the live action version Kid. For some reason I get Yogi, Top Cat and the Flinstones mixed up. Yogi's mate was boo boo wasn't it?
DeleteYup, Boo Boo was his chum. I found the movie very entertaining and I'm usually very hard to please. Some were critical of it, but I don't know what they were expecting of a Yogi Bear movie that it didn't provide.
DeleteThis thread has just reminded me of one of my fave cartoon characters Kid, the muskrat from Deputy Dawg I think. He used to say something like Sixty Six Cents with a hilarious hissing voice. God, I adored that Muskrat. Characters like that and Yogi et al are the very stuff of our classic childhoods aren't they Kid.
DeleteThe name 'Issi Noho' came from words stencilled on the side of the crate that he (the bear) was delivered from China to the UK in. They read:-
ReplyDelete" THIS SIDE UP USE NO HOOKS", but most of the letters had worn away leaving
" IS SI NO HO "! Make sense?
Mish.
Fascinating Mish. I do remember Isso Noho along with Mr. Ben and Crystal Tipps and Alistair and co on late afternoon TV I think. Its funny how teddy bears often seem to be from exotic places like China and in the case of Paddington, darkest Peru! I say teddy bears. Are they teddy bears?
DeleteI'm pretty sure Issi Noho was a Panda.
DeleteBritish zoos were obsessed with trying to breed them, in captivity, in the 60s and 70s, for some reason. They were popular with kids too.
Mish.
They were big news at one time weren't they Mish, Pandas. I'm not surprised that Issi was one. My fave Panda wasn't a bear at all but a toy blue police car by Dinky I think.
DeleteAha ! I see what you did there.
DeleteNice segway to a greater passion of yours Woodsy.
Mish.
ha ha, like Frank Sinatra, I did it segway!
DeleteThe large Paddington pictured above is like the one I gave my wife as part of her engagement gift. As we're still married 44 years later he must have been good luck. There was a funny parody of the Paddington story called 'Euston' published many years later.
ReplyDelete44 years! wow! that's some going Terran. Congrats! I wonder if youre betrothal bear came from the factory down the road from Moonbase in darkest Doncaster - sadly now closed https://thepaddingtoncollective.squarespace.com/about-gabrielle-designs/
DeleteHis label says Gabrielle Designs so if the factory was open February 1973 he was from darkest Doncaster
DeleteIts a Donny Bear! Yay! The owner's son became as famous as Paddington. Jeremy Clarkson, the TV presenter who made Top Gear a must see car show. Diana Rigg is also from Donny, Emma Peel no less!
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