Bearington Bears for Halloween

Bearington Collection is a company that since its creation in 1997, has received over 100 design awards and nominations for their collection of diverse and creative soft toys which nevertheless have a particular 'look' that says Bearington.

Each Fall, they issue a new set of Halloween soft toys and ring the changes on a colourful and loveable set of bears. The one here is Mac and Jack, a pumpkin scented bear introduced in Fall 2008 and still available.

Although Bearington Bears can be played with by older children, they should not be handed to children under 3 years old, as they are collectibles and are not classified as toys, having small parts. If you want a soft toy for a younger child, please look at their Bearington Baby range (you can find a link at the end of this article).

This is Sabrina, the one I bought last year. I love her dress, which has a stiff black bodice with green sparkles that match the bow on her witch's hat, and a skirt made up of green satin with a top layer of fine black mesh with applied bats, which are made from a sparkly velvet material. She's not likely to be available any more, but there are other Halloween bears still available.

Bearington Collection is based in Kennesaw, Georgia, in the USA, voted by Family Circle magazine in 2007 as 'one of the nation's ten best towns for families'. Bearington was created by Jamie and Brad Stray, whose love of teddy bears inspired them to follow their dream and set up their own company in 1997. Since then, they have produced a large range of bears and other soft toys and, more recently, Bearington Baby, a collection of baby toys, blankets and other items for babies and young children.

They have received many TOBY (Teddy Bear of the Year) Industry Choice awards, TOBY Public's Choice awards picked by the readers of Teddy Bear and Friends magazine, a Collectible of the Year award in Canada, Golden Teddy nominations and CIB Collector's Choice awards.

Keeping to the Halloween theme, their TOBY Public Choice award in 2009 was in the small manufactured bear, dressed, category for Ms Abracadabra, a gorgeous Halloween themed bear, in a black and orange feathered bonnet and matching black and orange full skirted dress, which also won the 2009 TOBY Industry Choice award.

To show some of the detailing in the bears, this is a close up of the underside of the foot from the bear in my collection. The foot pads have soft material stitched to resemble toes. The fur on the bear's body and face is quite long and soft. The video below gives more idea of the detailing on the bears.

Although the video shows a selection of the company's Christmas bears rather than ones from Halloween, it still gives an idea of the quality of Bearington Bears and their individualised clothing. You can see how much detail goes into the clothing of the bears and the different character given to each one.

I'm a collector of bears and soft toys, but I like to think I collect with discrimination. I have a few that are limited edition and hand-made, but they tend to be expensive. I also have various 'mass market' toys, but they must be well made and have some personality or quirk that commends them. I like the cute faces of Bearington Bears, the fact that they are jointed which isn't always the case for a reasonably priced bear, and that they have interesting and well made clothing.

As mentioned in the introduction, Bearington Bears should not be handed to children under 3 years old, as they are collectibles and are not classified as toys, having small parts.

Here's the surprise in their Halloween selection: the Bearington Bears range also includes other soft toy animals, but this must be one of the weirdest and very fitting for Halloween. Jinx is a plush basket, sized 12" x 13.5" x 11", and has some good reviews from satisfied customers.