Build a Bear: Build a Memory
Written: Feb 16 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: inexpensive, fun, interactive
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: fun, unique and you get both memories and stuffed toy at the end.
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| naphtalia's Full Review: Build-A-Bear Stuffed Bear |
I first discovered the Build-A-Bear Workshop while walking through the area in front of Disneyland known as Downtown Disney. It is a shopping street and has many fun and interesting shops. The Build-A-Bear Workshop didn't jump out and get my attention as I walked by the first time. The second time I walked by, as I was headed back to the car, I stopped in and fell in love with the place.
The premise of the Workshop is simple enough. As you walk in there are a variety of "skins" for stuffed animals. Most of these are bears, but there are also elephants, dragons, horses and a number of other creatures great and small. On display above the bins of stuffed animal skins are finished stuffed animals. This is really nice because you can give the bear or other beasty of your choosing a test run for cuddliness before you have it made. The price of the skin includes stuffing, fluffing, giving a heart and sewing up your creation. Prices begin at about $10 for a small, basic bear. Some are as much as $25. The average critter runs about $15.
What happens next can make this expensive. Stuffed animals, you see, are like cars. They have a basic stripped down model - a bare bones bear, if you will. You can also get one fully loaded with all kinds of options, and you pay for the options.
The next step after choosing the skin of your animal is to decide if you want to include a voice in it. For $3, you can have a pre-recorded message. There are a wide variety at the store including "I love you," "Happy birthday,"Happy anniversary," or you can get the birthday song or a lullaby. For $5, you can get a pre-recorded voice with a variety of sayings. Finally, for $8 you can record your own voice saying whatever you want your stuffed animal to say.
After choosing the voice, you need to choose a heart. Just as Raggedy Ann had a peppermint candy heart, all Workshop animals have hearts. You get to choose either a solid red heart or a candy-striped heart. (Perhaps the heart makers know the story of Raggedy Ann, too.)The heart has a bar code on it. If your stuffed buddy ever gets lost, a computer record is kept. If someone returned it to a Build-A-Bear Workshop, the store will make sure you get it back. While this is a great idea in concept, I question how many people will be getting bears back that have been lost.
The next step is to bring the animal to life by putting its stuffing, skin and heart all together. An employee holds the animal over a stuffing tube while batting is blown in. They may check with you to make sure that the animal is full enough or soft enough (depending on the cuddle factor you are seeking). You also place the voice box once the animal is partly stuffed in the appropriate location. The employee will also take you through the proper ritual for putting the heart and all the love it represents into the animal. This ritual varies depending on the employee, the age of the stuffer, who is watching, and how much fun the person is having in doing it all. The ritual always involves kissing the heart. It often involves rubbing it in one's hands to make it warm, turning around, holding it to one's forehead and making a wish, blowing on it, holding it on the end of one's nose, hopping on one foot....and on and on. All these things are meant to bring luck, add love and to entertain.
The final required step is getting your animal stitched up. This keeps the love, the stuffing, the heart and the voice box where they belong. An employee does this without help from the customer. This is good as if this is not done right, it might ruin the experience. After sewing up the animal, it is groomed. Any excess hair or untidy bits are trimmed. The animal is brushed, de-linted and otherwise made gorgeous.
The customer is then brought into the process for a final cleaning process. There is a table set up for cleaning. One places the stuffed toy at the front of the tub and air is blasted to clean out all the animal's loose hair. It is fun to watch the toy bouncing and bounding around the table. There are lots of giggles from the kids here....adults, too.
Now comes the potentially most costly part. It's time to dress your new toy with the perfect clothing and accessories. (It would never do, after all, to have a bare bear.) Clothing options include wedding wear, career wear, casual wear, pajamas, sporting outfits, western gear, uniforms and ... well, the list goes on. Accessories include cell phones, briefcases, eye-glasses, purses, snorkels...again, the list of options is incredible. Naturally, everything is made to fit the animals.
Prices for the full outfits range from about $7 to $20. Accessories run from about $7 to $10.
The price range then for a stuffed animal here can run from a low of about $10 for your basic bare bear to about $65 for a dressed and accessorized bear. Of course, for the true bear fanatic, multiple outfits are possible making this an ongoing expense.
The last step (before paying for everything) is to name the animal and get his or her papers. You must give it a name before you leave the store in order to get a birth certificate for the animal. (Part of the tracking in case it's lost issue, too.) The birth certificate lists the date of birth, the name of the animal, the person to whom it belongs, height, weight, hair and eye color. You can also get the story of the animal's life. These records are included in the basic cost of the animal.
Okay, this is a very very gimmicky thing to do. It is a potentially very expensive stuffed animal. Once you get started, it's hard to not spend money on the next step. After all, $10 is not much. And if I'm going to spend $3 on a message, I might as well get 3 messages for $5...or if I'm going to go that route, maybe I should just record my own for $8....it starts to add up very quickly. On the plus side, this is a very fun activity and builds a lot of good memories.
I would not recommend doing this with a very little child who would not appreciate the whole process enough to make it worth the money, but by the time a child is 5 or 6, I can see where this could be a magical experience. This is also a fun activity to do for a baby shower. We recently had one for a friend who was having a second baby and already had most of the stuff she needed. There were 15 guests at the party. We went through in groups of three. Each group made a separate animal along the way. She came out with 5 very cute animals and a lot of good memories and photos from the day.
You can check out a Build-a-Bear Workshop if you have one locally before you actually make up your mind about building your own toy. I guarantee you will have fun whether you're building a toy or just people watching. It's a great place.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 10 on up
Type of Toy: Stuffed Toy
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years
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naphtalia
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Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn't mean the_circus has left town.
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