Make your own teddy bear! (Bear Factory)

Member Name: bowdeni

Product:	Bear Factory
Date:	02/04/05 (11691 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great day out, great for children (teens and adults), Great memory, Great birthday idea

Disadvantages: could prove addictive

I can not emphasis just how much fun the Bear Factory Workshop is. Also known as 'build a bear factory', if you haven't heard of the stores before, you make your own teddy bears. Taking about 20 minutes, it is very fun. I went and made a bear with my girlfriend on valentines day. Was perfect.

The bear factory are a nationwide company, so there should be a store near by. When you walk into the store, first impressions are that its a very small clothes shop! When you go to the bear factory, you go around the shop doing all the activities, so i'll commentate on each one.

STAGE ONE: PICK A BEAR
The first bit of the bear factory is where you pick a bear to have. Theres a large range of bears, from tradional bears (like ours) to ducks and other animals. Prices range from about £12 onwards, and are very reasonable. The bears are presented not stuffed, and just their 'furry skins' are presented, from which you select one.

STAGE TWO: FILL HIM WITH LOVE
The next stage of the bear factory is perhaps the most fun. This is where the bear gets stuffed. Obviously doing this would be a hazzard so the trained staff do this, but you watch and help them by pressing the pedal down. At the store we went to, you could see the stuffing churn aroun and press buttons to change the colour. Superb for younger customers. Once the bear is stuffed, you take a fabric heart and put it into the bear. This is his or her heart!! A really nice touch. The bear is finally stitched up

STAGE THREE: SHOWER
Our bear had a little bit of stuffing on him and some loose hairs. So naturally he needed to be cleaned, but not with a tradional shower. The bear factory has a child friendly air shower which the child (or adult) can operate with a pedal. Most fun.

STAGE FOUR: BIRTH CERTIFICATE
At this stage, you fill in some information which allows the shop to print off a birth certificate. You state the owner etc and your address and the certificate is presented to you when you pay. I made the mistake of putting my girlfriend down as the parent of our bear, so should we ever split up, I can assure you, I will be fighting for rights to see our bear. At the moment, she is on holiday so he is living with me. We named our bear 'Laurian', a combination of my girlfriends name and mine.

STAGE FIVE: CLOTHES
This is definatly the most fun stage, where you can cloth your bear. It is genuinly like a little department store, with shoes, underwear, short, trousers, tshirts and jumpers, even glasses and phones available. On the day I bought our bear a football kit (just £4) but later he has collected jeans, a 'dude tshirt', a coat and tracksuit top and bottoms. He needs some shoes next!

STAGE SIX: PAY
Prices are very good for the level of entertainment and the memories you will have. You present your bear to the nice person and they put him in a really cool cardboard box house, and give you the birth certificate. Your ready to take your cool new bear home to love!

I can not recommend the bear factory enough! I recommend it for days out for young children, and teenagers lookin for somewhere fun to take a girl. It provides much fun and we love our bear to bits!!! Prices are good.

.... and oh yeah, I'm 18 years old, hehe!! Take a look at the picture of our bear, 'Laurian'.

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