The Pink Monkey Factory (Bear Factory)

Member Name: Vialdana

Product:	Bear Factory
Date:	03/07/09 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun for kids, excellent for special treats

Disadvantages: Crazy prices on the accessories you can choose.

To be perfectly frank with you the Bear Factory is not a shop I ever thought I'd be stepping inside. I'm not a huge bear fan, and I don't have kids so really why would I want to go there?! Well it all came about when my niece and nephew decided they'd like to come and stay with us at Easter without mum or dad, this was a new thing for them, and at 9 and 11 we thought we could probably handle it.

Having been given a whopping £25 each by their mum to spend while they were staying with us, like most kids the money started burning a hole in their pockets the moment they got in the car to come visit with us. My nephew decided he'd like a new computer game for whichever console it is he's got (I'm really not good at console stuff!), and my niece was itching to get to the Bear Factory so she could make a bear to take to bed with her while she visited with us. Knowing I was happy to spend a bit of money on them during their visit if we did anything else, I was quite happy to oblige them and let them spend their cash.

The particular store we visited is in the Centre MK but from what I've been told of other stores they're all laid out in very much the same way. You enter the store and are immediately started on your journey to make a bear. At one side of you are trays with bear skins in them - empty cuddly toys looking all sad and lonely as my niece put it. She took her time and chose carefully and picked a pink monkey. The next step on the journey is to have your bear stuffed. I was being led round quite confidently by my niece who I hate to say it has visited this store on as many occasions as she could con someone to take her there I think! A staff member stands and fills the bear with stuffing - there's this sort of pipe that they pop the bear on to which is controlled by a foot pedal so that the bear can be stuffed. Ahh before I forget, this is also the point where you pick a heart for your bear, and before it's put into the bear you have to kiss it and make a wish (yes of course I had to kiss the heart too ;-) you wouldn't think I'd get away without that bit would you?!). The heart is placed in the partly filled bear, and the rest of the stuffing added. There's a choice of how firm you want the bear to be, so you can have it really soft and floppy or really firm and unmoveable or somewhere in between, you can also choose a voice for your bear and even record a message for him/her/it to say if you want to, but we didn't do this bit. Once the bear is filled and the whip stitching which is ready to be done is pulled tight and finished off, the bear needs a bath. No water - well you wouldn't want a soggy bear would you! - this is an air bath to get rid of any loose bits of stuffing that may have adhered to his skin.

So now you have a complete bear and all is finished - except of course it's not! Now the monkey needs clothes aunty you don't want him to be naked do you? (well of course he does silly me! How could I possibly think otherwise!). So off we go round the back of the store where all the clothes and accessories are. There is SO much to choose from here it's ridiculous, from simple t-shirts for your bear (or monkey), to stuff emblazoned with the latest fashionable film logos. There are bags and sunglasses, hair bands, tops, dresses, trousers, shoes, skateboards, and well imagine a posh kids clothes shop, and then reduce it in size to fit a bear and you're pretty much going to have the right image in your mind. We (my niece) chose some clothes and accessories - a bag, top, and hair band all nicely clashing with the pink of his fur as she chose high school reunion stuff which is mostly red and sparkly and then I moved forward ready to pay.

Aunty we've got to do this bit first! (Whaaaa???)... Before you pay, you have to make your bear (monkey) a birth certificate. There are these little computer stations - they're nice and brightly coloured to appeal to kids again and fairly sturdily built. I thought here we go this is where I need to help, but noooo my niece was in like Flynn. Sat down and filled everything in carefully - her name, the monkey's name, her address, etc. and all I had to do was read her the number from his bar coded tag. The reason you put this in is twofold I think. Firstly when you do (finally) get to the till, they scan the code and it prints off the certificate for them to give you. Secondly if your bear gets lost ever then if he's returned to any Bear Factory store, they will scan him and get him safely home to you. I have to say I rather liked this idea of a well loved bear making his way safely home after having been lost by his loving little girl (or boy), how often it happens though I don't know.

We did finally reach the till after this. The process had taken maybe half an hour, and by this time my husband and nephew were sat outside the shop waiting for us (men do definitely shop faster don't they!). Unfortunately for them, my niece was given a £5 gift voucher at the till for spending over a certain amount and she just had to go and spend it there and then of course! (Well if you were 9 wouldn't you!). So back we went to look for something else. She chose some sunshades for monkey, and something else which to be honest I'm afraid I've forgotten now. That was an extra £1 on top of the £5 voucher though, so in total with the Monkey and all his accessories, she spent £28 on the thing.

I have to say, Although my niece did have a lot of fun (and if I'm honest so did I - very secretly of course), I do think it's a rip off - not so much the bear, as all the accessories that they sell you to go with it. The bear isn't too much more than a decent bear would be that you haven't had the fun of stuffing yourself (around £9-15 depending on which you pick), It really is adding all those extra bits that brings the cost up so high and of course when you make your bear you really are drawn round the shop in a fairly precise way so that you can't bypass that bit.

Summary: A great idea and one that works well if you have deep enough pockets to cope with the cost.