Teddy Bears

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The Teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear for small children. It is an enduring, traditional form of stuffed animal, often serving the purpose of comforting upset children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become expensive collector's items. Teddy bear collectors are known as arctophiles from the Greek words 'arcto' (bear) and 'philos' (lover). The world's first Teddy Bear Museum was set up in Petersfield, Hampshire, England, in 1984. In 1990 a similar foundation was set up in Naples, Florida.

Some Teddy bears are intended for children to play with. Others, for adults, are referred to as "collector items" or "Designer bears". The first type is usually an unjointed bear where arms, head and legs are stitched to the body. The other type, for adults, are almost always fully jointed, which means that the arms legs and heads are movable by being attached with disks and cotter pins.

Notable fictional teddy bears include

• Paddington Bear
• Winnie the Pooh
• Radar O'Reilly's unnamed teddy on M*A*S*H
• Big Bird's teddy bear, Radar on Sesame Street.
• Bobo, Mr. Burns' childhood teddy on The Simpsons.
• Shmee, the teddy bear that speaks to his owner Squee in Jhonen Vasquez's comics
• Lord Sebastian Flyte's teddy bear, Aloysius, in Brideshead Revisited.
• Amy, Lulu and Morgan, the teddies from Bananas in Pyjamas.
• Teddy Ruxpin
• Mr. Bear, teddy of Stephanie Tanner, on Full House.
• Mr. Bean's Teddy.
• Pookie, the teddy bear belonging to Garfield, the famous cartoon cat.
• Rupert, Stewie's teddy bear on Family Guy.
• SuperTed
• Roadpook
• Teddy, the robotic 'supertoy' teddy bear from the film A.I.
• Mike O'Malley's Lost Bear At Age 24
• Eddie, the hard-boiled detective's sidekick in Robert Rankin's book The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse