News Feature

World of Bears - Delivering Teddy Bears Worldwide

World of Bears.com is an online store devoted entirely to - yes, you've guessed it - teddy bears! Like British Corner Shop, World of Bears delivers worldwide, dispatching its much sought-after, high quality cuddly toys to all corners of the globe.

The World of Bears website was launched in 1999 by Elaine Moodie following the success of the Gorge Bear Company, a hugely popular teddy bear shop located in the dramatic setting of Cheddar Gorge in the heart of Somerset. Having since opened another bear store in Taunton in 2004, Elaine can lay claim to being one of the leading bear specialists in the world - offering a massive range of 7,500 products, over 4,000 of which are available online.

Whether you click on Elaine's website or pop in to one of her stores, the range of teddy bears that greets you is nothing less than staggering. There is something available for all budgets, from affordable brands such as Keel Toys, Russ Berrie, TY and Charlie Bears to top of the range, highly collectible teds from legendary names such as Steiff, Herman Spielwaren and Merrythought.

Steiff Bears are particularly coveted toys, the Steiff name entwined in the illustrious history of the teddy bear. It was in a workshop in Gingen, Germany back in the 1880s that Margarete Steiff first started to produce fabric animals. In 1902, Margarete's nephew Richard Steiff designed "Bear 55 PB" - the first ever toy bear with jointed legs and arms - and successfully exhibited it at the Leipzig Toy Fair.

At around the same time, US President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was involved in a hunting incident in which he refused to shoot a black bear that had been captured by his fellow hunters. A subsequent cartoon image of the event, depicting Roosevelt and a cuddly looking bear, inspired Morris Michtom to create a stuffed bear toy that he christened "Teddy's bear".

The craze for "Roosevelt bears" rapidly took off, with the President himself even using one as an election mascot, and Steiff were soon exporting thousands of Bear 55 PBs to the USA to meet the unprecedented demand. From 1906 the bears were sold as "Teddy Bears" - and the name has well and truly stuck!

The teddy bear industry today remains as buoyant as ever today, with World of Bears dispatching their toys to all manner of customers - from clued-up collectors to parents looking for a special, top quality toy that their offspring will cherish not only through childhood but also into later life. Steiff bears remain the most popular and collectible, with their limited edition range featuring beautifully hand-crafted, exquisitely detailed bears costing hundreds of pounds.

Given how highly coveted these toys are across the world, it is no surprise that World of Bears delivers internationally. Elaine explains how this has developed:

"Initially we concentrated on the UK, but we soon realised it made sense to start offering an international delivery service. Some of our bears are quite rare and tricky to get hold of - thankfully the internet enables collectors from anywhere in the world to find us and browse our ranges for specific toys they are after.”

"Today we regularly receive orders from the USA, as well as Japan and as far away as Australia and New Zealand. We're always happy to offer our advice on the toys we stock, and it's really satisfying to be sending our bears around the world!"

Over 100 years after the teddy bear craze initially took hold, and these much-loved toys remain as popular as ever - right across the globe.

Visit: www.worldofbears.com

Article Date: 4th April 2011