Craziest Teddy Bears Ever

While the focus of my teddy bear collecting is on antique teds, I do sometimes find modern bears I like. Some of my favorites are made by the contemporary artist Cindy McGuire, of China Cupboard Bears. Her crazy creations feature interesting proportions, enormous noses, wacky smiles, and clothing and accessories constructed from vintage materials.

Meet Alice, a lovely little lady bear about 10 inches tall, sporting a fascinating hat with vintage trims. Her handmade dress suits her perfectly, and her old paper umbrella completes her presentation. Alice's mauve-backed purpley-grey mohair is one of the most unique I've ever seen.

Doesn't she look just like an eccentric little old lady out for a stroll?

Here's Alice without her hat, revealing her 

oddly-proportioned, yet adorable, face:

Next is Alice's cousin, 16 inch Hubert, with his little wooden friend, Nog. Nog is a vintage piece, as is the fabric used to make Hubert's costume. Hubert looks like he's ready for the beach:

Hubert has a great face; it always makes me smile. 

It's worth a couple of profile shots to see the full effect:

Last but definitely not least is a 14 inch, multi-hued bear that people seem to either love or hate. (I love him.) I'm not sure of his name, as he was sadly missing his tag when he arrived. For obvious reasons, I've called him Smiley.

  A face to make you giggle...or haunt your nightmares, 

depending on your taste...

Antique Automobile Game

There's a lot to appreciate in old board games besides their game play, like the beauty of their lithography and the interest of their history. One of the best examples of this in my collection is a 1920s auto race game, made by Wilder Mfg. of St. Louis, Missouri. The board features wonderful cartoony illustrations of now-classic automobiles in a road race. 

 The center of the board hosts a great gas station 

with old style gas pumps:

Oh no! You're out of water, and your radiator is overheating!

Go back five spaces...

 

The cars include Cadillacs, Packards, Stutz, 

and a brand I've never heard of, Marmon, 

all driven by maniacal-looking men wearing goggles:

Flintstones Weebles

Hasbro's original Weebles toy line, made in the 1970s, was one of my childhood favorites. The playsets and figures were, for a brief period, competitors for Fisher Price's Little People. Any kid who grew up in America in the '70s must surely remember the company's famous advertising jingle, "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down," as well as the parent and media induced "choking hazard" scare that prematurely ended the line.

Most Weeble sets were generically themed (a cottage with family; pirates in a ship; cowboys on a ranch) but there were a few licensed character tie-ins, including the Flintstones.

Yabba Dabba Doo!

Fisher Price Space Blazer

Zooming in for a landing is my very favorite vintage Fisher Price pull toy: 1953's Space Blazer. Measuring 14 inches long, the wooden, paper lithographed Space Blazer features a domed cockpit with a green alien pilot, a bouncing antenna on the front, and a clanging bell on the rear. As the toy is pulled, the cockpit spins and the bell rings.

The little green man is adorable:

The Space Blazer's lithography is beautifully done, 

with lots of great detail:

Blast off!

Champ, the Boxing Bear

Although I now collect many different kinds of toys, my first love was antique teddy bears. Within that category, my favorite type of bears are so-called "characters," teddies that have been so loved they are all but worn out. Doting owners often carefully dressed and accessorized such bears, to make up for missing fur, noses, and, in this extreme case, paws, resulting in one of a kind characters with lots of forlorn appeal.

This 14 inch, 1930s British bear has lost all of his mohair, his nose, mouth, foot pads, AND both his paws from excessive hugging, kissing, and playing. But somewhere in the course of his long life, a loving owner knit him a pair of boxing shorts, and stitched little leather boxing gloves to his arms. The addition of a cleverly captioned pinback ("Never Touched Me") completed his makeover, and he is now a fabulous character, indeed.