The Teddy Bear
You can't begin a tale about Care Bears without touching upon the reason why teddy bears became so poplular, first in America, then in Germany .
American President Theodore Roosevelt while on a trip triggered by a border dispute between Louisiana and Mississippi was taken hunting (a favorite sport of his) by his hosts. The hunting was sparse that day, so a member of the party captured a bear cub and told Roosevelt he could shoot it. Roosevelt refused to shoot the captive animal.
Because of this story, which was often recounted by Roosevelt a cartoonist depicted the story in a single frame cartoon featured in The Washington Post in November of 1902. The cartoon became widely popular and inspired a store owner to create a cute cuddly stuffed bear (as opposed to angry fierce looking toy bears of that age), which they called 'Teddy's Bear'. They placed this bear in the front window of their store. The demand was so intense that the store owners teamed up with a wholesale firm to distribute larger quantities of the 'Teddy Bear' to the public.
Near that time in Germany the Steiff company created another stuffed bear that looked more like a real bear cub. Because of the American Teddy Bear craze, an american took notice and ordered thousands of them.
After that the Teddy Bear was hugely popular and ubiqitous, and still is a century later!
Care Bears' Beginnings - 1981
AMERICAN GREETINGS, a well-known Card & Gift Supply company located in Cleveland Ohio has created many popular characters over the decades including Ziggy, Holly Hobbie, and Strawberry Shortcake. In 1981, employees began to draw up plans for two new lines of greeting card characters. It is unknown if the company at that time planned the full-scale product invasion that soon ensued, or if the property market saturation evolved naturally. According the The Care Bear's official fan site www.care-bears.com, the Care Bears were known as 'project 2', Strawberry Shortcake being 'project 1'.
In the beginning there were only ten Care Bears : Bedtime, Birthday, Cheer, Friend, Funshine, Good Luck, Grumpy, Love-a-Lot, Tenderheart, and Wish.
Kenner's Toys - 1983
The Toon Debute!
MOVIES - The three Care Bear Movies have grossed over 33 million dollars to date (The Care Bear's Movie $23 Million, The Care Bears Movie II - A New Generation $8 Million , and The Care Bear's Adventure in Wonderland $2 Million)
What Happened in 1987
1987 marked the end of the origional Care Bears toy line, and many collectors have wondered why it suddenly ended after only four years.
Kenner was owned by General Mills until 1985. Financially Kenner was doing great during those years with licences to many of the most popular toys of the decade. Because of it's successes the Tonka Corporation bought the company for an undiclosed amount. The Kenner Corp. then became a subsidiary of Tonka, which already owned many other toy companies such as Parker Brothers.
When the acqusition was complete on October 16th, many of the companies planned toy lines for that year halted production. The goals of the company changed and therefore many of their previous plans died in the buy out. This has been a bane amoung collectors because many of their favorite toys never made it into the market, creating a huge desire to acquire the unreleased prototypes of this year.
In 1991 Hasbro bought Tonka, making Kenner a division of the largest toy company in the world. The company was eventually shut down in 2000, ending 53 years of Kenner history.
The Brief Resurgence
During the highly environmentally concious nineties American Greetings decided to reform the Care Bear logo into a Earth-saving bunch now known as 'Environmental Care Bears'. Kenner was again granted the licence for the toys and plush. They released a line of plush depicting each traditional bear with an added earth-rescuing mission. For example, Love-A-Lot Bear helped the animals, and Funshine Bear helped protcet the air. This line died in infancy. Not only did they fail in astheticts (the bears looked distinctly differant than the origionals with their pug noses, and troll hair), it also failed in parent appeal. Children just weren't interested in protecting the environment, and thus the test product rollout failed and the Care Bears went back into hibernation.
Back in Action and More Popular Than Ever!
I remember the electricity that travelled up my spine in 2002 as I read about The Care Bears comeback. The news travelled first by an obscure news article, which many fans and collectors doubted, but was later confirmed by sightings of merchandise on toy shelfs across America.
Collector's, nieve to the corporate history of Kenner, first assumed the new plush and toys would be handled by that company again. Much to everyone's surprise an new, lesser known company held the toy/plush licence. Play Along Toys, previously made popular by the Britney Spears doll line was the new producer of toys.
By the end of 2003 Care Bears had already soared into the top five selling toys of the year. Play Along has many plans for the licence, and fans are thrilled to see the toys they loved as a child back and better then ever. Overall fans were thrilled at the excellent quality of the toys being produced, though some forwn upon the decisions to change certain characters, and add new ones.
Care Bear products have invaded every facet of the consumer market. The old cartoon episodes and movies are now open to mass audiences, clothing lines for all ages can be found everywhere, and the new lines of figures have captivated even the smallest Care Bear fans. Over the short period of hteir resurgence sales have exceeded a billion dollars, proving to the world that the Care Bears are here to stay.
New members of the Care Bear family are being introduced every season. The new Care bears are Do Your Best, Laugh-a-Lot, America Cares, Bashful Heart, Best Friend Bear and Thanks-A-Lot, and more. There have also been changes in some of the classic 80's bears, including symbol, gender, and color changes. Most long time collectors feel the changes are disloyal to the origional 80's versions. Play Along has catered to us collectors and has introduced many products (including beanies, and 13" plush) that feature the older style Care Bears. Play Along really has listened to our constant e-mails and has catered to us in many unlikely ways. They have been an ideal company to handle this property.
The officialy licencing agency, The Joster Loria Group, has handled the logo excellently. The Care Bear name has a 100% recognizability amoung mom's, and the total number of licences purchased are in the hundreds. It's clear that the Care Bears will stick around a lot longer then in the 1980's.
