Talk:Teddy bear

Winnie the Pooh

Winnie the Pooh is not a "fictional" teddy bear. He was a real bear, a real American Black Bear, so named by a Canadian regiment during the World War I who found him in northern Ontario (and named him after the Canadian city of Winnipeg). They left him at the London Zoo prior to being deployed to France. He's the subject of a the CBC television film.

Actually, according to Wikipedia Winnie _is_ a fictional bear: "Winnie-the-Pooh, commonly shortened to Pooh Bear and once referred to as Edward Bear, is a fictional bear created by A. A. Milne. " MRA —Preceding unsigned comment added by Matildaraikallen (talk • contribs) 10:14, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Spam template

I think I've fixed most of it. Mainly, I removed some random HTML tags (( that seem to mean someone copied a web site's source directly )) and also removed the image gallery below. I personally did not feel that the uploader gave a good enough fair-use rationale. As a matter of fact, they didn't give a rationale at all, they just said they took it from someone's webpage. // 3R1C 22:13, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

What was the political dispute hinted at in the cartoon? AxelBoldt 13:45, 10 Dec 2003 (UTC)

According to this site: http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/kidscorner/tr_teddy.htm , the bear in question was not a juvenile but an old bear. The original cartoon reflected this, but was later redrawn to show it as a cub. The latter is the one shown in your article. Roosevelt did refuse to shoot the bear, but ordered it put down because it was injured.

I've never edited an article and don't really know how to. Hopefully, someone more knowledgeable than me will fix this. The site I mentioned above seems to have good cites.

I've read somewhere that a priest once spoke out against the teddy bear, declaring that young girls who abandoned dolls for bears would lose their "motherly instinct." Has anyone heard of this incident before? I'll try to find some information on it and possibly add it to the article.

Regarding the political dispute: Have found zilch. As for the story about Michtom I'm quite sure it's a myth; the bear got its name from The Roosevelt Bears comic, not the other way round. Hexmaster (talk) 20:56, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

Teddy Roosevelt doesn't have a daughter named Alysin. He did have a daughter named Alice, so I have editted this section accordingly.

Picture

I posted a picture of the "original" teddy bear. Hope noone objects. DO we still need two pictures at the top? Mhym 02:17, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

I think someone messed around with the page, part of it makes no sense. Hem hem 01:26, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Note: The bear in the picture might be from 1903, but the clothing cannot be. The name "Teddy B" is from a children's story published in New York Times in 1906. It was also the name of a real bear cub at the Bronx Zoo at the time.

Arctophile

I've added in the text regarding the term arctophile as part of a merge from Arctophile, which now redirects here. Just noting per GFDL. Hiding talk 22:06, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Bridget (Guilty Gear)

• Bridget has a talking teddy bear named Roger. Has this been put/removed from the article before? Is it notable enough? I'm just curious. Danny Lilithborne 01:52, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Which famous teddy?

could anybody identify this teddy for me? link Thanks! Peter S. 14:00, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Just found it myself. It's from here. Peter S. 22:05, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

External link : spam or not spam ?

On Teddy_bear

I re-added the external link Teddy bear dedicated search engine , saying it is not spam.

Nlu (talk) reverted it and said "If you can make an argument that it does comply with WP:EL and WP:SPAM, please discuss on Talk:Teddy bear."

So do I,

in WP:EL "Links to be used occasionally" item #2 "A web directory category when deemed appropriate by those contributing to an article, with preference to open directories."

which is what is this search/engine-directory. Although is not 'open', the site lists about 2000 teddybear websites.

- it's a non commercial site (no product sales, no ads, operated by a NPO).

in "Links normally to be avoided" :

the website does not fall in any of the 10 rules.

And, by comparison, A link like Teddy Bear Museum Directory which has been listed for months in the article, and not considered as spam, is a part of huggableteddybears which actually is a commercial site selling products.

So, please consider the addition of Teddy bear dedicated search engine to Teddy_bear —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.123.76.78 (talk • contribs)

"But there are other spam links around!" is not a good reason to add yet another spam link.

I agree of this point of course. I was wondering why in this case, Teddy Bear Museum Directory, which is indeed a commercial site, is considered appropriate. That does not seem consistent to me.

The reason why I believe that the link you are trying to add is spam is because fits as a site that you own or maintain (#3), links added to promote a site (#4), and links to a search engine -- which should be the same as search engine results (#10). Further, what you mentioned only said that it is a link to be used occasionally, not that it is definitely acceptable. I do not find it to be "deemed appropriate," but we'll hear what other people have to say.

(P.S. It also does not look good that you're IP-hopping.) --Nlu (talk) 00:14, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Considering point #3 : It is a site that I have been knowing and using for years as a teddy bear collector myself. I find it relevant (can that be considered as "promoting a site" #4 ?)

It actually contains a directory listing of the majority of teddy bear related websites in the world, sorted by categories (famous teddy bears for example, like teddybearsearch.com/dir/Winnie the pooh/USA). These are definely not search engine results (#10).

Please, have a look at Teddybearseach Directory before declaring it is spam.

To clear things, I suggest using Teddybearseach Directory instead of teddybearsearch.com

About IP hopping, please bear in mind that many ISPs allocate IP dynamically at each time you connect. To fix that issue, I created a user account, and I'm now using it presently - Does it look better ? :-) -- Collectours 08:28, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

If you see inappropriate links, remove them. That's why you have editing privileges.

Meanwhile, let's see if other people jump into this discussion. If not, I may file a WP:RFC. --Nlu (talk) 05:37, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

At the very least, this page needs thorough cleanup and spam-removal. The writing is largely unencyclopedic; furthermore, I quite agree that many of the links are unnecessary at best and outright spam at worst... and that is only counting the links that actually work. I realize that such comments might put me at risk for "well why don't you do it yourself?" retorts, but I really don't care enough; I simply stumbled across this page and decided to weigh in. Good luck to whomever takes up the task.--Egghuntpbs 04:55, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Alcoholic drink (send to disambiguation?)

Would it be more appropriate for the reference to the alcoholic drink to be on the teddy bear (disambiguation) page? If so, I'd be happy to move it there. MKoltnow 00:08, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

I got it. // 3R1C 22:10, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

Inclusions into Fictional Teddy Bears list

This is my second request, for the same thing, since my last request was deleted. As per Wikipedia's TOS, I now add this before I restate my request:
It might not have been your intention, but your recent edit removed content from an article. Please be careful not to remove content from Wikipedia without a valid reason, which you should specify in the edit summary or on the article's talk page. Take a look at our welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you.

That being said, I again ask why my content has been removed, both from the article and now from this Talk page? My request is both legitimate and honest.

The fictional Teddy Bears section is most helpful to viewers interested in learning about other Teddy Bears. It includes bears that I've never known before, which added to my desire to include, even more Teddy Bears that others might enjoy, too. Once the holiday season is over, and I have time, I'd like to add even more fictional bears that I've learned about through lots of research online. (These Teddy Bears include some from books, early-era TV shows, and Internet related bears.) I'm not negating your effort, just want to contribute to it, so with everyone working together, we can create a thorough and helpful entry for this subject matter.

I do realize that one of the references on the bottom of the article, includes every other kind of bear, but Teddy Bears are unlike any other kind of bear, so adding the lists to that article simply isn't as thorough as adding it to this one. Obviously, you object to my inclusions, but, respectfully, I'd like to know why. Atwhatcost 17:25, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

I just removed an entry in this section of the article. It was as follows: Louis, who claimed to be a panther. This didn't seem to be anything from fiction or otherwise, so I removed it. If someone sources or explains who "Louis is, then feel free to put it back in. Phil 15:24, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Conker's Bad Fur Day: German Uniformed Villains

Instead of reffering to the outlook of the villains in the above-mentioned videogame as WWII GermanMilitary-like, I think it should be better to reffer to them as identical to the WWII Nazi forces. After all, organisations like the Gestapo are symbols of nazi violence during WWII & should not be mixed with the German nation. Please look into this. TathD 17:49, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Since, no one bothered to look into the above-mentioned matter. I edited the the offending words myself. TathD 11:25, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

semi-blocking with expire due to pervasive vandalism

I've placed a semi block on this article for one week due to pervasive vandalism, especially recently. --Sean 21:49, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Correction to first paragraph

The last sentence of the introductory paragraph appears to be a fragment (concerning the closure of the museum). I'm not sure what the original author had intended to say. Comments? Bdmccray 02:33, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Good catch. I attempted to restore the lines lost during this vandalism. The extra phrase was put in by someone else who removed the nonsense, but didn't catch the blanking as well. Thanks for pointing this out. --Sean 03:40, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

The article badly needs a section on the history of Teddy bears. I know one of the earliest makers was Steiff (from 1908 to the present day).

Actually, Margarte Steiff made her first stuffed animal in 1898, and, with the zoo sketch from her nephew, Richard, made her first stuffed bear in 1903. By the time WWI hit, men were taking them off to war at an incredible rate (and mothers were being sent the bears back, if sons were killed, sadly.) I am in the process of researching the history of the TB thoroughly, but am having trouble finding information NOT related to simply collectors. (Obviously, they need to be included, but collecting is merely a portion of the history of the teddy bear.)

The Internet is NOT a reliable source for this information though, but I am having difficulty in finding the info needed to broaden the history. Particularly fascinated on how the history of the TB follows the history of capitalism into the war-torn countries of Britian, Germany, Japan, and China (yes, I understand the irony of the last one ;) ) Any help is appreciated, and, obviously could use help locating photos without copyrights, with permission from those who hold the copyrights, and also think it is fair to include links for such photos in exchange for use of their copyrights. (Not sneaking into any self-promotion -- my bears aren't collectibles, nor am I owning any copyrights to photos of collectible bears.)

Of course, I'm a bit leary of tackling this rich history on Wiki since my previous attempts were simply deleted twice, with no reasoning behind them, so would also appreciate help, when I'm ready to upload my info to avoid such nonsense in the future. – — … ° ≈ ≠ ≤ ≥ ± − × ÷ ← → · § Lynn, AtWhatCost Atwhatcost 09:36, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Ok... A straigth quotation: "Almost every child has one on their bed and loves to sleep with one next to them". Every child in... which country? Which part of the world? Of what age? I really doubt that even hald of the children in the world have teddy bears. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.194.252.121 (talk) 12:27, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Stuffed animal

would it be worth adding Stuffed animal in the see also bit as they are sililar

Clarification Rewrite

This article needs a wording rewrite at the start. The introductory paragraph implies that it was actually a bear cub he refused to shoot in reality, and then the next section goes on to explain that it was in fact an old she-bear in reality, but was changed to a bear cub in the cartoon drawing of the situation.

Would somebody more familiar with the subject matter like to reword this, or should I tackle it myself? Please let me know. - Vaelor 01:42, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I have reworked the story based on information on file at the Theodore Roosevelt Association and shared with me by Linda Milano, former assistant director until 2005. —Preceding unsigned comment added by SimonATL (talk • contribs) 04:55, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the effort Simon but you need to read up on WP:OR. Most of what you put in was unsourced and unfortunately, as per Wikipedia policy, Linda Milano's account of the story doesn't count as verifiable or reliable source. -- ALLSTARecho 05:49, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

This is hogwash, and sounds like revisionism on the part of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, which appears to be responsible for the "mercy killing" version of the story. The correct synopsis is that Roosevelt was bear hunting and refused to shoot a tethered bear because it was unsportsmanlike. He would have shot it if it had not been on a rope. Check the article on Holt Collier, Roosevelt's guide. It has a more or less accurate account of the incident. Collier's biography has a detailed account. DrHenley (talk) 13:16, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Why is this in Missisippi?!

Got nothing against the state of Mississippi, got some fine cousins there, and I also understand that the Teddy Roosevelt incident happened in the state, but the Teddy Bear wasn't made in that state. It's not a strictly American thing either. Just curious why this is part of Mississippi?! – — … ° ≈ ≠ ≤ ≥ ± − × ÷ ← → · § Lynn, AtWhatCost Atwhatcost 09:44, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Because its name is a result of the hunting trip to Mississippi and because it is the official toy of the State of Mississippi as made so by the state legislature. -- ALLSTAR ECHO 14:00, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Music and warmth pad teddy bears

My son has one teddy bear that makes music when pulled on its string and one teddy bear that contains a warmth pillow (the warmth pillow can be extracted from the bear, heated up in the microwave and introduced back into the bear). Do these two types of teddy bear also correspond to the "teddy bear" definition? If so, we should put them under the section "Kinds of teddy bears". I can post a picture of both the music bear and the warmth bear. Federico Grigio, alias Nahraana (talk) 12:38, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Colorado legend

If the Colorado legend is definitely not true then why is it in the article? Is it really so well known as to be a notable fiction? Or was it just made up by some PR person at the Hotel Colorado? -- Zsero (talk) 05:58, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

The fact that the only source is the hotel itself makes it look very much like thinly veiled advertising. I'm removing it. If someone finds reliable secondary sources it might be worth re-adding. Siawase (talk) 07:15, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Removing External links section

I'm removing this whole section. Some of the material that's in the links (ie The robotic 'Huggable' Teddy Bear project at M.I.T. iCampus) might be worth including in the article itself, but neither link looks compliant with WP:External links. It's generally hard to find links compliant with the external links policy for articles like this, and since it's a magnet for advertising links, caution should be taken when recreating the section. I'd highly recommend explaining on the talk page first. Siawase (talk) 07:23, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

From what I've read about the external links terms, any that keep to the subject, and aren't advertisements, can stay. Removing all links seems unnecessary. Why can't we objectively agree on which should be removed, instead? If the link helps fill in more info or give us more interesting sites, isn't that part of the purpose of the article - to give as much info as anyone is interested in? I don't think it's an advertisement for M.I.T., however, it would be a fun place to visit, if a reader were interested in robotic bears, too. Personally, I'm not interested in robotics, however, the reason I came to this article, and this conversation is because of my love for certain kinds of bears. If we all work together, I'm sure we can make this as complete an article/resource as possible. --Atwhatcost (talk) 17:32, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, at the time that I removed it, the section only had the robot bear link one other spammy link.[1] The robot link isn't appropriate because it's too narrow in scope. Also, note that references are a completely different beast from external links.

But if you have some suggestions for sites that are compliable with WP:External links and have information about teddy bears in general, by all means suggest them! Siawase (talk) 21:19, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

History

First, it is unknown whose idea it was to make that first "Teddy's bear", but Mrs. Michtom sewed it, and many of the following bears.

Second, there is no evidence that the Michtoms requested Mr. Roosevelt for permission to use his name. Chances are good, their claim was merely a good ad campaign, given Mr. Roosevelt hatred for the toys, even after winning re-election because of them.

Third, the Steiffs were creating toy bears since about 1896-1898, with a few different ones by 1903. The only reason they aren't given full credit for the first one was because, a.) they didn't call theirs "teddy bear" for decades, and b.) because they weren't mass produced until the end of 1903, when an American exporter saw their bears at a European toy expo, and requested 3000 to bring to the United States.

(I don't know if this ads to the history, or merely clarifies the English's declaration that they, too, made bears at the same time, but the story goes, that a salesman went to the King Edward's house one night, to sell the toys, and, supposedly the maid responded, "We prefer our Teddy bare!" LOL)

Fourth, the story of the bear continues past it merely becoming popular. It became quite the fashion statement in England, with men using teddy bear flasks, women using teddy bear muffs, necklaces, and pins, and all the fashionable - men and women alike - carrying a teddy bear in their arms at events. Mothers and nannies made English boys, going off to the first world war, their very own teddy bears dressed in identical uniforms. It was so common in the first war, that mothers knew what it meant, when soldiers came up their walk holding onto their son's bear. Many of those bears, and the ones that returned with the "boys" have been kept as momentos of the time.

Fifth, the story itself continues through two wars, especially amazing that Steiff kept going, despite being a German company, and forced to make munitions during both wars. Most of the bear manfacturers that survived through both wars, had to stop most of their production, because cloth was being rationed, and everything else was being rationed, so people ended up making their own bears out of patterns found in newspapers and magazines. The manufacturers got into making one-of-a-kind bears from the few who could afford them, sometimes using special material from these customers. Mostly, though, the few bears made, were made in some kind of uniform (often bell-hops), so the uniform became part of the bear to cut down on how much mohair was needed.

The story continues from there, including how new fabrics, made from wartime needs, were being used to mass-produce more bears, how the teddy bear was fading out in the 60s and 70s, and what revived the fad. I have no idea how to take all of its history and condense it down to one article, but I do recommend getting accurate history from Michele Brown's book, The Little History of the Teddy Bear. The history reflects the world from the aspect of one small, well-loved toy. Without it, we'll never know how Germany would have been forgiven so quickly, nor see how China became the great manufacturing country it is today.

(I also don't think merely getting rid of all references with links, was the fair way to get around what was and wasn't "spam" for this article, but that's another topic.) --Atwhatcost (talk) 17:13, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Like I replied above, references are not the same as external links. As long as they are WP:Reliable sources I'd never remove a reference!

You sound very knowledgeable about teddy bears, and I'd suggest you just be WP:BOLD and dive right in! A lot of what you just wrote here could probably be added to the article. The more you can source the better, especially if it's something controversial. If you don't know how to cite sources, take a look at Wikipedia:Citing sources or ask me (here or on my talk page) and I can probably help. Siawase (talk) 21:26, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

Marshmallow

Marshmallow has informed me that he wants his picture in this article. What do you think? Isn't he adorable? Plenty of Wikimedia wikis think so. Mike R (talk) 22:31, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Did none of the political cartoons survive?

It seems a shame not to include the cartoons which inspired the toymaker... 82.80.85.38 (talk) 13:26, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

Teddy bear images on Commons may be purged

Just a heads up. The Hero of This Nation (talk) 18:00, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Important source

This detailed BBC item gives the history of the Steiff teddy, possibly the first ever, along with a notable mystery, and needs to be included here.[2] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.118.182.96 (talk) 14:43, 26 July 2011 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia and thank you for bringing that here. Some of it is already included in the article, sourced ot an earlier BBC report.[3] But it could probably do with some expansion and more detail. The article is not protected so feel free to edit it. Siawase (talk) 15:50, 26 July 2011 (UTC)

File:Winnie the pooh.JPG Nominated for Deletion

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name teddy

As to my knowledge countries England and Germany also claim for origin for name teddy. This is not mentioned in the article.59.162.170.113 (talk) 08:21, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

We'll need some reliable sources that discuss those claims; if they exist, then they probably should be added. Qwyrxian (talk) 08:49, 27 February 2012 (UTC)