Build a Bear The Ultimate Customizable Toy 5 Experience

Since it started in 1997, Build A Bear Workshop has brought to life more than 200 million stuffed animals! Now, that is a lot of happy! That also is why Build A Bear Workshop is a place where Best Friends are made.

When you walk into a Build A Bear Workshop store, you can make your own stuffed animal friend. It is an experience where you can make exactly what you want.

1. First, pick out an animal “skin.” They have everything from traditional teddy bears to dogs, cats, and zoo and farm animals too. Some stores even carry special-edition stuffed animals that you can’t find anywhere else.
2. Next, choose what your animal is going to wear. The options are almost unlimited. You can dress your bear in your favorite real-life sports team’s logo and colors. Or, you can select from hundreds of other outfits, like princess gowns, mermaid tails, and military and first-responders uniforms.
3. You can add fun accessories like shoes, hats, eyeglasses, backpacks, and more too.

After you dress your animal, then you and a Store Associate will stuff your bear and bring it to life with a heart.

Once you finish stuffing your bear, you will give it a name and create a birth certificate.

Making your own stuffed animal can be a new, fun birthday party idea, or a great way to spend an afternoon with your best friend or the love of your life. You can even capture your child’s little voice and laughter in a sound chip.

We all remember our favorite childhood stuffed animal. For today’s children, Build A Bear takes that experience to a new level.

The Customizable Toy Experience

Constructing a {{bear}} is a fun, step-by-step process that anyone can enjoy—as it involves the following decisions:

1. You first choose from a variety of different animals to bear-ify into a teddy bear. Teddy bears are commonly chosen. However, there are numerous distinct types of animals you can select from shy English bulldogs to majestic tigers and cats, or even mythical phoenixes or dragons. There’s a stuffed doll for everyone on your list, guaranteed. This choice you make now serves to reflect how in-tune your recipient with the types of animals that are on offer. The stuffed animal you choose will come alive later, as it begins to tell a short story to your recipient about why you selected it, or why they identify with it.
2. The next step in teddy-ifying your chosen animal is to stuff it full of cotton. This step confers the critical benefit of the whole build: the ability to maximize the softness of the toy by adding onto it with enough simple fluff to give it the poise (and posture!) of a pillow. The wrong thing about this, though, is that that cotton equivalent of a 110 lb. woman stuffed inside a 17″ bear—ghastly. It would hurt the bearer far more than anything. This element of the bear is special anyway, as it is itself equivalent to a fantastic survival kit—you have a tackle for hunger, warmth, and a companion all in one—that won’t keep you talking to invisible ones, that will. Trust me.
   3. The final part of this bear-building process is to include some last-minute designs or additions to the bear. These outfits will be 1. cute (as in literally, not objectively) and 2. looking like a superhuman bear who has the gift of longer-lasting longer, less yawning, and more doing. These are, of course, all opinion: you decide what dress your bear will look best in, and that’s that. There are some exceptions, of course: anything designed to fit sure will. Especially dresses, or a long gown—depending on what sort of idea you finalize as being perfect to you.

They say images matter. And that descriptions of images matter much more.

Build A Bear as a Kids Craft and DIY Craft Activity

Build A Bear is a wonderfully different way to “make” a fun DIY craft that allows kids to tap into creativity. In designing their own stuffed animals, kids get to be at their creative best, deciding just what they want their bear to look like. From the colors of their bears to the outfits and accessories they will don, kids get to call the shots for a change. It’s the thinking cap that goes on that ignites a flurry of questions about what it is about the bear that they are designing that they identify with; great “figuring out” skills are being forged in the process.

This activity is also a great way to enhance fine motor skills. “Bear” stuffing, as well as opening and closing the compartments on the bear’s changing unit (sold separately), serves as an exciting way to get to the basics, which are addressing the small muscles in the hand (the interossei and thenar and hypothenar eminences and the lumbricals that are located in part of the forearm and help with grasping pencils and dressing up fasteners).

This bear-stuffing activity is best designed for small groups. Setting up a bear-designing workshop, allowing 5-6 kids “to go to town” and put their thoughts into action, is a surefire way to get everyone’s cooperation and interest maxed out!

What is Build A Bear?

Build A Bear Workshop, a revolutionary toy concept enables consumers to create their personalized stuffed animals and friends. This idea was first conceived by Maxine Clark in 1997 as he combined the ageless traditional ‘doing’ activity infused with technology to give people (children and adults) a 3-d visual and “hands on” view.

The toy design process is both interactive and imaginative. The broad design categories are:

selection of a plush animal “person” select a collection of outfits select a group of accessory items add sounds and messages

Designing a bear is more than a quantifiable toy. A child’s imagination creates an emotional response to name the bear and introduce “fluffy” to his family. A child learns responsibility and develops his creative style as he stuffs a plush bear, then dresses “fluffy” in an outfit that reflects the child’s personality.”

Perfect Gift Ideas for Any Occasion

The Build A Bear company provides a one-of-a-kind gift that offers a unique experience. So often, children forge an emotional bond with the “animal”. If your gift recipient is of a younger age, select a stuffed animal in vibrant colors. For a more mature, sophisticated child, the company sells attractive “licensed” creatures. Additionally, there is the post-shopping, “get-to-know-you” period. Just like a first date, but more fun, and with faster results. Overall, the “build” experience itself, from unconstructed to finished, is also a part of the viewer participation. The represented is not just a “bear”; it’s a thoughtfully constructed painting.

Build A Bear as a Party Activity

Birthday parties or events and Build-A-Bear can be integrated for a fun and unique change of pace. You can host a Build A Bear party at your house or a specific location. You pick the date, invite all of the people you want, and choose a package that best suits your party’s size. Build A Bear offers different party packages that include build-a-bear kits, party favors, and even a host. They make all of the packages easy to choose.

As far as costs go, the prices for Build A Bear parties are party specific. Meaning the number of people, as well as the party package you choose, will determine your party’s price. Expect to pay roughly $15 to $30 per child, not including food, a themed party, or decorations. But is it really worth your money? After doing some simple investigating, reading stories, and looking at different ratings, I would say: yes!

The majority of the people online who had good stories or reviews included phrases like “my child(ren) won’t stop,”or “my child(ren) loved it!” I did some more investigating on the pros side and what I found included a lot of the same ideas and experiences. The kids were given the chance to create, to be unique, to think their way, 1oo (1 of one) type clothing; they could add whatever shirts or skirts pants, bunny ears, or other shoes that they wanted. The clothes they added, they added with their critical thinking minds, not what people inside the store were doing. See, this is cool because the kids are truly doing the creating. Nobody else is or can help or change the design. It is 100% made by the kids, which is really amazing. Some of the common things they liked, that the parents wrote down, included: “our child had a great time”,“he won’t stop talking about it”, or simply, “my child loved it”. Most kids came away from the party with good memories and a good “will”.

Build A BearWorkshop is a unique and engaging place where guests can create customized stuffed animals. As such, it makes a great gift for children and adults of any age. The beauty of Build A Bear is that every guest is able to fully customize the bear they are creating. The type of animal, the outfits, the accessories; it’s all up to you. This allows kids helps for an even stronger connection to be made with the bear, because it is much more personal. It was specifically chosen/made for them, and therefore, it will make the gift just about that much better.

But what if you want Build A Bear to be the party? Well, you’d be an amazing parent if your kid wanted to host their birthday at the Build A Bear workshop (please take all necessary COVID-19 precautions). It is very common for young girls to want to host their next birthday party there, as it would be a great experience for all the kids. They could all create their own bears just the way they like them. Here, the customization really shines, since everyone is sort of moving in unison. Everyone is making their bear at the same time, and it’s a rather fun and enjoyable experience. The girls will love it, and it will also create lasting, meaningful memories.

With that said, be sure to head on over to the Build A Bear website to see if there’s anything that catches your eye. Or, possibly, go into the workshop itself and see if it fits to your liking with your own eyes. This bear-making experience truly is something to remember.