Build Your Own Bear! Or Unicorn...
Written: Dec 02 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fun experience, get your own unique bear (or unicorn).
Cons: Pricier than your average bear.
The Bottom Line: Build-A-Bear is a great place to find a unique stuffed toy or to create a child's memory.
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| brookelorren's Full Review: Build-A-Bear Stuffed Bear |
Laurana's grandmomz was in town babysitting, and me and my dear husband were out shopping for Christmas. We ran across the Build-A-Bear workshop (there are two of them in the Phoenix area). I had read about this place before on epinions.com, and dear husband was interested, so we decided to go build a bear for our beautiful little girl for Christmas.
Pick A Toy
First you have to pick a toy out. This may not be easy because there are so many cute toys to choose from. They have lots of bears in different colors, of course, but they also have dogs, cats, pandas, even unicorns! We decided to get a cute little unicorn for our daughter.
The animals come unstuffed. They are waiting for your love and stuffing. You pick one that you like and move on to the next station.
Over the Christmas holidays, there are reindeer available for you to build. I am guessing that over other holidays like Easter there might be bunnies, etc., but I've only been here once.
Pick a sound
Now that you've picked out your bear, you can pick a sound for your bear. They have a five-in-one sound that costs $5, individual sounds that cost $3, or you can build your own sound (up to 10 seconds) for $8. We chose to make our sounds unique by adding our own.
If you want, you can add more than one sound. We could have probably put a sound in each of our unicorn's legs if we wanted to. This can add up, however.
Some of the sounds available include horse neighing, meows, or songs like Happy Birthday.
You don't have to add a sound if you don't want to. It's your choice when you are building a bear.
Recording your own sound means you have to go somewhere quiet. The recommended place to record sounds at the Build-A-Bear we went to was in the bathroom. They are individual stalls, so if you want to record a duet (like we did) it doesn't really matter that you have a guy and a girl going into the same bathroom. It really would be nice if they added a sound room to the Build-A-Bear workshop, we were not the only people going into the restroom for this purpose. There is a fan always going on in the bathrooms too, which you can't really hear, but it would have been nice if we would have had a silent place to record our sound.
The recordable sounds have a cap you twist when your done so you won't accidentally lose the sound when it gets in your bear. Our first try we didn't screw the cap, and the sound was erased when we put it into our unicorn, but the staff was very helpful and extracted the sound for us so we could rerecord it.
Stuff Your Bear
You have to have your bear stuffed, which is the next step. You step on a pedal while they fill your animal with stuffing. The employees ask you how much stuffing you want in your bear, so you can have a super-soft toy, or extra firm if you like, or somewhere in-between. They did a good job of stuffing the legs individually, and the stuffing turned out right the first time. You can give your bear a hug after it is stuffed and before it is stitched, just to test so see if it is to your liking.
Before you put the stuffing in, you have to add the bear's heart. You kiss it, make a wish, and sometimes the employees have other little things for you to do to it, like blow on it, turn around in circles, etc. If you are taking your child to build-a-bear, they will probably enjoy this.
Another thing that gets stuffed into the bear is an ID tag. If you ever lose your bear and it gets returned to a Build-A-Bear workshop, they can look up who the bear belongs to on the ID inside the bear, and return it to you. I'm not sure how likely it is that your lost bear would get returned, but there are still some kind souls out there in the world.
Dress Your Bear
After your bear is stitched up, dressing your bear is the next step. We skipped this step since our unicorn is going to be for a 1 1/2 year old, but there is a wide variety of animals to choose from. If you are getting a four-legged animal built, there are fewer outfits to choose from, but there is still a little variety.
There also are accessories to choose from as well. There was a pair of wings and a tiara that we would have chosen for our unicorn if our daughter was a little older. A little boy in the store at the same time as us was dressing his bear in an NBA outfit, sunglasses, and cell phone.
Name Your Bear
Now it's time to name your bear and give it a story or a birth certificate. Since this bear is not going to go to us, I didn't really want to name it myself, but the Build-A-Bear people want you to give it a name before you leave the store, but we found a good name anyway.
You type in the bear's name, your name, and the recipient's name. If you decide to do the story, you have different stories to choose from. The story is something you could easily program in a computer program like Access, but I'm sure my daughter will think that it's cool.
Once your bear is named and the story is printed up, you pay for it, they box it up and you're ready to go.
Other
The more accessories you add to your bear, the more the price will add up. Our unicorn cost us almost $30, and that was just for the custom sound and the unicorn itself. Dress your bear and add accessories, and the cost can add up.
The bears are surface washable, and they sell bear cleaner to help with that. However, I was told that if your bear gets dirty, you can take it back to Build-A-Bear, have it unstuffed, run your unstuffed bear through the washing machine, and then restuff it.
Their customer service is pretty good. The staff was friendly and helpful. When we were charged for an extra sound we didn't use (we had been contemplating two sounds but changed our minds) they refunded us our money promptly.
They do sell smaller bears, and a few premade bears that already come stuffed, in case you are looking for a gift and are in a hurry.
The best time to go to the Build-A-Bear Workshop is when the mall is not crowded. You will probably have to wait in lines if you choose to Build-A-Bear the day after Thanksgiving or on other major shopping days. A trip to the Build-A-Bear Workshop would make a great Christmas gift... just don't go the day after Christmas unless you want to stand in a lot of lines.
Build-A-Bear is available in many states, and even in a few non-US countries. The nearest one to me is probably less than 15 minutes away. Build-A-Bear is located about 45 minutes away from my parent's house, however.
If you want to build a memorable toy for your child, consider going to Build-A-Bear. We are hoping that Islyanta the unicorn becomes one of Laurana's new best friends.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 30
Type of Toy: Stuffed Toy
Age Range of Child: 12 to 36 Months
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Epinions.com ID:
brookelorren
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 - Top 1000 |
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Location: Phoenix, AZ
Reviews written: 213
Trusted by: 36 members
About Me:
Homeschooling mom of two cute kids.
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