Bear with me!

I was walking past the toy store the other day, and this little darling caught my eye! She is a China Girl Beanie Kid. You can't see very well with the navy background, but she has a little black "bun" on her head with the chopsticks going through the bun!

She is part of the Skansen "Beanie Kids" collection. Not sure if they are worldwide? They are bears - in costume! They've been around for 10+ years. Every month or so, they release about 5 new bears, then after a while, they "retire" them. Once they are retired, they are worth more, and are harder to get. If they're kept in pristine condition, with tags attached and in good condition - they can be worth alot of money. We don't collect them, as a collectors item... my kids like to play with them!

Here is Mini's collection:

From Back left (to right), then front left (to right):
(the Australian Animal collection) Koala, Kangaroo, Platypus, Wombat
China Girl, Rat, Ladybug
I plan on sending "Gummy" (that's the koala's name) in a care package to Mini. He is sooo soft! I hope we get Gummy back... (he's retired), but if we don't there's always E.bay!!!

Here is Miss M's collection:

She's been collecting for about 5 years, so she definitely has the most! She's received alot as gifts, but she's also bought alot of them, with her own money. I'm not going to list them all, coz there are WAY too many! (I think she has about 35?)

I installed the shelves about 2 months ago, so they are kept in one place, and (hopefully) won't get too trashed... looks like I need a bigger shelf!!!

And here's H-Man's collection:

H-man has only been collecting for about 2 years, and has predominantly "super heros" (generally with a sword, gun or axe prop!) and he has quite a few animals too. H-Man loves them. They don't stay on the shelf for too long, and usually about 10 make it into bed with him, every night!!!

I wasn't that keen on them, when Miss M got her first one. They're about $10 each - and I thought, "Who the heck wants MORE soft toys"? But the kids absolutely love them. In most stores their range has about 24+ different bears to choose from (and about 15 of each bear) - there's alotta bears!!! The kids stand there for ages, trying to decide which one should come home with them! So once again, proves to me, it doesn't matter what I like or think is best... they're the ones that need to like it!