Monday, May 14, 2018

Anything Dolls Can Do, Bears Can Do (Better)

I've been wanting to make bears bendable, so they can play like action dolls do. And the other day at the thrift store––voilà:  I salvaged a bendy skeleton from a nonrepairable bendy bear sold by IKEA  to support UNICEF’s "Children’s Right to Play" (Article 31 of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child).

More here: The International Play Association (IPA)

I had no idea these wonderful bendy structures existed. 
Ah--here--it's a "ball socket flexible tube armature" (for dolls)
--or "modular hose" (for all sorts of hardware and tech use). 

While house sitting, I put it into an old bear undergoing restoration.

Penny Cooper, Friend of Bears, helped Bear get acclimated, while Astro (dog I'm sitting) pointedly did not look on.

"Anything you can do, I can do better; 
I can do anything better than you."
--(on youtube), from Annie Get Your Gun

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great idea! I'm surprised no one hasn't thought of making a bear moveable before.

Kirsten

Fresca said...

I can only guess it's because they aren't as soft and huggable with a skeleton? The trend in stuffed animals is toward more and more plush, soft, and floppy.