WereBears
WereBears :
WereBears were a concept by my design partner George Nicholas, and I worked on the format and wrote scripts for the monthly WereBears comic, which was published by London Editions Magazines. We sold the toy rights for the WereBears characters to Hornby Toys who produced the four main characters, Howler, Grizzler, Gums and Fang.
The plush toys of the WereBears had heads and hands that could be turned inside out to show claws, teeth and fierce expressions.
A fifth WereBear, Growler, was added who had a voicebox built in. Hornby also produced the WereBears' enemies, the Terror Teds - Snapper, Munch, Chomp and Grunt. All the WereBear toys came with a cassette tape with an audio adventure on it; I wrote the scripts and oversaw their recording. Oliver Postgate (Clangers, Bagpuss) was the narrator, with guest voice artistes.
George and I are thinking of updating the WereBears concept, so watch this space...
Nick Reynolds
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The original fiendishly difficult puzzle, invented by Erno Rubik in Hungary and one of the biggest toy crazes ever. In 1982 Hawkin's Bazaar was the first to bring a few cases of the Rubik's Cube to England. Unfortunately 25 years ago we were very small and it wasn't long before a much larger company had the exclusive rights to distribute in the UK. We are very pleased to be offering it again! And now includes a new seven step solution guide.
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About Hawkin's Bazaar
Hawkin's Bazaar has been providing you with unusual gifts, toys and gadgets since 1973. Originally a local toy shop at the Hawk Inn (hence the name), Hawkin's Bazaar now sells things you thought had gone forever and things you never even knew existed. They bring you Pin Art, Morph, Rubik's Cube, Big Trak, Space Hoppers and much more.
Also remembered...
Long before there was a film called it, kids were only interested in two things - the fast and the furious! So, when a new toy car came onto the scene and somehow managed to combine both of these things in something small enough to fit into a child's palm, it was bound to win the race... Mattel launched Hot Wheels die-cast cars in 1968, after the toy manufacturer's co-founder had devised a way to coax more speed out of the standard die cast design, by adding a pair of axles with styrene wheels that spun like a petrol-head's dream. Your ride had officially been pimped! Add in a souped-up, eye-catching paint job, and the Hot Wheels cars blew the gaskets off of their toy rivals, Matchbox and Corgi cars, who were nothing more than mini replicas. Hot Wheels became defined by the flame artwork on all the merchandise that went with the 1:64 real-size toys. And Californian artist Rick Irons, who was based at Mattel at the time, was the man behind the flame. They brought only the flashest car models to life in Hot Wheels versions to keep with the glamorous image, and made the die-cast models extra resilient for all he bad boy owners who loved nothing more than crashing cars into mum's skirting-boards over and over again. What made Hot Wheels even more appealing to the masses was the release of its very own racing track on which to drive your cars. And this was no simple system, either. The Hot Wheels race track was available in various parts, which included: straitaways, loops, curves, ramps, spring-loaded launchers - basically everything to satisfy that instinctual need for speed that most little boys were fighting. Of course, wherever there's speed, there's danger, and many a grown man will be able to recount tales of sprained wrists, chipped table legs and knocks to the head caused by over-ambitious speedway stunts and an inability to control what were the 'fastest' toy cars around. But it was all worth it. As the years passed, bigger and better race tracks came out for Hot Wheels, including a stunt-scape featuring an erupting volcano and a criss-cross crash track. New cars strengthened the line, like the Gran Toros and Formula One replicas. By working closely with car makers of General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Chrysler Motors, Ferrari, Mazda and more, Mattel was able to work off actual blueprints to produce replica Hot Wheels versions of them. To date, 10,000 hot Wheels have been rolled out. After a merger with Tyco in 1997, Hot Wheels began to take pat in the slot-car scene, too. After celebrating forty years in 2008, Hot Wheels are among the fastest and most furious around - just like their owners!
...and do you remember these?
- Max Talk Back
- Lego
- A J Bear
- Magic Nursery Babies
- Maxie Dolls
- Boy George Doll
- Madballs
- Poochie
- Zoo babies
- Robotix
Comments
I had "gums"...and I remember when I played the tape he said something about "gums likes Thumbs"....I still have him years later....and I now have the other WereBears apart from Growler...or any of the terror teds.....but I got most of them in old "junk" shops
Sian 19-Nov-2004, 05:36:43 PM
My brother first bought Howler when he was 7 or 8yrs old. We soon had the entire collection of WereBears - including the "miniature" (unchanging) ones. I still have the WereBears now, and have added to the collection anytime I see a WereBear in good condition and so have 2 or 3 full sets! The one thing I'm missing, though, is the Gums story tape. I remember writing to Hornby in about 1992 to ask if they had a copy of the tape they could send us, but 15 years later still have had no reply :o(
Scott 22-Nov-2004, 10:24:45 PM
I used to have WereBears. I received fang at an early age and bought gums later. They are still perched on my shelf to this day. I like fang's adventure cassette the best, when he bursts the tires and pretends to be an old lady, funny i remember it, i lost the tape when i was younger........
Oracon 05-Dec-2004, 02:06:07 AM
My Mum bought me one of these while I was in hospital having my tonsils (sp) removed. I turned the things head inside out so much it made my fingers hurt almost as much as my throat.
MoBiUG 18-Dec-2004, 04:02:35 PM
what was the yelllow bear called with the green and whit striped jumper and do you know eher I can buy one from? anyone.
Rob 20-Dec-2004, 10:20:39 PM
The yellow bear is Grizzler. Light blue is Howler, dark blue is Gums, red is Fang. There's also a slightly larger orange one called Growler. WereBears come up on eBay from time to time, although they seem to have dried up recently...
Scott 01-Jan-2005, 10:57:55 PM
My little brother had a were-bear and (now aged 19) still reduces us to crying with laiughter as he indignantly insists it's still one of the scariest tapes he ever heard...the big wuss! we would LOVE to get a copy of the tape to terrorise him again - he had the yellow were-bear Grizzler, who was allowed to have his claws and fangs showing once he'd got over the trauma of the tape...Grizzler was the centrepiece of a 'very scary' exhibit in his bedroom, complete with a hand-drawn skeleton stuck on his face as a scary tattoo... Been trawling places for a few years in search of the tape but just not got lucky so far - anyone have any ideas? can/has anyone posted it online?? So pleased to find this page! first time I think I've stayed over at work (esp in Jan!) as too busy typing about were-bears!
Mel 06-Jan-2005, 05:34:21 PM
Hi i have two were bears not to good condition how much could i get for them just wonderd if they had any price these days? but hay aint they great!!!
Richard 07-Jan-2005, 01:17:10 PM
I remember my first Werebear...Grizzler.Oh Lord it was the happiest day of my life. Hopefully these little bundles of joy will be relaunched some day as i would prefer one to a live child.
Nicholas Carton 11-Jan-2005, 03:02:06 PM
I remember as a child having three of the first four were bears, my parents had originally bought all four over the year but had given one to my grandparents to look after (as they knew i liked to root for birthday gifts) Anyway they lost it in the attic somewhere before i got it. Lo and behold about ten years later, mid last year they found it in a box and then inside its original box, cassette and all. Perfect condition Grizzler teddy. I still haven't even listened to the cassette as i daren't take it from the box. He has pride of place in my room at uni.
Linton 20-Jan-2005, 09:01:20 PM
I had the light blue Werebear and really wanted the yellow one as well. Looking at the dates on the posts its odd how there still seems (even now) to be so much interest in them. I got talking about them the other day and really rather miss mine now!
Steven 05-Feb-2005, 12:51:02 AM
i have just put gums and grizzler on ebay if anyone is interested give it a look but no tapes to go with them.
kara 06-Feb-2005, 03:28:54 PM
Sad, lonely people at my university didn't believe that WereBears even existed. They ridiculed me for days - okay, minutes. But I showed them, for I stumbled across this site - complete with a photograph of Grizzler: The WereBear that resides on the second chair in my bedroom. Long live WereBears!
Blake 17-Feb-2005, 02:59:07 PM
I loved Warebears. They were 1 of my 3 favourite fluffy toys when I was a kid. I have the yellow one, in my opinion the coolest. :) where can I get more from?? Are they very collectable?
Robert Fultonia 03-Mar-2005, 07:21:14 PM
in nearly 21 and i just remembered them, dug my little dude out the loft and im cleaning him as i type! dont remember the name but i have the pale blue one (top right in pic) sans tape though, can vaguely remember the tape, and not really listening to it! totally enthralled by this toy as a kid! so glad i've found him!
PeteJ 08-Mar-2005, 07:37:28 PM
I remember getting Growler for Christmas when I was about 5 or so (19 now,) he had a badge on his chest you pressed and he howled from a 9V sound box in his back. I remember being absolutely extatic getting him, and proceeded to get Howler for my birthday. Does anyone have any pictures of the terror teds? All I remember of them is seeing them on the shelf in John Lewis, and telling my Mum that I definitely didn't want one of them because they were too ugly!
Ed 12-Mar-2005, 03:01:17 PM
After talking about old cartoons with my girlfriend I mentioned that I had a Werebear and then went in search of it! And low and behold came across my yellow and pink one (Oh how manly I hear you cry) but he was an EVIL MOFO I TELLS YA!!! But yeah, other then the fur being abit flat where its been... well flattened by other stuff from the good ol' 80's stuff mostly cartoon related.. Its perfect :P Was supprised to find so many people knowing them.. as I haven't seen once since I got it when I was 4/5 yo.
Alex 30-Mar-2005, 12:29:02 AM
WereBears were the greatest. I had them all. As a strange kid with a fascination for anything gothic or gory I fell in love with these teddies that could kick stuffed ass! They were great!
Mark 30-Mar-2005, 11:23:28 PM
Oh yea, the werebears! i never had one, but my big bro did when he was younger. He had Gums, and i think he said something about wanting Grizzler. I'm only 13, and my bro is 23 this year. When i found Gums a couple of years ago in the attic, he had his "nice" face on. So i flipped it, not having known of their "evil" side, and wasn't at all surprised. the only thing that scared me was it having no teeth!! I adored that thing, but my bro took it with him the other day when he came round. :( I want Gums lol Bro, pass him down 2 me!!
Nicky 01-Apr-2005, 07:54:15 PM
i found one today under mi bed it the blue and yellow one there sooo kool
chris 07-Apr-2005, 10:42:48 PM
were bear - growler - appeared on my bed one day as if by magic. he had been dug up when gong through some old stuff... does anyone remember the tapes?!
Rae 10-Jul-2005, 11:11:31 PM
i can remember when i got my first were bear i was get ready for school and was looking for my shoes and i found FANG wear i leave my shoe after that i got hooked on them and all were bears eccept gums and all terror teds and last week 12 years on i won the bidding on e bay for gums and today i got the rest down from my attic im like a little kid again its great
cormac 19-Jul-2005, 03:33:27 PM
dose any1 know what names go with which terror ted i know the name just whos who
cormac 19-Jul-2005, 03:38:53 PM
i remember my auntie getin me howler for my 5th bithday n it would always be me n howler now im 20 n i ave found howler again so he sits in me room on my selve howler was my FIRST TEDDY
joe 03-Aug-2005, 09:20:12 PM
Nice one Cormac! Gums is a notoriously difficult bear to find...it took me 15 years to get hold of him :) The only Terror Ted I know for certain is that Grunt is the black one. I _think_ that Munch is the red/orange terror ted, but I'm not sure. I know the other names are Chomp and Munch but I don't know who's who. I'm now just hoping to get my hands on the purple terror ted as then I'll have the full set of them along with a full set of "big" WereBears and a full set of the smaller, non-changing, bears. For Rae, yes I remember the story tapes. I run a website (The WereBear Directory which is linked as a related site to the WereBears by DoYouRemember) and have copies of all the WereBear stories to download, along with the Grunt Terror Ted story. If anyone has the other Terror Ted tapes and would be willing to copy them for me I'd love you forever!
Scott Allsop 11-Aug-2005, 11:54:56 PM
i love my werebear! x x x
matt wells 04-Oct-2005, 02:05:24 PM
i still have my werebear. all my friends dont know about it and so they think im crazy! i got mine when i was about 6 and i loved it sooo much mine was grizzler, those where the days.
jj morrison 08-Dec-2005, 08:11:28 PM
I bought my son a couple of Werebears when he was about 6 years old. I loved them and used to put my son to bed with his bears and their story tape running to keep him company at night. Now he is 21 years old and has left home, I have his bears in my bedrom. Only recently my son told me that he was actually scared of the werebears as a child !! He thinks they are cool now, but is happy that they live at my house !!
Limara Sian 07-Jan-2006, 01:45:18 PM
in reply ro rob, i have the yellow bear with the green and white jumper, i dont know his name but he is up for sale! email me at gemma_miller@hotmail.com if you still want to get hold of one
gem 16-Jan-2006, 01:45:36 PM
I used to take Grizzler everwhere with me when I was small[er, i'm short -sob-] I can still remember the tapes vividly, my mom and grandparents used to let me play them in the car on long trips, I managed to over the years acquire Howler, Fang, Grizzler and Growler but I could never find a large sized Gums, I was told this was common, I love them wearbears
the beast 25-Jan-2006, 04:24:12 PM
I loved, and still love, both the Werebears and the Terror Teds I had three of the Five werebears, Howler Growler and Gums, and one Terror Ted Munch (He's actually the Purple one), I would love to be able to get hold of any of the other bears, if anyone has them for sale e-mail me at giganto384@hotmail.com
Andrew 25-Mar-2006, 09:21:51 PM
i have a werebear who is not one of the 5 (howler grouler grizzler fang gum) he has a blue body with yellow legs and pink mouth he always stays as a werebear if any1 knows who this is tell me on jamiesausages@aol.com
jamie 01-May-2006, 04:55:39 PM
I've emailed Jamie privately, but for anyone else who is wondering, the 4 main WereBear characters (Howler, Grizzler, Fang and Gums) also had smaller, non-changing, versions in the same colours. Jamie's bear will be the miniature (or "Baby") Howler. Check out the WereBear Directory at www.redhotscott.co.uk/werebear/ for more info.
Scott Allsop 05-May-2006, 06:25:54 PM
the scariest thing about werebears was the packaging. there was a really scary picture of a bear/gargoyle thing on the cardboard stand. even though it was tiny, my mum had to cover it with masking tape so that i could sleep at night
*_RoCkLeBeRrY_* 23-Aug-2006, 02:18:34 AM
They were awesome, I remember I had fang and tiny fang as well as tiny grizzler, growler and howler plus i had snapper which I still have actually. He was my fave cos he was green, yellow and looked stupid with one huge eye, man I can't believe I still remember their names, its worse than transformers lol but better than pokemon and power rangers!
Robin 03-Nov-2006, 10:11:35 PM
i own all the werebears and teror teds encluding the non-changeable ones of the werebears all in excellent-mint condition and with tapes and packaging flatpacked in my cupboard. i have the 5 werebears on one shelf and the opposite sde of the room i have the four terror teds faceing the werebears. it all started in 2006 when i obtained the other four werebears and all the terror teds and non-changeable werebears from ebay and completed my collection (i was proud that i won the growler from a lovely lady who's screen name was moogie57)
Werebear Master 05-Dec-2006, 01:01:02 PM
quick question for the auther two messeges below this and to anybody else if any of you have pics of the werebears and easpecially the terror teds i would be thankful as i am trying to add them to my web page and have no pics of them
werebear master 05-Dec-2006, 01:04:16 PM
if you are willing to share any pics of the werebears and terror teds please email me at peterdurn@aol.com
werebear master 05-Dec-2006, 01:05:53 PM
i would love to see them turned into a cartoon show
GlynReaper 21-Dec-2006, 07:24:52 PM
Just like to say a big hello and thanks to all our avid and loyal Werebear fans out there. Thought you might like to know that i've had enquiries from various animation companies in the US and Canada about a possible relaunch, so keep your fingers crossed, and we may need all your support as proof that there's still a demand for the little buggers. Cheers George.
George Nicholas ( creator of WereBears) 12-Jan-2007, 07:48:52 PM
PLEASE HELP!!! i think the werebears are wicked i did own the yellow one, when i was a kid i dont know what happened too him tho. does anybody know were i can get one from? i have tryed e-baybut i have had no luck!
mike 02-Feb-2007, 02:15:53 AM
oh i rember these to! i had a blue one and he was my faviot one but i lost him. please halp me find where iu can get another one from.
Theresa 02-Feb-2007, 12:14:35 PM
I first heard of the WereBears when I was looking at parodies of the Care Bears. I know all the names. WereBears:Fang,Grizzler,Howler,Growler, and Gums. TerrorTeds:Snapper,Chomp,Munch, and Grunt. I am planning to make a show about them in July 2007. I am 11 years old and I hope to get one on my 12th birthday
WereBoy 05-Feb-2007, 02:54:43 PM
I would likeit if the bears were relaunched and had their own show. In my show, I created girlfriends for them called Terry,Betty,Olivia,Victoria, and I forget the name of the fifth one. I also created a fifth Terror Ted called Gobbler. His fur is grey.
WereBoy 06-Feb-2007, 07:11:32 AM
I just began typing to give you info on my show. In the episode"A Howling Night", Witch Hazel and her one-eyed owl Squint cast a spell that turns Baron Egon Baconburger and the five bears into WereBears. In "WereBears vs. TerrorTeds", the TerrorTeds are created and sent to get rid of the bears. In "Bare Bears", the TerrorTeds steal the bears' clothes. In "The Wrath of Squint", Squint tries to ruin Grizzler's birthday. In the two-part episode "Stuck", the bears get stuck in their "nice" forms, steal one of Witch Hazel's spellbooks, cast a spell that gets them stuck in their "nasty" forms, and finally get everything back to normal. In the final episode "Candle Witch", Fang stops a gang of jewel theives, Grizzler saves a bratty little kid from two huge guard dogs, Howler and Growler save a ballerina from two thugs, and Gums frees a kidnapped girl. After their adventures, the WereBears defeat The Mystic(the bears turn him into a pie and eat him up), The Lunatic, The Loser, and The Riddle Master(not to be confused with the Batman villian The Riddler) and then cast a spell that melts Witch Hazel, Squint, and the TerrorTeds to oblivion and lift the curse on The Baron(the bears are blessed with their metamorphosis at night, so they don't become normal bears).
WereBoy 06-Feb-2007, 02:29:10 PM
I still remember the adverts on toys r us, I always wanted the black terrorted! as christmas was coming along my fiance and i were discussing our memories of the werebears while sitting with his blue werebear (him stuggling to keep me from turning it to nice face) when i had a brill idea (had i been a cartoon charactor i would be sprouting lightbulbs all over the place) we would search on ebay for a werebear and that would be his xmas present. 3 werebears, a minibear and a terrorted later we are still buying more for his collection. My dream is to get all the porcelian pieces but that would be a miracle. unless...
Catherine 16-Mar-2007, 10:22:01 PM
Hey guys If you want to check out the new Werebears site please go to www.werebears.co.uk you can find pictures and the original comic stories and listen to the tapes that came with the comics. Enjoy George
George Nicholas ( creator of the Werebears) 10-Jun-2007, 02:10:17 AM
i think i had howler. he came with a tape. such shiny black vinyl claws. an excellent toy i enjoyed. i bet theyve stopped production by now. i swear i still have him at my parent's house
lokirat 20-Oct-2008, 10:51:25 PM
Does anyone have a picture or a link for the Miniature Were Bears? They sound adorable but they haven't come up on Ebay or anywhere else. :\
SecretTacoNinja 20-Apr-2009, 03:17:39 PM