Who is Winnie the Pooh?
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| Original Winnie The Pooh Toys |
Winnie the Pooh is probably the most famous stuffed bear
that the world has ever known. Along
with his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood, these lovable characters have been
firm favourites with generations of children.
So how did the worldwide phenomenon that is Winnie the Pooh come about?
It all started back in the First World War, when some Canadian soldiers were
travelling across Canada on their way to Europe and the Western Front. During a train stop, Lieutenant Harry
Colebourn bought a small black female bear cub for $20 from a hunter who had
just shot her mother. Lieutenant Colebourn took the tiny bear cub to Europe
with him and she became the Brigade mascot.
He called her after his home town of Winnipeg, and she became known as
‘Winnie’. Lieutenant Colebourn could not
take Winnie to the battlefields with the Brigade, so he arranged for her to
stay at London Zoo and when the war was over in 1919, Winnie became a permanent
London Zoo resident.
She lived until 1934 and was a very popular attraction at
the zoo. One of her particular admirers
was a young gentleman called Christopher Robin, who was the young son of the
author A.A Milne. Winnie the bear and Christopher Robin became firm friends,
and Christopher Robin even spent time in her cage with her. He was also so taken with Winnie, that he
changed the name of his teddy bear from Edward Bear to Winnie the Pooh. The
friendship between Winnie and Christopher Robin inspired A.A Milne to start
writing stories about his son Christopher Robin, a teddy bear called Winnie the Pooh and their
adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood.
Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh were joined in their adventures by
other friends such as Piglet, Owl, Eeyore, Rabbit, Tigger, Kanga and Roo, again
all inspired by other stuffed animals owned by Christopher Robin. You can still see the original stuffed toys
that belonged to Christopher Robin in the Children’s Centre in the New York
Public Library. The original stories
were published by Methuen, with ‘Winnie the Pooh’ appearing in 1926, ‘Now We
Are Six’ in 1927, and ‘The House at Pooh Corner’ in 1928. One of the things that made these books so
special was the enchanting illustrations of lovable stuffed bear and his
friends that were drawn by E.H Shepard.
These books, including ‘When We Were Young’, became worldwide
bestsellers and sold millions of copies.
Winnie the Pooh DVDs
Winnie the Pooh then went on to catch the eye of the great
Walt Disney. The books had been firm
favourites with his young daughters and so he brought the magic of Winnie the Pooh
to the silver screen in 1966. The first
feature-length animated film starring Winnie the Pooh was ‘The Many Adventures
of Winnie the Pooh’ released in 1977 and was followed twenty years later in
1997 by ‘Pooh’s Grand Adventure’. The
Bear of Little Brain had become a worldwide movie star, and Disney acknowledged
that he had probably came second only to Mickey Mouse as their most loved animated
character. His animated adventures have also now been released on DVD, so you
can catch up on all of the stories from the Hundred Acre Wood in the comfort of
your own home. His friends also get to
star in their own movies and there is a Tigger movie and a Piglet movie that
you can find on DVD. There are also quite a few other Winnie the Pooh DVDs now
that you can get both in the shops and online, including new stories and adventures
and Disney has a series of Pooh learning DVDs that introduce numbers, words and
shapes and sizes.
Winnie the Pooh Books
You can still buy the original books by A.A Milne, ‘Winnie
the Pooh’, ‘The House at Pooh Corner’ and ‘Now We Are Six’, with the original
E. H. Shepard illustrations. The stories
are such classics that I think that they should form an integral part of every
child’s book collection. You can also
get some very beautiful compilations of the original Winnie the Pooh stories
and also boxed sets of all the books. Of
course, there have also now been many other stories telling of the adventures
in The Hundred Acre Wood published which range from colourful picture books and
pop-up books for very young children to longer stories for older children. If the child you are buying for is creative,
you can also get colouring books and sticker books that will provide hours of
interest and fun. You can also find the Winnie the Pooh Books on audio CD, so
your children can listen to the adventures of the stuffed animals of the
Hundred Acre Woods at home or in the car.
Winnie the Pooh Stuffed Bears
Of course, we must not forget that Winnie the Pooh is a
teddy bear, and a famous one at that, so it is only right that there is a huge
range of cuddly Winnie the Pooh stuffed bears for you to choose from. There are stuffed bears in all sizes and in
lots of different outfits, although most of them are made of soft golden plush
and are wearing his signature red shirt.
There are cuddly toys especially designed for new babies and for older
children, so your baby’s very first teddy bear could be the one and only Winnie
the Pooh. You can also get ones that can
be programmed to know your name and say around 1,000 phrases.
Winnie the Pooh Toys
If your children are big fans of Winnie the Pooh, there are
so many toys that you can choose for them today. Play is a very important way of learning for
children and there is a wide range of Winnie the Pooh learning toys available.
The toy company Vtech produce a good selection of learning toys, including
Pooh’s Picture Computer, Winnie the Pooh Sort ‘n Learn Cart and Winnie the Pooh
Teach ‘n Lights Phone. You can also get play sets of figurines, lot of different
games and stacker toys for very young children.
In fact, our favourite bear of little brain is fairly ubiquitous, so he
appears on everything from nursery bed linen, to balloons, picnic cups and
napkins.
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