My Adventures at the Build-A-Bear Workshop

This is the entrance to the workshop. As you can see, it's definitely a fun place to visit. Once you enter the store you are met with loads of choices. There are many basic animals to choose from, lots of clothing, lots of accessories and lots of animals that have been placed around on display so you can see how they look with different types of clothing.

This is part of the animals that you can select from. Each animal has a description along with the basic price of the animal (ranging generally from about $10 through about $25). Underneath are bins where you pick up the unfilled bear unit. So your first choice is to pick the animal you want to bring to life.

Here's from one of their booklets:

As you see, there are quite a few animals to choose from.

Your next choice is to decide if you want your animal to make any sounds. The sounds range from things like "meow" through words like "I love you".

Once you have decided whether or not you want sounds, you take your animal to the person working the filling machine. The woman working the machine will take your animal and attach it to the tube that you see. While she is doing this she will be saying things like "think positive thoughts" and "think good things for your bear". There is a pedal and you step on the it, activating the flow of stuffing material. The woman works the animal around the tube and then stops the machine.

She checks with you and has you handle the animal, determining if you want more stuffing added and where. Once you decide she takes the animal back and finishes adding more stuffing, if that's what you wanted.

One of the interesting things is that there is a tear-off tag that you take and place into the bear. This serves as an identifying device; if your animal is ever lost and someone opens it up, they can take the tag and have the animal traced back directly to you!

This is my Helen beginning to come to life as stuffing material is added to her body.

This is Helen as the woman is just about finished filling her.

The person in front of me had chosen a black bear and her bear is just about finished with the stuffing process.

Once your animal has been filled and the tag inserted, the woman operating the machine has you pick out a heart from a bin on the machine's side. You make a wish using the heart, and then you place the heart into the animal yourself.

Once you are finished with the stuffing machine you then move on to the fluffer. This is a machine that blows air down onto your animal so you can fluff up its fur.

Then the next and hardest part comes and that's picking out clothes and accessories for your animal. The photo shows only one small section of clothes; there's lots and lots more sections. You can choose from hundreds of pieces of clothing and then you can decide if you want to add any of the accessories. These range from lounge chairs for your animal through plastic cell phones, skateboards, sunglasses and plenty of other things.

Here is a page from their flyer giving you an idea of some of the various clothing and accessories you can choose from.

After you've done that you then proceed to the computers. You input your information and the computer will either print out a birth certificate for you or a storybook.

Finally you go to the checkout. Here's a picture of the person putting some of the clothing into a cardboard suitcase.

The animals are placed into cub condos. These are really neat boxes with a door that opens and each side is decorated differently. The two times I went I ended up with different condos; one said "I'm going home" and the other one "I'm going to a party." The drawings on them were also different.

The first time I went I had no idea what to expect. I ended up choosing a bunny big-ears as my animal. It's kind of an overwhelming experience your first time. I ended up getting Jessica one outfit the first time I was there and this cheerleader outfit on my second visit.

This is Helen Alexis Marie, my second Build-A-Bear Workshop animal. I chose a pretty pink blouse and denim skirt along with pink panties and pink sandels for her.

Here's Jessica and Helen talking over their experiences, Jessica filling Helen in on the many stuffed animal neighbors that she has around the apartment.

This is one of the flyers available. Their web site is at Build-A-Bear and you have to go there and see all the wonderful things on their site!

Going to the Build-A-Bear Workshop is really a great, enjoyable, and fun experence. I already have my eye on my next addition, which will be the panda.

My reviews of two Build-a-Bear books