General

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If you've just been given a Teddy who looks like he or she is already on an adventure, you need to go here instead. If you want to start an adventure of you own, read on!

 
Launching your own "Where's My Teddy?" Adventure is as easy as A, B, C
 
First, you’ll need a "Where’s My Teddy?" Passport and Bear. You can buy these at the Adventure Shop.
 
Once you receive your Teddy and Passport in the post, you’ll need to give your Teddy a name and register them on the site following the simple instructions on the website using the “Update/Launch a Teddy Adventure” function on the homepage.
 
That’s it! You can then provide as many updates as you like (blogs) before passing teddy on to someone else (as long as you haven’t decided to keep Teddy for yourself that is…)

 

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On this site a blog is simply an update about a teddy. To do this simply enter in the Passport NR and PIN from the teddy's passport (you'll need to have either received someone else's teddy or bought a teddy of your own to do this) on the Update a Teddy page, and then follow the on-screen instructions. It's good to have a digital picture to hand when you provide an update - plain text can be a bit boring! A good picture is also proof that teddy's actually been where you say he or she has been!

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We have to be honest – it’s too early to tell at this stage what the success rate of this enterprise will be. We’re asking you to take a chance in return for what might be a lot of fun. (And no, before you ask, if your bear goes missing, we can’t give you your money back!) If you’re the kind of person that can live with a little ambiguity, chance, and risk, then visit our adventure shop and get started right now.

 
Still need convincing? Try these similar ideas for a little inspiration – www.flatstanley.com and www.bookcrossing.com  

 

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If it's been a while since you heard from teddy, please contact us providing the Passport NR and Name, and we'll chase the last known recipient of the bear by email to ask them what's going on. We can't guarantee that this will work of course – that depends on how nice the people we are writing to are - but we'll do our best to prod and remind people to do something if a teddy gets stuck or disappears. And if the people we write to no longer have teddy, we’ll ask them to chase the people they gave teddy to instead.

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If you are the original owner of a teddy bear (i.e. the person who first registered the teddy on this website) you can at any time update the status of your bear to show that you want your teddy home. You can also leave a message to future recipients of the bear saying where you would like the bear returned to. Click on the "edit my bear" link under the "My Favourites" box on the right-hand side (only the original owner can see this link, and only when they are logged in).

To protect your privacy, we suggest that when you specify a return address, you provide a public address (e.g. a school or business address) rather than a private residential address. It is then up to the future recipients to try and get the bear home. Clearly, if the bear is a long way from home, the likelihood of teddy returning home is smaller than if teddy is still doing the rounds between your friends and family. However, the theory goes that everyone knows everyone else through a chain of less than six people (see the six degrees of separation theory on Wikipedia). So who knows! Maybe teddy will eventually turn up at your home from wherever they find themselves!

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Different Kinds of Adventure

When a teddy bear is first started (launched) on to an adventure, the teddy owner needs to specify what kind of adventure they want their bear to have. There are currently four kinds of adventure to choose from (but please feel free to contact us if you think there should be more!):  

  1. Private - My teddy travels only with me
  2. Family & Friends - A bear passed only between family and friends
  3. School - A bear passed within a class/school or between schools
  4. Wild -  Let your teddy loose on the world. How far can teddy travel?

The teddy owner will also have a chance to provide a short text to pass on to anyone who receives the teddy. For example - you might like to say that your teddy should only be given to someone who lives in your town.
 

Risks

The risk that a bear is lost or goes missing increases from the top to the bottom of this list. In other words, if your bear is only being passed between members of your immediate family, or friends in your school class, the more likely it is that the bear will remain on our radar and also (should you wish) that the bear can return home. On the other hand, the wilder the adventure is - for example, a bear that is passed on between relative strangers or distant friends - the more likely it is that the bear eventually falls off our radar, and the less likely it is that teddy will ever find their way home (see "How do I get my bear back?").

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It's not as crazy as it sounds!

First, how many toys and bears do you or your kids already have? If the answer is "more than one", then you probably don't need just another toy anyway. What you need is something a little more different, weird, or wonderful. Right? Well how about this? Everyone's been tempted to leave a message in a bottle at one time or another. Wouldn't it be great if you could do that and know what happened to it afterwards? Where did it end up and who read it? What effect did it have? Well, that's the "Where's My Teddy?" concept in a nutshell. 
 
 
It's not about buying more toys. It's about having an adventure.
 
So you buy a bear and then you set them off on their travels. How? You simply pass them on to other people. The people who receive the bear after that then provide an update on this website before passing the bear on themselves. And so it goes. Each person updates the adventure on the website and everyone who has ever been in touch with the bear gets an update by email saying that the adventure has been updated. You get the picture (and if you don’t, check out our Teddy of the Day to see how it can work). Pretty soon your bear could be smiling at you from a beach in Australia, sitting atop Mount Everest, our hanging out in a hotel lobby in Tokyo. Who knows? And that's the point - it's an adventure! And all that without leaving your armchair! Now that sounds a little more exciting than your average toy, doesn’t it?
 
And finally, learning to give things away is also a great thing for kids to learn these days - a nice antidote to the general rule of always hanging on to stuff. So if you're looking for something that's more than just a toy, visit our Adventure Shop and launch a "Where's My Teddy?" adventure of your own today. 

 

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What's it all about? In a word, Globe-Trotting-Teddy-Bears, that's what! (OK, we know we cheated!). But its more than that, because it's about fun, excitement and adventure too. Check out our Beginner's Guide to "Where's My Teddy?" for a brief explanation about the concept and how you can get involved.

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Don't worry. It's simple. Go here and we'll tell you the simple steps needed to get involved and update teddy's adventure.

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