I know there's been questions over some of BABs quality lately. As a plush artist I have some inside knowledge about construction and other quality factors that go into making stuffed animals so I'm making an effort to make honest review posts for BABs I get for you all. Especially on one's that seem they maybe questionable in quality.
Okay so first let's start with the question everyone wants to know. What's the texture like? Is it rough or soft? I've seen people say both. The honest answer actually is both. The individual fibers them self are extremely soft. However they are gathered in lumps that have a big of a hardness to them. Unlike in sherpa type faux furs where the clumps are soft and squishy theses one have an almost pebbly nature to them and are pretty firm. (For some stroking his fur will definitely bother sensory issues, for others who find stroking bumpy surfaces soothing this bear would probably be great for you!) also brushing may effect this and change his texture but I don't want to brush mine out to say.
The faux fur does seem to have a decent weight to it, is heavier than most ones used, and seems to be of good quality that should hold up in terms of ripping over time. I don't have enough experience with faux fur of this texture to tell if the texture will likely hold up over time.
Now for the face. The eyes are oval shaped safety eyes and the nose is a large flocked brown safety nose. Overall it's a nice nod to his vintage history. However, flocked noses do loose their flocking if they are regularly played with or cuddled so I avoid them unless the piece is meant for display or a customer requests them.
The paws are pretty nice! Both the hands and feet have stitch lines to give him fingers/toes. Typically this is done through thread sculpting. And while I LOVE thread sculpting and the pure magic it is, thread sculpting is prone to breaking because you're taking a lot of force across long pieces of thread. With stitching them out the way they did it'll definitely hold up much better over time which I appreciate.
I definitely love the look of the vinyl they did on the feet. However the vinyl isn't the greatest of quality and likely is something that will show wear over time with play.
The 25th paw patch is honestly beautiful. I'm really impressed with these. Also I want to give a HUGE props to BAB for using silver thread to embroider it on. For those who don't use an embroidery machine, metallic thread is notoriously the worst to work with. It has a high breakage rate and is know for destroying machines. Personally I won't even use it at all because it's not worth how much it will cost to get a machine repaired when it breaks inside it one day. BAB definitely could have gotten away with a grey or white thread here, but went with metallic despite that usually being more expensive with most manufacturers due to the issues with it, and the thread itself usually costing twice as much as regular embroidery thread. So I respect that a lot.
Overall he seems to be a pretty solid well constructed bear, and should mostly hold up over time. But give special care to the nose and vinyl on the feet. Especially if you ever wash him! The fur texture is questionable and going to just come down to personal tastes. I also personally don't find him to be my favorite design ever, but he does have a very nice vintage look for an anniversary collection!
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