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Manly and contemporary

The teddy for the man who says he would never buy one. These are characters first: James Bond, Batman and the Riddler, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, even Monty Python's dead parrot, and whichever characters Steiff has licensed lately. They are made as proper collector bears rather than novelties, and the joke lands better for it.

They tend to work as gifts precisely because they are unexpected. A fan of the films or the band gets a piece of it that is not a plastic figure, and a collector gets a limited edition.

This group is for grown-ups, and the makers mark it as such: these are display pieces, not toys.

Buyer's Guide: Manly and Contemporary

Staff picks for the unconvinced

These teddies each have impressive details and interesting stories to them. James Bond plays the classic tune on a music box and Batman has the design of the original 60s Batman. However, our favorite is a little detail on the Rolling Stones teddy: the zipper on the jacket. The zipper reads YKK, which is a company that manufactures the world's best zippers. However, the zipper on the teddy's jacket never moves at all. But it's still the best in the world. That's dedication to quality.

All the pop-culture bears 11 items