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Mary T's Attic
A Place for Quality Cherished Teddies
Trivia: International Bears
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International Bears
The International Bears were released in 1996. Six of these bears were released with passports
if purchased from the country of origin. In the United States, only Bob was available with
a passport. Bears with passports include Bazza (Australia),
Bob (USA), Franz (Germany), Katrien (Netherlands), Preston (Canada), and William (England).
The passport covers for all these bears says "Passport" except for the German passport, which
says "Reisepass". Some early Preston passports were erroneously printed with the German "Reisepass"
on the cover. Some of the early Katriens also had an understamp error that said "Teddies" instead of
"Cherished Teddies".
While Bazza was released with a passport in Australia in 1996, he was not released in the US (without a passport) until 1997. Other international bears released in 1996 without passports include Carlos (Mexico),
Claudette (France), Fernando (Spain), Kerstin (Sweden), Lian (China),
Lorna (Scotland), Machiko (Japan), Nadia (Russia) and Rajul (India).
Colleen (Ireland) and Sophia were released in 1997, and Leilani (Tahiti)
was released in 1998.
The passport books contain additional passport information about the international bears,
along with room to add passport stamps. The birthdates for the different passport bears are listed
on their passports and are as follows:
| Bazza: January 26th |
| Bob: July 4th |
| Franz: May 18th |
| Katrien: July 4th |
| Preston: July 1st |
| William: April 23rd |
Each international bear is supposed to have a passport stamp that can be placed in the
passport book. The 1997 Leilanis did not come with a passport stamp, but Enesco
corrected the problem when releasing the 1998 Leilanis.
Leilani, Lian, Machiko, and Preston were retired in 1998.
The remaining pieces were retired in 1999.
© 2001 - 2002, Mary Flatman. All rights reserved.
