Bing Mania! It’s a Bing Thing!

By Trudi Goldsmith

If you’ve got a pre-school child in your household then chances are you may have heard of Bing Bunny.  Created by Ted Dewan, Bing is an animated character who is the star of his own TV show for pre school  children aged from one  years  and up.  The TV show started off in 2014 on Cbeebies and is also  featured in Welsh on S4C.

With Bing’s growing popularity in 2015 many parents were searching the internet to no avail for Bing merchandise- cuddy toys etc.  To combat this deficit, Bing’s official website and  Facebook page  began giving away patterns to ‘make your own’ Bing and his friends.  All well and good if you are handy with knitting needles and a needle and cotton!  Many  parents/ carers  who are not handy with creative arts  have turned to ebay to purchase the handmade Bing toys made by others . Do an ebay search of Bing Bunny to see just how much  desperate parents/carers are willing to pay in order to purchase their child a handmade Bing and  his friend Flop!

Handmade Bing & Flop

A month ago an internet search of Bing established  that some Bing books, a jigsaw and one DVD were available on Amazon. On the High Street these books were nowhere to be found.  For such a popular little character Bing was all but invisible on the high street.

It looks like the creators of the Bing TV show misjudged its rising popularity and failed to keep up with the demand for merchandise.

In the past fortnight Bing’s official Facebook page  has been awash with parents  commenting on the news that the long awaited official merchandise of Bing and his friends by Fisher Price  will be available for pre-order from the 1^st June. Merchandise was set to include cuddly toy versions of Bing and all his friends; Bing’s house and an ice cream van; as well as Bing Bath Toys.

With the excitement rising amongst parents and carers  on the  1^st  June  on Bing’s Facebook page a picture of Bing’s silhouette  with the caption ‘ We’re working on it….’ was posted.  Throughout the day anxious parents continued to post on the page that no links to the merchandise had become available.  A further post  by the representatives of Bing to his Facebook page promised to post links as soon as they were available and that they were working with  various suppliers’ to get pre-orders  online. Using Bing’s favourite quote a  picture of Bing was posted with Bing  sitting in a chair with a sad face and the caption ‘ Pressing the refresh button….. it’s a Bing thing !’

Parents were chatting and  shared their findings that by the evening an all dancing all singing ‘Bing’ plush, interactive teddy  by Fisher Price at the cost of £39.99 had become available for pre-order on Amazon. Some parents shared their happiness at finding the availability of one toy whilst others complained about the expensive price and felt that they and their children were being exploited!  With mixed views comments continued to pour on the Facebook page and by the morning of the 2^nd of June  Bing and  his friend Sula  ‘teddy bears’ were available on Amazon for £7.99.   By the afternoon these links disappeared and rumours flooded Bing’s Facebook page of a sell out!  By the afternoon Bing’s house and ice cream van were available for pre-order on Smyths Toys website. However there was still a muddle as all of the items that were proposed for  pre-sale availability on 1^st June  were still not available.

In the early hours of 3^rd June representatives of Bing updated their Facebook status  with a Photo of Bing, and his friends Flop and Sula  stating they have discovered in the past twenty four hours that it has been genuinely difficult to predict when online listings for pre-orders would go live.  They acknowledged that Amazon and Smyths toys have taken the first step in  listing a range of  Bing items and they would post pre order links in the coming days to Bing’s Facebook page. They reassured  parents and carers of ‘Bing’ fans (Bingsters) that pre sale items have not sold out and from the first week of July Bing toys would be launched in selected stores including: Amazon, Argos, Asda, Boots, Debenhams, Hamleys, Harrods, John Lewis, Tesco, The Early Learning Centre, The Entertainer, Toys R us, Very, Wilko and many other independent toy shops.

Bing representatives also confirmed that the toys will range from £4.99 to £39.99 and promised more updates will follow soon.

For many the quest for the best in Bing merchandise to please their  little ones continues. Check out Bing on Facebook or on his website to find out what the fuss is about.

It’s a Bing Thing !

Story inspired and dedicated to little Jacoby. A true Bingster  x