More Homemade Bing and Flop Dolls

AudryElla from the USA with her splendid homemade Bing and Flop pair, made by her grandmother for Christmas 2008. This is the 7th pair of homemade Bing and Flop dolls I'm aware of.

Bing Statues

There are only a very few of these Bing 'sculpts' in existence. They're 'flocked' like Sylvanian figures. Unfortunately, I haven't got any for sale, and if I did, they're a lot more than you'd think...

Anthony

Armand, an old pal from Brown University introduced me to his little boy, Anthony, in May 2008 at a reunion. Anthony seems to have caught the Bing infection. I like comparing the toddler picture with the one 6 months before.

Bing Bento

Seems there's a mini Bing cult of at least two households in Atlanta, GA. Pam's exceptional food preparation skills delivered this "Bing Bento Box". You wouldn't believe what she does with children's food. She could get Bing to eat tomatoes. http://www.cookingformonkeys.com/

Bing Bunny Museum's First Acquisition

There's no Bing Bunny Museum you can visit at present, but there's a chair in the living room that is the start of it. Sarah offered me this pair of Bing and Flop dolls that her twin boys played with and of course I grabbed them. These sort of 'folk' Bing and Flop dolls will sadly probably disappear if an 'official' doll is ever manufactured, and so they're precious. Thanks, Sara

Best Bing Birthday Ever

ATLANTA GA: Shanna sent me these photos of the over-the-top Bing-themed Birthday she created with her daughter, Holly. They intelligently jammed on various Bing themes, creating place settings, decorations, and even special Bing clothes. When you think about how busy toddler's parents are, and how much licensed character birthday stuff there is out there, it delights me that Shanna took the opportunity to enjoy being creative with Holly and did such a quality job. Hats off, Shanna and Holly, I'm astounded and delighted. I hope it was rewarding and fun, and that when things went wrong printing out and ironing on that the Bing Thing attitude got you through the tricky bits.

Ned

Lou from Melbourne, Australia, writes; "Ned, who is 1, loves tactile things and so he loves your mix of illustration and photography styles. I am looking forward to downloading Bing and Flop for a T-shirt for Ned and maybe even one for mummy. Thanks for creating such a joyful little character."

Do Not Disturb

Julie and Steve of Surrey, England, sent in this unique piece of Bingobelia with the letter: "Our niece, Misty, absolutely adores Bing. She has just moved From London to Kent and we thought she would feel more comfortable in her new bedroom with Bing 'guarding' the bedroom door! The books are great, thank you."

Bedtime

If ever there was a 'photo of the month', this has got to be it. "I heard Eliza moving around a bit and after it had gone quiet I went up to check and this is what I found."
March 2008

A Bing Birthday Cake

Lynn created this fantastic Bing cake, in his split-jump position (feet on either side) for her 2-year-old's birthday. She writes: "It's nice to have books to read to our 2 year old that don't drive you crazy after 100 readings". As this web-posting was made 9 months after the email arrived, I wonder if Lynn is now up to the 200 mark and ready to mash the next Bing cake into my face.

More Flops!

Two photos of a beautifully made Flop doll. What's curious is that there are now more known homemade Flop dolls than there are Bing dolls, and yet all the cakes sent in are Bing. Personally, it makes a lot more sense for a child to have a Flop doll when you think about it.

Phoebe

Phoebe's message is unambiguous, but perhaps Bing helps them rule. It never occured to me until I saw this photo how the dummy or pacifier is roughly in the shape of Bing's mouth mask.

Another Homemade Flop Doll

Shahid from Perth, Australia, and his splendidly realised homemade Flop. His parents write: "We LOVE Flop so much we had to bring him to life."

A Bing Birthday

Victoria created this Bing cake for her 3-year-old son's birthday. She writes:
"Thank you for producing such a wonderful character. Both my 3 (soon to be 4) year old and 22 month old children love him. And I don’t mind repeated readings of Bing either. The thought of a potential picnic surrounded by dog pooh always makes me smile.
"But a big thanks you for helping me to redirect the strange whims of my 3year old, Bill. It is his birthday this week and for months he has told me he wants a “Horsey cake”. As my creative streak was brutally erased at birth this struck terror in my heart. As well as incredulity. Bill has never ridden a horse, spent quality time with a horse and only petted one briefly. However a very pretty girl called Charlotte is a huge fan of horses to such an extent that some days she will only respond to her pony alter ego name, Pepper. I think this may be his first crush. Bill casually leafed through my “Easy” party cakes book and chose a cake shaped like a bed with a mouse in it. But he wanted a horse’s head on the pillow. It’ s very hard to explain to a 3 year old why this is wrong on quite a few levels, particularly whilst laughing. Anyway, I suggested I make a Bing cake. He agreed.
"The party was a real hit and the Bing cake turned out surprisingly like Bing. I did use black icing and it was a labour of love. Bill’s Dad David blew up a picture of Bing and I reverted back to the infants and did a lot of tracing.
"Introducing Bing to grown ups and children who don’t know him is wonderful. Part of me wishes that myself, my husband and Bill and Iona could meet him again for the first time.Thank you."

Flop Doll

This photo was sent by Elise from Gainesville, Florida:
"My two year old loves the Bing books. For Daniel's 2nd B-day, my mother had a "Flop" made. Daniel sleeps with Flop, a cow and a pig!"

Chance in a Million

Ethan and Phoebe of Roslindale, Massachusetts,enjoy a Bing pile with their grandmother.It turns out they were visiting friends of mine in Oxford and started raving about Bing books to my friends, who of course, were already well buried in Bing culture. Serendipity rules in Oxford!

First Pair of Bing and Flop Dolls

These Bing and Flop doll were created by Carolyn of Charlottesville, Virginia,
for her grandson Abe in Indiana.
This is the first ever pair of Bing and Flop dolls I'm aware of. Carolyn's daughter, Ana, wrote to her: "WOW - I am so impressed! Abe will know how truly special these dolls are both because they were lovingly made by his Grandma and because of their impact on Bing history! The other day we received a box in the mail and Abe got so excited and started yelling "Bing and Flop" thinking that they had once again come to visit through the mail. Thanks again and congratulations!"

Mrs. Pilkington's "Bingish Bunny" doll

This Bing doll was created by Mrs Pilkington.
Mrs Pilkington, a self-described knitter, wife, mom, writer, butcher, baker, candlestick maker, calls him "Bingish Bunny".
photo © Mrs Pilkington
http://mrspilkington.typepad.com

Bingham

"Just a quick note to say "Thanks" for the Bing Bunny series. Our son, who's name is Bingham, (we call him Bing for short) just LOVES these books. So, we purchased all 8 books as a 3rd birthday gift and he nearly has them all memorized. Thanks again!"
Brian, Vickie and Bing

Winner of the Most Messed Up Bing Book Contest

Robert from Manchester, England, is as serious a bingster as any I've seen. He's also a contestant in the MOST MESSED UP BING BOOK CONTEST.
Not only have his parents made him a Bing t-shirt but his grandmother actually created one of the very first Bing bunny dolls.
On the eve of finally signing the contract to start a slow-rolling television and merchandise program, I cant help feeling that this is a historically important doll. Perhaps many years from now, when we build the Bing Museum in Oxford, we can raise funds to acquire the world's first Bing for the permanent collection...
...that is, if Robert is willing to part with him. Which I doubt he would or should.

Jacek and Andris from Hungary

Jacek and Andris from Hungary are the first Bingsters to have photos on the site wearing their Bing ears downloaded and printed out from the site.




Jacek a with a well-worn copy of Bing Bed Time.




Close-up of Andris in characteristic toddler food-in-mouth shot. Dont spill the chocolate biscuit, Andris!

Eating "Yuk!"

Peter Cassidy, an old friend from teaching days in the USA, introduces Bing YUK! to his two boys, Bertie and Thomas (now living in London).




Bertie was intrigued by the photographic images of food in Bing YUK! and bent down to eat the photos. Yum yum yum.

Again and again and again and again....

Cordelia of Staten Island, New York, in what I am assured is an unstaged photo, asking to read Bing Bed Time again and again and again and again and again etc...

First Bing Shirt

Seamus from Virginia, the very first Bingster to have photos on the site wearing his Bing shirt, downloaded and printed out from the site. This one is quite deluxe in that his parents also downloaded the Bing logo and positioned it in appeallingly jaunty position beneath Bing's feet.

Tigger Trumped

2-year-old Byron from York, England, in his bedroom with Bing and Flop on his wall, downloaded from the DOWNLOADS section of bingbunny.com (Tigger looks on jealously).

Orange Santa

Katherine with Big Orange Santa (aka Bill, her grandfather) in Tennessee. Orange is not only Bing's favourite colour, it's everyone's favorite color in Tennessee - it's the color for the University of Tennessee, where football is very important.

Bing launches on an unsuspecting world, 2003

Lola and Vinnie, their parents, and the new baby enter the world of Bing on the launch day in May 2003, Borders Bookstore, Oxford, England. In true Bingster fashion, Vinnie (seated in pushchair) had just spilt a pot of yoghurt on his trousers and the carpeted section of the bookshop. Standing in the background is publisher David Fickling and my wife Helen Cooper.



A photo from Bing launch day. These teens fell in love with Bing and pooled money together to buy a copy of Paint Day. Charlie, the special events guy at Borders, working hard in the background and thus a bit blurry.