Bad Taste Bears are a range of collectibles created by Peter Underhill, and distributed world wide by Piranha Studios.

Bad Taste Bears take the innocence of cuddly toy bear and put them into often distasteful situations designed to create an emotional response in the people that see them. Think of Teddy Bears and, no doubt, images of cute and cuddly childhood companions will fill your mind. That is unless you’ve encountered the warped and twisted world of the Bad Taste Bears, - furry little friends with attitude and a penchant for deviant behaviour!

What started out as a simple collection of illustrations has now grown into a ‘must have’ product. Rare and retired bears that have previously retailed from around £10 to £15 are fetching anything up to £500, and more!

The inspiration for ‘Bad Taste Bears’ came to artist Peter Underhill in 1994 when designing motifs for printing on children's pyjamas. It was getting late and he could only take so much of the lemon coloured cuddly bunnies and cutesy puppies. “Basically”, he says, “I was all ‘cuted out’. So, I drew ‘Hey kiddies, here's the chainsaw bear’ as a refreshing change and enjoyed it so much that I began putting a list together and started drawing and painting bears in ‘interesting’ situations as a release for my twisted imagination”. There soon followed ‘Incontinent Bear’ and ‘Brains on the ceiling bear’ to name but a few!

Piranha Studios picked up the range and began turning them into collectable figurines which first appeared on the scene in the autumn of 1999. They began small with just six figurines on sale through one chain of stores. Within the first year the range increased to twelve figurines and, as demand increased over the following months, they launched an Internet Collectors' Club to provide a point of contact for the growing number of ‘Bad Taste Bears’ fans.

Since then, the figurine range has grown with over 200 designs released. There is a Bear Of The Month scheme (BOTM) which allows you to pay via direct debit for the "monthly" bear. Also there are yearly exclusive club member pieces, Limited Edition pieces, all individually numbered - both the figurine and the packaging. These come in special limited edition display boxes signed by the Bad Taste Bears artist, Peter Underhill.
Also each Christmas, a 'Xmas Bear' is produced for club members who apply by a given date. These are generally shipped around mid-December. Previous years' Xmas Bears now command some of the highest prices and have been known to sell for over £1000! The most recent, Prancer for 2006, retailed at £35.00.

In 2003 it was reported in the Daily Mirror that a customer in Somerset complained to the Advertising Standards Authority over the nature of the bears but the ASA has ruled that they are “a humorous view of popular stereotypes” unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.

Following in the success of the figurines, Piranhas Studios introduced key rings, plush bears and enamel badges and, more recently, expanded the range further with the introduction of pewter barware, greetings cards, a designer fashion range, framed prints, silver jewellery, battle cards and mugs.

In order to keep the range fresh figurines are regularly retired. The first bear to be retired was Dick in late 2001. He was followed by Violet and Roger in early 2002.

The makers realise that some people don't agree with the decision to retire any of the figurines - especially if they are new to collecting the Bad Taste Bears. 'Unfortunately,' they say, 'we don't have the space to store vast quantities of figurines, especially if they are less popular. Retiring figurines makes them more collectable, as there is a fixed number of figurines manufactured. It also allows us to keep the range fresh and interesting'.


Official information, online store and chat forums can be found at;

Bad Taste Bears - http://www.badtastebears.com.


Make sure you also check out the Bad Taste Bears fan sites set up by collectors of these little critters. Each, ready to bring you all the latest collectors information, complete with their very own forums;

Bad Taste Bear Chat - http://www.badtastebearchat.co.uk.

The Bears Nuts - http://www.thebearsnuts.com