‘Animal Crossing’ Build-A-Bear Collaboration Underway

Putting aside the ethical concerns of ‘building’ a bear in a world with sentient bears, Animal Crossing New Horizon‘s collaboration with Build-A-Bear Workshop, a company I thought long-dead, is live both in the United State and United Kingdom. The collaboration includes plushes of characters Tom Nook and Isabelle whose new dimensions deeply disturb me.

The two characters have much longer limbs than their in-game counterparts, making it look more like a human in an animal suit than the island-dwelling cuties universally revered.

Build-A-Bear attempted to ease the ever-hungry consumers by making a digital waiting room that randomly doled out online appointment numbers. After getting your digital deli number, and quelling concerns about buying an animal friend the same way you’d buy its packaged meat, some purchase-hopefuls waited more than three hours to build their bear. People who earned a slot, however, may not get their bears (really dog/Tanuki) for some months after pre-ordering.

Scalpers took to eBay minutes after sales opened at 10:30 a.m. EST, some asking prices exceeding $300 for confirmed pre-orders.

The team up with Build-A-Bear will not include any in-game items for players of Animal Crossing New Horizons like myself. And since, as I mentioned above, the Build-A-Bear creatures remind me more of a lanky highschooler making minimum wage in a Chuck E Cheese suit than my virtual island friends, I’ll leave the plush supply to more applicable customers.