LISBON – Rachel Reuling has done everything but buy tickets since learning a Care Bears Live production was going to be in town for the weekend.
She entered a newspaper coloring contest, earnestly checking each bear’s original color online before submitting her entry. She began listening to the radio every morning for ticket give aways. And she contemplated paying the $18 per-ticket price, trying to think of a friend or two who would be willing to go along.
In the end, though, the 29-year-old Care Bears fan realized she could buy two new bears for her collection if she didn’t go to the show.
She won’t be in the audience for either of today’s remaining performances of Care Bears Live.
Reuling has more than 150 stuffed Care Bears and piles of memorabilia, including coloring books and blankets, toy chests, lunch boxes and mugs, and even boxes that once held Care Bear Band-Aids and gummy treats.
It all started when she met and became engaged to Calvin Reuling. Realizing marriage would most likely lead to children, she decided to start planning early. One of the first things she wanted to do was find something from her own childhood she could share with her future children.
Remembering the Grumpy Bear she received as a young girl, she set out scouring yard sales and flea markets for other stuffed toys from the collection. That was five years ago, and today she has a children’s room decked out with her full Care Bear collection. The walls are painted baby blue, and there are fluffy clouds in the sky. (The couple bought the house in 2004: She was sold on it after seeing the room, which was already painted to accommodate an airplane theme.)
There are no kids yet, but Reuling said she needs to start talking like there will be soon. “Otherwise, it’s just too weird,” she said Saturday, laughing.
“I prefer not to call it collecting,” she added, “because collecting means you can’t touch it.” She already lets the children of friends and relatives take the bears out to play.
Reuling has no idea how much she’s spent through the years, but said it was easier going before Chicago maker Those Characters From Cleveland, Inc., relaunched the Care Bears line in 2001.
At yard sales five years ago, “I could get a Care Bear for 50 cents,” she said. Now they’re more likely to sell for $5.
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