Duffy the Disney Bear

Duffy the Disney Bear is a Disney Character that can be found at Tokyo DisneySea, Disney California Adventure Park, Epcot, and Hong Kong Disneyland.

Background
Duffy first appeared as "The Disney Bear" in 2002 as a marketing gimmick to promote the opening of the Once Upon The Toy store in Walt Disney World's Downtown Disney. This bear already had the Mickey-silhouetted face, plus Mickey marks on his feet and left hip. However, he had no name and a fairly market-centered backstory, in which Mickey's generic teddy bear is magically imprinted with Mickey's face and brought to life by Tinker Bell's pixie dust. The artwork features cameos by lots of characters who have nothing to do with the story. It should be noted, too, that the highly simplistic, graphic style used to draw the Disney Bear was replaced with a much softer, richer hand-drawn illustrative style for Duffy's Tokyo storybook.

These Disney Bears were released in a rainbow of colors - Valentine red, pink, green, blue, lavender, grey, black, white, chocolate, caramel and honey gold. However, they were never a hit. Having failed to really find their market, by 2004 most of them ended up at Disney outlet stores, long forgotten.

That same year, the Disney Bear launched at the Tokyo Disney Resort as part of that year's Christmas events on December 1st and was instantly popular. At Christmas of 2005, after just one year of successful sales of plush bears and just a smattering of seasonal costumes, the Oriental Land Company decided to fully invest in this teddy bear character the fans had taken such a liking to. They made the him an official part of the park and named him "Duffy," and created an all-new original story to introduce his background. OLC gave him a whole section of the park as a merchandising character. He would go on to "steal the stage" at the restaurant theater (Cape Cod Cook-off) from none other than Donald Duck, replacing "Donald Duck's Boat Builders" with "My Friend Duffy," a show inspired by - but not faithful to the story presented in The Bear of Happiness & Luck. TDS posted signs using the same artwork from the storybook to claim Cape Cod as "Duffy's Hometown." The story had all the hallmarks of Disney - mysterious magic, the power of love and friendship, the wonder of exploration and adventure...and it gave real context to the name, in that Duffy was a hand-made gift that Mickey kept in a duffel bag on his journeys.

In addition to grounding the character in both the parks and a fictional sense of place, the story also made it clear that Duffy was primarily about two things - photos and fashion. OLC put "Photo Points" around the park where guests could snap pictures of or with their Duffys. This was all in response to what fans did with Duffy during that first year.

Where can you find Duffy?
Duffy items are traditionally exclusively available at Aunt Peg's Village Store in Cape Cod and McDuck's Department Store in American Waterfront at Tokyo DisneySea. Last year Galleria Disney near the park entrance and The Sleepy Whale in Mermaid Lagoon were added, bringing the total up to four.

Also, last year marked Duffy's debut/return at the U.S. Disney parks. Duffy items are exclusively available at Treasures in Paradise at Paradise Pier in Disney California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.

Apparently at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Duffy goods are available all over the park, though theming is more closely connected with Epcot.

Disney Parks story
One day, Mickey Mouse was getting ready to set sail on a long sea voyage. Minnie Mouse made him a special teddy bear to take with him so he would never be lonely. Minnie presented her hand sewn bear to Mickey in a duffel bag. Mickey loved the bear and named him Duffy.

As Mickey and Duffy sailed on their journey, they visited all sorts of exciting places and make new friends along the way. At the end of their travels, they sailed back home for a wonderful reunion with Minnie.

Mickey and Duffy shared their magical memories and photos with Minnie, who was thrilled that Duffy was such a great friend and companion for Mickey.

Gallery
 Duffy - Basic.jpg|Duffy the Disney Bear (Tokyo DisneySea version)