Take A Wild Guess What Car Is Hidden Inside This Reversible Teddy Bear

Take a look at this teddy bear! It’s a pretty regular-looking teddy bear, which usually came in all shapes and sizes, recognizably ursine.

The teddy bear, however, holds a secret. Much like the crew of the USCSS Nostromo, this bear too has something inside it, waiting to burst out. Not from the chest, but from the back. Let’s get cracking.

The dusty old bear reveals its contents quite easily, but you have to treat it gently as it’s getting close to 30 years old, and you don’t want to rip the seams.

There’s a Velcro-lined opening along its spine, which shows something distinctively teal inside the bear. Let’s continue.

Oh! Oh! There are wheels in there! The ones that still have their paint on reveal the bear’s automotive alliance. Whatever it is, it’s a Mercedes-Benz.

By now it’s quite clear: the bear has been bearing an early A-Class inside it. This is clearly the halfway point, so we can let the bear retreat to slumber inside the monospace Mercedes.

There we have it, a plush blob that’s obviously a W168 A-Class. A slightly deformed A-Class with orange windows.

I got this a year ago for my kid. I didn’t originally start out to grow her up as a car person, but these things happen, and she now recognizes Mercedes-Benzes she sees around her, likes riding around in cars, and generally enjoys car-related stuff like a four-year-old would. Her granddad has been driving various Mercedes-Benzes for a while, so it’s obvious where the DNA trickles down. Somehow, after a year of wear and tear, the A-Class Teddy is still in one piece and not all of the peeling paint on the wheels has come off, nor have the seams ripped.

A friend of mine spotted one at an autojumble, and the guy selling it wanted 80 euros for it. That set me off on an online hunt, which luckily didn’t take too long. I got this one off eBay for a decent price, and it seems you generally pay anything between 20 to 100 bucks for one in nice condition. There’s one on Kleinanzeigen in Germany for 77 euros, which is a little under 90 bucks. It’s mentioned to be a “Rarität,” which makes it a rarity at least in German-speaking countries.

I’m quite sure it’s an original Mercedes accessory, even if I haven’t yet found an accessory brochure to confirm it. The teddy has a factory – correct “A” logo on it, which to me looks like it’s been on a shelf at a dealer, next to coffee cups, coloring books, baseball caps and the usual fare you could get while getting your car serviced, provided you really like the brand.

The original A-Class was also about bringing in younger customers, offering them something other than a used Mercedes. For some, the A-Class devalued the brand, but Mercedes-Benz also tried a different approach with the Smart, which everybody still knew was partially a Mercedes-Benz product, just more plasticky in that funky ‘90s way. I, too, like the A-Class, and I live in a part of the world where they are still plentiful, but sadly, too many have been beaten on and let rust, or they make terrible sounds from the parts of the engine bay that are hard to reach.

It’s still a brilliant, outside-of-the-box, out-of-the-backside-of-a-bear concept that Mercedes wanted so much to work that they engineered a roughly similar successor for it, just making it ride and handle better. They, too, rusted. These days, the Mercedes-Benz A-Class is a far more regular-looking hatchback, and the only strange thing about it is that the fancy and often electric CLA sedans are actually A-Class spin-offs.

Much like any of the other funky choices German car makers made in the ‘90s, I absolutely allow all the Golf and Polo Harlequins, the Golf Color Concepts, Mercedes Designos and blue, green- or red-seated Audi A3s on the road. It seems that too many German cars of the era were silver or black, and a little color goes a long way. Even if it’s a small A-Class plushie.

Top graphic image and story photos by the author unless otherwise indicated