Telephone Bear Winky Eyes
NomuraBear seated in front of a desk w/ plaque "I am the boss"
- Type
- Animals
- Topic
- Professions / Industrial
- Country of manufacture
- Japan
- Mechanism
- Battery
- Movement
- Telephone rings, bear raises his arm to hold the phone and makes noises (speaks), nods head, pad lights and bear writes
- Materials
- Tin and cloth
- Dimensions (LxWxH cm)
- 18x13x19
- Condition
- Excellent
- Manufactured
- 1955 – 1959
- Box
- Very Good
Research notes
Has a second trademark: SHOWA Kogyo Co Ltd (logo SHOWA , see 51 (37)) rarity 7/10 desirability 4/6
Featured in
- Collector's Guide to Battery Toys — p. 185
How it works


Motor (1) has 2 pinions on opposite sides, one transmitting movement to the gear mechanism (2), the other (3) contributing to the bear’s voice. Mechanism (2) powers the main shaft (4), which contains along its axis cams controlling the time during which the phone rings (5), the levers acting on the right arm (6), head (7), left arm (8), respectively, and the time during which the bear talks (9). Action starts with the phone ringing twice. This is achieved by means of cam (5) lowering two times lever (10) to which the vertical hammer (11) that hits the bell (12) is fixed. Then, lever (8) causes the left arm (13) to raise, rotate and raise further, due to the articulation (14). Now, the bear quickly moves head up and down due to the action of lever (7), while speaking. The sound is produced when cam (9) pushes a cardboard and paper ribbon (15) fixed to the bar (16) against pinion (3) in a vibrating mode caused by cam (17) raising/lowering the hook-shaped edge of the bar. Next, the left arm lowers/ rotates/ lowers back to the initial position, by action of lever (8) and articulation (13), and right arm (18) moves horizontally, as if writing, due to the action of lever (6) on articulation (19). Simultaneouly, the light (20) under the note pad goes on during a certain time to show the word “MAGIC”, as defined by the switch in cam (5).