Care-a-lot Academy: Funshine Bear

This is a new series I'm doing to info dump about my oldest special interest: Care Bears. I will be mostly focusing on the plushies and not the animated series and movies bc that's what I'm more interested in. Starting out is one of the most iconic bears who's also (spoiler alert) a queer icon! Funshine Bear <3

Personality

As one of the core ten. His personality is pretty easy to understand. He's a joyful, positive bear who always looks on the positive side of life. He's also a bit of a prankster and can sometimes take jokes too far, as in his 2004 movie Journey to Joke-a-lot. He loves to make people laugh and smile. His belly badge has the ability to create beams of light. He is also officially a Sagittarius which I think fits him pretty well.

1980s

If you are familiar with the more current Funshine, you may be surprised by the fact that he started as a female bear in the 80s. He has the same basic personality though although had not yet cemented his place as a jokester. This version is less silly in general. His bear is a pale yellow and has a very cute smiley sun belly badge. (I actually really love this version of his belly badge. <3). One of the coolest things about the original plushes is they each have a very unique face, which did not carry through every version of the bears. Funshine has a very wide smile with lines on the ends and prominent eyelashes. Like all the original bears, he is adorable.

1990s

The 1991 rebrand is weird and mostly forgotten. Unfortunately I will not be talking about it this time, though, because Funshine was not included in the 90's run. I guess he was busy lol.

2000s

In 2002 we get the version of the Carebears that will probably be most familiar to most of you. This is also when he become a male bear. While, as far as I'm aware, they have never addressed the change, Carebears is very much lgbt positive (they even have a canon nonbinary character) and Funshine has been adopted by the community as a trans guy. Personally I've seen several trans masc folks that have said they identify with him and I think that's super great. Back to the plush, he has a much more simplified belly badge but aside from that he's pretty similar. Interestingly he now has orange feet  which will stay part of his design and, although his face isn't far from his original, you will notice this generation of bears all have much more similar faces to each other and no eyebrows.

We also have another 2000s plush line that came out in 2007. The design is very similar to his appearance in the Adventures in Care-a-lot cartoon of this time. You'll notice the proportions are different. This is the BIG HEAD era. I'm generally not a fan of this generation of Care Bears but I do think they captured Funshine's personality well, maybe better than 2002. This is also the era of accessories and Funshine's baseball cap is very cute. He also has a bit of a smirk. His belly badge is similar to the last versions but it has subtle blushy cheeks. 

2010s

This 2014-era (which I am combining with the 2012 and 2017 era bc they are very similar with only slightly different eyes) is highly inspired by the 2002 line visually. However, the belly badge is very reminiscent of his original 80's belly badge! I love it this belly badge might be my favorite. His face is pretty unremarkable but still cute. The cartoon of this era is Welcome To Care-a-lot. 

2020s

This is the current line inspired by the Unlock the Magic cartoon. Some Care Bears fans don't like the current line but I adore the personalized faces! Look how much personality he has! He looks very silly and mischievous. He also has a new belly badge with a different smile and sunglasses. He looks great in my opinion and this is my favorite Funshine era. 

Fun Facts + Conclusion

• He has canonically had a crush on both Love-a-lot and Share Bear.
• His belly badge sun occasionally moves on its own in the cartoons like showing the sun sleeping when he sleeps
• His name is Spain and Italy means Joker Bear while most countries have sun related names

I love funshine and this was very fun for me to make. I hope you all enjoyed it as well. If so please let me know and tell me what era of funshine you like best or what your favorite care bear is!