Volume One of the Ape Entertainment comic.
- Once soft and cuddly, now dead and bloody.
Teddy Scares are a line of collectible teddy bears by Applehead Factory revolving around undead teddies with troubling backstories. They were created by Joe DiDomenico.
Each Teddy Scare came with a bio detailing their favorite things, their date of death and the circumstances of their death.
A series of graphic novels were published by Ape Entertainment and a CGI student film was made by DAVE School Animation.
Tropes:
- Animated Adaptation: DAVE School Animation produced a CGI short film where Edwin Morose, Hester Golem, Redmond Gore and Rita Mortis conspired to destroy Abnormal Cyrus' "friend" Toasty the Toaster after Cyrus' antic with said toaster started to annoy them.
- Batter Up!: Rita Mortis uses a baseball bat as her main weapon.
- Bears Are Bad News: A given, considering that the premise is about undead teddy bears. Rita Mortis and Redmond Gore are the best examples due to both being very violent and antisocial.
- Body Horror: The Teddy Scares to varying degrees.
- Abnormal Cyrus is a Cyclops.
- Hester Golem has a large chunk of fur missing from his face, and a huge hole in his torso with bugs in it. Also, he's missing his left eye.
- Mundy Drudge's face can be removed, revealing the muscles underneath.
- Maisie Podge was cobbled together from random patchwork. As a result, she has her eyes bunched on one side of her head, and another face on her torso.
- Casting Gag: The CGI short film by DAVE School Animation has the Teddy Scares sans Redmond Gore voiced by celebrities famous for being involved in the horror genre.
- Edwin Morose is voiced by horror author Clive Barker.
- Rita Mortis is voiced by Linda Blair, who played Regan MacNeil, the girl who gets possessed in the horror film The Exorcist.
- Hester Golem is voiced by makeup effects artist Rick Baker, whose work includes The Frighteners, Body Bags and the 1998 remake of Psycho.
- Abnormal Cyrus is voiced by Norman Macera, who played Sheriff Fallon in the 2004 film Murder Below the Line.
- Comic-Book Adaptation: Ape Entertainment published a series of graphic novels based on the teddy bears.
- Companion Cube: In the Ape Entertainment comics and the DAVE School Animation short film, Abnormal Cyrus is friends with a toaster he drew an eye and a smile on that he names Toasty.
- Cyclops: Abnormal Cyrus has only one eye.
- Driven to Suicide: Abnormal Cyrus' original backstory ended with him hanging himself after being driven to depression by how no one liked him.
- Frankenstein's Monster: Mundy Drudge's revised backstory establishes that he was sewn together and brought to life by Hester Golem.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Both the CGI short film and the comics depict the rest of the Teddy Scares as openly disliking Cyrus.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: All Abnormal Cyrus wants is to be friends with the other Teddy Scares.
- Living Toys: An interesting take on the concept of toys being alive in that the teddy bears are undead.
- Mad Scientist: Hester Golem is portrayed as highly intelligent and with a passion for conducting experiments in the comics and the CGI short film.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: In the DAVE School Animation short film, Hester Golem's voice is a blatant impression of Peter Lorre.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Rita Mortis' original backstory mentioned that her parents spat on her grave after she died.
- Pest Controller: Hester Golem commands an army of roaches.
- Retcon: The older Teddy Scares had completely different backstories that were later changed to match the origins given in the Ape Entertainment comics. Rita Mortis, for example, originally had the backstory of being a delinquent all her life whose death brought joy to all who knew her before her origin was instead changed to belonging to a spirited girl named Violet and becoming bitter and snarky after bullies tossed her into the trash.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Edwin Morose has a habit of speaking in rhyme.
- Sackhead Slasher: Redmond Gore wears a sack over his head and has a penchant for using his axe to kill people.
- The Smurfette Principle: Rita Mortis is the sole female Teddy Scare of the first series.
- Maisie Podge is the only female Teddy Scare of the second series.
- Superhero Episode: The third volume of the Ape Entertainment comic had a story titled "Super Cyrus", where Cyrus is inspired by a Captain Stupendous comic book to become a superhero. In an effort to end his even more annoying antics, Edwin Morose, Hester Golem, Redmond Gore and Rita Mortis band together to form a supervillain team called the Scare-tastic Four.
- The Speechless: Redmond Gore is the silent type and his second backstory establishes that he's been rendered mute by the abuse he endured from his former owner.
- Widowed at the Wedding: Annabelle Wraithia's story is that she lost her husband on her wedding day. After being cremated, her ghost now wanders the garbage dump where the Teddy Scares hang, longing to be reunited with her spouse.
