Plot
Sarah Hutton is spoiled and selfish. At a Halloween party she mocks a witch, and the witch retaliates by putting a spell on her old teddy bear. Teddy comes to life, and starts making Sarah’s life a misery because of the bad way she used to treat him.
Teddy says he will keep on until Sarah has learned her lesson. But instead he goes to the lengths of threatening to burn down the house. As Sarah tries to stop him, she trips and bangs her head on a wheelbarrow and is knocked unconscious.
When Sarah regains consciousness she finds herself back at the Halloween party. She had hit her head on the wheelbarrow at the party. The Teddy terror had all been just a dream Sarah had while she was knocked out.
Sarah is back on the brink of throwing Teddy into the bonfire before her encounter with the witch. There is no witch this time, but Sarah decides to keep Teddy and send all her other toys to a children’s home. This suggests she will be a better person in future.
Notes
- Artist: Stanley Houghton
Appeared
- Teddy – Mandy: #922 (15 September 1984) – #934 (8 December 1984)
I can confirm that Teddy ends in Mandy 934 (Dec. 8 1984).
Thanks! I wonder how it ended? It sounded like Teddy was going a bit far when the penultimate episode said he was going to threaten to burn a house down next week.
It was a bit of a cop-out, but a neat one. As Teddy marches off with his flaming torch to set fire to Sarah’s house, in rushing forward to stop him she trips and bangs her head on a wheelbarrow. In the real world Sarah had banged her head on a wheelbarrow in the garden during her Hallowe’en party and was unconscious for a while, although this incident is not recounted in the first instalment for obvious reasons. When she comes to, she is initially amazed to discover that all her friends are dressed as witches. One friend then reminds her that she was about to throw Teddy and all her other toys on the bonfire. Sarah recalls that that was what she was about to do in her dream when the witch brought him to life. Sarah now changes her mind, decides to keep Teddy and send all her other toys to a children’s home. The implication is that henceforth she will no longer be spoilt and selfish.
Thank you. Well, I find it a relief that it was just a dream, even if it is a bit Dallas. Teddy threatening to burn down the house was a bit much and a rather extreme punishment for a spoiled girl.
To have achieved an appropriate parallel Sarah would have to have been taken by Teddy to the house after he had torched it. She could have banged her head on a wheelbarrow trying to escape from him. I’m sure the author will have wrestled with the issue before finally giving in, persuaded that dreams have their own rules anyway.
Wouldn’t surprise me if the witch had been real and planted the whole dream in Sarah’s mind. And it might have been better storytelling if that was the case.