From Gloomy Little Cloud on Flicker
"Be@rbrick is a collectible toy designed and produced by the Japanese company MediCom Toy Incorporated. The name is derived from the fact that the figure is a cartoon-style representation of a bear, and that it is a variation of MediCom's Kubrick design. The at sign in the place of the letter a is a visual device that is a part of the Be@rbrick brand, and as such, a trademark of MediCom Toy.
The figure is an anthropomorphized bear with an extremely simplified form and a pot belly. Each plastic figure features nine parts (widely referred to as tools in the toy industry): head, torso, hips, arms, hands, and legs; These nine tools allow eight points of articulation: swivel head, swivel waist, ball joint arms, swivel wrists, and ball joint legs." From Wikipedia