Care Bears were originally characters created by American Greetings in 1981 for use on greeting cards. Then, in 1983, Kenner took the characters and made the first in a line of very successful teddy bears based on the Care Bears. Each bear was a different colour with a symbol on their belly to match their names.
Care Bear Cousins, produced a couple of years later, were a series different animals with matching symbols to names.
The Care Bears franchise was massive business and a huge amount of items were produced to go along side the toys. There were book, magazines, cartoons and films, plus so many other items I can't mention them all!
A popular toy in the 80's, the Care Bears and Cousins have recently made a comeback with several new characters being added to the originals (not mentioned here).

Images on this page are mine or thanks to Renee, Lara & Jana or found on eBay.