Beanie Baby
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A Beanie Baby (TM) is a small stuffed animal made by Ty, Inc., owned and founded by Ty Warner who promoted the line in up-scale stores (and miniatures in McDonald's) and intentional scarcity, under-filled with plastic pellets, or "beans," giving it a flexible and vulnerable, huggable, feel, rather than stuffing (see PVC). A Beanie Baby is a type of bean bag in the form of a stuffed animal toy.
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[edit] History
The original Beanie Babies were made by Ty Warner through his company Ty Inc. Ty claimed rightful ownership of the name and of all of the designs of their various "beanies." Other companies marketed imitation beanbag-stuffed animals, as well as parodies such as the "Meanie Babies".
The official Beanie Babies were mostly in the shape of animals and were usually brightly colored. Each Baby came with his or her own name, a birthdate, and a bit of humorous poetry. For example, the poem of Bongo is:
- Bongo the monkey lives in a tree
- He's the happiest monkey you'll ever see
- In his spare time he plays the guitar
- One of these days he will be a big star!
This information was all contained on a red, heart-shaped hang tag usually affixed to the animal's ear. The condition of the hang tag is one of the main factors in determining a Beanie Baby's value, and hard plastic covers molded in a heart shape are available for its protection.
Intended as children's toys, they became a popular adult gift item. Beanie Babies are a kitsch cubicle decoration. Hundreds of different Beanie Babies were created, often resorting to more obscure animals such as anteaters, nutria, or chameleons in the process. One popular "series" within the Beanie Baby menagerie was the use of teddy bear-shaped Beanies (called new-faced teddies), the basic pattern of which was repeatedly re-used, but with different colors and names. The bear model was frequently used for commemorative purposes, and special bears such as a Fourth of July model and even a Diana, Princess of Wales commemorative were created. Recently there have been Beanie Babies based popular lisensed properies including Spongebob Squarepants, Dora the Explorer, and Garfield.
[edit] Fad
Starting in late 1996, a faddish craze of collecting Beanie Babies began. The craze lasted to around the year 1999. In a buying frenzy reminiscent of the Cabbage Patch Kid mania of the early 1980s, several speculators purchased these collectibles en masse in hopes of making a fortune years later from being able to sell rare specimens. Ty fed the frenzy by systematically retiring various designs. However, much like the Cabbage Patch Kid fad, so many people had delusions that purchasing large numbers of these collectibles was a good investment, that very few people profited from the craze. Like tulip mania, this was a toy-sized example of an economic bubble.
During the beanie baby craze, the rarest non-special edition beanie, according to the Winter 2000 edition of Ty Beanie Babies, published by Collectors Value Guide, was considered to be the Dark Blue Peanut the elephant. Peanut was common in a lighter hue, but the dark blue version consistently sold for thousands of dollars. Nana the monkey is the second rarest beanie baby; eventually, his name was changed to Bongo. Wingless Quackers the duck, a bright yellow duck; Chilly the polar bear; both the all-black and the white face version of Zip the cat; Derby the horse with the fine mane; Peking the Panda Bear; and Humphrey the camel also commanded high prices. Special edition beanies, such as the #1 Bear or the Billionaire bear that were given to Ty executives, were also particularly hard to come across, and were highly valued. Throughout the collecting mania, the bears were usually the most sought-after beanies, and thus they carried higher market values. Sometimes earlier editions of a common beanie baby--such as the "old face" Teddies, would be more rare than newer versions.
[edit] Tags
The tags on a Beanie Babies are a very important part of its value. Without a tag, the average Beanie drops in value more than fifty percent.[citation needed] Beanie Babies have two types of tags: swing tags, which are also called "heart tags", and tush tags, those attached to the Beanie's rear end. Each tag over time has gone through many changes, these changes have become known as "generations", there are currently 15 generations of swing tags, and 13 generations of tush tags, a special Canadian tush tag, and the rare few Beanie Babies embroidered tush tags.
[edit] Trivia
- Tabasco the Bull was renamed Snort and given cream-colored "hooves" after rights to the name were disputed with the Tabasco Sauce company.
- Dotty the Dalmatian was created with several color variations, including black or colorful spots, black or colorful ears, and a black or colorful tail.
- Garcia the Bear was undoubtedly created in Grateful Dead singer Jerry Garcia's likeness, but Ty never officially announced it. Some say he was created to remember Peace Bear, one of Ty's best selling Beanies.[citation needed]
- To celebrate 20 Years of Ty Inc., Ty created "Summertime Fun" bears to sell at summer toy shows. They were a 'new-faced teddy' style with sunglasses and "20 Years of Fun!" embroidered on each foot.
- Ratzo the Beanie Baby rat was the first Beanie Baby to be announced as "Sold Out" on the homepage.
- Every year, Ty Warner offers special, limited edition Beanie Babies at summer toy shows. He chooses new ideas for inspiration each year, such as state flowers or "I Love Bears."
- Ty has created several store exclusives for stores such as Walgreens, Hallmark Cards, and American Greetings. Ty has also created promotional Beanies for brand names such as Midwest Airlines, Hershey Kisses, and Northwestern Mutual.
- In honor of 9-11, a Dalmatian named "Rescue" was created. It is now retired.
- There are 1468 different Beanie Babies retired and current. These include the different forms of the same beanie baby. i.e. ones that are made with a smile and ones that are not.
