Beanie Buddy

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Beanie Buddies are a toyline of Ty Inc., introduced on September 30, 1998.

Most collectors cannot afford rare Beanie Babies such as Peanut the royal blue elephant and Humphrey the camel. So, Ty Warner created Beanie Buddies, which are based on some of the most popular members of the Beanie Babies line. The Beanie Buddies are about 40 percent bigger than the Beanie Babies and they feature a unique, super-soft fabric designed by Ty, called "Tylon".

Initially, the line had nine members: Beak the kiwi bird, Humphrey the camel, Jake the mallard duck, Peanut the royal blue elephant, Quackers the duck, Rover the dog, Stretch the ostrich, Teddy the cranberry bear, and Twigs the giraffe.

Beanie Buddies are plush toys closer in size to members of the Ty Pillow Pals collection rather than Beanie Babies. The Buddies are filled with a mixture of polyester filling and beans (PE pellets). Unlike with Beanie Babies, there is no birthdate listed inside the Buddies' fifth generation red Ty heart tag. On the left side of the tag are the words "The Beanie Buddies Collection" and a list of the Ty, Inc., locations in the United States and Canada. On the right side of the tag is a trivia statement about the Beanie Baby that the new Beanie Buddy is modeled after and the Ty, Inc., world wide web address.

All of the words on the inside of the hang tag are printed in black ink except for the words "BEANIE BABY," which are in red ink. The front of the tag has the yellow star with type that reads "BEANIE ORIGINAL BUDDY." The tush (or sewn-in) tags are of the same type (white with red heart and black letters) used on the Pillow Pals and the Ty Plush collectibles. The copyright year is 1998.

The style or item numbers (the last four numbers of the toy's "barcode") are in the 9300 range for Beanie Buddies, while Beanie Babies' style numbers are in the 4000 range.

A second group of Buddies were released on January 1, 1999. A third group of Buddies were announced in April 1999.

There are two variations of swing tags. The first generation was found of the first group released in September 1998. The second generation swing tag appeared on the second group of Buddies released on January 1, 1999. On January 4, 2000, a large number of Buddies were released. There was also a swing tag change. A multicolored star was added.