Beanie Baby
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Beanie Baby is a stuffed animal filled with plastic pellets, or "beans," rather than stuffing (see PVC). A Beanie Baby is thus a form of bean bag.
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 the monkey went:
- 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. In some tags, the letters "ty" actually are in a 3D form, slightly lifted as to create a more futuristic effect.
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 aardvarks, nutria, or chameleons in the process. One popular "series" within the Beanie Baby menagerie was the use of teddy bear-shaped Beanies, 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.
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 beanie was considered to be the Royal Blue elephant Peanut. 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, her name was changed to Bongo. Wingless Quackers, a bright yellow duck, was another rare find. Chilly the polar bear, the all-black version of Zip the cat, Derby the horse with the fine mane, and Humphrey the camel also commanded top 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. 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 the newer versions.
Contents |
[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. 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 14 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] Other Ty Products
Ty Inc. has produced many other stuffed animals, some of which are variations of Beanie Babies:
- Baby Ty: Various baby animals and humans in baby clothes.
- Beanie Buddies: Larger versions of Beanie Babies, filled with stuffing and pellets.
- Ty Classics: Stuffing-filled animals the size of Beanie Buddies. (These are not a type of Beanie Baby, although due to the word "Classic," some people may incorrectly believe that the name refers to the "Original 9" Beanie Babies.)
- Pinkys: Pink and white stuffed animals that resemble Beanies and Ty Classics.
- Pluffies: Stuffing-filled animals, with a terrycloth-like fur.
- Punkies: Stuffed animals made with TyTips (similar to eyelash material)as the body material.
- Teenie Beanies: Smaller versions of Beanie Babies that were included in McDonald's Happy Meals during seven different promotions. The promotion in 2005 was only in the Uk while the 2006 promotion was in Singapore.
- Jingle Beanies/Basket Beanies/Halloweenie Beanies: Smaller versions of holiday-themed Beanie Babies.
- Valenteenies: Valentine's Day Beanies on a key chain.
- Bow Wow Beanies: Beanies & bones with a squeaker inside.
- Alphabet Beanies: Beanies with a hanging loop holding a letter in its hands.
- Angeline: An angelic doll created with various seasonal outfits including Christmas, Easter, and Valentines Day.
- Beanie Kids: Dolls made by Ty stuffed with beans.
- Beanie Boppers: Bigger dolls with longer legs and clothes that do not come off.
- teenie Beanie Boppers: Smaller versions of the Beanie Boppers.
- Attic Treasures: Animals about the same size as Beanies, but designed to look older. Some have movable jointed limbs.
- Ty Gear: Clothes for Beanies Kids, totes for kids are also considered Ty Gear.
[edit] Beanie Buddies
On September 30, 1998, Ty Inc. Introduced the first nine members of its new line of toys - Beanie Buddies.
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".
The first nine Beanie Buddies are 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.
The Beanie Buddies are larger plush toys closer in size to members of the Ty Pillow Pals collection. There is a mixture of polyester filling and , of course, 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.
The second group of Buddies were released on January 1st, 1999. The third group of Buddies were announced in April of 1999.
There are two variations of swing tags. The first generation was found of the first group released in September of 1998. The 2nd generation swing tag appeared on the second group of Buddies released on January 1st, 1999. On January 4th 2000, there were a large number of Buddies released. There was also a swing tag change. A multicolored star was added.
[edit] Trivia
- Ty produces a line of Garfield, SpongeBob SquarePants, the Backyardigans, Dora the Explorer, and Blues Clues Beanie Babies. He even has made these Beanies for different seasons. One of the more recent ones was Garfield's Season's Greetings (introduced September 29, 2006).
- Ty produces various Beanies to benefit different places, events, and organizations such as The Kentucky Derby, the PGA Tour Charities, Hallmark card stores, Carleton Cards/American Greetins card stores, and Cracker Barrel.
- Beanie Babies had a cameo in Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London. The Beanie Baby HERO was the one the most focus was put on.
- On May 17, 1998, the New York Yankees hosted a "Beanie Baby" day where fans 13 and under were given a Valentino beanie baby. It was during this event that pitcher David Wells pitched a perfect game, the 15th in major league baseball history.
- "Mary Beth's Bean Bag World" used to be a monthly magazine that gave pricing information, new styles, photos, and more. At its peak, it had a circulation of 1 million issues a month. The magazine is now no longer published.
