Beanie Buddies are a toyline of Ty Inc., introduced on September 30, 1998. Beanie Buddies are large-sized versions of the award-winning beanie baby collection. They feature a unique, super-soft fabric designed by Ty, called "Tylon". 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.
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As some collectors could not afford rare Beanie Babies such as "Peanut the royal blue elephant" and "Humphrey the camel", Ty Warner created Beanie Buddies, which are based on some of the most popular members of the Beanie Babies toy line. Beanie buddies were introduced in 1999. Today, Ty makes Beanie Buddies still as a bigger version of Beanie Babies. Sometimes, Beanie Buddies even serve as an "extra" Beanie towards its regular Beanie Baby form if a consumer has both, just in case the other form gets sold, ruined or lost. A Beanie Buddy has not been made for every single Beanie Baby made.
The line debuted with the introduction of nine different designs. They were Beak the Kiwi Bird, Humphrey the camel, Jake the Mallard Duck, Peanut the royal blue elephant, Quackers the duck, Rover the red dog, Stretch the Ostrich, Teddy the Cranberry Bear and Twigs the giraffe. Just like the original nine Beanie Babies made were the most valuable, the same applies to Beanie Buddies, so the Beanie Buddies listed here are the most valuable.
A second group of Buddies was released on January 1, 1999. A third group of Buddies was announced in April 1999. From that to today, Beanie Buddy groups are being made. Over ten Beanie Buddy groups were made.
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 to the tag.
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 for a quick link to retain.
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, for Beanie Buddies.
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