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Beanie Babies

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File:Beanie-baby-Teddy.JPG
"Teddy" Beanie Baby

A Beanie Baby is a stuffed animal made by Ty Inc.. Ty was founded by Ty Warner who promoted the line in specialty stores and gift shops. The Ty company's famous special "posable lining" is understuffed with plastic pellets (or "beans") rather than stuffing (see PVC and PE), giving Beanie Babies a flexible and cuddly feel. A Beanie Baby is essentially a fancy bean bag in the form of a stuffed animal.

The original nine Beanie Babies launched in 1994 were Legs the Frog, Squealer the Pig, Spot the Dog, Flash the Dolphin, Splash the Whale, Chocolate the Moose, Patti the Platypus, Brownie the Bear (later renamed "Cubbie") and Punchers the Lobster (later renamed "Pinchers".[citation needed] The line became a phenomenon in the late 90s when Beanie Babies became both a fad and a collectible. Ty decided to stop making Beanies in 1999, however, consumer demand made Ty Warner change his mind. He continues to run Ty Inc. and design new Beanie Babies to this day.

Teenie Beanie Babies, an offshoot of the Beanie Babies line, were made by additional manufacturers for a few McDonalds Happy Meal promotions.

Collectibility

Beanie Babies began to emerge as popular collectible in late 1995, and became a hot toy shortly thereafter [1]. Ty systematically retired various designs, and many people assumed that all "retired" designs would rise in value the way that early retirees had. The craze lasted through 1999 and slowly declined after the Ty company's announcement that they would no longer be making Beanie Babies [2]. The line was brought back with completely new styles in early 2000 as a result of an online vote [3] over whether or not more Beanies should be released. Many believe that the mass retirement and subsequent revival were a publicity stunt [4], but Beanie Babies had fallen out of favor with many children by the time the line was relaunched. In recent years, the popularity of Beanie Babies has continued to fade. Some of the more common styles can be found fairly cheaply. New Beanie Baby designs continue to be released, and increasingly include bears and limited edition items. Ty now tries to cater to specific audiences - exclusives and a "Beanie of the Month" appeal to collectors while a constant stream of new holiday Beanies is designed to be used as gifts.

Tags

The tags on Beanie Babies are considered a very important part of its value. It is widely believed that a Beanie without a tag loses half of its value. Every Beanie Baby has at least two tags: a swing tag (also known as a "hang tag", "ear tag" or "heart tag"), and a tush tag, (usually 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 11 generations of swing tags, and 13 generations of tush tags. Additionally, there are also extra tags for certain regions that include things like safety information to comply with the Canadian Stuffed Articles Act or the CE Mark requirements in Europe.

A few tag "generations" have become particularly noteworthy. Most Beanie Babies with first, second, or third generation hang tags have held their value (or in the case of some harder to find styles, increased in value), while fourth and fifth generation hang tags indicate Beanies that were available during the Beanie fad.

Rarity

During the Beanie Baby craze, the rarest general issue beanie, according to the Winter 2000 edition of Ty Beanie Babies, published by Collectors Value Guide, was considered to be the dark blue variation of "Peanut" the elephant. Peanut was available well into 1998 in a lighter hue, but the dark blue version that was only made accidentally in 1995 rose in value because of its scarcity. "Nana the monkey" was considered the second rarest Beanie Baby; because only a few early 3rd gen tags use that name instead of Bongo. The early wingless version of "Quackers" the duck, "Chilly" the polar bear, the earlier versions of "Nip" and "Zip" the cats, "Peking" the panda bear; a series of colored bears named "Teddy" (which are even harder to find with the earlier "old face"), and "Humphrey" the camel also command high prices.

Some special edition Beanies, such as the #1 Bear or the Billionaire bears (which are only available as gifts to Ty employees), are hard to come across and highly valued.

Earlier editions of common Beanie Babies (particularly with first or second generation hang tags) are often sought-after by collectors. Particular hang tag variations in mint condition continue to make record prices on eBay.

In the hysteria of the late 90's, the bears were perceived to be the most sought-after beanies, and often carried inflated price tags - however, many of the popular bears have since turned out to be fairly common.

Notable Beanie Babies

Billionaire Bears

A series of Billionaire Bears have been given to Ty employees as gifts at the company's annual picnics. This tradition began in 1998 as a way of celebrating the company's success, but Ty has made one for each year since as well. These bears are never sold in stores - the only way to get them is to work for Ty.

Doodle the rooster

Doodle the rooster was made by Ty Inc in mid 1997. Doodle's name was changed shortly thereafter to Strut, reportedly in response to complaints from Chick-fil-A.

Garcia the bear

Garcia the bear was released in January of 1996 and retired in May of 1997. He is a ty-dyed bear that seems to be a tribute to Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead. The band used to use a set of colored dancing bears as their logo. The guitarist and the bear share a birthday, but the bear was supposedly "born" the year that Jerry died. Just after Garcia the bear was retired, a similar bear named Peace was released.

The bright colors on Garcia the bear made him one of the most popular Beanie Baby styles. Many people enjoy trying to find different colors on Garcia and community of ty-dye collectors [5] continue to make the bear's value unpredictable.

Princess the bear

Princess the bear was released in late 1997 as a charity release for the Princess, Diana of Wales Memorial Fund. All of Ty Inc's profits from the bear were donated to the fund. Many people expected the bear to become a major celebrity collectible, but the Ty company continued to make the bear well into 1999 so that they could raise more money for the charity. Princess is also notable as the first Beanie Baby to feature a special hang tag that does not clearly fit in with any particular hang tag generation.

Roary the lion

Roary is a Beanie Baby lion Ty made from May of 1997 through December of 1998. Shortly before Roary retired, a federal judge ruled that its named violated the rights of the Imperial Toy Corporation, which produced a similar plush lion named Roarie. [6]

Teddy the bear

Teddy the bear was the first Beanie Baby to sit-up like a teddy bear. Teddy was produced in six colors: brown, cranberry, jade, violet, teal, and magenta. Teddy's face underwent a considerable change in the summer of 1995, as the "new face" design replaced the "old face" versions of the bears. Teddy brown was the only version of Teddy kept in the current line as 1996 came around - he later retired in October 1997. The shape of "new face" Teddy later became the standard style for many other Beanie Baby teddy bears with a variety of themes.

A special variation of Teddy violet (new face) was used as an employee gift in 1997.

There were several Beanie Buddy versions of Teddy that were produced, including New-face Cranberry Teddy as one of The Original Nine Beanie Buddies, Old-face Teal Teddy, and the violet Employee Bear.

Counterfeit Beanie Babies

Counterfeit Beanie Babies began to surface in 1997. Early on, cheap knock-offs and fakes of commons were widely available at discount prices [7], but when the Beanie craze began to fade, counterfeiters started focusing on rarer releases and country exclusives. Although it is unlikely that people are still manufacturing fakes, older fakes continue to surface on eBay.

Some counterfeit versions of real beanies were made to look like hotdogs that had never been produced by Ty. For example, there are some red fake "Pinky" the flamingo and mint green fake "Quackers" the duck out there.

Fighting Fakes

Several organizations run services that verified the authenticity of Beanie Babies and other Ty products. At the height of the Beanie craze, there were more Beanie authenticators. Beanie authentication has become more affordable in the years since.

Ty Inc. began including anti-counterfeiting measures on new Beanie designs and Beanie tags in 1999. Holograms, glow-in-the-dark stars, heat-sensitive disappearing ink, and other such gimmicks made it easy to spot a fake for some time, but counterfeiters eventually figured out how to fake most of the new anti-counterfeiting features. Ty has since phased out most of the anti-counterfeiting features.

Several signs of obvious fakes include:

  • Fabric where the hue or texture does not match the real beanies
  • Tags with spelling errors or incorrect/out of place words or phrases
  • Incorrectly spaced eyes or other details
  • Low quality stitching

Cases

The FBI strictly cracked down on counterfeit beanies in the late 1990s, and some people were prosecuted for direct known involvement in their commerce. For example, a St. Louis couple was sentenced to prison, probation, and fines for their involvement in smuggling counterfeit beanies [8]. York, England authorities seized more than 6000 Princess and Britannia from a ring [9].

Trivia

  • Ty Inc. has several licensed Beanies spread out amongst all product lines. These characters include Garfield, Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go, Spongebob Squarepants, and Peter Rabbit
  • To celebrate 20 Years of Ty Inc., Ty created "Summertime Fun" bears to sell at summer toy shows. They were similar to the 'new-faced teddy' style, but with sunglasses and "20 Years of Fun!" embroidered on each foot.
  • Every year, Ty Inc. offers special, limited edition Beanie Babies at summer toy shows. New ideas are used for inspiration each year, such as state flower bears or "I Love" Bears.
  • Ty has created several store exclusives for stores such as Harrods, Hamley's, Hallmark Cards, and American Greetings. Ty has also created promotional Beanies for brand names such as Midwest Airlines, Hershey Kisses, and Northwestern Mutual.
  • Ty released several charity Beanies after the World Trade Center fell (Beanies had been introduced at the World Trade Center at various toy and gift shows in the past). A Dalmatian named "Rescue", a German Shepherd named "Courage", and a bear named "America" were created to raise money for the Red Cross and for the New York Fire and Police departments. Exclusive variations of these were released online to encourage more donations from collectors.
  • To raise money for Hurricane Katrina relief, Ty created the "Hurricane Tri-bears". There were three "I Love" bears (one red, one white, one blue) for Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
  • A walrus, Paul, is a possible tribute to The Beatles songs 'I am the Walrus' and 'Glass Onion'. Paul's birthday is the same as George Harrison.
  • In 2007, Ty introduced NASCAR themed bears at the summer trade shows. There were 22 bears in total, each with a unique company that sponsors NASCAR.

See also

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ [2]
  3. ^ [3]
  4. ^ [4]
  5. ^ [5]
  6. ^ [6].
  7. ^ [7]
  8. ^ [8]
  9. ^ [9]
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