Beanie babies

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. more...

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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"). 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. 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. The line was brought back with completely new styles in early 2000 as a result of an online vote over whether more Beanies should be released. Many believe that the mass retirement and subsequent revival were a publicity stunt, 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.

Read more at Wikipedia.org