Special Beanie Babies

A number of the Beanie Baby stuffed animals produced by Ty, Inc. have gained special notability for various reasons, such as their rarity, representation, production errors, lawsuits, or a number of other reasons.

Decade

Decade the bear was made in honor of Beanie Babies' tenth anniversary. Decade bears were made in white, royal blue, red, purple, orange, hot pink, green, gold, brown, and light blue.

Iggy/Rainbow misprint

Two beanies, Iggy the iguana and Rainbow the chameleon were mislabeled when they were first produced. While their bodies had the same shape, Iggy was intended to be made out of a blue/green tie-dyed fabric with a green spine, and Rainbow out of a mostly yellow/green tie-dyed fabric with no spine. But initially, Iggy was made in yellow/green, with a spine, and Rainbow in blue/green without. Additionally, some Iggys were made with and some without a tongue. By the time this error was corrected, a total of five combined versions had been produced, and though those with the misprints were rare, they were all sought out by collectors.

In 1999, a Teenie Beanie of Iggy was produced for distribution by McDonalds in the Happy Meal promotion, which had no spine or tongue

In 2000, a Rainbow Beanie Buddy was produced with the correct design, and its tag described that Iggy and Rainbow switched tags. It had a tongue and no spine.

Further reading on Iggy and Rainbow is available at [http://www.aboutbeanies.com/articles/Iggy_Rainbow.html this page]

Royal Blue Peanut Elephant

Peanut is a Beanie Baby elephant produced by Ty, Inc. during the 1990s. A dark blue version that was only made accidentally in 1995 is one of the rarest Beanie Babies. The proper light blue color was used until Peanut retired in 1998.

In 1998, a royal blue Peanut Beanie Buddy was produced in large quantities, and was available for more than a year. In 2000, a light blue version that resembled the common beanie baby Peanut was made briefly, but soon retired.

During the McDonalds Teenie Beanies promotions, both versions of Peanut were included in different years. The light blue Peanut was no. 12 in the 1998 line, and the royal blue version of Peanut was a part of the 2000 "Legends" collection.

Wingless Quackers

Quackers is a Beanie Baby duck that was produced by Ty, Inc. during the 1990s. While the regular version was pretty common, a small percentage of them were produced without wings (known as Wingless Quackers to collectors), and are highly sought on the secondary market.

In 1998, a Quackers Beanie Buddy was introduced as one of The Original Nine Beanie Buddies. Slightly before the buddy's retirement, a small number of wingless Quackers Buddies were produced.

While the genuine Quackers was bright yellow, some counterfeit units were seen in mint green [http://members.tripod.com/~KimberlyZ/whatsuppart2index.html] .

Harry the Hamster

Harry was created in 2001, in honor of September 11th when the World Trade Center went down. Each Harry has a patch on his foot that says "Never forget 9/11." and each is numbered 1/1500. Each family of a victim also received one.

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.

ly the Fox

Sly is a Beanie that originally had a brown belly to match the rest of his body, but then Ty changed his stomach to white. There is speculation that the change was made to make Sly look more like a real fox. The brown-bellied Sly is rare, and worth more than his white-bellied counterpart.

Runner the mongoose

Runner the mongoose, released in 2000, originally had a poem in its ear tag that departed very dramatically from the usual style of poem:

"I'm not so mean, I'm really shy,"

"But every cobra has to die"

"I grab them by their little head"

"And whack them till they're stone cold dead!"

After protestation from the general public over the morbid nature of the poem, Runner was re-released with a new, nicer poem. The original version of Runner is worth two to three times as much as the new version, but both are still relatively common.

Name Changes

Several beanies have had their names changed throughout the years, and this has contributed to their value increases.

Beanies not offered to public

There were various beanies not offered to the public, but rather to an exlusive group.

Ty Employees

Employee Bear

The first Beanie to be offered exclusively to Ty employees was a version of Violet Teddy that did not have a hang tag, and was called "Employee Bear." It was issued on September 13, 1997, and 300 in all were distributed, 50% with a red ribbon, and 50% with a green ribbon. All had "tush tags" A Beanie Buddy version of it was introduced during the 2000s. This one had a hang tag, and was sold to the public like any other Beanie Buddy under the name "Employee Bear."

Billionaire Bears

Billionaire Bears have been made each year, numbered accordingly in the order they have been produced.

The first Billionaire bear, which was simply called "Billionaire," was introduced on September 26, 1998. It honored employees of Ty, Inc. for shipping over $1 billion worth of goods during the year 1998.

On September 12, 1999, a Billionaire II bear was introduced. It was offered at a Ty company picnic that was held on that day. Billionaire II celebrated Ty's sales having exceed those of Mattel and Hasbro. A total of 475 Billionaire II bears were made, and they were signed by Ty Warner himself [ [http://www.aboutbeanies.com/display.cgi?bn=00030 Billionaire 2 the Bear Ty Beanie Baby ] ] .

#1 Bear

The #1 Bear was offered to an even more exclusive group - Ty Sales representatives. Only 253 were produced, and each one was signed and hand-numbered by Ty Warner himself. The #1 Bear has been considered to be the most valuable Beanie of all time.

Beanie Baby of the month

In 2003, Ty started the Beanie Baby of the month program. Customers would sign up for a 12-month period, and would receive one Beanie Baby in the mail each month during that period. These beanies were available only through this offer, and after that month was up, that beanie would retire.

References