Working in my dad's gift shop twelve years ago, I was amazed at the craze formed by TY with the creation of their beanie baby range. At the height of their popularity, I'd be lucky to count ten minutes between taking the soft toys out of their delivery box and popping them into a carrier bag at the registrar, ready to be taken home by yet another excitable customer. With a fan base ranging from toddler to grandparents, a sense of hysteria occasionally swamped the store and often left me feeling more like I was at a pop concert than in a small gift shop in the heart of Suffolk. So what was it that led to the cult of TY beanie babies and that still exists today, fifteen years later?
I often wonder what it is about being a collector that attracts so many of us. From stickers as a youngster to model airplanes later in life, purchasing every single item in a range of consumerables has been a favourite pastime for decades.
Perhaps it's the sense of achievement it creates, or the sheer anticipation of collecting the next addition. When TY launched their soft toy range in the form of beanie babies in 1993, audiences all over the world were instantly hooked. Effectively toy-like bean bags, their initial launch included just nine soft toys including Legs the Frog, Squealer the Pig, Spot the Dog, Flash the Dolphin, Splash the Whale, Chocolate the Moose, Patti the Platypus and Brownie the Bear and Punchers the Lobster. It didn't take them long for them to become a huge phenomenon, continuing all the way through the 1990's as the collection continued to grow.
Customers range from those spending literally hundreds of British pounds on a 'retired' collector such as peanut the elephant or early versions of zip the cat, to young children who had saved their pocket money for weeks to buy one of the standard toys. The collection includes soft toys for all occasions (such as Easter, Christmas and Halloween) to characters (think Garfield and more recently, SpongeBob Squarepants) to every imaginable animal, mammal or creature, each christened with its own individual name. The full collection must run into hundreds.
Everybody loves soft toys and Beanie Babies are certainly no exception. Soft to touch and cute to look at, most people can find a creature that represents a favourite animal, a fond memory, a celebratory occasion (such as a new baby) or even just a friendly token gesture. Priced competitively and small in size, they have been a perfect gift for the past ten years.
One of their greatest marketing creations was the holiday bear. A soft toy unique to various occasions such as April Fool's Day or specific locations, including Canada, USA, Ireland and Australia, these bears were always harder to get hold of than the usual range and were usually more expensive. The beanie babies unique to specific locations were generally only available in those countries, making them much more of a collector's item. Similarly, many of the popular bears would quite often become 'retired' shortly after their launch, further fuelling the collectors' bug.
While TY decided to pull the plug and stop making the soft toys in 1999, continued popular demand caused Ty Warner to change his mind and now continues to run TY Inc, and is still designing new beanie babies today. It's a phenomenon that hit the world and the ripples are still being felt, as sales still continue to soar. What started as nine cute companions is now a worldwide phenomenon.
Dominic Donaldson is an expert in the retail industry.
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