Bringing Back the Forgotten Beanie Babies

Back when I was still a child, I recall seeing these small stuffed animals sitting on store shelves behind glass windows. To the regular human naked eye, these would have just look like any other ordinary stuffed animal that are commonly sold in toy stores and toy departments, that is if it were not for the large bright red heart tags that are found on the plushies. Having the familar name "Ty" on the red heart tags, these plushies were known as the Beanie Babies back in the nineties and they used to be quite the popular toy. They were in every specialty store and quite a few had even showed up as a McDonald's happy meal toy. I had gotten a few of them before, mainly in the form of a black cat and a white tiger. Being priced at only $5, they were quite cheap and hence were easily affordable. Basically just about everyone had at least gotten one, and from then on had went on to being a collectors item. Most people had "cashed in" and collected these adorable critters in mass quantities in the hopes that they would increase in value. With the exception of the "rare" ones, they had not, at least from what I had searched up on Google. What also had differentiated the Beanie Babies from other plushies was that they were very soft in texture, and as hinted from the name, were filled with small beans.



Personally I had not bought a Beanie Baby back in my childhood days, since I did not have the means to. I had gotten a few as gifts a few years back however and I had really loved them. I admit though, I was really surprised that they were viewed as a "collectible", since it had never occurred to me to think of them as that. Even though I did not own a lot, I had and have always loved the softness and will always remember them as a toy that has been long forgotten to the sands of time.

As it turns out, they were not totally forgotten to the sands of time. They are still found in places like Amazon and even the Ty store is still up and running. I had came across a couple of Beanie Babies when I went into Carlton Cards the other day, which is essentially a card and gift shop. I rarely if ever go into the store, so I was surprised at a few of the cute plushies that I had found there. I did not get them on the first day, since they were only regular price and there were no sales at the time. Eventually after around 2 days of straight contemplation and a sudden promotion (buy one get one 50% off), I had brought home 2 new plush toys to add to my plush family, Hello Kitty and a pink cat named Duchess.

Hello Kitty (Lavender): $7.95

Duchess the Pink Cat: $12.95 

Both of them together with "Buy one get one 50% off" promotion: Around $17.77

So as you can tell from the above photos, I basically had gotten a cartoon cat and a "real" cat. As a major fan of anything that is Hello Kitty, it is pretty much imperative that I got a plush of her. Believe it or not, I don't actually have a HK until now! Surprising I know! At the time before I had made the purchase, the store had two different colours of this kind of HK plush: pink and purple. I ended up getting the purple one since I ended up getting a pink cat in the end anyway. Might as well counteract the pink by getting the "other" colour. That and I don't want Starry (my purple star) to feel overwhelmed by the increasing pink to purple ratio.

As for the "real" cat, I thought that she looked too adorable to pass up. Plus, I had to get another plush in order to qualify for that promotion. I mean really? A pink cat that goes by the name of Duchess with a pink bow tied around her neck? Yes please! One good thing that I have to say about the plush toys are that each heart tag is already personalized with a name, so you don't really have to spend a lot of time coming up with names like I do. Before you ask, yes I personally "hand-picked" and gave a name to each and every one of the plush toys I have. Call it a personal quirk if you will!

Now that I had "blabbed" out my personal life story regarding these "forgotten treasures" and how I had gotten a few of them back into my life, what are your opinions on Beanie Babies in general? Have you heard of them? Also by extension, do you still buy plush toys even though you are past the "correct" age?