Beanie Bear
Style #: 5000, 5100, 5101, 5102
“My name is Beanie Bear Style # 5000”
Ty referred to the plush line originally as “POSABLE PLUSH™”, the cats were able to fold into a seated position, the monkeys’ hands Velcro, and Beanie Bears bean filled arms and legs are jointed for posses without limits. Beanie Bear was produced from Winter 1987 to sometime during 1992 when Ty began working on Attic Treasures. His design was scaled down slightly and the 6000 series was claimed for “Attic Treasures” which were all jointed just like Beanie Bear. Small side note, Petunia and Arnold initially occupied the 6000 series until 1991 when they were shifted to the 8000 series to make room for “Attic Treasures“.
Summary
Beanie Bear comes in 6 primary versions.
Brown old face 5000, Gold 5000, Gold 5100, Brown new face 5100, Dark Brown 5101, and Cream 5102
Beanie Bear also has its counterpart
BIG BEANIE BEAR
Gold 5010, Lt Gold 5200, Dark Brown 5201, Brown Tip 5202, Auburn 5200, Cream 5200, Grey 5201, and Chocolate 5202
PAW PADS
Although not important to collectors, for completion I am showing variations in the paw pad color for Beanie Bear Gold. His paw pads are prone to fading so it is very hard to determine when the color is legitimately original. The tan paw pads typically fade to yellow and is sometimes evident by the hand paw pads not matching the foot paw pads.
CHRONOLOGY
The version of tush tag and hang tag combinations is not of importance to nearly all collectors. For the purpose of the archive, all combinations I have identified and believe to be in their original issued status are listed below.
Beanie Bear 2nd run has a 1st generation 1a “BEANIE” (the bear) hang tag, 1G “thumb period 1987 without a hook” tush tag, and a high thread count acetate bow. The hang tag is labeled “BEANIE” (the bear) I believe this was a transposing error, the new introductions for the 1988 catalog included “Snowball” the Bear, “Blackie” the Bear, “Beanie Bear”, “Mischief Monkey”, and “Lovie Lamb”. As you can imagine it was an easy oops moment to just type in the first word and move on. The embroidered tush tag on this run has a tighter weave making it smaller in size overall with a rounded widened heart as a result.
In search of! – TYWL thumb Ground Nut Shell
In search of! – TYWL birdy Ground Nut Shell
In search of! – TYWL “thumb comma 7 with a hook”
In search of! – 2a.1g
In search of! – 2a.1G #5000
CONTENS OAKBROOK IL.
In search of! – 2a.2GTM #5000
CONTENS OAKBROOK, IL.
In search of! – 2a.2G #5000
CONTENS OAKBROOK IL.
In search of! – 2a.2G #5000
CONTENTS OAKBOOK, Il.
In search of! – 2a.2G #5000
CONTENTS OAKBROOK IL.
In search of! – 2a.2g #5000?
1990 #5100 series
In search of! – 2a.2g #5100
In search of! – 2b/OH #5100
In search of! – 2a.2g #5100 brown?
In search of! – Dark Brown 2a.2gtm
Beanie Bear Cream 2nd generation “3b” hang tag and 1G “3 & UP IL dash no in cloth bag” tush tag or for short “3b/OH” the owner confirms this example was purchased at the San Diego Zoo with the price sticker time stamp August of 1991. I wonder if the stamp on the price sticker was a way of proof of purchase.
KEY LINKS
Almost all plush collectors do not invest in tag versions but for completion all minor variations have been accounted for which is very confusing. Below are reference links to better understand some of the odd naming of each of these specific hang tags and tush tags.