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Beanie Babies are a long-running franchise of stuffed toys manufactured by Ty, Inc., owned by Ty Warner. Although the company already had a couple plush toy lines at this point, Beanie Babies slowly caught on in the [[TheNineties 1990s]], starting with a line of nine originals in 1993: Legs the Frog, Squealer the Pig, Brownie the Bear (later known as Cubbie), Flash the Dolphin, Splash the Orca (originally a whale), Patti the Platypus, Chocolate the Moose, Spot the Dog, and Punchers the Lobster (later known as Pinchers). What distinguished the Beanie Babies from other stuffed toys was that, instead of having "stuffing," they were stuffed almost entirely with polyvinyl chloride (later polyethylene) "beans," although the heads were still typically stuffed.

The toys were not incredibly popular at first outside Ty's home market of Chicago. Starting in late 1995-early 1996, the line suddenly grew in popularity, in part due to the marketing strategies of selling them only at small gift shops for $5-$6 each. Furthermore, the company began regularly retiring existing Beanies and introducing new ones. Adding some fuel to the fire was the introduction of the first exclusive-release Beanie, Maple the Bear (sold only in Canada). It was also in 1996 that the toys first included birthdays and short, four-line poems on their tags. In 1997 through 2000, [=McDonald's=] jumped on the bandwagon as well, including fun-size "Teenie Beanies" with Happy Meals.

The Beanie Babies franchise remained popular into the [[TurnOfTheMillennium 2000s]], including an incredible stunt in 1999 when a bear named "The End" was released and Ty decided to let collectors decide whether or not to end the entire line.

Throughout the 2000s, the Beanie Baby franchise did see some decline in popularity, but the toys are still sold, played with, and collected. There are still plenty of retired Beanies who can fetch a pretty penny on the market these days.

The big kids craze after [[AnyoneRememberPogs Pogs]] and before Franchise/{{Pokemon}}.

In 2023, as a MilestoneCelebration for the toys' 30th anniversary, Ty rereleased several classic Beanie Babies, primarily from the 90s[[note]]with two exceptions thus far in the form of Celebrate, who was originally released in 2001, and Bananas, who was first released in 2000[[/note]] with softer fabric and, in most cases, different color schemes (i.e. Patti II being orange-and-teal instead of pink-and-yellow like the original).

Not to be confused with Beanie Kids, an Australian toy. Ty ''did'' release their own Beanie Kids line, however.

!!Tropes present:
* AerithAndBob: Most of the names are very cartoonish (Bumble, Dizzy, etc.), but there are some with more realistic names such as Erin or Scottie.
* AnAesop: The Beanie Baby "Lucky" the ladybug has a short poem about not spending your money to play the lottery.
* AmazingTechnicolorWildlife: Zig-zagged. Some are realistically colored and designed; others are more cartoonish and less realistically colored, such as certain variants of Dizzy the Dalmatian.
* AmbiguousGender: Some Beanies' sexes are never stated in their poems. Usually this is because the poem is in first-person, but other times they just manage to get to four lines without using a pronoun. Some are still obvious anyway due to either their names, or other biological traits (for example, all of the kangaroos are assumed to be female since they all have joeys in their pouches).
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: There are a few examples of this. For instance:
** Seaweed the Otter is holding a piece of seaweed in her paws, and her poem mentions that she likes eating it. Otters are carnivorous.
** Double-subverted with Runner, whose species is only given as ''mustelidae'' (i.e., weasel family), an unusually prominent example of ShownTheirWork on a toy. However, its poem says it can be a "ferret, mongoose, weasel, or mink"; mongoose are in their own family, which is more related to felines than anything else. The inclusion of mongoose may be because it originally ''was'' a mongoose, but it shipped with a "mean poem" about killing snakes.
* BareBottomedMonkey: Cheeks the Mandrill, whose name is a [[PunnyName pun]] on the trope and whose poem specifically mentions his colorful bare behind.
* BedsheetGhost: Sheets, who is the typical cartoon ghost, wearing a hooded robe.
* {{Bowdlerize}}: Runner's original poem was very violent, describing his obsession with murdering cobras, grabbing their heads and whacking them until they die. It was later changed to a much less gruesome one about [[CartoonCreature the vagueness of his species]].
* CompositeCharacter: Bananas II is named after the orangutan Beanie Baby from 2000, though he resembles a PaletteSwap of Schweetheart more.
* CunningLikeAFox: Well, it ''is'' named Sly, and his poem says "tricky is he." Even Snocap the Arctic Fox is "very sly."
* CuteKitten: A LOT of kittens and cats.
* DelightfulDragon: Scorch and Legend are cute Western dragons, and the Chinese Zodiac Dragon emphasizes their positive traits. Stretching this trope, the ''Komodo'' dragon, Bali, is also described as a happy lizard.
* DoofyDodo: Downplayed with Dinky the Dodo Bird, who looks like a goofball but isn't said to be particularly stupid. Instead, their poem emphasizes their small stature.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** Until about 1996, the toys generally had much plainer, generally more realistic designs and more common species of animals before branching out into AmazingTechnicolorWildlife and more obscure species. It was also at this point that they began to be distributed outside of Chicago.
** Originally, the heart-shaped tags had only the toy's name and copyright information, and they were a single two-sided tag. They quickly changed to a folding tag that opens up, but it originally had just "To/From" blanks inside to encourage gift-giving. Starting in 1996 the tags began including dates of birth and a four-line poem about the toy. The font changed from Times New Roman to Comic Sans a year later, and only minor cosmetic changes have ensued in the subsequent generations.
* FuzzballSpider: Creeps the Spider in the Halloweenie collection is a fuzzy spider. He has a round, black head with yellow eyes and a smiling red mouth, along with orange-and-black-striped legs protruding from the sides.
* GratuitousGerman: Germania the bear had its poem written in German. Justified by the fact it was only officially available in Germany.
* GratuitousJapanese: Similarly to Germania, both Sakura and Sakura II's poems were written in Japanese. Justified in that they were only released in Japan.
* InformedSpecies:
** Doby the Doberman Pinscher may look more like a Rottweiler to many folks, due to him having the latter breed's "floppy" ears instead of the former's more pointy ears. [[TheCoconutEffect In actuality]], Dobermans ears are naturally floppy, and the more famous pointy ears are the result of cropping, not of breeding. Both breeds also often have docked tails, which is better known.
** Dinky the Dodo Bird [[http://republicjewelry.com/images/dinky.jpg looks more like a duck]] than a dodo bird.
** Rusty the Red Panda was commonly mistaken to be a fox or a raccoon instead of a red panda.
* KangaroosRepresentAustralia: There's an Australian-exclusive named Bounder.
* LongRunners: The toys have been consistently in production since 1993.
* MeaningfulName: Why do you think they named a rabbit "Ears"? Or a bee "Bumble"?
* MessyPig: Averted with Squealer who is "the class clown", and Stubby who "would [[BigEater rather eat a big dessert]]." Knuckles the Pig, however, makes mud pies.
* PaletteSwap: Most of the 30th anniversary Beanie Babies have different, brighter colors than their counterparts. Some, like Zip II and Dottie II, avert this, and are primarily differentiated by their softer material.
* PlayfulOtter: Seaweed is her name.
* PreciousPuppies: There are a couple that are explicitly stated to be puppies, but even the ostensibly adult dog types are usually puppylike.
* PrehistoricMonster: Averted with the dinosaur Beanie Babies, which are adorable.
* {{Pun}}: Any Beanie with a tie-dye appearance is officially listed as "Ty-dye."
* PunnyName: Chocolate the Moose and Claude the Crab are but a few of the many examples.
* RetCon:
** A subtle one. Splash was originally identified as just a whale, but this was later specified to orca.
** Done a little less subtly with some of the Beanies that were renamed. Some renames were done to avoid copyright issues (e.g. Tabasco the bull being renamed Snort), while others seem to be done for little reason other than to encourage collectors to buy the rarer, alternately-named version (e.g. Nana vs. Bongo the monkey, Brownie vs. Cubbie the bear).
** Runner the mongoose-turned-mustelid, as seen above.
** At least two Beanies had their birthdays changed for no reason.
* RougeAnglesOfSatin: Many of the early Beanies had typos in their poems. Perhaps one of the most JustForFun/{{egregious}} is "moose" somehow becoming "'''''rn'''''oose" on Chocolate's poem. Information on errors is available [[https://beaniebabiespriceguide.com/ty-error-tags-beanie-baby-birth-dates-values-myths/ here]]. Some are so obvious that they seem deliberate, just to drive up the price and make one type seem "rarer" just because its poem's misspelled or has a different line.
* SantaClaus: Yes, even ''he'' exists in Beanie Baby form.
* ScaryStitches: Frankenteddy is covered with simulated stitching.
* ShoutOut:
** Humphrey the Camel may or may not be a reference to the Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan song.
** Red bull Snort was originally named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabasco_sauce Tabasco]] before being renamed due to copyright issues.
** The first Ty-dyed bear was originally named [[Music/TheGratefulDead Garcia]] before being renamed Peace, also due to copyright issues.
** There's a [[TheWalrusWasPaul walrus named Paul]].
** According to the poem on the inside of the tag, Mel the Koala is supposedly named after Creator/MelGibson.
** They also have a platypus named [[WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb Perry]].
* SmellySkunk: Yep, named Stinky, given perfume and mints as gifts, and "hop[es] one day he wouldn't stink."
* SnakeVersusMongoose: There was a character named Runner the Mongoose, whose poem was all about how much he loved to kill snakes.
* StockAnimalDiet: Of the squirrels Nuts, Nutty and Treehouse, the latter two are holding acorns.
* SpinOff:
** Attic Treasures were introduced in the same year as Beanie Babies. These were given a more {{retraux}} style with sepia-tone tags, textured fur, clothing, and hinged limbs. They were quietly retired at the beginning of the 21st century, but returned in 2017.
** Ty has made two lines intended to appeal to toddlers:
*** Pillow Pals were large plush toys whose designs were {{expy}}s of pre-existing Beanie Babies. The earlier versions looked near-identical to their basis before being redesigned with brighter colors (i.e. Paddles the Platypus [[https://i.postimg.cc/hvMjSkXP/paddles1.jpg initially]] having an identical color scheme to Patti before being [[https://i.postimg.cc/667tT4Ff/paddles2.jpg revised]] to be green-and-orange). Unlike Beanie Babies, they had embroidered eyes instead of safety eyes and lacked plastic pellets, both so they could function as pillows and to reduce choking hazards.
*** Baby Ty was introduced in 2000, and featured softer, fleece-like fabric in addition to the usual embroidered eyes and lack of pellets. However, these looked more like conventional stuffed animals rather than larger Beanie Babies. They returned in 2018 and were manufactured until 2022.
** Ty Pluffies were similar to Baby Ty, having soft fabric and being designed after traditional stuffed animals, but had plastic pellets in their limbs and (in some cases) safety eyes instead of embroidered eyes.
** There were also Beanie Buddies, which were larger, softer and larger counterparts of existing Beanie Babies, sometimes with trivia about the corresponding Beanie in the swing tag. Both these and Baby Ty were made with a new fabric called "Tylon."
** Ty Punkies, which has frizzy, loose-hair fur known as "Ty Tips".
** Ty Girlz, which are basically plush Toys/{{Bratz}} dolls, and had their own online world a la ''VideoGame/{{Webkinz}}''.
*** Ty Li'l Ones, itself a spinoff of Ty Girlz, were smaller, more conventional dolls.
** Beanie Babies 2.0, Ty's answer to the above-mentioned ''Webkinz''. The plushies themselves had lightning bolt buttons on their body (usually their rear).
** Beanie Kids and Beanie Boppers were more conventional plush dolls of kids. They also had extra clothing known as Ty Gear that could be purchased individually.
** Teenie Beanies, smaller versions of pre-existing Beanie Babies meant for distribution at UsefulNotes/McDonalds. TheNewTens also had Teenie Beanie Boos, which were smaller versions of Beanie Boos (see below), and Teeny Tys, which were basically small Beanie Boos shaped like [[VideoGame/DisneyTsumTsum tsum tsums]].
** Ty Classic, which are larger and have more realistic proportions than Beanie Babies. They harken back to Ty's original plush Himalayan cats.
** Beanie Boos, plush dolls which are more firmly stuffed and have bigger heads and glittery eyes as well as bolder colors. Initially a spinoff of Beanie Babies, Beanie Boos eventually overtook the Babies, becoming Ty's main toy line. Beanie Boo design tropes (such as larger heads and sparkly eyes) bled their way into regular Beanie Babies as well. Beanie Boos themselves have also had several sub-lines:
*** Flippables, Beanie Boos whose double-sided sequins could be flipped to change the toy's color.
*** Beanie Bellies, which sat upright and showed their bellies, hence the name.
*** Squish-a-Boos, later re-named to Squishy Beanies, which are soft, squishy, egg-shaped plushies a la ''Toys/{{Squishmallows}}''.
*** Ty Fashion, fashion accessories (including mini purses, slippers, and face masks) which were designed after Beanie Boos. They were confusingly named Ty Gear at first, which was the name used by the clothing made for Beanie Kids.
** Wild Wild Bests were similar to Beanie Boos, as they had large eyes and cartoony proportions, though they still looked more realistic otherwise.
** Beanie Ballz, which were, well, ball-shaped plushies stuffed with beans. They were succeeded by the similar, slightly-smaller Puffies, which were re-named to Beanie Balls (without the Z).
** Ty Monstaz, rotund and fuzzy cartoonish monster plushies.
* ThemeNaming:
** The first five cats were named Zip, Nip, Chip, Flip and Snip.
** Three pastel-colored rabbits were named Hippity, Hoppity and Floppity.
* WickedWitch: Scary the Witch.
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