Beanie Buddies are a toyline of Ty Inc.

Ty Inc.

Ty Inc. is an American plush animal company based in Westmont, Illinois. By far their most famous line of products are the Beanie Babies, but Ty also manufactures other lines of stuffed toys...

, introduced on September 30, 1998. Beanie Buddies are large-sized versions of the award-winning beanie baby

Beanie Baby

A Beanie Baby is a stuffed animal, made by Ty Warner Inc., which was later renamed as Ty Inc. in late 1993. Each toy has an inner "posable lining" and is stuffed with plastic pellets rather than conventional stuffing , giving Beanie Babies a flexible feel.The original nine Beanie Babies launched...

 collection. They feature a unique, super-soft fabric designed by Ty, called "Tylon".
The style or item numbers (the last four numbers of the toy's "barcode") are in the 9300 range for Beanie Buddies, while Beanie Babies' style numbers are in the 4000 range.

History

As some collectors could not afford rare Beanie Babies such as "Peanut the royal blue elephant" and "Humphrey the camel", Ty Warner

Ty Warner

H. Ty Warner is an American toy manufacturer and businessman. He is chairman, CEO, sole owner and founder of Ty Inc., which manufactures and distributes Beanie Babies, Beanie Baby 2.0s, Ty Girlz, Pluffies , LI'L Ones, Beanie Boos and other plush items...

 created Beanie Buddies, which are based on some of the most popular members of the Beanie Babies toy line. Beanie buddies were introduced in 1999. Today, Ty makes Beanie Buddies still as a bigger version of Beanie Babies. Sometimes, Beanie Buddies even serve as an "extra" Beanie towards its regular Beanie Baby form if a consumer has both, just in case the other form gets sold, ruined or lost. A Beanie Buddy has not been made for every single Beanie Baby made.

Original nine

The line debuted with the introduction of nine different designs. They were Beak the Kiwi Bird

Kiwi

Kiwi are flightless birds endemic to New Zealand, in the genus Apteryx and family Apterygidae.At around the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites and lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any species of bird in the world...

, Humphrey the camel

Camel

A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...

, Jake the Mallard Duck, Peanut the royal blue

Royal blue

Royal blue describes both a bright shade and a dark shade of azure blue. It is said to have been invented by millers in Rode, Somerset, a consortium of which won a competition to make a dress for the British queen, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz....

 elephant

Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...

, Quackers the duck

Duck

Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...

, Rover the red dog

Dog

The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...

, Stretch the Ostrich

Ostrich

The Ostrich is one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member of the genus Struthio. Some analyses indicate that the Somali Ostrich may be better considered a full species apart from the Common Ostrich, but most taxonomists consider it to be a...

, Teddy the Cranberry Bear and Twigs the giraffe

Giraffe

The giraffe is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all extant land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant...

. Just like the original nine Beanie Babies made were the most valuable, the same applies to Beanie Buddies, so the Beanie Buddies listed here are the most valuable.

Subsequent generations

A second group of Buddies was released on January 1, 1999. A third group of Buddies was announced in April 1999. From that to today, Beanie Buddy groups are being made. Over ten Beanie Buddy groups were made.

Tags

There are two variations of swing tags. The first generation was found of the first group released in September 1998. The second generation swing tag appeared on the second group of Buddies released on January 1, 1999. On January 4, 2000, a large number of Buddies were released. There was also a swing tag change. A multicolored star was added to the tag.

Unlike with Beanie Babies, there is no birthdate listed inside the Buddies' fifth generation red Ty heart tag. On the left side of the tag are the words "The Beanie Buddies Collection" and a list of the Ty, Inc., locations in the United States and Canada. On the right side of the tag is a trivia statement about the Beanie Baby that the new Beanie Buddy is modeled after and the Ty, Inc., world wide web

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...

address for a quick link to retain.

All of the words on the inside of the hang tag are printed in black ink except for the words "BEANIE BABY," which are in red ink. The front of the tag has the yellow star with type that reads "BEANIE ORIGINAL BUDDY." The tush (or sewn-in) tags are of the same type (white with red heart and black letters) used on the Pillow Pals and the Ty Plush collectibles. The copyright year is 1998, for Beanie Buddies.

External links

• Complete list of all Beanie Buddies with images Stashmatic.com collection tracker