Book review: The Great Beanie Baby Bubble by Zac Bissonnette - an unlikely boom goes bust

by Zac Bissonnette
Portfolio

This book shares some of the strengths and weaknesses of Ty Warner, the man behind Beanie Babies, who was astonishingly attentive to detail yet emotionally opaque. The book is long on detail but doesn't offer a good explanation for the delusion.

Beanie Babies were an inexplicable fad in the US for a couple of years just before the turn of the century: they were perfectly nice little stuffed animals selling for less than US$10 - yet far too many adults scrambled to collect and preserve every new variety of Beanie in the sure knowledge they would only get more valuable.

Except, of course, they didn't.

There are the bones for a pretty good tale, even before getting to the guy behind the craze. A salesman with a gift for charming customers yet hacking off co-workers, Warner falls into "plush" at a time when the industry is tanking. He comes up with a way of stuffing his creations that allows them to be posed, makes them small enough for a kid to carry, and pays obsessive attention to the look of each toy.

In fact, it's that obsession rather than any intent that turns Beanie Babies into collectibles: Warner started changing his designs. He decided his bears needed a better face; enter bear 2.0, aka New Face Teddy. Humphrey the Camel didn't pose well enough to satisfy Warner. So no more Humphrey. And so on.