In this article, I will try to explain the evolution and development of the eighteen TY bears. This represents the largest group of the Beanies. As I mentioned in the last article, they are personally my favorite.

The colored bears were introduced shortly after the introduction of the first nine Beanies. Judging by their tags, they were probably introduced in mid 1993. When introduced, they were available in six colors: violet, teal, jade, cranberry, magenta, and brown. I believe they all had the first and second generation TY tag with the smaller TY lettering single and double tag. All six different colored bears came out originally with the old style or what I like to call the "squirrel face". This face had a very European style teddy bear look to it, not at all like the current round face "teddy" look as found in the current Garcia, Curly, Libearty, and Valentino. None of the colored old face bears came with a ribbon around its neck as did their later replacements. Another difference in the early squirrel face bears is that their eyes were placed to the side of their face not like the closer together eyes on the round current face replacements. The nose was also much smaller than the current bears. As of this writing, the most difficult of these earlier "squirrel face" bears to obtain are Violet and Cranberry. The prices of these early bears are in the $100.00 - $500.00 range. When I quote prices, I presume the Beanie has a tag and is in excellent shape. These original "squirrel face" bears are not as cute as their successors.

After a short time, these original bears were replaced by the newer or "round face" bears. These round faced bears all came in the same original six colors and plush fabric. The tags on these bears are the second and third generation tags. Also, they all have colored ribbons around their neck. Cranberry Teddy, style # 4052, has a green ribbon. Jade Teddy, style #4057, has a maroon ribbon. Teal Teddy, style #4051, has a navy ribbon. Magenta Teddy, style #4056, has a pink ribbon. Violet Teddy, style #4055, has a green ribbon and last but not retired as of this writing, Brown Teddy, style #4050, has a burgundy ribbon.

The names of the bears in both the old and new version is the same, "Teddy". The style numbers are also the same. Quite often the style numbers are incorrect on many of the bears. When the serious collectors refer to them, they simply state their color and face characteristics, ie: Violet old face or Cranberry new face.

All the later new face bears were retired in 1995 except the new face brown bear Teddy, style #4050. Judging by my difficulty in finding them, the Violet and Teal new face are the rarest and most expensive. These beautiful little guys sell in the range of $300.00 - $500.00.

There has been a lot of speculation and rumors that TY will retire the brown new face Teddy as they brought out Curly the new brown Teddy in mid 1996. As usual, it is impossible to get any information out of the company, so regard this as just my best guess!

Besides the colored bears, there are also two very rare retired bears, Chilly, the Polar Bear, style #4012, and Peking, the Panda Bear, style #4013. These two Beanies were probably retired in late 1994 or early 1995. I am sure you are aware that Chilly and Peking, along with Blackie and Cubbie have different body styles from the Teddy's. These four bears are what I call the lay down style whereas the colored bears, Garcia, Libearty, Curly, and Valentino are the sit up style. Blackie and Cubbie are the only current or available lay down bears.

Chilly and Peking have exactly the same body only the colors and the patches around Peking's eyes are different. Each of these very rare bears has the third generation TY tag. I really don't know why they are so rare but they are. I probably take more phone calls concerning these two and of course, what are the prices? than any other retired Beanie. Their current prices are in the $200.00 - $350.00 range. Blackie and Cubbie are still available, although it is difficult to find them with the earlier TY tags. They are currently readily available with the current TY tag with the poem.

That leaves us with four sit up bears. Libearty, style #4057, Valentino, style #4058, Garcia, style #4051, and Curly, style #4052. Garcia, the tie-dye little critter (one of my favorites) and Valentino are available in both the third and fourth tags. Obviously, the early non-poem tagged variety commands a slightly higher price as they are currently very hard to find.

The last two, Libearty and Curly were released in June and July of 1996 and are available only in the fourth TY tag, with poem, birthdate, and star on the front of the tag. In fact, Libearty was the first of the Beanies to carry the poem tag. One interesting fun fact about Libearty is that some of the early editions "Beanie Babies" was misspelled on his body tag as "Beanine Babies". At the present time, the company has corrected this error. Curly, the latest of the bears bring back the practice of putting ribbon around his neck. Curly along with Scotty are the only Beanies to change the texture from the soft plush to a nappy texture. Why, I don't know but I much prefer the plush material.

As usual, the company surprised us on New Year's Day with the introduction of Mel the Koala Bear. I have not as of this writing seen a photo of the little critter, so I don't know if it is a sit up or a lay down variety. He is taupe color and bet it is very cute. As I have mentioned, the Bears are my personal favorite and I am sure Mel will be right up there as one of them!

Garcia says "Click on one of us beanies to E-mail Beanie Phenomenon!" We welcome your comments , although regretfully, we cannot answer all Questions sent in.