Beanie Babies: the original, three decades on

Before the Boos, before the Bellies, before anything had glitter eyes, there were Beanie Babies. Ty launched the line in 1993, and by the late nineties it was not a toy range so much as a phenomenon. Adults queued for them. Newspapers ran price guides. An entire generation learned the word "retired" from a swing tag.

We mention the history because it walks into our shop every week. Parents who collected Beanie Babies as kids in the nineties now buy them for their own children, and the look on their faces at the shelf is half gift-shopping, half time travel. If you were one of those kids, yes, the line is still going, and no, you are not old. Much.

The modern Beanie Baby keeps what made the originals work. They are filled the classic way, soft and loose enough to flop and pose, with the traditional proportions rather than the oversized heads and eyes of the Boos. Of the whole Ty family, the Beanie Baby is the one that still feels like the toy you remember.

What has changed is the cast. Today's range runs from classic animals to licensed characters the original era never dreamed of. Our capybara trio, Savanna, Mocha and Petal at $11.99 each, answers the internet's favourite animal three different ways. Amber II the Cat carries a name with lineage, as collectors of the original Amber will spot immediately. And Marvel's Spider-Man has joined the family in force: regular and Floppy at $11.99, Medium at $29.99, Large at $69.99, and a clip at $6.99.

A note on the collecting side. The nineties taught everyone that Beanie Babies are not a retirement plan, and we will not pretend otherwise. What survived the bubble is the better part: characters with names and birthdays, sets to complete, and a line that has now been passed from one generation to the next. That is rarer than any misprinted tag.

The Beanie Babies range is at beanieboosaustralia.com, in stock now.