Beanie Babies Collecting is for the Birds!
Written: Mar 09 '02
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Pros: Quality construction, part of the Ty Beanie Babies Collection, appeals to boys and girls
Cons: Drab colors, coarse fabric, retired, harder to find, may be more expensive now
The Bottom Line: Beak is a drab-colored Ty Beanie Baby. She appeals to both boys/girls/teens who love birds and other animals. Find her now at Internet toy/action sites.
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| glomarrone's Full Review: Ty Beak The Ty-Dye Kiwi Bird Beanie Baby |
Ty Beak, the Ty-Dyed Kiwi Bird is one of the 400+ styles of Beanie Babies. Ty Inc., as you all know by now, is the maker of Beanie Babies and other stuffed toys. Billionaire H. Ty Warner is the founder and owner of the Co. Ty Warner's astute marketing strategies created the Beanie Babies craze in the 90s.
Many of the Ty Beanies can be put into categories. Some of the most popular categories are Holiday Beanies, the bears, the dogs and the cats. Another popular category is birds. Beak fits into this category. She is not one of the prettiest styles in the category. In fact, if I wasn't a collector of all Beanies, I probably wouldn't have purchased her. But, she does have her own admirers.
Every Beanie has a name. A name adds a personality and human-like quality to a Beanie. Names are chosen for many different reasons. Beak is named for her prominent beak. It is over 3" long. It's low pile tan fabric is stuffed with soft polyester filling and very neatly and closely stitched together and to her body. Darker brown low pile fabric covers her legs and webbed feet. Her feet are lightly filled with P.E. Pellets. Her legs are not stuffed. Her body and top part of her wings are made of a curly course medium brown Ty-Dye material. The Ty-Dyed material is a different color on each Beak. Some contain shades of dull greens and yellows most are varying shades of gold and brown.
The upper part of her body is stuffed with polyester fiberfill. Her head is densely packed with fiberfill to support her long beak and head. Her lower body is filled with P.E. Pellets. This weighs her down so she can sit upright on her legs without falling over. The undersides of her wings are the same material as her feet and legs. Her wings are not stuffed and they hang close to her body. Her black plastic eyes are surrounded by a circle of metallic gold and are securely fastened to her head.
Beak is only 7 ½" tall from the tip of her head to her webbed feet. She is about 9" long from the tip of her beak to her pointy end. She is 3" wide with her wings close to her body. She can be posed in different positions. Kids like her long pointed curved beak.
Like all Beanie Babies, Beak is very well constructed of high quality fabrics. Careful attention is paid to details. Ty even adds short black marks made with tiny neat stitches on her beak to make her look more natural. Her beak is carefully constructed so it curves upward and then downward. Since her fabric is Ty-Dyed the pieces on her body do not match exactly in color. Here is some basic information about Beak:
Style Number: 4211
Introduced: 9-30-1998:
Status: Retired 12-23-1999
Date of Birth: February 3, 1998
Recommended for ages 3 and over. Surface wash.
Ty added a poem to each Beanie in 1996. A poem adds a human-like quality of the Beanie and helps the buyer become emotionally attracted to the Beanie. This is Beak's Poem:
Isn't this just the funniest bird?
When we saw her, we said "how absurd."
Looks aren't everything, this we know
Her love for you, she's sure to show.
When Beak was first introduced, she just sat on the shelves. There was never a shortage of this style until she was retired. I have no idea how many Beaks were sold since Ty doesn't publish this information. Kids who love birds will love her though. If you know a child with a February 3rd birthday, you might want to find this bird on the Internet. Another reason to buy her is to complete a collection of Beanie Baby birds. I still see her at local stores and flea markets at or below her original price. Just today I found Beak at the Stew Leonard's Store in Yonkers, NY for $6.99 - regular price. Sometimes I find her on the Internet for around $7-$10. She is definitely not one of the more popular Beanies. I just don't care for her coarse fabric and drab colors. My nephew, however, thinks she's perfect.
If you are searching for Beak on the secondary market you need to know a few things about her tags. Some counterfeits use real Beanies with missing tags and try to duplicate the missing tags. It is important that buyers know what should be on a particular Beanie's tag. Beak has a 5th Generation Swing or HangTag. That means there are several changes from the previous tags. Fifth Generation tags have a different typeface. The yellow star on the front of the Red Ty heart features a different font. So does the type inside the heart. On the inside left of the tag the small TM after the word "Babies" in the phrase "The Beanie Babies Collection" is missing. Only the small R inside the circle remains at the end of the phrase.
On the inside right, the word Beak is listed with a small TM but there is no style number. The style number is the last four digits of the UPC on the back of the tag. The Date of Birth is spelled out instead of listed numerically. "Visit our Web page" is deleted. Only "www.ty.com" is shown. The back of the tag is the same except for the font.
Beak will have a sixth Generation Tush Tag. Dates on it will be either 1998 or 1999. This tag was introduced in January 1998. It has the words "The Beanie Babies Collection" with a small R in a tiny circle after the word Collection. Previous tags had the circled R after Beanie Babies and TM after Collection. The Ty heart remains the same as on earlier tags with a small red star on the left and the circled R on the right. Some Beanies' tags will show the pellet type as PVC (polyvinyl chloride) while others say PE pellets. Newer sixth-generation tags will also have a Chinese Stamp on the inside, which is designed by Ty to help thwart counterfeits. If your Beanie is not well constructed, chances are the Beanie itself is a counterfeit.
Since all Beanies are handmade, each one will have slight variations. Sometime differences are striking enough that they will be considered a separate variation of the style. I have seen only one distinct variation in Beak. It is Beak with a solid yellow body. The price was not affected by the change in fabric color.
Most children enjoy tossing her in the air. Rougher handling is not encouraged since she contains tiny pellets that may fall out if the stitching breaks. I haven't seen this happen with any Beanie I have given to children for play but it is always a possibility. Encourage your child to look up the characteristics of the Kiwi bird and compare them with Beak. Children seem very interested in animals when they can relate to them. Since the toy is so low tech, kids become very creative in their play with her.
If Beak is being purchased for a young child who still puts things in her/his mouth, remove the HangTag to prevent choking. If Beaks is meant for an older child or adult collector, consider purchasing a tag protector to protect the HangTag. A HangTag that is not perfect lowers the value of the Beanie. All my Beanies wear protectors. They are extremely inexpensive-costing only pennies. If Beak is to be part of a collection, place her in a dust free environment, away from sun and smoke but allow for some air circulation. If Beak will be purchased for play, surface wash with any specially formulated solution for stuffed animals found in many toy stores or use a gentle soap and warm water to spot clean. Beanies stay softer if you use the commercial cleaning products. I do not recommend machine washing or submerging in water.
Some of the other styles of Ty Beanie Baby birds are Early, The Robin, Kuku, The Cockatoo, Mac, The Cardinal, Rocket, The Blue Jay and Nectar, The Hummingbird. Beak is also available as a Ty Beanie Buddy, which is a larger sized stuffed animal that is also retired but may still be available locally in some larger retail stores. Visit the colorful Ty site, www.ty.com for a list and photos of the 35 Ty Beanie Babies styles that are currently being produced.
If you can not find any of the birds, here are my other suggestions. Why not put a smile on some child's (or adult) face and pick up one of the 3 styles for Valentine's Day? There's Kissme, a white bear with soft pastel hearts, rose heart-shaped nose and a sheer glimmering blue ribbon. Or, Romance, a pink bear with a red-hot heart shaped nose, red heart pads on its paws and a shiny rose-colored ribbon around its neck. And, there is Sizzle, a red-hot bear with a red velvet ribbon for a red-hot lover.
Or, for some lucky child's Easter basket, pick up the adorable blue bear, Eggs II with an beautiful embroidered egg on its chest and a shimmering sheer pink ribbon. Cottonball is a Ty-Dyed bunny in soft pastel tones. Spring is a luxuriously soft shiny blue and white bunny while Carrots is a white bunny with multi-pastel touches, yellow inner ears and feet wearing a sheer yellow ribbon. Then there's Chicks, a small cuddly yellow and gold chick with a shimmering sheer yellow wide ribbon. All of these will delight a child of any age.
If you have an Irish spouse, friend or neighbor, pick up Clover, a pot bellied white bear with green shamrocks and a green bow all dressed up for St Patrick's Day, March 17th. All styles are now available in most Hallmark stores.
If you are interested, here are links to my other reviews on collecting Beanies.
What's the Monkey Business in Beanie Babies Collecting?
http://www.epinions.com/content_54432468612
Silliness in the Beanie Babies Collections
http://www.epinions.com/content_53893697156
Get All the Inside Information on Beanies Here
http://www.epinions.com/content_30788980356
What a Catch
http://www.epinions.com/content_22006828676
Goodbye American Glory
http://www.epinions.com/content_19840732804
My Passion-Collecting Beanie Babies! Hints for New Collectors
http://www.epinions.com/content_12650974852
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 4.99
Type of Toy: Stuffed Toy
Age Range of Child: Kids to Teens
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Epinions.com ID:
glomarrone
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Location: Cocoa Beach, FL
Reviews written: 167
Trusted by: 287 members
About Me:
It's been fun for 2-1/2yrs. Now it's time to say goodbye. I'll miss you all!
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