Childhood Obsessions: Part 1: Beanie Babies

Something that used to intrigue me when I was younger (and still somewhat has a strange spell over me) were stuffed animals. I remember that when I was a kid, I used to tell my parents that the reason why people had a lifelong fascination with stuffed animals was because they mimicked life. They had a face that we could relate to so we feel that something intangible is staring back at us whenever we look into their black beady eyes. My parents probably thought I was crazy and just gave me more stuffed animals to have fun with.

Out of all the stuffed animals though, only select groups really grabbed my attention. The biggest focus of this entry though will reside with the infamous Beanie Babies of the late 90's. I have over a 100 of them and have probably spent more than $2000 worth on them because of the current hype and my dad's unusual fixation with wanting to buy everything as a collection, which is why he has stacks of completely useless books like Paganism, Dog Dictionaries, and Heraldry in his office and at home that have only served the purpose of collecting dust. He bought into the hype like I did and also spent that extra hundreds of dollars keeping the majority of my Beanie Babies in those plastic cases because they were all 'future investments'.

Even though I hardly recognize any of the new Beanie Babies that were out, these ones that I bought were my very first ones and they will always have a special place. One of them was unfortunately stolen back in 5th grade, but I'll always remember the original two that started it all.
These two are my ultimate two out of my three favorites because not only did they start it all, I took these two everywhere with me. They had a meaning that was more special for this than any of the other ones that my parents got me. Ironically, I don't have Zip, the black cat, at all because it was stolen so long ago. For some reason, I never ended up replacing it.

Then, came the Teenie Beanie Babies promotion that was run at McDonald's. I don't think I ever had so much McDonald's in my life and I don't quite remember if I collected all 10 that everyone went crazy searching for. I just remember people being super excited about trying to collect all 10 Teenie Beanie Babies and throwing away the McDonald's food in the process. Incidents like this was only support that I should have ate myself into Type II Diabetes but miraculously it never came, and soon after the promotion was over, I stopped going to McDonald's for a while.

Several other Beanie Babies had a special signficance for me because of the context that surrounded their purchases. Therefore, here's a list of Beanie Babies I've valued over all the others for different reasons. Zip and Inch.

Scottie was the black terrier that my dad's father bought for me when my dad refused to in front of all our relatives. My grandfather decided to act like a grandfather and spoiled me with getting Scottie. I remember I didn't even like this one that much but because he got it for me, I've always reembered that act of grandfather-liness that this one had more meaning than the other ones did.
Bubbles was one of the more prized possessions of my Beanie Babies because of it's value and how I discovered the art of deception by making an unfair trade with one of my friends to obtain it. Around the time when Pokemon first started emerging into the scene, my dad returned from Taiwan with a bunch of unreleased Pokemon games (versions Gold and Silver) in Japanese. My guy friend in 5th grade, Garron, wanted the untranslated Pokemon games so badly and I couldn't decide whether or not I wanted Bubbles or Goldie (the two original fish). Of course, the deception was that I didn't tell him that I had another set of the untranslated Pokemon games, so I hyped up the trade as if I would be on the losing end if the trade were to happen. He agreed and every time I look at Bubbles, I think of how I had successfully and hilariously at the length I had gone to commit my first significant act of lying and deceiving a friend.

The next few were ones that I adored regardless of the reasons I bought them. There was something about them that made me completely infatuated with them from Day 1, and whenever I dig through my closet and lay eyes on them, the same feelings I felt from the moment I bought them could be felt today.

My mom was vehemently against my purchase of Beanie Babies that my dad and I would often have to hide them from her authority. However, there were two that she had bought for me. Ziggy was bought at the San Francisco International Airport when we were waiting for my dad to return from an overseas business trip and Nanook was bought at a store next to my mom's favorite store, Ross. Nanook doesn't really quite make the list but the signficance is the same to me.

The last four that make up the list that really sort of defined my collection was Princess Di and Brittania. Princess Di was the most my dad has ever allowed me to spend on a Beanie Baby. I don't think he ever told me the real price of it, because every time I've asked him, the number always seemed to change. It went from $50 to $100 and one time, I could've sworn he said $150. To date, it was the most I ever spent on a bag of beans, and it's my third most prized bear that my dad has given to me. Britannia was the one Beanie teddy that I had always coveted but was never able to have until many years later. I have a long wish list of Beanies that I still wished to have but none of them reached to the level I wanted from Britannia.


Valentino and Erin are in their own categories not because one of them had a name that reminded me today of a familiar couture designer that I happen to worship every season, but because Valentino was my first Beanie Baby teddy bear. I remember buying it for $20 at the Sunnyvale Mall at a store that is beyond bankrupt and closed by now. Erin was the 2nd most I had ever spent on a Beanie Baby that my dad had to buy from a colleague for $70 because she was sold out everywhere at that time. As much as this was a sign that I was probably way too spoiled for my own good, I really appreciated today how much my dad was willing to go out of his way to be ripped off by his own colleague to make sure I was happy with getting the Beanie Babies that everyone else wanted. I can't imagine doing this for my own kids but it makes me appreciate these select few even more.



It's funny how I did crazy things in my childhood experiences but I felt that the Beanie Babies I bought were proof that my parents had it in them to really believe that there was a face to each Beanie Baby, which made them so unique and that we strived so mcuh to have them all together in one collection. Of course, we were never able to achieve that but it was certainly fun at that time, and it did bring us together somewhat over all the many Happy Meals and the many conventions we went to that sold these things.