#bboc

[liminalbeans]

A collection of some non-stuffed animal beanie baby merch, and some information about it (and links to buy each one)

Beanie baby collector pins! These were pins that could only be bought by members of the BBOC (beanie baby official club) and there was a few different ones, mostly featuring the original 9 beanies.

I can't find a lot of them for sale, but the set of 5 in the bottom image can be bought here.

More pins! These ones feature the teenie beanie babies that were included in happy meals back in the 90s. These were actually never sold to the general public, they were reserved for McDonald's employees to put on their uniforms to advertise teenie beanies.

There's a bunch of different listings for either sets of pins or individual ones, but you can get a good amount of them here.

A beanie baby poster! "But Liminalbeans" I hear you say, "there's no beanie babies on that poster!" This is true! But that's because this poster was actually meant to be used with another product....

...THESE stickers. You could technically stick these on whatever you want, but the poster was made for people to have one themed spot to put their whole collection.

Poster here

Stickers here

We also have some trading cards! I feel like I've seen these more than any other non-stuffed animal product. These were like Pokemon or baseball cards, each one had a beanie and they came in little packs. These never really took off, because having a collectible OF a collectible is kinda going too far. But they're still cool little trinkets

Buy some here

Beanie babies coins! These came in BBOC exclusive packages and each one had a classic beanie

Get them here

This is probably the most recent item on the list. It's a plastic cup from McDonalds that was part of a "blind bag" series with different cups commemorating the most popular/successful happy meal toys. This one was for the teenie beanie babies, and there's some secondhand ones available.

Buy it here

This last one isn't an official TY product, but it's still beanie baby related. Back when beanie babies were a huge craze and everyone thought they'd be worth tons, a bunch of the most avid collectors and fans would make these guidebooks to help people learn more about beanie babies and track their "worth". It's funny looking back on it, since they're all worth basically nothing now, but these books are still an interesting read and fun to flip through

Buy the one pictured above here, and there's also tons of different ones out there.

And feel free to reblog this with any I might have missed!

[touchou421]

day3&1

[beanbagbuddies4life]

Splash the Whale

via + via

Born July 8, 1993

Splash loves to jump and dive He's the fastest whale alive He always wins the 100 yard dash With a victory jump he'll make a splash!

Splash is one of the original 9 beanie babies, so he has a special place in the heart of every collector! He also gets fun extras like this coin and lapel pin.

via + via

Splash was rereleased with a special hang tag for the Beanie Baby Official Club!

[beaniebabydaily]

Color Me Bear - Beanie Baby

The Color Me Beanie bears came in the Beanie Babies Official Club (BBOC) Kit for the year 2002. Each kit was a clear plastic case containing a Color Me Beanie bear, six assorted water soluble, color markers (to color the bears), and a fold-out BBOC membership application form. The six marker colors matched the colors of the ribbons that were available for the bears. The foldout also had an order form for exclusive BBOC member products.

[planetbeanie]

Beanie Baby Collectors Coin

Originally came in the BBOC platinum kit

$6

[icharlie]

I feel like no one talks about

thought that you loved this stuff / or did I make that up

like I hear that shit and it's waaaaaaaaaaaah immediately

[scootsoot]

My doodles from a magma @soupghetti hosted (? Is that the right word??? I hope so)

Just some silly guys for y'all :3

[babsvibes]

Do you have a burger oc / self insert? (I need you to have one 🤍 please thank bestie)

Oh man! I’ve never really been a self-insert kind of gal, but a million years ago I did make an OC! Vanessa Beatle aka Slug Bug, the One-Eyed Snakes’ attorney. She’s…. tired lol

[plushieanimals]

Trap the Mouse BBOC trading cards

[taliesin-the-bored]

🧙, but also what's gringolet 👀

What's Merlin's deal, in your own words?

Merlin’s deal varies. He’s the result of mashing a few different characters into one, and he does a lot of dubious things in the texts which became most influential but does them on the side of the good guys so people want to like him and water him down into a less sinister figure. 

It’s the Historia Regum Britanniae which lays the groundwork for the character as we know him today. First a wunderkind, whose father is thought to have been an incubus, Merlin is nearly used as a human sacrifice as a child but talks his way out of it by explaining the real reason why King Vortigern’s tower keeps falling down. He’s later responsible for the construction of Stonehenge and for disguising Uther Pendragon as Gorlois so that Uther can sleep with Gorlois’ wife Igerna. She doesn’t know it’s Uther at the time, so Merlin is an accomplice to rape by deception. Later on, Merlin is the magical advisor to Uther’s son Arthur, and Arthur is considered a righteous king (even if he does some very dubious things from time to time). That puts Merlin on “the right side” most of the time going forward but also doesn’t make everything Merlin does morally justifiable. There are some texts where he’s downright antagonistic—the big example being Eachtra Mhelóra agus Orlando, where Arthur nearly has him burned at the stake for his crimes but Arthur’s daughter Melora says they should show him mercy—and some where he’s just very, very morally gray. There are exceptions. Myrddin Wyllt, the possibly-historical Welsh bard who appears in The Black Book of Carmarthen, is more sympathetic, almost Lancelotlike in personality: after inadvertently killing his own nephew in battle, he goes insane and wanders forlornly in the forest, talking to a piglet because his sister won’t forgive him. Then again, “didn’t want to kill a relative (but did anyway)” is a very low bar, and that’s not the Merlin iteration who’s in the public consciousness. 

The Merlin we see most in modern media is the archetypal wizard, the friendlier Gandalf figure who guides the righteous king, with his fouler deeds omitted or justified or glossed over, and that’s…fine. I guess. It takes away a lot of nuance, but if you want a wise, magical grandfather figure for your plucky young king, then Merlin is the closest option at hand and has a cultural resonance. I understand it, and I enjoy a good Merlin from time to time, but that’s not who he is, or at least not who he always is. I would appreciate more questionable Merlins—and they do exist. I would appreciate more meant-well-did-badly, non-Arthur-affiliated, bardic Myrddins, too. 

(P.S. At least in the BBoC translation I read, Myrddin himself says that he is “second only to Taliesin”. Mull on that a bit. Given Taliesin’s own questionable moments, I’m not sure whether it’s really a compliment or an insult).

What’s Gringolet?

Gringolet, my friend, is a horse. Not just any horse, however. Gringolet (also known as Ceincaled) is Gawain’s horse, and he is a force of nature, one of the Three Spirited Horses in the Triads. Gawain is a notorious horsegirl, so naturally he requires a horse as awesome and bloodthirsty as he is, and Gringolet is at least as well-regarded as his usual rider by members of the Arthuriana fandom (I’ve seen tier lists which ranked him higher than Gawain). In short, Gringolet is a phenomenon, and one I’m sure a Beri stan like yourself would appreciate, though I admit my enthusiasm for Gringolet is not as great as a lot of people’s because there are other awesome Arthurian horses (Guinevere’s gray palfrey who can go on water or land, Kay’s horse Gwineu Goddwf Hir, etc.) who remain overlooked while he hogs the limelight. That’s not Gringolet's fault, though. 

He also has his own Wikipedia page. Who among us can say that?

Thank you for the ask!

[touchou421]

雖然還沒農曆過年，圖也沒有農曆過年感，但就是先放上賀卡

[cuttlemew]

been thinkin' bout my BBOC as of late~~

[beanbagbuddies4life]

Pinchers the Lobster

Born June 19, 1993

This lobster loves to pinch Eating his food inch by inch Balancing carefully with his tail Moving forward slow as a snail !

Pinchers, originally deemed Punchers, was one of the original 9 beans released in 1993! There's so much that goes with him: a Beanie Buddy, a Teenie Beanie, trading cards, a collectible coin, and a special BBOC version!

It's hard to find good photos of the BBOC Original 9 collection, but here they are:

via

Note the 2nd-gen style hang tag and the little BBOC button. This tag says "Punchers," but Ty released both a Pinchers AND a Punchers with the BBOC Original 9 collection.

Doesn't he make a cute Teenie Beanie?

Don't forget the cards and coin!

via

via

[little-klng]

im sure theres people in the reblogs whove described this before (more than likely me included, but its buried by now), but no this fact is simply not true </3 the original beanie babies are The Original 9, pictured below:

[Brownie the bear, Chocolate the moose, Pinchers the lobster, Spot the dog, Squealer the pig, Splash the whale, Patti the platypus, Legs the frog, and Flash the dolphin]

all nine of them were released in April of 1993 during the New York World Toy Fair, whereas Trap was released in June of 1994 in stores after growing popularity meant more designs being created and released publicly. The above commenter likely(?) misunderstood that Trap mightve been older than the Original 9 because a lot of resources put their release date at August of 1994 for some reason

However, what *is* true is that Trap on release was older than the concept of beanie baby birthdays and poems, which didnt begin until 5th generation releases in late 1997, more info on that, as well as example photos of what each generation of tag looks like here and here.

The concept of beanie babies getting their own poems and birthdays was actually created by Lina Trivedi, whos credited as the author of 136 original poems for the beanies, as well as the creator of e-commerce as a concept (she headlined the website design and concept behind the BBOC, where collectors would be able to order certain beanies/recreations of original older beanies instead of hunting down irl stores for them)

Before poems and birthdays, beanie baby swing tags just featured the beanies name, as well as a To ___ and From ___ space to write in, since they were intended to be cheap gifts for families, friends, and events. The change was made because Lina thought it would make the tags more interesting and fun (and she was right!!!)

A lot of older beanies however were re-released in later generations to have birthdays and poems added, such as the original 9 with their BBOC releases :3 Trap, however, is not one of those re-releases and therefore was never retroactively given a poem or birthday

Hope this helps and clears up any confusion!!!!!!

the saddest beanie baby related thing ever is still trap the mouse. no birthday

[planetbeanie]

Todays Beanie of the Day is Bits the Bear

Collectors note

She was included in the 2005 Beanie Baby Official Club (BBOC) kit, which included marker pens, stickers, paper and a mug.

Birthday- 3/4/2004