a hill of beanies

Cathy Lipton had a mission--find Tabasco the Bull for a friend before it disappeared from stores forever. After a fruitless search through plastic cubicles full of dozens of other colorful creatures, Lipton heard a rumor that the bright red bovine was available across the street in a small specialty store.

“These started out as stocking stuffers, and now I’m crazed and obsessed and running over to Crystal Court to get one,” the Irvine mother of three said with a laugh.

Her crazed obsession? Beanie Babies, a complete zoo of 90 palm-sized, inexpensive beanbag animals--the latest toy craze to sweep Orange County. Kids are clamoring for them; parents are running to buy them, and stores are scrambling to keep them in stock.

The brainchild of Ty Warner, president of Oak Brook, Ill.-based Ty Inc., the little critters have been a hit with children in the Midwest since they were introduced three years ago. Anne Nikels, Warner’s assistant, said the line is “just starting to hit on the West Coast.” The company experienced a 1,000% increase in sales last year.

The little beanbags appeal to boys and girls, toddlers and teens, parents and grandparents. About $5 each, they are affordable for many families to use as rewards, as inexpensive birthday gifts or as an obtainable reason for children to save their allowance.

Kids carry them to school, line beds with them and use them for company while doing homework. Like troll dolls before them, the more Beanies you own, the better.

Through what some consider marketing genius, Ty hasn’t spent a cent on advertising its popular zoo, instead focusing on word of mouth and scarcity of supply to create demand.

Take for instance Chops, a white and black lamb that Ty announced it would retire this year. As word spread that the little lamb would cease to exist, stores experienced a frenzy of collectors in search of the creature.

Margaret Goddard, a sales associate at Nordstrom’s South Coast Plaza store in Costa Mesa, said customers regularly call and request that dozens of animals be set aside when word breaks that one is being retired. So upset have other shoppers been when they see the beanbags stacked behind the counters that Nordstrom has started limiting to five the number of each design it will hold.

Consumers having trouble finding any of the 17 retired animals need go no further than their computers, where hundreds of collectors offer a variety of animals for sale via Ty’s own Web site, https://www.ty.com.

Tabasco the Bull and Chops the Lamb are two of the 12 styles Ty announced it is retiring this year. Thirteen designs have been introduced, including bunnies called Hippity, Hoppity and Floppity and a lamb known as Fleece, Nikels said.

The company expects to begin shipping its new line “sometime this month,” Nikels said. Storekeepers are bracing themselves for a Beanie bonanza when the new animals arrive in late February or early March.

Cynthia Holley, manager of Tutti Animali in Crystal Court, said she has 45 index cards with names and numbers of customers waiting for the new arrivals. Nordstrom’s Goddard said she has sold as much as $200 worth of the animals--that’s 40 Beanies--on the first few days after a shipment.

Parents, children and even the manufacturer can’t pinpoint what exactly it is about the creatures that is so appealing--but it’s probably a combination of factors.

“They’re nice toys--cute, inexpensive and with a wide variety,” said Frank Reysen, editor of the toy industry publication Playthings. “You don’t buy just one; you keep going back for more.”

Five-year-old Danielle Tenbrink of Huntington Beach doesn’t know anything about price points or repeat purchases. “I just like them. I want to buy a whole bunch and throw them in the air,” she said.

The little critters seem to be addictive. Take the case of Katy Callender, who stopped at a Nordstrom recently to purchase a Beanie or two for her son, Lucky, and walked out with, well, a lot.

“I’m going to dole them out,” Callender said. “He won’t get them all at once.”

Or Karen Murray, who popped in to buy Squealer, a pink pig, for her 13-year-old daughter’s upcoming birthday but ended up with an assortment.

Each Beanie Baby comes with a heart-shaped tag identifying it as an original. On the tag is the animal’s name, birthday and a little poem about the creature. According to Nikels, the toys--Speedy the Turtle, Pinchers the Lobster and Trap the Mouse among them--are named by the company’s office staff.

Serious collectors know that the tags must be left on the animal’s ear to maintain value. Nikels said some of the retired animals have sold among collectors for as much as $1,000.

Not too bad for a piece of fabric stuffed with PVC pellets.

“We knew they’d be good,” Nikels said. “We just didn’t know how good.”