Fascinating facts about the invention
of Beanie Babies by H Ty Warner in 1993.

There are only 100 shares in Ty Incorporated, a private company based in Westmont, Illinois and Ty Warner owns them all. That makes him an extremely rich man. How rich? No one really knows, but some estimates say he could be worth $6 billion. Ty's Beanie Baby empire is now bigger than the conventional toy giants Hasbro and Mattel combined. And that's official.

In 1983, he mortgaged a small flat he owned in Hinsdale, another suburb not fare from where he grew up, and founded Ty Incorporated. He hired two workers, Miss Nickels and Patricia Roche, who now heads the UK operation. And soon the Himalayan Cats, as he called his first toys, were selling out in local shops. Warner's genius was to leave out some of the stuffing, to make the animals less stiff and more lifelike. Rivals sneered and jokingly called them 'roadkill.' Then he sold 30,000 at the Atlanta toy fair. By 1992 the Ty catalogue had grown to dozens of animals. But Warner was looking for something else, an appealing toy that children could buy with pocket money, something collectable and less than $5.00. Spot the dog, Squealer the pig, Patti the platypus, Cubbie the bear, Choclate the moose, Pinchers the lobster, Splash the killer whale, Legs the frog and Flash the dolphin: the 'original nine', as some collectors now call them, hit the shops of Chicago in 1994. The Beanie Baby was born.

Ty Warner is a generous philanthropist, with donations of $6 million to the Andre Agassi Foundation for underprivileged children in Las Vegas and $3 million for the creation of Ty Warner Park, $8M for the Ty Warner Sea Park in California and the gift of 10000 Beanie Babies for children in Iraq.

TO LEARN MORE

RELATED INFORMATION:
History of Toys and Games   from The Great Idea Finder
H Ty Warner Biography   from The Great Idea Finder

ON THE BOOKSHELF:
Beanie Mania II: The Complete Collector's Guide (Limited availability)
by Becky Phillips, Becky Estenssoro / Hardcover: 180 pages / Dinomates Press; Col edition (1998)
This book has photos and descriptions of Beanie Babies, Teenie Beanies and Beanie Baby prototypes. It includes the complete history of Beanie Babies; an exclusive interview with Mr. H. Ty Warner, the creator of Beanie Babies; the author's Beanie Market Trend Analysis, with historical price charts and graphs; pages of information packed charts and checklists; articles on buying, selling and trading Beanies.

ON THE WEB:
Official Home of ty
The company Web site with everything ty.
(URL: www.ty.com)
Worlds Richest People 2003
H Ty Warner , 59 , self made. Net worth $6 billion dollars.
(URL: www.forbes.com/)
About Ty Warner
In a stubby sleek smoked-glass office block in the suburbs of Chicago sits the richest toymaker of all time. From the Sunday Telegraph 18th July 1999
(URL: www.katscollectables.com/Beanies/TyWarner.htm)
Who is Ty?
Ty, Inc. was started and is owned by Ty Warner. Ty's full name is H.Ty Warner. He was supposedly named after the baseball player Ty Cobb. The "H." represents no name
(URL: www.barrysbeanies.com/generic35.html)
Beanies Babies Official Club
Contest, newsletters, forum, hard to find list and lots more.
(URL: www.beaniebabiesofficialclub.com)
Ask TY
Ask Ty is a new section that allows visitors to the website to submit questions to be asked to Ty Warner himself. About every week 5 questions are selected and posted, visitors get to vote on which question will be asked to Ty. Ty than answers that question.
(URL: www.ty.com/askty_home)

WHERE TO FIND:
Ty Beanie Babies Patriot the Bear
Toys / ASIN: B0007871RU / Lesss than $15.00
Ty's Beanie Babies Collection, USA Exclusive Patriot the Bear.

DID YOU KNOW?:

• The 'Billionaire Bear', created by Warner as a limited-edition 'thank you' for his workers to commemorate $1-billion sales last year, is now worth more than $2,000.
• The Great Beanie Creator, who thrills them simply by 'dropping in' for a chat now and then on the Beanie Babies website.