Scan barcode
A review by motherofallbats
The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute by Zac Bissonnette
4.0
This was a ride from start to finish. I was around 6/7 years old during the height of the Beanie craze - old enough to be obsessed with them, but also young enough to be shielded from the craziness surrounding them (the fact that I had sane parents who treated them like, ya know, toys for me instead of an investment definitely helped in the latter department). I used tag protectors, of course, because that was just what you did, and I always kept a look out *just in case* our little mall gift shop happened to get a Royal Blue Peanut just lying around, but first and foremost I was just a little kid who loved plushies. Which, as I've learned, was a shockingly small amount of their fanbase.
I've heard a lot of classic Beanie mania stories in the years since - the divorcing couple who had to split up their collection in front of a judge, the guy who killed his coworker over a Beanie deal - so this book wasn't necessarily as childhood-ruining as it had the potential to be. That being said there were still some curveball moments in here (the realization that my beloved Beanie Baby Handbook was not only unofficial, but written by a pair of borderline con artists who are very ill-regarded in the Beanie collecting world still has me reeling a little). There's also a ton of good information about the plush industry in general and other fad bubbles in history that really help to tie the story together. The book's organization can get a little weird (it feels like the author started to do a "where they are now" closing section that somehow ballooned into four or five chapters) and there are a lot of pre-Ty Inc. details about Ty Warner that are glossed over that I would have like more detail about. But overall still a fascinating read.
I've heard a lot of classic Beanie mania stories in the years since - the divorcing couple who had to split up their collection in front of a judge, the guy who killed his coworker over a Beanie deal - so this book wasn't necessarily as childhood-ruining as it had the potential to be. That being said there were still some curveball moments in here (the realization that my beloved Beanie Baby Handbook was not only unofficial, but written by a pair of borderline con artists who are very ill-regarded in the Beanie collecting world still has me reeling a little). There's also a ton of good information about the plush industry in general and other fad bubbles in history that really help to tie the story together. The book's organization can get a little weird (it feels like the author started to do a "where they are now" closing section that somehow ballooned into four or five chapters) and there are a lot of pre-Ty Inc. details about Ty Warner that are glossed over that I would have like more detail about. But overall still a fascinating read.