Peace Bear Colors!
The most difficult way to classify Peace Bears is by their colors! Over the years 6 main categories of colors for Peace Bears have been created, Autumn, Neon, Pastel/Whitewashed, Spring, Summer Transitional and Vivid. However, determining which bear goes into which color category can be very hard. Each persons view of a color can be slightly different. I will start by giving a description of each color category and what types of Peace Bears can fit into each one.
Autumn Bears: Full autumn bears are usually pretty easy to identify as they have the darker colors, especially the darker browns and greens, almost a camouflage coloring! Autumn bears started to appear on the market around September 1998 through January 1999. Autumns usually have one of the following tush tag numbers, 100, 101, 102, 112, 113, 115, 116, 120, and 121. Autumns are most commonly found with 115 numbers.
Neon Bears: Neon bears are some of my favorites! They have almost glowing colors! During the Spring of 1998 shortly after Ty corrected the spelling errors on tags, Neon bears started showing up! Most Bears classified as Neons either have no number inside of their tush tag or they have a #102. Remember this is only a general observation, there is no way to definitely classify all Peace Bears based on color!
Pastel/Whitewashed Bears: Some of the most sought out Peace bears are the Pastel colored Bears. In fact there is a lot of debate as to what a true pastel Peace bear really looks like! The pastel colors were very limited in production, normally to be classified as pastel the bear should have no dark color at all, no browns. Pastel bears typically have 101 or 102 numbers on their tush tags or no number at all. Indonesian Pastel Peace bears are very rare and extremely sought after. Sometimes you will hear a Peace Bear referred to as Whitewashed, which is suppose to be more rare then the pastel versions. Whitewashed bears are suppose to be even lighter then the pastel colors, and should have several areas on its fabric that appear almost white.
Spring Bears: From February 1999 until the retirement of the Peace Bear those on the market started to be called Spring in color. These typically have few browns and olive/dark greens but were brighter then the previous autumn color bears. Spring bears most commonly have the following numbers inside of their tush tags, 101, 102, 110, 111, 112, 115, 116 and 119. The most common were 112 and 115.
Summer Transitional Bears: This catagory of Peace Bears look like a cross of a vivid and a neon and mostly seen during the summer of 1998. Summer transitionals should normally have these numbers 102, 107, 108, 110, 114, 115, 116, and 119 on theirs tush tags, and should have the all caps "TY INC." with a 1996 date on their tush tags.
Vivid Bears: The first Peace bears released fell into this catagory, so they are often referred to as "old style" as well as "vivid". Most have PVC pellets (stated on their tush tag) and 4th generation hang tags, some in early 1998 appeared with 5th generation tags and PE pellets. They look a lot like a Garcia bear just with a Peace sign! The colors are usually darker then the others. Almost most bears classified as vivid should have the Fareham, Hants Ty Europe location inside of their hang tags. These bears often have the scrunchy looking faces.
Solids & Pajama Peace Bears You will often see Peace Bears sold referring to their colors as solid or pajama. When people say this they are referring to the color of the Peace Bears front side. Bears with a solid color on their front are pretty rare and very sought after. It varies from collector to collector on what true is considered solid, there is not exact percentage for how much of the front body must be all one color. This solid look often extends down part of the arms and legs giving the bear the appearance of wearing pajamas!
Almost solid Blues:
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