06/23/96
Source: The Pantagraph Bloomington

By Mary Ann Fergus

Clare Wazienski doesn't realize it but she's onto one of the latest-greatest toy crazes of the century - perhaps the last of this century. All the six-year-old girl from Normal knows is that she loves all 21 of her Beanie Babies and she can't wait to get more.

Clare, who will enter first grade at Parkside Elementary in the fall, explains that the soaring sales of Beanie Babies can be directly linked to the product's stuffing: "They have the little bumps in them; that's the bead. People like the way they feel."

Bloomington mother Toni Nevius offers another explanation: "They're so reasonably priced. They make good birthday gifts."

Colorful, floppy and bead-filled, Beanie Babies come with their own name and sell for $5 each. And that's a good thing because Nevius' daughter, Sarah, 8, has 45.

While her parents and grandparents contribute to Sarah's collection, the young collector has plunked down much of her own weekly allowance money for characters such as Quackers the Duck or Bones the dog.

Observers say Beanie Babies are much cheaper than the Cabbage Patch dolls, cuter than trolls and less prone to violence than the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Jim Bavester, owner of Novak Flowers in Bloomington, adds that the Beanie Babies are of "higher caliber" than the pet rock.

Chicago basketball fans keep registrars ringing for a red bull named Tabasco. Some local merchants say folks from the Windy City have raided their stores for Tabasco and others among the 66 pocket-size characters made by Ty Inc.

Now most of the dozen local stores selling Beanie Babies are also low in stock. People from 8-year-old Sarah to 40-something Christine Gruber are calling stores everyday to find out if more babies have arrived. July, sometime, is the answer.

Gruber, a secretary at Illinois State University, bought most of her babies at The Willow Basket, a Victorian gift shop in downtown Normal.

"They're just infectious," says Gruber who has bought 19 for herself and sends them off to friends in need of cheer. She keeps three perched on her computer at the office.

"Everyone has responded," says Gruber. "They bring a smile to your face. They're just the sweetest little things."

Martha Gerdes, owner of The Willow Basket, says women and children are her biggest customers for Beanie Babies. The babies sell well in college towns such as Normal and Champaign where sorority girls also like to collect them or give them to pledges as gifts, according to June Garland, a sales representative for Southern Illinois Sales.

"I have never seen anything like it," says Garland. "Everyone you talk to - everyone - says `Please, please where are they? I have people with lists.' "

If Garland of Springfield seems overwhelmed, Ty Warner of Oak Brook may be even more shocked. Warner, who rarely talks to the press, owns Ty Inc. and designed the Beanie Babies, which are made in factories in China.

Warner's secretary, Anne Nickels, only says her boss is private and won't give out his age or any other hard facts about company volume or babies sold since they first came out in early 1995.

But she does concede the company, formed in 1985, has done well. Thirteen new babies are due this summer with such characters as a white bear with an American flag, a red dog and a rhinoceros.

Meanwhile, some of the early varieties from the collection have been retired and sell for $60 each to collectors. And some fans wait in lines of 50 or more people to buy Beanie Babies in Chicago area gift shops.

The company avoids selling their products in Toys`R Us or large discount department stores. Instead, the Beanie Babies can be found in gift, card and flower shops.

Peggy's Hallmark in the College Hills Mall has ordered about 1,500 babies, according to an assistant manager. She estimates they will be sold out after just a couple weeks on the shelves.

Lori Irwin, a first-grade teacher at Glenn Elementary School in Normal allows her students to read with a stuffed animal and the number one choice is always one of the Beanie Babies. Irwin found she generated more interest in a recent lesson on the ocean when she used the crab, lobster, octopus and whale members of the Beanie Babies collection as teaching tools.

Unlimited Treasures owner Nancy Quiggins has ordered ahead for Christmas to ensure she has a full stock for her Eastland mall store in Bloomington.

"I had a (waiting) list," Quiggins said. "I quit adding to it. I just tell them `Take my card and call me.' I could probably sell a hundred over the weekend."