Strange Tapes: Beanie Lover Video
Beanie Babies are one of the great symbols of 1990s culture, right up there with Furbies and the Spice Girls. It even has it’s own documentary on HBO Max — “Beanie Mania.” But thanks to the wonders of VHS, we can look at Beanie Babies culture directly from the 90s — thanks to the promotional film “Beanie Lover Video.” Thank you to “Strange Tapes” zine for letting me review this 1998 time capsule of Beanie obsession. You can buy your own copy of the zine right here!
The internet is abuzz with cryptocurrency and NFTs these days, with people desperate to acquire “digital currency” that will make them millionaires overnight. Not to sound like a cranky millennial, but back in my day, NFTs were called Beanie Babies, and here’s a helpful VHS tape from 1998 to enlighten today’s crypto bros about the get-rich-quick scams of the past.
Beginning with an epic title scroll à la Star Wars, host (and Ted Turner lookalike) Steve Cantin invites us inside the high-rolling world of Beanie Baby collecting. What started with 8 inconspicuous stuffed animals in 1993, quickly exploded into a worldwide obsession. Grown adults waited hours in line to buy these mass-produced toys before they were “retired,” only for the prices to skyrocket on the resell market.
The video is a crash course in everything you need to know to start collecting yourself. From how to spot a counterfeit to where to verify prices online, we also get advice from the “experts” in the field such as Sara Nelson, aka the “Beanie Mom.” Like with any major cultural phenomenon, it’s amazing how much of an ancillary market grew around it, from guidebooks to newsletters to, in this case, plastic tag protectors.
Like the collectibles it highlights, the video is a full package of 90s era kitsch, from the cheesy music and dinky title cards, to glimpses of early web design on blocky Windows computers. For me, it’s like watching a home movie of a half-forgotten childhood memory. How did I ever stand dial-up internet? And how did we all convince ourselves that these dollar-store plushies were worth thousands of dollars? Sure they were cute, but not thousands of dollars cute.
Cantin encourages everyone to have fun while collecting: “Let’s be nice in this Beanie Baby world we live in.” And in 1998, it really did feel that way. Little do the people in this video know that the Beanie Baby bubble would pop only a year later. Let this be a warning to anyone who joins a craze that seemingly has nowhere to go but up. The bubble always pops, and then you too will be stuck with a basement of worthless dolls named Splash the Whale, Spot the Dog and Poopsie the Bear.
