Fads come and go — coonskin caps, hula hoops, pet rocks, the Rubik’s Cube — but few matched the mania and money surrounding the Beanie Babies in the 1990s. Originally intended as children’s toys, Beanie Babies sparked a quest for riches among legions of adults, a few of whom made lots of money before the bottom dropped out. In “The Great Beanie Baby Bubble,” Zac Bissonnette recounts the history of this unusual phenomenon.
Beanie Babies were a type of toy called “plush” for the soft material they were made of. They were filled with “beans,” actually plastic pellets, that enabled their owners, presumably children, to set them up in poses.
The mastermind behind the Beanie Babies was Ty Warner, whose complex relationships with women and employees constitute a central theme of the book.
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