Press Play with Madeleine Brand
What drove Beanie Babies craze in 1990s — and its collapse?
The documentary “Beanie Mania” looks at how the tiny pellet-filled stuffed animals from the 1990s fueled an investment bubble.
By Madeleine Brand • • 15m ListenBeanie Babies — the tiny pellet-filled stuffed animals — were all the rage in the late 1990s. Peanut the royal blue elephant or Princess the purple teddy bear were supposed to pay for your kids’ college or your retirement. Eventually the hype and hysteria came crashing back to Earth. Yemisi Brookes tells the story of this Beanie Babies boom and bust in a new documentary called “Beanie Mania,” which debuts Thursday night on HBO Max.
