Welcome to the Beanie Kids Tag History

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The Tag History is divided into 2 Divisions and many Sections and all of these are inter-linked.
The 2 Divisions are Swing Tags and Tush Tags.
    Swing tags are attached to the Beanie via little plastic tag attachers
    Tush Tags are attached to the Beanie by being usually sewn into the tush seam but can be used on the thigh or such interesting places as Blanket edges and Coat tails
The 3 Sections are Country, Type and Release. With in each Section there is many entries.
    Beanie Kids have been releases in 7 countries covered by 5 different sets of tags
    The Types are for each type of tags, Tiny Kids Tags, Beanie Kids Tags, Promotional Tags etc.
    Beanie Kids have been released through 4 distribution channels, and in some cases extra tags have been added as they were distributed.
The Release Section is further broken in to Generations
    Generation are an ever growing section. Generations are distinguished by such changes as changes to tag size, adding or deleting logos.
Several Versions may occur in each Generation where minor changes occur
    Such minor changes may be new phone numbers, the same logo but drawn differently, rewording of phrases like the child safety warning..

The 2 Divisions and 3 Sections are combined with each Generation and Version to give each Tag a unique identifier as outlined below. Each Identifier has its own numbering starting at Generation 01 and each Version within a Generation is suffixed by consecutive letters starting at 'a'. I do the Generation numbering with leading Zeros like G01, G02 not G1, G2 because once the Generation numbers get past 10 those people like me that keep heaps of information on computer can use the tag numbering to sort there computerised lists of there collections. Without leading zeros "G1a" and "G10a" will sort next to each other which people will not want to happen.

More information is at the bottom of this page!

All tag numbers are in the format of "WW_X_YY_Z##a" where
 

To see the tags for any Section just click on the Section title with the yellow background and a screen will appear.
To see a whole Division click on the Division title
Each Screen will show all the Versions that have been discovered and will also show the Outside/Front and Inside/Back of the tags.
If a release is missing then there was no Design released. E.g. there is no Australian & New Zealand Redemption Cuddly Kid so there is no tags.

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND
	Promotion.  Tags Expo/Show.  40 Round.  11 Fund Raiser.  6 TOTAL.  57	Australian & New Zealand Promotional Tags

Australian & New Zealand Swing Tags			Australian & New Zealand Tush Tags
Tiny Kids
Release Generation Versions General 1 3 2 1 Total 4 Total Tiny Kid Swing Tags 4		General Releases	Release Generation Versions General 1 3 Total 3 Total Tiny Kid Tush Tags 3		General Releases
Mini Kids
Release Generation Versions General 1 1 2 2 Total 3 Redemption 1 1 2 1 3 2 4 1 5 2 Total 7 Total Mini Kid Swing Tags 10		General Releases	Release Generation Versions General 1 1 2 1 Total 2 Redemption 1 1 Total 1 Total Mini Kid Tush Tags 3		General Releases
		Redemption Releases			Redemption Releases
Beanie Kids
Release Generation Versions General 1 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 5 3 6 1 7 3 8 2 9 2  Total  21 Redemption 1 2 2 3 3 1 4 1 5 2 Total  9  Special 1 2 2 2 3 2 4 2 5 2 6 1 7 5 8 3 9 1 10 3 11 2 12 1 Total 26 Exclusive 1 1 2 2 Total 3 Total Beanie Kid Swing Tags 59		General Releases	Release Generation Versions General 1 5 2 4 3 3 Total 12 Exclusive 1 1 Total 1 Total Beanie Kid Tush Tags 13 All Redemption and Special Release Beanie Kids have the same Tush Tags as General Release Beanie Kids.		General Releases
		Redemption Releases
		Special Releases			Exclusive Releases
		Exclusive Releases
Large Kids
Release Generation Versions General 1 1 Total 1 Special 1 2 Total 2 Total Large Kid Swing Tags 3		General Releases	Release Generation Versions General 1 1 Total 1 Special   2 Total 2 Total Large Kid Tush Tags 3		General Releases
		Special Releases			Special Releases
Cuddly Kids
Release Generation Versions General 1 1 2 5 3 4 4 2 Total 12 Special 1 1 2 3 3 1 4 1 Total 6 Exclusive 1 3 2 6 Total 9 Total Cuddly Kid Swing Tags 27		General Releases	Release Generation Versions General 1 2 2 2 3 4 Total 8 Special 1 ? 2 ? 3 ? Total ? Exclusive 1 ? 2 ? Total ? Total Cuddly Kid Tush Tags ?		General Releases
		Special Releases			Special Releases
		Exclusive Releases			Exclusive Releases
Great Big Kids
Release Generation Versions General 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 3 5 1 Total 7 Special 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 Total ? Exclusive 1 1 Total 1 Total Great Big Kid Swing Tags		General Releases	Release Generation Versions General 1 1 2 2 Total 3 Special 1 ? 2 1 Total ? Exclusive 1 1 Total 1 Total Great Big Kid Tush Tags ?		General Releases
		Special Releases			Special Releases
		Exclusive Releases			Exclusive Releases
Giant Kids
Release Generation Versions General 1 2 2 1 Total 3 Special 1 1 Total 1 Total Giant Kid Swing Tags 4		General Releases	Release Generation Versions General 1 1 2 ? Total ? Special 1 ? Total ? Total Giant Kid Tush Tags ?		General Releases
		Special Releases			Special Releases
SOUTH AFRICA
South African Swing Tags			South African Tush Tags
Beanie Kids		General Releases	Beanie Kids		General Releases
UNITED STATES of AMERICA
American Swing Tags			American Tush Tags
Beanie Kids		General Releases	Beanie Kids		General Releases
		Exclusive Releases			Exclusive Releases
GERMANY
German Swing Tags			German Tush Tags
Beanie Kids		General Releases	Beanie Kids		General Releases
ENGLAND
English Swing Tags			English Tush Tags
Beanie Kids		General Releases	Beanie Kids		General Releases
		Special Releases			Special Releases s
Cuddly Kids		General Releases	Cuddly Kids		General Releases s
		Special Releases s			Special Releases s
Great Big Kids		Special Releases s	Great Big Kids		Special Releases s

HISTORY NOTES:

Country.
Beanie Kids of several types (see below) have been released in several cluster of countries. The main cluster is Australia and New Zealand where all the types have been released. Another cluster is England and Norway were several types were released. Other countries were they have been released are, Germany where they were called Bean Bag Mates with the tags in German. In South Africa they were distributed by the Presence Company and in the United States of America they were called Bean Bag Mates.

Types
7 types of designs have been released over the last 10 years.
The smallest Type is Tiny Kids which are a limited edition release of 4cm long designs released through a supermarket chain.
The next Type is Mini kids which have been released as an accessory to the Beanie Kids pyjamas and as part of several redemption programs.
The classic Type has always been the Beanie Kids release of 21cm. This is the first and most abundant size released to date.
The most recent Type released has been the Large Kids of 26cm. These have been special releases through stores or special events like the Card Expo.
The second Type released was the Cuddly Kid of 42cm and is the only other size to challenge the popularity of the Beanie Kids size.
The third Type released was the Great Big Kids of 80cm
The biggest Type has been the Giant Big Kids at 100cm (1 meter).

Release
On all the Types above there have been tags specifically used for a purpose.
General Release Tags:
    General release Tags are the most common, and come on the beanie kids that are released through stores.
    There have been 9 Generations of General Tags so far
Redemption Releases Tags:
    Redemption Tags are used on designs that are redeemed from Skansen via some special program.
    There have been 5 Redemption Tags so far
Special Releases Tags:
    Special Release Tags are used for one off releases that may include 1 design (e.g. Grateful, Ooki) or
    several designs (AFL, Talking, Monsters) but once the Release is finished the tag will not be used again.
Exclusive Releases Tags:
    Exclusive Release Tags are for designs that are released exclusively to a Person, Chain store or Group of some sort.
Promotional Tags:
    Promotional Tags are ones that are added to designs along with one of the tags above.

Font
So far I have detected that 3 Fonts have been used for the bar code numbers
Most often the common Arial font is used
Some early Beanies and a lot of recent Beanies have the OCRB font used for example Boffin, Herb, Bumble Beanie and Byte
    Major points are the THREE has a flat top, FOUR has an open side and NINE has a different down stoke and
    the character size is a lot bigger
Most recently a new font has become popular the closest example I can find is Consolas
    Major points are the ZERO has a slash though it and the font has Serifs as with the ONE