Thursday, August 30, 2012

Divorced From The Nostalgia, The Scorch Beanie Baby Is Somewhat Problematic!


The Good: Cute, Well-made
The Bad: Doesn't so much DO anything, Low collectible value, Fading
The Basics: While my wife loves her Scorch Beanie Baby plush, as an objective reviewer, I am far more neutral to it.


My wife’s personal history is one that makes Russian epics seem like light, fun, fairy tales. If I had to guess, I would say that about a tenth of the gifts I have given her have been an attempt to restore to her something she lost as a child. As it turns out, she once had quite the collection of Beanie Babies, which were sold out from under her, despite the fact that she paid for them with her own money. As it turns out, only one of them was truly important to her and that was her Scorch, the dragon, Beanie Baby.

Scorch is a little plush dragon toy made from Ty Beanie Baby. I found one online for my wife and, in the process, learned that while the thought counts, results are incredibly important and it’s hard to go back with Beanie Babies that have sentimental value. In the case of Scorch, it took me quite a while to find the right one. The “right one” in this case is defined by the plush being purple instead of a faded brown.

Basics

Ty Beanie Baby makes plush toys based on various animals, both real and imaginary. These stuffed toys were a craze well over a decade ago and have long since peaked and fallen in value. In the case of the Scorch Ty Beanie Baby toy, this is a little purple dyed dragon with pearlescent orange wings and an olive green felt spine ridge along his back. Scorch has little black bead eyes, stitched red nostrils and a red felt tongue. Scorch is also augmented by felt claws the same color as its ridge spines.

The stuffed toy is ten and a quarter inches from tongue to tail, three inches wide (seven and a half when his wings flop down!) and seven inches tall. The toy has flexible wings that look fantastic on the dragon.

Scorch as a Ty Beanie Baby toy is composed primarily of polyester fibers and p.e. pellets. Scorch, however, suffers from serious fading. Scorch plushes that were kept out in sunlight or even standard fluorescent lights seem to have suffered seriously on the color front. The dragon, which was initially purple, fades to brown when it is exposed to too much light! Keep that in mind when buying the plush online!

Accessories

Scorch does not come with any accessories.

Playability

Scorch is a plush, so it is limited on the playability front. It does stand on its legs and is cute and cuddly, but it does not so much do anything.

Collectibility

Ty Beanie Baby toys have, for the most part, peaked already as far as collectible value does. Scorch can be found dirt cheap now. However, truly discriminating collectors should be willing to pay more for the original purple Scorch Beanie Babies as most dealers do not even realize that Scorch is not supposed to be brown! As a result, if you can find one that is actually purple as a good deal, it may well be an excellent investment, especially if you have the ability to preserve it for the future!

Overview

My wife loves her Scorch, but given the effort needed to track down one that was actually purple, it is hard to say that is was actually worth it. Fortunately, it was not expensive.

For other plush toys, check out my reviews of:
Thumper from Bambi
Super Mario Bros. Koopa Troopa
The Worm from Labyrinth plush

5/10

For other toy reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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