Spring Fair 2003
What a brilliant day I have had! Today was the first day of the Birmingham Spring Fair at the NEC, and the first show I have ever been to.
I was amazed at how big the place was and the amount of walking we had to do to get around. There are 20 halls at the NEC, full of everything you could ever imagine.
Of course our first stop was to the Ty Stand. This was very busy and easily noticeable across the hall for the huge, bright-red, heart-shaped, balloon floating above the stands. We walked over, and the stand was beautifully decorated. The Balloon was the centre-piece, with Large Peace and Hippie in the basket. Around the balloon was silver frames which were covered in beanies and multi-coloured ribbon, not to mention two of the giant boppers, Rugged Rusty and Precious Penny, clinging on to the frame! The metal frame surrounded the whole Ty area too, and there were also the Ty mobiles, and heart logo everywhere! The Ty stand was definitely the most beautifully decorated stand in the whole show! Also, there was a huge framed Portsmouth FC, long-sleeved away shirt on the wall, and below a picture of the team looking good in their Ty Football Shirts!
The stand was extremely busy and full of Ty staff. There were metal stands with all of the new beanies lining the shelves. My sister, Lauren is a huge Hippie the rabbit fan, and loves Dippy. Dippy is extremely glittery and colourful! He is covered in multi-coloured panels - I wonder if they will all be different or just a few variations like Frankenteddy? I also like the new Eggs III beanie for Easter, who is a gorgeous shade of purple and looks great with his yellow bow and badge! All the new Basket beanies were there, and as I said before, my sister loves Hippie, and the Basket beanie was no exception. Personally, my favourite was Chickie the Basket beanie, who looked even better than last years Beanie version! He was so small and cute - like a real chick! There was also a big display of Boppers, and Teenie Beanie Boppers, with a new bag! The bag was really the only thing not already announced, and it looks great! It is a two strap shoulder bag, made in 3 different styles. It is furry and each of the 3 has a different pattern on the fabric. The 6 boppers, which fit inside, look great peeping through the little 'window' of the bag! The Ty Rep told me that they will be in shops in the UK next month. I also saw the new Color-me Bunny, and I can confirm that these will all have different colour ribbons and badges! Each bunny will have a ribbon which matches the colour of the outline of the egg on his chest.
There were rumours that Ty was in Birmingham, and the Ty Reps were happy to confirm that he was in the hall - so we were on the look-out wherever we went! The woman we spoke to was very friendly and everytime we wandered past the stand later in the day, she talked to us and told us he was still yet to arrive!
(See more about Ty at the bottom of this page!)
The next stop was the Chubbley bears stand, passing Boyds and Russ on the way. The Chubbley stand was also very beautifully decorated, and very unique! The stand had a woodland theme with and gorgeous bark area, with Rabbits 'hopping' in and out of 'rabbit holes' nearby! They looked great!
There were a lot of new things to look at when we got to the Chubbley Bears stand - not only were there the new bears, but rabbits, dragons, a cat, dog and monkey too! The new bears are lovely. Mission the Chunky Chubbley is absolutely gorgeous and will look great sitting next to Moonbeam. He is black and covered in tiny gold planets, with gold paws and a little rocket on his foot. He will be a must for me. The St Clements Duo, two bears - one orange and one yellow, covered in Oranges and Lemons looked a great pair! Also, there was the gorgeous Toot, out of hibernation as a Burgundy bear, with burgundy ribbon and paws to match! And another 'slight' change, Creamy cub with the white nose!
But not only were there great new additions to the Chubbley collection in the form of bears, but also animals and dragons too! There were two cute, but unusual dragons - one silver/blue and one green and gold! And the cutest rabbits - Hutch and Primrose. Hutch is a light brown colour with a beautifully stitched carrot in his ear (Charles joked that they are going to have complaints about Children putting carrots in their ears to be like the Chubbleys, LOL) and Primrose is a gorgeous spring yellow colour with a primrose, again beautifully sewn in his ear! The rabbits are easily recognisable as Chubbleys, but the dragons are completely different - I would never have guess they were Chubbleys if I hadn't seen them on the Chubbley Stand!
Chubbleys are also branching out into animals, such as the rumoured cats and dogs, not to mention a gorgeous cheeky-looking monkey! The cat is grey with a red collar and gold tag, and the tiny pink ears, whiskers and giant feet are just adorable and comical! His face reminds me so much of two little cats of my own! Charles said that he reminds him of Benny from Top Cat! There is also a cute dog who, in his display case, was sitting in a basket. When we spoke to Charles, he told us that whether or not the dog came with the basket was undecided. I hope so, I think he looked great! The puppy is a fuzzy brown dog with a paw print on the side of his body! The monkey was absolutely adorable - grey and furry with giant pink feet and ears, and he had the cheekiest face! I really wish I could show you photos, but taking photos was not allowed inside the NEC (but Ty Warner, which you can read about at the end, is a different matter LOL!)
While there was a lot of new products to look at at the Chubbley stand, there was also a really fun and unique idea from the Chubbley chaps! At the stand was a huge bucket of keys attached to Chubbley Keyrings, and a treasure chest. We had a lot of fun, having a key each, and seeing if it would fit the lock! Sadly, the keys we picked up, couldn't open the lock on the treasure chest. Darren told us that the chest would be in retailers and when customers buy a Chubbley product, they would get a key! I can't wait to find out what is inside!
The Chubbley chaps were even nice enough to donate a 'little' something for a future prize. At the moment she is sitting facing me with Peace and watching me type!
Not only were the Ty and Chubbley stands a must-see for us, but so were the Diddl and Me to You stands! Over in the Greetings hall, the two companies had their stands, and they were both amazing! Carte Blanche had a two story building-like stand and was easily noticeable from across the hall! The main decoration of the stand was the park bench with a giant Tatty Teddy lying along it asleep, gently breathing under a newspaper. He looked great, and so realistic and noticeable! The stand was decorated in glass cases, containing Me to You products, and even some new brown bears like the Original Tatty was, which we heard were 'Ideas in the Pipeline'! There was a selection of Mini-£3.99 bears including some new: 'Friends Forever', wearing a turquoise-blue T-shirt, 'Happy Birthday' holding a sparkly present, and 'Just for You' wearing a red T-shirt. One of the first thing I notice when I entered inside the stand, was the display of new 'Alphabet Bears'. Similar bears were introduced last year, but they are back and better than before! Instead of soft, coloured-checked letters, there is now metallic, shiny pink, green, orange and blue letters being held, and the bears seem smaller and softer than before. Also now, each letter will be available in all colours rather than just one colour like before! These bears also showed off the new Tatty Teddy tag - triangle shaped! As a fan of candles, I was also pleased to see Me to You candles, with black/white pictures and quotes. Another favourite product that I saw was little resin gift boxes, with a Teddy on the out side of the lid, and also another on the inside of the lid. The bears held a sign saying either "Happy Birthday" or "Someone loves you". Another new product was the Tatty Teddy, which had the very tiny, Tatty Teddy Story book around his neck.
After Me to You, we were off to Depesche, the makers of our latest addiction - Diddl and his friends! This had to be one of the biggest displays I saw at the show - It was huge! There was so many products I didn't know where to start! There were plush Pimboli holding names, collectible figures, 'best friend' mugs that interlock, a large display of plush characters, keyrings, bookmarks, mousemats, bags, just to name a few! The greeting cards were beautiful too! The staff were also very friendly, and told us all about the Diddl Store in Nottingham. We even got given Diddl sweets and a free notebook!
But back in hall 5, was where my biggest ambition finally came true....the highlight of my day had to be meeting the main man himself - Ty Warner! Without this guy, I would never have started this website, and would never have met all the brilliant friends I have made in the past few years of collecting. My interest in beanies has grown and grown since starting Beanzaddiction, and it's all thanks to one person!
I was absolutely thrilled when I spotted the man himself! He was standing to the side of the stand writing and nobody had noticed him there! He was extremely friendly, and such a nice man - and I love his accent!! He even let us take a photo with him, which Steve, who is the head of Global Marketing from the USA, kindly took for us! We chatted for a while and he was introduced to the Beanzaddiction Peace (and Peace was very pleased to meet him too!). Ty even suggested bringing out a Peace II for all the things going on in the world, and asked me what I thought! I had made some special Beanzaddiction Business cards for the Show, and Ty even took one and tucked it safely away in his wallet! I was walking around the show after that with the biggest grin ever! He is such a wonderful man and I love Ty Beanies even more now!
THANKS TY!