Blackie the Bear

Blackie is a black bear who stayed in production for more than four years, long enough to be found with every generation of tag from the first to the sixth.

He was a stadium giveaway three times in 1998. The Chicago Bears handed out 20,000 through their Kids Club on 1 July 1998. The Boston Bruins gave away 5,000 at their game against the New York Islanders on 12 October 1998, and the Chicago Bears gave away another 10,000 against the St. Louis Rams on 8 November 1998. The two later handouts came after his retirement date.

Known oddities are tag errors. Blackie has been found with tush tags belonging to Curly, Squealer and Valentino. Some fifth generation swing tags carry the misprints ORIGIINAL and Suface, and those are a printing error on the tag rather than a reason to suspect a counterfeit.