Chocolate the Moose

Chocolate is one of the Original 9 Beanie Babies and the last of the nine to be retired. He was introduced on 8 January 1994 and stayed in production until 31 December 1998, almost five years. That run carried him through every swing tag generation from the first to the fifth and every tush tag generation from the first to the sixth, so a Chocolate can be dated closely from his tags alone.

He was given away at five sporting events in 1998 and early 1999. The Denver Nuggets handed out 5,000 at their game against the Portland Trail Blazers on 17 April 1998. The Seattle Mariners gave away 10,000 against the Baltimore Orioles on 5 September 1998, and the Dallas Cowboys gave away 12,500 against the Arizona Cardinals the following day. The Tennessee Oilers followed with 7,500 against the Cincinnati Bengals on 18 October 1998. The last was a hockey giveaway of 3,000 at the Toronto Maple Leafs game against the Washington Capitals on 2 January 1999, two days after his retirement.

Two printing errors are worth looking for. Some swing tags print "rnoose" in the poem where "moose" belongs. Some tush tags spell the name "chocholate". Both are documented misprints, and both are the kind of thing a seller may not have noticed.

Chocolate also turns up wearing other characters' tush tags, and the list is a long one. Documented examples carry tags for Crunch, Daisy, Goldie, Happy, Ringo, Scoop, Spot, Squealer and Waves. The swap ran the other way as well, since Splash has been found wearing a Chocolate tag. A tag with the wrong name on it is a factory habit rather than a sign of tampering.