Maple the Bear

Maple was the first Beanie Baby made exclusively for one country. Ty Canada released him on 1 January 1997 with the Canadian flag on his chest, and he stayed in production until 30 July 1999. For those two and a half years, collectors anywhere else had to go through someone in Canada to get one.

He almost shipped under a different name. Early production ran as Pride, and the change to Maple came late enough that roughly 3,000 bears went out with Pride printed on the tush tag. Those carry a fourth generation swing tag, so the tush tag is worth reading before you buy.

Maple is also among the most counterfeited Beanie Babies, so the physical tells are worth knowing. Authentic fabric is velvety where a fake feels rough. A counterfeit head is smaller, overstuffed and hard, with ears that are too large and eyes set too close together. The stitching shaping a fake head is pulled tight enough to leave a dimple under the chin, which an authentic Maple does not have. The neck ribbon measures three sixteenths of an inch and hangs free rather than being stitched under the chin. On the swing tag, a genuine star is sunshine yellow where a counterfeit runs darker and more gold.

The Canadian customs tush tag is a check of its own. Many fakes are missing it entirely, and those that have one often carry spelling and grammar errors, or French text printed on the English side of the tag.

Ty Canada donated 5,000 Maples to the Canadian Special Olympics in 1997. The ones sold during the Sports Celebrities Festival carried an extra circular tag, printed with the festival name on the front and the Special Olympics oath on the back. That version was available only between August and December that year. Known oddities include bears with the flag applied upside down, Pride-tagged examples missing their eyes, and a few carrying a Teddy tush tag by mistake.

Maple the Bear was one of the four International Bears in McDonald's 1999 Teenie Beanie promotion, offered with a food purchase from June 3 to June 17, 1999, in cardboard presentation packaging rather than a numbered bag. That second phase followed an earlier run of twelve numbered animals distributed from May 21 to June 3. Millions of the International Bears were made, so the packaging alone does not make one valuable.