Mel the Koala

Mel is a koala cut from the same fabric Ty used on Spike, style 4060, and Tank, style 4031, so collectors comparing fabric alone will not be able to tell her apart from those two.

Documented tush tag mix-ups on Mel include tags meant for Ears, Freckles, Jolly, Pouch, Pugsly, Seaweed, Scoop, Spooky and Zip, which is a long list even by Beanie Baby standards. She was also a stadium and arena giveaway: 5,000 went out at a Detroit Shock vs. Los Angeles Sparks basketball game in July 1998, and 10,000 more at an Anaheim Angels vs. Kansas City Royals baseball game that September.

Mel the Koala was bag number 7 in McDonald's 1998 Teenie Beanie set. The 1998 promotion was McDonald's second Teenie Beanie run, expanding the original ten-toy assortment from 1997 to 12 animals after the response to that first set. It ran for about four weeks, from May 22 through June 18, 1998, and McDonald's ordered 240 million toys total, 20 million of each character. That volume makes bag number 7 a common find today, and an unopened bag by itself does not make one valuable.