Sting the Stingray

Sting is a manta ray despite the name, made from the same tie-dye fabric as Bronty. He had one of the shorter runs of any early Beanie Baby, arriving in June 1995 and retiring by January 1997, a year and a half that makes him one of the earlier retirements in the line.

Counterfeit versions are common enough to be worth checking for. A fake Sting has filling stuffed into the wings, giving them a puffy look an authentic Sting does not have. The body reads vase-shaped rather than oval, with the head pushed out far enough to look like it has a neck, and the eyes sit wider apart and closer to the wings than on the real thing, where the eyes sit further down the face. The tush tag is a check on its own. An authentic first generation tag is stitched to the wing and reads 1995. A counterfeit tag is stitched onto the tail close to the body and wing, and reads 1993.

Also documented: a white-faced Sting, and tush tags misprinted with Pouch, Ringo, Tank or Valentino instead of Sting's own name.

Sting the Stingray was bag number 15 in the Under the Sea group of the 2000 McDonald's Teenie Beanie Babies promotion, part of the 18-bag Happy Meal phase in the largest of the four U.S. Teenie runs. Sting's Teenie carries McDonald's branded tags rather than Ty's heart tag, and like most of the set, it shipped in huge numbers, so a sealed bag by itself is not what makes one valuable.