Beanie Mania

Yemisi Brookes's 2021 documentary covers the Beanie Babies craze in America in the nineties. The small plush toys produced by Ty Warner went from collectible to investment vehicle within a few years, and people put retirement savings into them. What the documentary finds best is that the people who drove the craze were largely women in the Chicago suburbs. A group of mothers built early internet forums to trade the toys and track prices; the company's sales strategy rested substantially on that network, and the labour behind it was never acknowledged. The film also covers the bursting of the bubble. When the secondary market collapsed, thousands were left with worthless boxes. The documentary does not present this as a lesson in speculation, but the material moves that way on its own. Who it's for: those interested in nineties popular culture and consumer bubbles. Who it's not for: viewers wanting in-depth economic analysis; the documentary is short and weighted toward nostalgia.