This is the entire collection of 24 "Sesame Beans" made by Tyco in 1997! Technically there are 26 characters in the collection as three variations of the Honker were produced, a green one, a pink one, and a purple one, and as there are several different colours of Honkers on the Sesame Street TV show I count them each separately as different characters to collect. Unfortunately I'm missing the pink one. If Tyco did the same with the Twiddle Bug from this set I would have collected those too! :) There are variations for some of the other characters as well, which I've mentioned below. Let's take a closer look at the whole collection:
Bert and Ernie "Sesame Beans" by Tyco, 1997.
Big Bird and Cookie Monster "Sesame Beans" by Tyco, 1997.
Oscar the Grouch (with Slimey) and Grover "Sesame Beans" by Tyco, 1997.
Elmo and Zoe "Sesame Beans" by Tyco, 1997.
Rosita and Baby Bear "Sesame Beans" by Tyco, 1997. To my knowledge this was the first plush toy of Baby Bear ever to have been made. The Applause toy company had previously made a plush toy of Rosita.
Two different variations of Telly Monster "Sesame Beans" by Tyco, 1997. One is violet and the other is pink. I found the pink one while in the United States. The hangtags for the Canadian released Beans are different from the US released versions. The US tags have the character's name on the front and an illustration of the character on the back, while the Canadian hangtags don't.
US hangtag with the character's name on the front.
Canadian hangtag without the character's name.
US hangtag with an illustration of the character on the back. The Canadian hangtags don't have the illustration.
Here's a side view of two variations of the Snuffy "Sesame Beans" by Tyco, 1997. The doll itself is the same, the only difference is in the colour of the eyelids, shown below.
Top view of Snuffy, The one on the left is missing the hangtag.
Variation: Light brown and dark brown eyelids!
Honkers "Sesame Beans" by Tyco, 1997. Two of the three variations, green and purple. The purple one has a US hangtag. I don't know if the green Honker was available in the US or not, as it would require a green Honker for the illustration on the hangtag instead of a purple one. There's also a pink Honker but I don't have that one in my collection, however I have seen a picture of it online with the US hangtag that had the purple Honker illustration on it.
Canadian Honker hangtag at the top and the US hangtag with the character's name on the bottom.
Here's the illustration of the purple Honker on the back of the US hangtag.
The Count and Magic Mumford "Sesame Beans" by Tyco, 1997. This Mumford has a US hangtag. This is the first plush toy of Magic Mumford ever to have been made.
Curiously, they left "Magic" out of his name and just listed it on the hangtag as "Mumford".
Here's the back of the US hangtag with the illustration of Magic Mumford.
Sherlock Hemlock and a Twiddle Bug "Sesame Beans" by Tyco, 1997. Sherlock was also made with a pink nose but I don't have that one in my collection. This was the first plush toy of Sherlock Hemlock ever to have been made. Oddly enough, Sherlock ended up being the biggest Sesame Beans toy in the collection. His hat makes him taller than all the others and his body was made fatter than all the others though I don't know why as he's supposed to have a slim body. That being said, Sherlock is my favourite Sesame Beans toy in the collection. I always liked Sherlock Hemlock, it's a shame they don't use him on the show anymore. The Applause toy company had previously made Twiddle bug plush toys.
Herry Monster and Guy Smiley "Sesame Beans" by Tyco, 1997. This is the very first plush toy of Guy Smiley! The Knickerbocker toy company made the first Herry Monster plush toy back in the mid to late 1970's.
Betty Lou and Baby Natasha "Sesame Beans" by Tyco, 1997.
Barkley and Rubber Duckie "Sesame Beans" by Tyco, 1997. To my knowledge this is the first plush toy of Rubber Duckie ever to have been made. The Applause toy company had previously made a plush toy of Barkley.
Here's the back view of Barkly to show his ears and tail.
Last but not least, Benny Rabbit "Sesame Beans" by Tyco, 1997. This is the first plush toy of Benny ever to have been made.
Sesame Beans Boxed Sets
At least two Sesame Beans boxed sets were released, each with three plush toys. The sets include:
1) Elmo, Oscar, and Zoe
2) Big Bird, Ernie and Cookie Monster
Sesame Beans Giggle Pals
Big Bird and Cookie Monster Sesame Beans Giggle Pals by Tyco, 1997.
In addition to the regular Sesame Beans series Tyco produced three Sesame Bean Giggle Pals which were sold exclusively through Avon. The series includes Big Bird wearing a blue T-shirt with his name in yellow text, Cookie Monster wearing a red T-shirt with his name in blue text, and Elmo wearing a yellow T-shirt with his name in red text. The shirts are removeable with a Velcro opening at the back. I've never seen one of these in person, but I assume they giggle when you squeeze them similar to Tickle Me Elmo which Tyco also produced.
Sesame Beans Clip-On
A series of Sesame Beans clip on plush toys was also produced in 1997. These have a large plastic clip-on loop attached to the head of the toy. The set includes Big Bird, Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster, Elmo, Grover, and Zoe.
International Sesame Beans
According to the Muppet Wiki Sesame Beans page, Tyco also released Sesame Beans internationally. In Germany all of the hangtags on the toys have the Sesamstrasse logo and the character's names are all written in German. There is also a Sesame Bean of Samson, a Muppet character who is only seen on Sesamstrasse. The version of the show in China is called Zhima Jie for which Tyco produced a Sesame Bean of Hu Hu Zhu, a blue pig-like Muppet character. I suspect Tyco would have also made a Sesame Bean of Little Plum as well, as they made 24 inch plush toys of both characters. Little Plum is a red Muppet monster with pink hair which she wears in pig tails.
Take Along Huggers
Oscar the Grouch, Grover, and Ernie
Fisher-Price produced a series of Sesame Street "Take Along Huggers" plush toys in 1998 which were the same size and looked very much like Sesame Beans plush toys. Mattel had purchased both Fisher-Price and Tyco Toys in the 90's, so in my view these are essentially a continuation of the Sesame Beans series. These are clip on figures, when the tummy is squeezed the arms open and can be clipped onto something. The dolls range in size from 6 to 7 inches tall. Their heads are sewn on facing to the right. Cookie Monster, Elmo, and Big Bird were also made as part of this series.
Mini Sesame Beans: Kellogg's promotion, 2002
In 2002, five years after the release of the original 24 Sesame Beans, a miniature set of 24 Sesame beans were produced as a promotion for Kellogg's cereal in the United States. In addition to the mini plush toys a wall hanging with pockets for each character was made available as part of the promotion. In Canada the mini plush toys were available in toy vending machines packaged in clear plastic balls. Each mini plush toy has a mini hangtag with an illustration of the character on it.
Sesame Mini Beans: Grover, Elmo, Snuffleupagus, and Big Bird plush toys made in 2002.
Sesame Mini Beans: Benny Rabbit, Sherlock Hemlock, and Twiddle Bug plush toys made in 2002.
Sesame Mini Beans: Herry Monster, Guy Smiley, and Sherlock Hemlock plush toys made in 2002.
In Canada Sesame Mini Beans plush toys were sold through coin operated vending machines. Each plush toy came in a clear plastic ball as shown above.
Here's Herry Monster's manufacturers tag which has cleaning instructions and then says "Produced exclusively for Kellogg's by Creata Promotion". The other side of the tag says "Herry / Monster / © Jim Henson Company / Made in China"
McDonald's Restaurants also sold a series of Sesame Mini Beans in 2002. Above is Zoe, Rosita and Cookie Monster, below is the Count. The manufacturer tags on these mini push are different from the Kellogg's series.
On the left is the 5 inch tall Sesame Mini Beans plush of the Count made by McDonalds in 2002. I've shown it next to the regular sized Sesame Beans Count, which is 7 inches tall and was made by Tyco in 1997.
Here is the manufacturers tag which says "Mfg for McDonald's Corp. Made in China" with the Happy Meal logo. The other side of the tag has the Sesame Street sign logo and "The Count / © 2002 Sesame Workshop"
Wishful thinking???
There are many other Sesame characters from that era that could have been included in the Sesame Beans series. It would have been amazing if a second series of 25 to 30 characters was made, including: Super Grover, Grundgetta, Forgetful Jones, Clementine, Buster the Horse, Two-Headed Monster, Frazzle, Little Bird, Roosevelt Franklin, Gladys the Cow, Pink Yip Yip Alien, Blue Yip Yip Alien, Sam the Robot, Prairie Dawn, Biff, Sully, Lefty the Salesman, Hoots the Owl, Alice Snuffleupagus, Father Twiddle Bug (Fat Blue), Mother Twiddle Bug (Light Pink), Orange Twiddle Bug and Dark Pink Twiddle Bug (siblings), Farley (green boy Muppet), Harvey Monster, Blue Honker, Orange Honker, Dinger, Herbert Birdsfoot, Harvey Kneeslapper, Rodeo Rosie, Little Jerry and the Monotones, Little Chrissy and the Alphabeats, Countess Von Backwards, Kingston Livingston III, Segi, and the Busby Twins!
Characters that have been created since then would also be amazing to have as part of the sesame beans collection, such as Abby Cadabby, Gonnigan, Blogg, Rudy, Gabrielle, Tamir, Julia, Murray, TJ, Ji-Young, Wes, Elijah, Tango, and Gonger in baker outfit along with Cookie Monster in baker outfit. So there's easily another 50 Sesame characters that could be added to the collection!
Text and Photos copyright Mikey Artelle