A Guide to Beanie Baby Pigs

Ty Luau The Pig Beanie Baby -...

Luau is a pretty typical-looking bright pink pig.  His rather triangular ears flap out from his head as though standing at attention.  While it’s rather unfortunate that at a luau, a pig is most likely to be the one on the menu, I have to smile as I recall one of my favorite moments on the television show LOST, when Hurley convinces Sawyer to play nice for a change and furnish a pig roast for his fellow castaways.  Happily, this pink pig isn’t going anywhere near the fire pit...

Ty Beanie Baby Stubby Black &...

Stubby the Black and White Pig is the most unusual of the Beanie Babies depicting pigs.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pig quite like Stubby in real life.  Cute and fuzzy, Stubby features black hooves, black interiors of his ears and a black nose.  I’ve seen several pigs that are simply black, but the white skin with black accents and splotches is a pretty unusual look, and as a result, this is a pig that more closely resembles the stereotypical image of a cow.  Maybe he should start endorsing Chik-Fil-A? 

Sniffs the Pig - 8" - Ty...

Sniffs is a cute little fellow, pale pink in color and with floppy ears.  He sits on all fours and is especially pudgy, as though he’s been spending a little too much time at the feeding trough.  But it suits him well.  Pleasingly plump, he is fun to cuddle and also, because he is so nearly round, to toss around the room in a rousing game of catch.  Puts a whole different spin on the word pigskin!

Ty Beanie Babies Hamlet the...

Poor pigs; they always seem to be getting stuck with names that contain the word “ham”.  This particular fellow is, of course, named after the brooding Danish prince of Shakespeare fame, and since the pig Wilbur, like Prince Hamlet, faces a bit of an existential crisis in Charlotte’s Web, it’s not too hard to draw a connection between the two. 

This pale pink guy makes me smile because I recall a conversation my brother and I had late one night, when we were sitting several feet away from each other but talking to each other over instant messenger.  He was working on a homework assignment involving Hamlet, and I, ever the helpful sister, pointed out, in the vein of Alvin and the Chipmunks’ rendition of Home on the Range, which involves a confusion of the words “antelope” and “cantaloupe,” that “danishes are pleasant pastries you eat in small houses”.  To which he responded, “ *eats hamlet* ”, which we’ve snuck randomly into our IM conversations ever since.  Ah, memories...