(Posted November 6, 2005)
Harrods Ty
Exclusive Beanies and Classic
Thanks to Sue Owen for sharing the
following:
I am delighted to share with you the fantastic news of my day at Harrods Christmas Parade 2005 and launch of the new Harrods Ty Exclusive Beanies and Classic.
The crowds seemed even
bigger (and pushier!) than last year and it was a real ordeal to keep a
place near the door during the parade. This year the doors opened
straight away after the parade finished and there was a stampede towards
the fourth floor either to go to Santa's Grotto (which opens on the day
of the parade) or to the Toy Kingdom.
This time there were staff
members directing us towards both destinations, so I didn't get lost
(like the two previous years). I even managed to run up the escalators
and run-hop-walk through the fourth floor to the Toy Kingdom. The staff
had created a queueing area lined with new Beanie displays (good
marketing!) including the Hurricane Relief trio and others. This did not
prevent a few people pushing into the queue to join their friends - much
to the vocal annoyance of other people!
Once I had regained my
breath and normal colour I found that I was much further forward in the
queue than last year and reached the sales desk in half an hour. We were
allowed to buy just one each of the boxed white and grey Shooting Star
Beanies (which included a Launch Day commemorative certificate) and up
to 12 each of the loose beanies and the Classic Moondust. The first 100
of the 1000 certificated white Shooting Stars Beanies were given the
Royal Treatment and had been taken to the USA by the managing director
of Ty UK Ltd (Mark Swallow) earlier this week and had been signed by Ty
Warner inside the hang tag! Obviously 100 people were VERY happy to have
bought a Ty signed Beanie for just £9.95!
None of the grey version was
signed but there were only 500 of these with certificates. While the
numbering of the white bears' certificates was not shown as /1000 (just
as the serial number) the grey bears' certificates were numbered /500.
Hence the boxed and
certificated grey bears ran out long before the white version. The loose
grey bears were also in shorter supply and apparently the Toy Enquiries
were unable to supply all telephone callers with that version if they
had not placed their order early enough before the event.
The bears are really very
attractive (although difficult to photograph!) in a lovely dove grey and
white. They are the new face bears so rather than having the Ty logo on
their feet, like Starlight, they have I love (with a heart symbol)
Harrods embroidered in silver with a red heart on their chests. They
have a sparkly silver neck ribbon and have the Harrods 'H' scattered
across their fur.
Moondust is lovely and will
look beautiful with the first Harrods Ty Exclusive, Stardust. She is
white with the Harrods 'H' printed in silver and her foot embroidered in
silver and red/white with 'Harrods Toy Kingdom by Ty'. She has a big
sparkly silver neck ribbon.
The BIG news is that Ty UK
Ltd had offered to donate a Ty signed Shooting Stars Beanie to CHERISH
and I collected him from the directors this morning, in the Toy Kingdom.
He is the number 59 white version and is on auction on eBay with a whole
array of extras to make the perfect collector's package: Harrods Store
Guide, Christmas Parade leaflet, Toy Catalogue (with a page
advertising the Ty launch inside), the invitation to the launch and
more. Of course, he also has the CHERISH collect for life Xmas 2005 neck
tag and commemorative card.All of the proceeds will be donated to Cancer
Research UK for research into children's cancers.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CHERISH-Ty-SIGNED-Harrods-SHOOTING-STAR-Beanie-BOXED_W0QQitemZ6011212477QQcategoryZ1624QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CHERISH-Ty-SIGNED-Harrods-SHOOTING-STAR-Beanie-BOXED_W0QQitemZ6011212477QQcategoryZ1624QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
The other BIG news is that,
just as Mohamed Al Fayed signed Stardust for CHERISH at the launch in
2003, so he has signed Moondust inside her hang tag. As the owner of
Harrods he is the obvious and most appropriate person to sign another
bear for CHERISH! Moondust comes with a similar package of memorabilia
and is also currently on auction.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CHERISH-AL-FAYED-SIGNED-Harrods-Ty-MOONDUST-Classic_W0QQitemZ6011218595QQcategoryZ1634QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CHERISH-AL-FAYED-SIGNED-Harrods-Ty-MOONDUST-Classic_W0QQitemZ6011218595QQcategoryZ1634QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
The third auction currently
running is for the grey version of Shooting Star with the memorabilia
package described above.
For those people unable to attend the launch this is the ideal way to guarantee that you can complete the pair of bears if the supply of grey bears has been depleted at Harrods! Ty UK Ltd told me that these really have been produced in smaller numbers this year.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CHERISH-Ty-Harrods-GREY-SHOOTING-STAR-Beanie-SOLD-OUT_W0QQitemZ6011223530QQcategoryZ1624QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
For those people unable to attend the launch this is the ideal way to guarantee that you can complete the pair of bears if the supply of grey bears has been depleted at Harrods! Ty UK Ltd told me that these really have been produced in smaller numbers this year.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CHERISH-Ty-Harrods-GREY-SHOOTING-STAR-Beanie-SOLD-OUT_W0QQitemZ6011223530QQcategoryZ1624QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
There will, no doubt, be
more CHERISH Harrods auctions coming up - including Stardust signed by
Alvin Stardust! For the moment, please visit
www.cherishonline.co.uk
to enjoy more photographs of the bears and the day's events.
PLEASE could I ask you NOT
to use any of these photographs without permission, especially on
auctions. If you have a website and wish to use them by all means do so
but please also ask your readers NOT to 'borrow' the photographs!
Best wishes,
Sue