Retro Toys: BD&A Official Licensed Nintendo Bean Bag Plushies

A long long time ago, more specifically the 80's and 90's, it was pretty difficult to find domestic video game merchandise and toys in the United States. My friends, brother, et all, would spend too much money importing anime and video game merchandise from Japan (anyone remember GAME CAVE? Good times.) because it was too hard to find locally and, well, because we were huge nerds. The way I see it, there were 3 majors eras of video game merchandise:

Era 1: Super Mario McDonald's Toy (1989)

Era 1 - 1980s to ~1995: Think those old Nintendo Cereals and cheap poorly designed figurines and McDonald's toy's. If you wanted something really cool then you usually had to order it from Nintendo Power or some kind of catalog.

Era 2 - ~1996 to 2001: Things are picking up. Action figures are being sold in game shops and toy stores. Toys are of better quality (Duke Nukem 3D, Metal Gear Solid, The Legend of Zelda OoT.) Japanese exclusive action figures are being brought over in minimally changed packaging (Bandai's Final Fantasy 7 and 8 line.) This is the Golden Age. While there wasn't as much merch as in Era 3, what you found was usually AWESOME and the fact that you found it felt even more AWESOME. After getting home, you'd usually call someone and be like, "DUDE! You won't believe what I found at FYE!!"

Era 3 - 2002 to Present: The current age. Thanks to society finally (mostly) accepting Video Games and the fact that adults are now allowed to buy toys without feeling too much shame, you can find merchandise mostly anywhere. Everyone has their name in the game. Quality ranges from terrible to masterpiece. For example, my wife bought me Zelda socks from Target this Christmas. That pretty much says everything.

Donkey Kong (1997)

Today's topic comes from Era 2, or what I like to call The Golden Age. This posts takes us back to November 1997 when I was purchasing my first Nintendo 64 game, Mischief Makers, from the Electronics Boutique in Trumbull, CT. While checking out, I noticed that they had a box of small Nintendo Bean Bag toys on the counter for $5 each. Inside was, if I remember correctly, Donkey Kong, Mario, Toad, and Yoshi. Being a broke teenager who just spent the last of his birthday money, I had to suck it up, wipe the drool off my face, and hope like hell they were going to be there next week. I made my purchase, walked out of the store, and waited for my younger brother to finish checking out. To my surprise, my younger brother walks out of EB with Donkey Kong (my favorite) in hand and gives it me as a birthday present. So awesome.

Curiously, I looked the plush over and noticed on the tag that the toy was made by one BD&A: Bensussen Deutsch and Associates. The fuck you say? I remember picturing the toys being made by massive, eccentric, German man-children and refrained from doing any more research because, quite frankly, it was a pretty hilarious mental image. Doing more research now I am seeing that they are in Woodinville, Washington, right outside Redmond, where Nintendo of America is located here in the Pacific Northwest. It totally makes sense.

Diddy Kong (1997)

Luigi (1997)

The line up started with the following ~6" toys: Mario, Bowser, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Luigi, Toad, and Wario. Shortly after the initial launch of the first line, mini-keychain plushes were released. What seemed like a few months later, Banzo-Kazooie beanies were showing up at EB. There was at least one other line up of toys that was released that included multiple colored Yoshi, Princess Peach, Diddy Kong, and others (I'll post about 'em when I find 'em!) Along with the normal sized toys, and mini-keychains, there were these MASSIVE giant sized beanies and talking regular sized beanies that were released. I remember they would line the very top of the walls of EB with these. I wanted that god damn giant Donkey Kong so bad but never got it. I actually found a giant Bowser beanie at a St. Vincent De Paul thrift store last year and he has become the guardian (along with Alf) of my Retro CRT (more on this baby later.)

Giant Bowser with DK for size comparison.

One quirky thing about this line up was that the quality of the plushies would differ from each shipment. The initial release of Donkey Kongs looked great, but a few of the following waves looked what we called bizarro-deformed. I know this because at one point I started hoarding Donkey Kong beanies and had upwards of 16 bizarro and non-bizarro variants. Yikes.

Bad OCD habits... Notice Bizarro-DK in the bottom right.

Do you have any of the BD&A Nintendo Beanies? Are you looking for them now? I know I am! Happy Hunting!