10 OLD VTG GRATEFUL DEAD BEAN BEARS ~ LIQUID BLUE ~ TAGS ~ MINTY CLEAN ~ LOOK!

Description

10 OLD VTG GRATEFUL DEAD BEAN BEARS ~ LIQUID BLUE ~ TAGS ~ MINTY CLEAN ~ MANY RETIRED ~ RARE!
This week on EBay we are offering up this nice collection of Grateful Dead related Bean Bears made by the Liquid Blue Company in the 1990s.
There are 10 different older vintage Grateful Dead Beanie Bears in this lot. Most are from the 2
nd
series of bears released in 1998. 2 are from the rare very first edition of Beanie Bears, released in 1997. One each are from the 3
rd
and 4
th
Edition of Bears.
Almost all of these have been ‘retired’ and are very difficult to find in nice condition today.
The Bears in this lot include:
GENERATION ONE (August 1997): CASSIDY (my personal favorite), ST. STEPHEN
GENERATION TWO (September 1998): JERRY, PEGGY-O, CRAZY FINGERS, DUPREE, RIPPLE, DAYDREAM
GENERATION THREE (May 1999): HAIGHT
GENERATION FOUR (1999): JACK-A-ROE
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All of the bears are in perfect mint condition and all come with their original tags and tails, except Cassidy's tag has some old sticker residue on it. Not bad, but I thought I should mention it. He had a big store sticker on the tag when I got it. I gave a picture of it. Other tags crisp & clean.
These have been sitting inside a glass cabinet on top of my Grateful Dead Concert Tape collection for 20 years now, with other Dead memorabilia, protected from light, dust, heat and the elements. They look brand new. They’ve been listening to, absorbing, and guarding over my tapes for many years, but it’s time they found a new home.
As you probably know if you’re reading this, these are soft, cuddly, plush, stuffed animal Bears. They are all unique individual designs by Liquid Blue. They are made quite well and show their dedication to craftsmanship, artistry and quality.
The Liquid Blue Company started out making high-quality officially licensed tie-dye T-Shirts for the Dead over 30 years ago. Since then, they have branched out into other Deadhead merchandizing as well as making products for other rock bands and musical acts. These were marketed by Liquid Blue, but were made by the Steven Smith Stuffed Animals Company in Brooklyn, New York. These are Official Licensed Grateful Dead Products.
These are all about 7” tall in size and about 4” wide. Early Generation Bears, like these, have mostly been retired and are very difficult to find in good, original, clean condition. From a pet free, tobacco free, but not smoke free, home. These look, smell and feel like new.
Each of these Bears comes with his or her original laminated full-color tag that has the Bear’s name, based on a character, title or theme of a Grateful Dead song, the Bear’s birthday, based on an actual Grateful Dead show date & venue, and a “Favorite Tour Memory’, a story from being on the road with the Grateful Dead. The tags are all clean, flat and in excellent condition.
These Grateful Dead Bean Bears or Teddy Bears were made for many years after the success of these early first ones. I think there are about 100 different Bears in the entire run. Some were very limited edition releases, some had some rare ‘errors’ during manufacture, some were made seasonally and for certain Holidays and they continued to be quite popular and collectible. As I mentioned, the earlier generation bears like these are rare, retired, no longer available, and tough to find.
As mentioned, these are ALL in like-new condition with no wear, soiling or discoloration. You’ll love them. (Cassidy's tag w/ glue residue)
~~~
The Story of the Dancing Bears symbolizing the Grateful Dead is a pretty cool one. It all goes back to the early San Francisco days and the Dead’s Sound Engineer and Chemist Owsley Stanley and his friend, Bay Area artist and musician Bob Thomas.
Those original dancing bears were drawn by Thomas, inspired by an interesting piece of metal printing block he found with a cool looking bear on it. He used his new ‘bears’ on the jacket cover art to the, then current, ‘Bear’s Choice’ album, which he helped design.
Owsley’s nickname was ‘Bear’ at the time and since that ‘Bear’s Choice’ album was engineered by, recorded by, chosen by and produced by Owsley, Thomas thought the album art should reflect Bear’s contributions.
For the back cover artwork, Thomas drew the colorful, cartoon-ish bears dancing continuously in a circle around a center drawing of a real bear (Owsley?). That was the first time the ‘dancing bears’ were used. That album, although recorded in 1970 at the Fillmore, was released in July 1973. There were five different Grateful Dead bears on the album cover, in colors red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. Thomas has said since then that the bears are ‘marching’ not dancing, but most Deadheads, including me, assumed they were dancing. Later on, Owsley and Bob Thomas would design the iconic ‘Steal Your Face’ logo as well.
Most of you are probably too young to recall, but around the same time, the Summer ’73 tour, there was powerful clean blotter paper going around at Dead shows that had the exact same Bear designs printed on it.
Back in 1973/74, the Bears were a symbol of those ‘in the know’, turned on, and hip to the Dead. Now they appear on all sorts of merchandise, clothing, stickers and memorabilia. To this day, the dancing bears symbolize the fun-loving, dancing, psychedelic aspect of the Grateful Dead and their fans.
These Beanie Bears still represent that fun loving aspect of the Dead and make a cool collectible and investment that are sure to remain hip and increase in value as time goes on.
Again, 10 different early, low generation bears in this lot. All are tough to find and quite rare. The Bean Bears and their Birthdates/Shows are as follows:
CASSIDY ~ Birthday: 9/14/90; MSG NYC
ST. STEPHEN ~ Birthday: 9/20/70; Fillmore East
JERRY ~ Birthday: 8/1/42 San Francisco
PEGGY-O Birthday ~ 12/9/93; Los Angeles Sports Arena
CRAZY FINGERS Birthday ~ 8/13/75; Great American Music Hall SF
DUPREE Birthday ~ 2/4/78; Milwaukee Auditorium
RIPPLE Birthday ~ 10/16/81; Melk Weg, Amsterdam
DAY DREAM
Birthday ~ 6/10/94; Cal Expo Amphitheater
HAIGHT Birthday ~ 3/3/68; Haight Street
JACK-A-ROE Birthday ~ 7/10/1989; Giants Stadium
~~~
It’s both fun and incredible to see the impact and influence that the Grateful Dead have had on American pop culture, both through their music and the tie-dye psychedelic art associated with it. The Deadhead culture is still going strong many years after the band played their final concert in Chicago in 1995, and it shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
~~~
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