Eagle-eyed shoppers spotted on the Beales website in September 2006 that part of their 125 year celebration was to be the release of an exclusive Ty Beanie. Coming days after the excitement of the Hamley's Beanies the new bear (we knew he was a bear from his silhouette on the website) was eagerly awaited!

It didn't take long for news of the new Beanie to spread on the Internet. The release date was to be Satruday 30th September. Beales have only thirteen stores across the UK - so arrangements were quickly made for trades and sales of this Beanie.

However, as always in the Beanie world, things were not to go smoothly. Days before the official launch the bear was officially launched on the Ty website. Nigel the Bear then began to show up for sale on eBay - IN HAND! It turned out that seemingly some stores had not been informed of the launch date, and had begun to sell Nigel as soon as they received their shipments.

There were angry mutterings in Beanie-land. Collectors who had arranged to visit the stores on Saturday were worried that the Beanies would be sold out!

Even more of a surprise, when the invitations to the Harrods launch began to arrive with UK BBOC members they included an invitation to Nigel's launch!

I bought my Nigel on eBay as my nearest Beales stores are the other side of London or down in Kent! In the end it seemed that the launch day went smoothly and worries that Nigel would be sold out proved unfounded!