There's a new Beanie in town! Rumours started on the internet that there was to be another exclusive Beanie available in a London shop. No, not Harrods this time but Hamley's. Hamley's is another world famous shop, located on London's Regent Street it is an enormous toy store. To mark the re-launch of their Ty Department (Ty's Noahs Ark) two exclusive Beanies were being launched. UK BBOC members received invitations to the launch from Ty UK.

For two Beanies that hadn't been introduced yet they made quite a stir. The rumours kept flying about. The bears would be available to buy from 9:30am on 16th September 2006. However, news from Hamley's was that the bears would be available for pre-order on their website from 8th September.

The rumour mill positively caught alight on Thursday 7th September when the bears appeared on the Hamley's website. Two silhouettes named Hamley and William were shown - with Hamley being limited to a run of 5,000 and William of 3,000. The bears were listed as 'sold out' within  hours, only to re-appear later and then to be labelled 'out of stock'. This happened again and again as the bears became available for a few hours and then were 'out of stock' again.

Collectors who have took advantage of the pre-order began receiving their bears on September 16th (overseas customers only, UK shipments didn't arrive until Monday 18th!) the orders were already being processed the week before the big event and several customers received emails stating that the orders had been shipped!

Oh yes, and if that all wasn't enough excitement, ten of the Beanies were signed by Ty Warner himself!