Holy Bananas, it’s a NANA prototype! Nana is famous for being one of the most challenging production beanies to track down because so few made it to market with her original name (Nana) before Ty changed this to “Bongo”. The very earliest release came with the name “Nana” without any sort of covering. But most of the quantity that did ship ended up with a Bongo sticker covering the name. A regular MQ Nana is still very expensive. Finding one to have never had a Bongo sticker, or to find rarer Canadian, UK, German, or Korean examples – still one of the most challenging tasks for production enthusiasts. It is rumored Nana was actually one of Ty’s most favorite pieces. There is evidence supporting this based on the famous yellow Nana prototype that he kept on his dresser…more on this later.
“Tyriffic” prototypes, as we have noted in previous posts, are prototypes that were displayed at one of Ty’s Tyriffic Stores in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. At these stores he housed some of his wildest prototypes. Many picked up quite a bit of notoriety from their display days. A true Tyriffic piece with picture proof from its display days is the most coveted variety. We have one here with the famous Green (and yellow) Nana!
Rarity Rank: -.5. This is a piece of legends. It is the rarest variety of Tyriffic Prototype (see pictures below) and is a wild, true, complete, VIVID color departure for the famous and rare Nana. “Tyriffic Nanas” are among the most coveted and fiercely collected prototypes in the hobby. Technically, there are eight of them. As you will see, this piece had its pax tags removed for display purposes, but this is well known and does not impact the value of this piece.
Pictures below: The green nana in the original beanie mania article (with 6 of the 8 tyriffic nanas). Then various pictures of Nana while at the original Tyriffic Chicago Store. Look closely!
Rarest Beans 