We have on record five fully baked, completed Billionaire 2 prototypes. Fully baked – meaning, all pax hang and tush tags, with a signature fuzz fabric that was unveiled with the production Billionaire 2 bear’s release. There are several Billionaire 2 prototypes without pax tags/with minimal departure features from production. Behold, the two cream Billionaire twins – one with kelly/money green embroidered dollar signs, and the other with burgundy embroidered dollar signs. Both are complete with pax hang and tush tags. 7.12.99 pax dates, ahead of the eventual 9.12.99 release to ty employees. We don’t believe this cream fuzz fabric was used on any production piece until the Summer 2020 release of Huggy. These bears are part of the ‘Executive’ Billionaire set – one of two master Billionaire prototype sets known to exist.
Some of the other fully baked Billionaire prototypes we also have pictured below. We have reviewed the inverse Billy 2 proto in another post (given to the top sales rep from 1998/signed by Ty). The counterpart was created in the production burgundy fabric, with ribbon and alternate colored embroidered $$ signs. This piece also has a patch of the inverse fabric on its shoulder, tying it as the counterpart to the inverse example. The maroon with green pax prototype falls within the Ty Warner set of Billionaire prototypes.
Rarity Rank: -1 – -0.5. These are both killer variations for a very iconic piece. With all pax tags, signed, and with an incredible story/provenance, this is such a fantastic piece. Both of these pieces ended up separated in blackhole collections. The owner of one example recently passed:(, so the piece did surface again. But we expect the piece to end up in a new forever home shortly. These guys are incredible!
Rarest Beans 