I'm not sure if I explained what they are last time, so I'll give you a very brief history.
Ty, Inc. first introduced Beanie Babies in 1993. Throughout 1994 and 1995, sales grew steadily. In 1996, they became a full-blown craze, which lasted until sometime in the early 2000s. One of the secrets behind their success was that Ty would periodically retire a few animals each year...and buyers didn't know which ones would get beaned at any given time (pun very much intended). A very effective sales tactic, the practice of "retiring" specific ones led to a "Beanie Bubble" in which collectors bought up a lot of Beanies and kept them in pristine condition in the hopes of one day selling them at top dollar.
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I definitely haven't explained what Happy Meals are, so I'll give you a very brief history.
The fast-food chain McDonald's introduced Happy Meals in 1979. The gimmick was something no-one else had ever tried before: Kids would get a smaller meal with a free toy inside.
The first promotions were simple cardboard things featuring the McDonaldland characters. The second promotion was the chain's first licensed deal: toys based on a very dull movie called Star Trek: The Motion Picture. To this day, Happy Meals primarily feature licensed properties.
It's safe to say that, where there's a fad, McDonald's is sure to follow it. In 1996, they offered Teenie Beanies as Happy Meal toys. As their name implies, they're roughly half the size of a regular Beanie.
The first set was included with the meal, which I remember was something of a nightmare: According to a few urban legends, people were buying Happy Meals, collecting the Teenie Beanies, and then discarding the meals!
(Just so we're clear: McDonald's official policy has always implicitly allowed customers to buy the toys separate from the meals. However, nowhere was it actually written: "YES, YOU CAN BUY THE TOYS SEPARATE FROM THE HAPPY MEALS." Lack of official documentation was only a small part of it; the other, larger part was the herd mentality. "Everyone else in line is buying a Happy Meal; therefore, you must have to buy meal, toy, and all. After the first wave of Teenie Beanies, though, McDonald's outlets took steps to make the public aware of the already established policy.)
The 1997 wave saw the introduction of special, bubble-packed "collector's edition" sets consisting of about four Beanies each. They cost about two or three dollars, separate from the ones offered in Happy Meals, and part of the proceeds went to Ronald McDonald Children's Charities.
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"Millennium" was part of the 2000 collector's wave. As part of a "McHappy Day" promotion on June 13th, 2000, they were given away free with Happy Meals. "These bears were of extremely limited quantity," AboutBeanies.com says. Since I was able to get mine, mint in package, for one dollar at a flea market, they were obviously somewhat rare, but not that rare. Even today, they're pretty cheap almost everywhere they're found.
Let's end the history lesson and talk about the bear itself. I kind of like the packaging, even if it's a bit loud. The overall package is made to look like an opened book, and the left-hand portion features the bear's name, the poem on its heart-tag, and, in the middle of the bottom quarter, a large RMCC logo indicating that charity.
The bear itself is well-made, but a step down from the genuine article. The real one has an embroidered "2000" icon, whereas this one has a heat-transfer decal that cracks and wears away over time. That being said, the decal is more finely-detailed than the embroidery--it's more obviously a globe with a ray of sunlight around part of it. Also, its eyes and nose are sewn directly onto its face, instead of the usual plastic eyes and nose (not only for safety reasons, but also because a full-size Beanie's features would be out of scale on a smaller one).
When I saw it at the flea market, I had to consider it for a while. even though it was only a dollar. My first thought was, "I already have this, and have already reported on it. Why do I need to repeat myself?" At first I walked away, but then my better judgment kicked in: "You have to bring in the Teenie Beanies at some point, because they're part of the fad, and they're part of the very end-of-the-century obsession with fads."
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