B@-000W: reading an early promotional BE@RBRICK record

B@-000W is a compact early archive entry with a specific date and a distribution condition. Reading those two facts together gives you a more useful historical record than filling an empty retail-price field with a guessed amount.

The entry is valuable precisely because it documents a way the figure was distributed. A catalog does not need to turn every figure into a conventional standalone retail release to make it searchable.

Preserve the event and the condition

Medicom’s B@-000W page gives May 27, 2001 as the release date, identifies 100% size, and states that the item was distributed without an additional charge to customers buying the company’s products at the 12th World Character Convention.

That supports a specific promotional arrangement. It does not state that every visitor received one, disclose the qualifying products or a universal spending threshold, or establish the total quantity distributed.

It also does not provide a standalone retail amount for the bear. Leave that distinction intact when making a comparison with later individually priced releases.

Describe the record without enlarging its claim

Use the B@-000W detail in the BE@RBRICK Master Index as a reference for this documented entry. A collection caption can give the identifier, date, size, and distribution context.

Do not turn one early dated source into an unsupported statement that it proves every aspect of BE@RBRICK’s first appearance or complete debut distribution. A broader historical claim requires a broader body of primary evidence.

The source’s compactness should not invite invented details. A familiar event name cannot supply a missing production count, and a later website copyright year cannot replace the explicit date in the archive entry.

Keep promotional cost separate from retail price

A promotion can require another purchase while supplying a figure without an additional charge. The cost of the qualifying merchandise is a separate transaction context. It should not automatically become the figure’s original retail price.

The NADSAT HMV KAWS-head campaign record provides a different documented promotional model, with an explicit qualifying purchase threshold. Its existence is useful for comparison because it shows why the exact terms need to remain attached to each individual campaign.

Do not import that later campaign’s threshold into B@-000W. Similar distribution language across releases does not establish identical terms.

For your own acquisition history, record what you paid a seller for a surviving example. That is your purchase amount at a particular time, independent of the original promotional arrangement. It does not resolve the absent standalone retail quote.

Ask a seller for the identifier and evidence

An early-year description alone is not enough to identify the offered item. Ask how the seller matches it to B@-000W and request actual-object and packaging photographs where available. Use the gallery’s authentication checklist for the separate inspection process.

The source entry supplies a documented historical starting point. Keeping its condition and its limits together allows the promotional release to remain informative without giving it a retail story or completeness claim that the archive does not support.

Index status: This index is in beta and may contain errors, missing information, or display issues. We’re continuing to review and improve it.

Browse the gallery’s BE@RBRICK collection for current listing details.