Their trademark is variety: the Beanie bestiary numbers over 230.

ECONOMIST: Toy collecting

The maps contained places we seldom see on modern charts these days Paradise, for instance, and fiery Hell and the sort of bestiary and mythical imagery one might expect to find in Tolkien's Middle-earth.

WSJ: Lost in Our Maps: A History of Cartographic Catastrophes

This cycle has indeed seen the emergence of an exotic bestiary of organisations bearing innocuous labels such as Crossroads GPS, Americans for Job Security and Americans for Prosperity.

ECONOMIST: Lexington