A total of 5000 Ness-e Beanie Baby's are being sold exclusively by the Loch Ness Centre in Drumnadrochit.

Since hitting the shelves on Monday, nearly 1000 of the toys have already been sold with some orders being shipped as far afield as Singapore, Japan and the US.

The toy is the third addition to the centre's collection of official Ty beanie monsters which started four years ago with the introduction of Mystery, a blue Loch Ness monster.

It was followed last year by Enigma and now Ness-e, which is dark green in colour, is proving the latest must-have for visitors and Beanie Baby collectors.

Linda Ross, retail manager for the centre, said they were being snapped up by people of all ages and backgrounds, including professionals such as doctors.

News of the exclusive launch is spreading fast over the internet among collectors and feedback so far is proving positive.

The toys, which are marked with a special logo, are being sold exclusively by the centre, although a UK edition of Ness-e without the logo is available elsewhere.

At a time when the UK is facing a downturn in the economy Mrs Ross believes the toys are helping promote Scotland across the rest of the world and keep business alive.

"Everyone is talking about the doom and gloom in retail and tourism in Scotland," she said.

Avril Wilson from the Loch Ness Exhibition Centre in Drumnadrochit gets a shipment of Ness-e beanie monsters ready for delivery in a bid to bring more people to the shores of Loch Ness. Alasdair Allen

"We are fighting it and this is one of the things we are doing to get the public to Scotland.

"By selling the Ty beanies to collectors we are keeping our business alive but also advertising Scotland throughout the world.

"With every one we send out we are also sending out a brochure about Loch Ness and the Great Glen."

The aim, she said, was to keep potential tourists interested in Inverness and Scotland by keeping the image of the area in the forefront of people's minds.

"People travel to Edinburgh quite easily but getting them to come to the Highlands is a bit more difficult," she said.

Back in the 1990s, films such as Loch Ness and Rob Roy raised the profile of the region and expectations had been high that the release of the film The Water Horse last year may have had a similar impact, but Mrs Ross said this had not been the case.

Ty began producing Beanie Babies in 1994 and initially only nine different toys were manufactured.

They soon went from being a toy to one of the world's hottest collectables. They each come with their own tag with name and birth date and some of the earlier, now retired toys, can fetch considerable sums of money.

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