/ot/ - off-topic

Someone in the dog love thread mentioned a plush love thread and I kinda jumped on it as I love collecting and making stuffed animals and I'd love to talk to other anons with similar hobbies.

You should check out /m/ there are toy and plushie threads.

So when I was a baby my dad gave these Nala and Simba dolls to my brothers and they were eventually handed down to me. My dad did this cute thing when we were kids where he would hide gifts in your bed while you slept so you woke up to them, and I woke up to these two cutie smooching next to me one morning. I loved them to death, they have little magnets in their noses to make them kiss and I used to love imagine them going on cool adventures together and giving each other a kiss before doing something dangerous.

I've always super loved stuffed animals so I made a point to keep all of my favorites through my childhood, we had moved away and our lives changed completely. Things were more violent and angry and loud and unpredictable and having things from our old house made me feel really safe. I used to sleep with as many on my bed as possible. My dad moved my bed to the other side of the room where there was a plug and said now it was dangerous to have the toys on the bed because they could start a fire. I agreed to not keep them on the bed but I still snuck some in while I was sleeping, I was about 12 at the time. My brother made fun of me a lot saying I should grow out of it and that I was a baby for wanting to keep them. Obviously my family aren't very sentimental people, not about the things that mattered to me anyway. I also had a beanie baby dog that I recieved from my favorite teacher that was my treasure since grade 2, the ones I kept meant stuff to me.

One day I came home from school to see two huge garbage bags sitting at the front door, my dad tells me to take out the trash. So I put my school things down and I grab the bags and I'm walking down the hallway of the apartment building and I feel the bags are really squishy and I'm curious so I peak inside. It's all of my stuffed animals. All of them. Every single one. I had no choice but to throw them away, it was throw them away or be beaten and throw them away. It hurt so much, I felt so betrayed, so valueless and so alone. I snuck outside in the middle of the night and jumped into the dumpster to try and save my beanie baby dog and the lion king plush in picrel but by the time I got there they were covered in who knows what from someone else's garbage and I had no way of cleaning them without being found out.

Just this year I bought myself picrel from ebay and they are in perfect condition, literally better than the ones I had as a kid. I thought maybe it wouldn't feel the same, but it does. It feels like a victory. I can have whatever I want now and no one can take them away from me or destroy it like so many of my things from when I was a kid. They're so cute, they're really well made, and they bring me a lot of comfort and joy.

>>939185
I didn't realize plush counted as "media". Besides I think the thread in /m/ is more a general toy thread. There is a stuffed animal thread but it's not really what I'm looking for, I want share resources and talk about stuff related to making and collecting, not only share pictures. If it doesn't work out I guess it'll just get locked and that'll be that, but I hope it can stay.

>>939186
Anon, this made me cry. Your story started so sweet, I can’t believe your family did this to you. Fuck them! And I am so happy that you found Nala and Simba on eBay again, may they stay with you forever! On a side note, I find this idea of "you are a baby because you have stuffed animals" really toxic and mean. Who cares? I have kept my little rabbit from my childhood and he still sleeps in my bed. No one (not even the other people who slept or sleep in my bed) ever cared.

>>939186
I will never ever understand why parents throw away their children's toys. Let them be holy shit. You already spent the money and it makes them happy. It makes me so angry.

>>939186
Nonny, I want to give you a big hug. I'm so sorry your family did that to you, I thought your dad was an angel until I kept reading. I really love this idea though, I would love to do this for my future kids and I would never treat them cruelly for hanging onto something that brings them joy. I'm so glad you got them from eBay, it's such a lovely end to your story.

This is my precious boy - A djunkelskog from IKEA. I think they went viral on Twitter some time ago so they aren't too obscure. He is so cute and cuddly although I'm not somebody who cuddles things to sleep. Seeing him chill on my bed brings me so much joy. I will end anyone who tries to get rid of my sweet boy.

>>939186
>I can have whatever I want now and no one can take them away from me or destroy it like so many of my things from when I was a kid.

No truer words have been spoken, I think this is behind a lot of nostalgia collectors and adults who collect toys and figures. Sorry about your stressful upbringing, but I'm glad you were able to get your favorites back! Ebay is a great little time machine.

>>939206
It's kind of crazy how much changed in a few years, my dad used to be my favorite person.

>djunkelskog

Gesundheit!
My god look at the chunkiness of this boy, what a belly! Does he have a tail?? He looks super soft
>>939202
>>939194
>>939215
Thank you for the sweet messages anons! Picrel is the beanie baby dog from my teacher, I called him Lucky, I ran into another one at a flea market 6 years ago. It's crazy how many vivid memories of my childhood are attached to these toys.

When I was 7 a friend stole this pup from me and kept him from me for two weeks before she finally confessed and gave him back to me, saying that she was jealous that Lucky was so special to me and she didn't feel that way about any of her toys kek

>>939222
very cute dog!

>>939222
He has no tail but he is indeed very soft. I used my friend's one as a pillow during a sleepover :P

I love this thread, even though (as another anon mentioned) it kind of overlaps with a thread in /m/ (>>>/m/47492)… The OP of this one is much better though and love that it's focused on discussion and not just spamming photos.
>>939186
As others, I am sorry about what you went through. I'm so happy that you got those plushies back!
>>939202
I wonder why do even 'non-abusive' parents love to throw away childrens' treasured toys without asking (because they know that children would never agree to that)? That's so fucked up. My mom did that to me and now I have to waste money trying to get back what I've lost. I've seen in some guide how parents are responsible for toy management (ie what the child gets to keep, so the collection doesn't overgrow the house), but that's so toxic! How is taking away the child's agency when it comes to their own posession healthy???
>>939215
>No truer words have been spoken, I think this is behind a lot of nostalgia collectors and adults who collect toys and figures
In my country Poland the adult toy collector community became a thing about 10 years ago or so. For example, more and more boomers started running blogs focusing on their Barbie dolls collection (probably other topics too, but that's what I've seen for myself). Boomers being boomers, they were furious that people suspected them of collecting toys due to unresolved childhood issues. While I can kind of sympathise because stereotypes aren't cool (especially when they are applied to you when they don't fit whatsoever), I do think there is a lot of truth in that and that isn't offensive whatsoever. Felt like the boomers also were looking down on the 'unstable' people buying toys partially to take back their childhoods.
Plus: bitch please, you couldn't have Barbies because the cheapest one cost your mother's monthly salary. Sure that's some kind of issue that you are resolving now?

Picrel one of my favorite recent plushies

>>939260
That's a premium grade pillow
>>939267
>I've seen in some guide how parents are responsible for toy management
It's lazy parenting if you ask me. How hard would it be to talk to your kid about the value and utility of a thing? Talk to them about what they really care about and use and teach them to donate what they don't want anymore, make them a part of the process instead of just going into their room on a school day and shoving a bunch of their shit into a bag and never explaining to them where the stuff went and why. People act like kids are totally retarded and won't understand anything and will just busy into tears, but your kid is only as retarded as you've raised them to be lol
>Boomers being boomers, they were furious that people suspected them of collecting toys due to unresolved childhood issues.
Probably because they're afraid it will just add to the "people who own stuffed toys are babies/childish", rather than it being a very super serious collection that they are very knowledgeable about. I don't get people who try and police what others can and can't enjoy. I refuse to let other people make me feel insecure about things that I care about, I don't need to defend it to anyone either.

I was staring at this dog for like a solid minute, is that like a pusheen dog?? He looks very squish.

Where does anon get their plushes?
I'm in the EU and now our customs basically killed us, any recs?
The plushies that I like are, in a choppy english description:

-Not too stuffed, soft but with a ragdoll feeling
-Simple design and muted/natural colors
-Possibly no clothes, accessories or props on them
-Not cartoony nor too much kawaiish, button eyes are superokay
-Around the size of a housecat

I like little ones too, I like to carry them around. I love to nurture my inner child like that, it makes me feel safe.

>>939353
I get every single one of mine from thrift stores unless they're gifts. My friend has bought me some really beautiful Douglas stuffed cats (Douglas is superior at soft toys). I like getting pre-loved babies because I feel like I'm giving them a new life and they won't be forgotten. I also like to turn them into purses like my strawberry dino in picrel so that I can carry them around like you mentioned and also have them be something practical that I can show off and match to my outfit.
Walmart always gets great seasonal plush around Easter/Springtime, I always get really nice bunnies and dinosaurs from there. And of course if you have a build a bear in your country I highly recommend going there as well.

Sorry for being a weeb but I have a few of these (Haru, Mako, Rin, and Sousuke) that I won from an arcade kek. I also have a Korillakuma that I won, and a Pote Usa Loppy plush and a backpack version of it. I was very depressed when I was studying abroad in Japan and played a lot of arcades and gravitated towards the plushies because plushies have always been a huge comfort of mine. It did make me sad when I won it and took it out of the machine and realize I didn't really want it, but I still do have all of them lol.

As a kid I had a lot of plushies. I was given lots of Hello Kitty plushies, and other random ones from family friends. My favorite of them all is my baby pillow that I latched onto for whatever reason as a baby. I brought him with me when I went to college and went I studied abroad, and even though my parents chastised me for it, they didn't stop me but they did worry about me losing him. He was so important for me to have while being away from my parents. I lived with a host mother for a short while and when I came home from a long trip, I saw she had placed him on my sleeping pillow, most likely because when she came in to change the sheets or something, and she must have seen that I had tucked him into bed. When I left to go back home, she handed him to me with two hands and said "this must be really special to you."

I also used to sleep with an ice cream toy aptly named "ice cream" that was a dog toy from old navy that my dad bought me because I wanted it. It even has a squeaker in it lol. I let my dog play with it for a little bit and she looked so cute running with an ice cream cone in her mouth! Ice cream is the second longest plush I've had. Next came Mister Watermelon, a toy from Target that didn't have a tag on it so we basically stole it from Target lol. It was like a bean bag thing. Then was Custard, this turtle plush with a big ass head. I used to sleep with my arms full with them because I didn't want any of them to feel left out. I only sleep with my baby pillow right now, but I still love the others.

The Korilakkuma I won? My parents took it from me when I came back from Tokyo and said "you have too many plushies!" and put her on their bed. Sometimes when I go into their room, I'll see one of them hugging her lol. My parents still chastise me when I bring home a new plush (very rarely these days) but then they'll try to sneakily take it away from me for themselves kek. I'm very lucky in that regard that my parents love plush toys. Actually I think it's because since I'm an only child and a daughter, my love for plush toys spread to them too. We are a family of plushie lovers.

We do have bedbugs so I had to throw a lot of the really old ones out but there was something very heart wrenching about putting them all in a trash bag. I made sure to say a goodbye and thank you to them for being my plushies, and told them that I loved them too, because I have fucking rocks for brains and felt so fucking awful about throwing them out. These were plushies that I just had as a kid but I almost never hugged them or anything, they were just there, but it still felt like throwing out a huge chunk of my childhood. I know I couldn't have kept all of them, there was no need and we have an infestation so some things had to be sacrificed, but it still made me very sad. I rarely bring home new plushies now because I fear having to redo the same thing in the future. Even if it's a brand new plush, once I bring it home, I feel like it's another living being.

Anyway, sorry for plushie retardation.

>>939363
Anon, that is genius and so adorable. You’re inspiring me, I love it. nta

>>939364
>I saw she had placed him on my sleeping pillow, most likely because when she came in to change the sheets or something, and she must have seen that I had tucked him into bed. When I left to go back home, she handed him to me with two hands and said "this must be really special to you."

Literally I'm going to cry. And I am so glad your parents are so sweet and kept the plushies for themselves, that's so fucking cute. I totally know what you mean about them being like living things once they are home with you. I feel a strong pull at my heart to let every one of these bags of stuffing know that I love them a lot. When I was younger is used to have to say goodnight to everyone individually because I was worried they would feel neglected kek! I'm so sorry you lost some of them to bed bugs! Those little plagues, I wish they would all explode.

>>939374
>When I was younger is used to have to say goodnight to everyone individually because I was worried they would feel neglected kek!

Nona you are so sweet and cute. I still tuck in my baby pillow when I leave for work and tell him I love him before leaving lol. It's very funny walking into my parents room and seeing a grown old man hugging a big teddy bear while sleeping heh.

Bedbugs ruining my plushies is probably the single worst thing to have come out of this shit. The biting and reactions really suck and I hate it, but my poor plushies… I couldn't even donate them to another loving home! I know I could've washed them, but with all the little dots from the bedbugs that don't wash out very easily, I thought it wasn't a good look to donate them in the end.

>>939189
Nta but I don't think it should be locked just moved, maybe

>>939372
Aw I'm glad! I made a tutorial on how to bagify stuffed toys for a friend last year, if I find a place to upload it I'll post it here!

>>939395
Why, though? /m/ is a dead board and people are actually interacting with the thread and enjoying it. I don't see any reason to move it.

>>939400
You're addressing one of the unpaid hall monitors of lolcow (peace be upon her), this website is serious business as is the autistic urge to sort threads. Unless we somehow turn this into a shitpost thread. Then they may let us carry on.

Pic related, please buy your plushies free range not packaged so inhumanely

>>939372
Here's the tutorial on how to make bags out of your plushies uploaded to imgur, I hope it's clear enough, please don't make fun of meeeee. It's an album so I have to drop the link here instead of embedding
https://imgur.com/a/FjVkpSq

>>939206
This post compelled me to track one of these bears down from a 3rd party because Ikea won't sell them in my country.

>>939416
Samefag because there is a slide missing that I apparently never made. When you've drawn the circle for the lining, measure the opening in the back of the stuffed toy for the zipper length. Take that measurement and draw a straight line against one side of the circle, this will be the linings opening and where you will put the zipper.

Posting another from my treasured plushies, BAB Charmander that I got myself last year as an X-mas gift. I need to buy him a new t-shirt since this one isn't in the best condition. He looks silly naked. I hope I can go one day to the UK and make my own Pokemon at the shop!!!
>>939338
>teach them to donate what they don't want anymore, make them a part of the process instead of just going into their room on a school day and shoving a bunch of their shit into a bag and never explaining to them where the stuff went and why.
My mom tried to do that I guess, but I still felt terrorized. She would just randomly say that I have to throw away 20 of my toys. I didn't see much point in that and it was very upsetting. Meanwhile she was thrashing my things when I wasn't around and lying about why I couldn't find them (she dumped my sticker album and told me to keep looking for it - if you were a kid in the 90's then you know that stickers were serious business affecting your place in the food chain). I promise I wasn't a hoarder. I find the topic of parents deciding when a child should be done with their treasured possessions very upsetting.
>robably because they're afraid it will just add to the "people who own stuffed toys are babies/childish", rather than it being a very super serious collection that they are very knowledgeable about
You may be right about it. I think they were also horrified of being considered mentally ill in any capacity. IDK why, but I expected other adult toy collectors to be colorful, interesting individuals (I guess like farmers, but older?). Instead, I got a bunch of normalfags that didn't even have any aesthetic taste. Make it make sense. I will take an enthusiastic autist over a mom of five that has no personality beyond mindless hoarding.
>is that like a pusheen dog?? He looks very squish.
Yes! It's a pug Pusheen. Pugsheen? You can position his ears and he can also be your pillow. I love him
>>939400
>/m/ is a dead board
Yeah, because of people like you. Wouldn't be dead if you could be arsed to browse the existing threads and post there, instead of asking everything to be in /ot/.
Legit makes me sad since /m/ is cool AF.

All of the stories in this thread are so sweet!! Does anyone else like to look at stuffed animal restoration blogs or videos? They always make me cry. It seems like such an act of kindness, especially when they're rescue stuffed animals. If I had the skills I'd definitely make my own stuffed animal hospital.

>>939439
Uh.. I do post in /m/, to silence. Sorry to offend you. I also just don't get how stuffed toys fit into /m/ where people are talking about music and tv and books. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be a dick or demand that things be in /ot/, I just want to be able to talk to people about something I care about…

That charmander is mad cute, the little accessories BaB makes melt my heart. My bestie got me a Flareon and I love how chunky and adorable it is!
>She would just randomly say that I have to throw away 20 of my toys
Yeah that's totally not okay and not what I mean at all. Picking an arbitrary amount of things to throw away is stupid and makes no sense. It's more like, let's look at everyone we got here and decide whether or not we still play with them, or if they would have fun living with someone new! The important part is not making it absolutely necessary, it should be a choice the kid is comfortable with and understands.
>You can position his ears
Love that!

>>939186
Anon… your story is so sad. I'm so glad you got to find your favourite plushies in the end. I also had a somewhat similar experience as you. When I was 11-12 years old I had a comfy garfield plush. I will sleep with the plush every night and if I don't have him I can't sleep well. I had him until I was in my early uni years. One day, I fell terribly ill and had to stay at home and rest in bed for 2 weeks. During that time, I did not want to let go of my garfield plush and will cuddle him all day long because he brings me so much comfort. One week into my bed rest, I woke up to find that my garfield plush went missing. I immediately tried to search for him in every room even though I wasn't suppose to get out of bed. I asked my mum whether she had seen my plush but she said she didn't know where it went so I gave up. The next day I went to the kitchen to grab something to eat and had to throw the food wrapper into the garbage can. When I opened the garbage can, I saw my poor garfield plush at the bottom of the garbage can all covered in trash. I immediately knew it was my mum who had thrown him in there because she was the only one in the family who kept commenting that my plush is very old and dirty. I confronted her and asked her why she threw my favourite plush out and lied about it. Her excuse was because I'm way too old to have a plush. She also blamed my plushie for causing me to have prolonged illness because it was dirty and old so it's full of bacteria. I was too ill to argue with my mum at that time but man, I still feel bitter about it until now. To make things worse, she did the same thing again! My siblings felt bad when they found out my mum had thrown my fav plush so on my birthday they gifted me this huge and cute hamster plush. I love him so much because he's so fluffy and round. I think I had him for 4 years? But then I had to study abroad for 2 years so I had to leave him at home because he's too huge to bring along with. When I came back home from my study abroad, my poor plush is gone. Once again, I asked my mum where my plush was and she nonchalantly said that she gave it away. She snidely said I was too old to sleep with silly plushies and she's embarrassed that her adult daughter still likes childish things. She also said that if I ever got married, my husband will hate me if I have plushies. After this incident, I no longer have/buy any plushies for myself even though deep down I still love them. I now live alone but I'm still too embarrassed to buy/have any plushies. I'm just scared that if my parents, especially my mum, comes to visit me, they'll ridicule me if they see a plush on my bed.

>>939457
Aw anon, I'm so sorry. That's such selfish and disgusting behaviour. To be embarrassed that something so harmless brings joy to your daughter. How is it embarrassing, anyway? Who does she have to impress that needs to know the status of her daughters plush ownership? She's totally wrong and cruel to say that your husband would hate you. I have stuffed animals in literally every room and my husband loves them. I was actually considering getting rid of this massive talking Tigger that I have and he got all pouty and said he liked him too much to let him go. I know it's hard to let go of the negative shit people who are supposed to be the most caring and supportive in your life say, but I think next time you see a plush that you like, you should go for it! It's your life, it's your home, you deserve a cuddly friend.

>>939455
I always wish more people would post toys that aren’t anime figs or BJD in the toy thread