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\nAssociated Press<\/p>\n
The recent industry show Toy Fair New York featured a variety of huggable plush toys for everyone, from silky, infant comfort objects to cheeky stuffed novelties for grown-ups.<\/p>\n
Sales in the plush category are surging, thanks to technical improvements in materials, broad-based appeal and collectability, said Isabel Carrion-Lopez, spokeswoman for the Toy Industry Association.<\/p>\n
POP CULTURE PLUSH<\/strong><\/p>\n The venerable Gund company, maker of plush toys for over 100 years, is now social-media savvy. If you\u2019re on Facebook, you may be familiar with Pusheen, the cute comic cat tag. At the Toy Fair last month, Gund put Pusheen front and center at their booth, offering a collection of big and little cats as keychain and backpack clips, handheld toys, huggable pillows, and zippered cases, all covered in the tabby\u2019s signature gray stripe. A series of mystery-box toys called \u201cPlaces Cats Sit\u201d features Pusheen on cat-friendly perches such as a shopping bag, laptop or towel. Buyers don\u2019t know where their cat will be until they open the box and take off her Mylar wrap.<\/p>\n Gund also has licensing deals with Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli, producer of the movies \u201cMy Neighbor Totoro\u201d and \u201cHowl\u2019s Moving Castle\u201d; there are plush versions of the films\u2019 characters. And Gund has developed a line with DC Comics: superheroes like Wonder Woman and Batman as kid-huggable plush toys.<\/p>\n It contains dynamic fixing sildenafil citrate.These are made to a brilliant standard to guarantee security and viability. viagra prescription<\/a> In 2000, a check availability<\/a> cialis online study in China suggested that the number of cigarettes smoked by a man impacted his ability to gain an erection. Nerves, muscles, hormones, sildenafil 100mg viagra<\/a> and blood vessels work in combination when you are sexually aroused to cause an erection. So if these pills don’t work then you viagra without prescription free<\/a> should avoid this drug. <\/span> BABY SOFT<\/strong><\/p>\n Today\u2019s plush toys have come a long way even compared to a few decades ago, when the material was stiffer and more rug-like. Improvements in fine microfiber production have resulted in a silky, squishable material. Stuffings are also soft polyester.<\/p>\n That makes them great for babies\u2019 toys.<\/p>\n \u201cTwo collections are super-popular with new moms,\u201d said Linda Colson, vice president of the company Mary Meyer, pointing out several families of neutral-hued, silky furred animals in her fair booth, and shelves full of small plush creatures with pacifiers attached.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s new mom wants her baby\u2019s gear to reflect her own aesthetic. If she decorates with a certain color palette, she doesn\u2019t want the baby\u2019s room to clash,\u201d Colson said.<\/p>\n So the Putty Collection features puppies, elephants, bears, and bunnies in gentle hues of cream, blush, gray and mocha.<\/p>\n The pacifier\/toy is a Wubbanub, which Colson says was invented by a mom who kept losing her baby\u2019s soother until she came up with the idea of sewing it to a small stuffed animal. (www.marymeyer.com )<\/p>\n Some books \u2014 such as Nancy Tillman\u2019s storybooks \u201cOn the Night You Were Born\u201d and \u201cYou\u2019re Here for a Reason\u201d \u2014 are available as a soft book and plush animal set. (www.demdaco.com )<\/p>\n Apple Park, a San Francisco-based children\u2019s gear company, featured an \u201cOrganic Luxury\u201d line made from 100 percent organic cotton. The collection includes plush booties, play blankets, and toys in gentle prints and hues. (www.applepark.com )<\/p>\n At Nat & Jules, creative director Julie Puntch picked up a Cozies Rattle Blankie, saying, \u201cMoms buy these two at a time. They keep them handy in the stroller, car seat and crib.\u201d The velvety-soft plush pets and wild animals have flat bodies, and a clip for a pacifier. (www.walmart.com )<\/p>\n ANIMAL KINGDOM<\/strong><\/p>\n Also at Nat & Jules was a plush puppet family of cows, unicorns, foxes, pigs and lions, ready for storytelling.<\/p>\n Toy designers are looking beyond the familiar animal world for inspiration, and a new world of wild is now available in plush form.<\/p>\n At Aurora\u2019s booth, there were Rockhopper and Emperor penguins, orangutans, wild boars, lynx, crocodiles and meerkats. Rays, seals and aquarium fish were next to mammoths and pandas. (www.auroragift.com )<\/p>\n Gund had sloths and peacocks, as well as a fox with lustrous, life-like fur, and a dragon covered with plush fabric printed with a scale pattern, that somehow managed to look fierce and feel fuzzy.<\/p>\n TALK TO THE ANIMALS<\/strong><\/p>\n A smartphone app guides the new Teddy Ruxpin from Wicked Cool Toys to interact with kids and tell stories from his 4GB hard drive; LED technology helps Teddy\u2019s eyes move realistically. (www.wickedcooltoys.com )<\/p>\n At Gund, Flappy the Elephant plays peek-a-boo with his ears while singing \u201cDo Your Ears Hang Low.\u201d And Storytime Cub moves its body and mouth as it reads a funny version of the classic Three Bears folktale.<\/p>\n ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder
\nThen there are the Giant Microbes: a booth full of human micro-organisms, including organ cells and bacteria, rendered in hand-size fuzzy plush, with little faces. Company president Andrew Klein pointed to a veritable hazmat lab of gnarly things like plague microbes, viruses and gross-outs of the science world. He says the toys are popular with educators, public health organizations, and science and history museums. (www.giantmicrobes.com)<\/p>\n