About the Dolls & Mermaids shelf
Sizes run from about 9 inches — small enough to ride in a coat pocket — up to roughly 32 inches, which is the point at which a plush toy stops being carried and starts being leaned on.
Every animal listed here is designed in our Glen Burnie studio. The price beside each one is what we last read on our partner store's listing; the store sets it and can change it, so treat the figure as a guide rather than a promise.
Choosing plush toys for kids on this shelf
Children do not shop this shelf the way parents do. A small child reaches for the one whose face looks back, and that is the plush toy that ends up cherished — often the Clownfish Mermaid Stuffed Animal Plushie. For a baby we would stay with the lightest soft animals and the embroidered faces: nothing on a baby plush should be able to work loose in the dark, and the weight should let a little one drag the toy around without hauling it by the neck.
Older kids want accuracy. They will name the animal, correct you on the name, and want a second one to keep it company, which is why we design these as families rather than as single toys. Somewhere between the two ages sits the bedtime animal — the companion that gets slept on every night, loses an ear to love and still has to survive the wash.
What these stuffed animals are made of
All the plush toys on this shelf use the same short-pile fabric and the same filling: fibre spun from post-consumer water bottles. Surface wash with a damp cloth, brush the pile while it dries, and the materials hold their look for years — which is why so many of these stuffed animals get handed down rather than thrown out.
- Outer fabric: short-pile plush, chosen to stand back up after a season
- Filling: fibre spun from recycled water bottles
- Care: surface wash with a damp cloth, brush the pile while it dries
- Designed in Glen Burnie, Maryland
Gifts, friends and cherished companions
The gift that lasts is almost never the clever one. It is the soft toy tied to a day out: a bear from the park, a bunny from the garden, a sea turtle from the aquarium gift shop. We have been making plush for those shops since 1984, which is where most families meet us.
If you are buying for a child you do not know well, the popular picks on this shelf are a safe place to start: Clownfish Mermaid Stuffed Animal Plushie, Octopus Mermaid Stuffed Animal Plushie, Stingray Mermaid Stuffed Animal Plushie. Adorable counts for a lot at the moment of unwrapping, and soft, washable and the right size to cuddle decides whether the toy is still in the house a year later.
Quality first, because safety is the part nobody sees. Faces are embroidered on everything made for babies, stuffed with recycled fibre, and the seams are doubled where a child pulls hardest. We understand a cot toy has to be right the first time — that is what turns an adorable plush animal into one of the cherished companions a family keeps for life.
Then comes play. No child has ever shopped by category. They pick the animal that fits the adventures already running in their imagination, and a plush stuffed toy with charm beats the world's cleverest gadget. Teddy bears and lambs still win; so does a dinosaur, for the child who corrects you on the names. The magic is that they become friends, and the fun is watching which one gets chosen.
Adults come back for the animal they had in childhood — that is where the heart of this collection sits. Choose the softest, welcome it in along with everything else that arrives with a new baby, and let the child decide which one becomes beloved.
Still deciding? Reading the habitat shelves explains how we group the animals, and Collections lists the neighbouring shelves.