Last month, my daughter turned 11. For the weeks and days preceding her birthday, she had been liberally dropping hints on what she wanted as a birthday present. At some point, I was even politely proffered a wish list. Nothing too outrageous. A crochet kit for the new hobby she had picked up and the Murder Most Unladylike series (she is the daughter of a writer, after all). But there were two items on the list that she had been harping on about for months—things even all her friends seemed obsessed with—that completely flummoxed me: a NeeDoh Nice Cube and a Mystery Dumpling.
Young adults can be tough to shop for, primarily because there’s always a new something they will be into—skincare, Stanley tumblers, something ‘Stitch’, a fidget toy, a card game, Labubus… The list goes on. And turns out, sensory toys, especially Mystery Dumpling and NeeDoh, are the latest on the list.
While Mystery Dumpling is a blind-box toy that comes in the shape of, you guessed it, a bao bun packaged in a bamboo steamer (the glitter versions are the rarest), NeeDohs are colourful, squishy, jelly-like toys that come in different shapes—from the classic stress ball to an ice cube, sweet treats, strawberries, and even cats. These come in an equally colourful packaging. Think bright or fluorescent retro-inspired graphics on upright cardboard boxes. And if you manage to get your hands on the Nice Cube or the Nice Cream Cone, the Gumpdrop or the classic Groovy Glob, you secure bragging rights within your friends group. And all this squish fest and fun for under $15.
But NeeDohs are not new. In fact, squishy toys are hardly a new phenomenon; Silly Putty was created in the 1940s, and in the years that followed versions including classic stress balls and mesh grape balls have lined shelves of toy stores.
NeeDoh, too, has been in the game for some time now. Between 2017 and 2025, the company sold 100 million of these squishable toys. But it took a few TikTok viral videos for these vibrant, glorified stress balls to bring their parent company, Schylling, to pause new orders after selling an entire year’s worth of inventory within the first nine weeks of 2025 and scramble to replenish stock.
In the 2000s there was an exponential rise in the tactile toy arena as these sensory toys were accepted as tools to help students and children by acting as stress-busters and a calming therapeutic object. It was around the time when the face of digital media was changing and social networks entered our lives. I can’t help wonder if there’s a correlation between the rise of squishy tactile toys and the need to be off screens.
Two decades later, as everything around us gets further digitised and interactions grow skewed, we are keenly aware of the social and emotional impact of technology, especially on the digitally native generations born in the new century. Psychology Today surmises that “the appeal runs deeper than anxiety management as it taps into the human need for tactile stimulation. Humans are wired to explore the world through touch, which is a source of comfort and regulation throughout life”.
Like she did with the fidget spinner, I notice that my daughter gravitates towards tactile toys while chatting or reading; there’s always one squishy in her hand. I would imagine then that toys in these categories will only continue to grow. And as parents, we are all just one TikTok away from being sent on a global treasure hunt.
Meanwhile, while our search for the Needoh Nice Cube is still on, my brother-in-law managed to get his hands on the Nice Cream Cone in Bangkok. In the age of TikTok and Insta-virality, it really does take a village to raise a tween.
