Squishmallows
Round, ultra-soft plush toys with over 1,000 different characters — the plush line that grew from claw-machine prizes into a genuine Beanie Babies-scale collecting phenomenon.
Squishmallows are marshmallow-soft, round plush toys made by Kellytoy, a Jazwares brand — each one is a distinct named character with its own backstory, and there are now more than 1,000 variations to collect. What looks like a simple kids' toy has become one of the best-selling plush lines in history, with a collector base that skews heavily toward teens and adults, not just children.
The origin story
Kellytoy was founded in 1986 by Jonathan Kelly, originally making toys destined for arcade claw machines and carnival prize stands — not retail shelves. Kelly took a trip to Japan and came back struck by how attached people were to soft, simple character plush, which shaped the idea that became Squishmallows.
The line launched in 2017, and for its first few years it stayed largely in that same claw-machine-and-fair-prize world, selling steadily but without any particular retail push behind it.
How it actually went viral
The turning point was 2020: Jazwares (which had acquired a majority stake in Kellytoy that April) pushed Squishmallows into mainstream retail just as the pandemic had people stuck at home wanting something soft, cheap, and comforting to collect. Jazwares co-founder Laura Zebersky has described the appeal directly — nurturing, cozy, affordable, instant gratification.
Growth from there was extraordinary by toy-industry standards: the brand passed 50 million units sold by early 2020, crossed 100 million by October 2021, and then sold another 100 million in 2022 alone — a single year that reportedly accounted for roughly 40% of Jazwares' entire revenue, with the company's total sales topping $1 billion.
Celebrity visibility (Kim Kardashian and Lady Gaga both showing off collections on TikTok) and a takeover of VidCon 2022 — widely described as that year's biggest single attraction — pushed Squishmallows past "kids' toy" status into a genuine adult collecting hobby, regularly compared directly to the 1990s Beanie Babies craze.
What makes them collectible
Every Squishmallow is a specific, named character with its own short personality bio printed on its tag — that's deliberate: it converts what could be a generic plush into something with lore worth tracking down. Squishmallows has also leaned hard into scarcity mechanics familiar from other collectible categories: limited drops, retailer-exclusive characters (Target, Five Below, and others all carry their own exclusives), and licensed crossover collaborations with major entertainment franchises.
Kellytoy has also been notably aggressive about protecting the design itself — the company has pursued legal action against imitators, arguing the specific round shape, texture, and feel of a Squishmallow constitutes its own protected "trade dress," separate from any individual character design.
