<
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/sep/17/my-weird-wild-week-of-wearing-shoulder-pals>
"There was a time when adults who owned collections of stuffed toys were
relatively uncommon, weird even. All that has changed recently: the rise in
popularity of toys such as Squishmallows and Jellycat Amuseables has been
linked to the growing “kidult” market (adults buying toys for themselves) which
accounted for almost 30% of toy sales last year. On the whole, cuddly toys are
something people keep at home, on their beds or on display shelves. But that’s
changing too – plush toy keyrings such as Labubus are now everywhere. And some
“Disney adults” (self-professed grown up Disney fans who might, for example, go
to the theme parks without taking children with them) have gone one step
further: attaching toys not just to their bags, but to themselves.
“Shoulder pals” (variously known as “shoulder plushies”, “shoulder toys” and
“shoulder sitters”) are small toys made in the likeness of Disney characters.
They have magnetic bases and come with a flat metal plate designed to be placed
under your shirt, so the toy perches on your shoulder. Since the first one,
baby Groot from
Guardians of the Galaxy, was brought out in 2018, these toys
have become a common accessory at the Disney theme parks. There are multiple
Reddit threads and TikTok videos about how to track down the latest ones (some
are sold at the Disney store, but others are only available at specific
locations within the parks). There will apparently be 45 official Disney
shoulder pals on offer by the end of next year, with characters ranging from
Peter Pan’s Tinker Bell to Anxiety from
Inside Out 2. That’s not to mention
the many, many knockoffs available online, as well as those sold by Primark, or
the DIY pals that some creative TikTok users have been making.
What is it about these toys that makes them so appealing? And what’s it like to
actually wear them? As a plush toy novice – the only one I own is my beloved
childhood teddy bear, Freddie, who was banished to a box under the bed with the
Christmas decorations some time ago – I ordered two from the Disney store:
Stitch from
Lilo & Stitch, and the Raven from
Haunted Mansion, plus three
that I tracked down on eBay: the Cheshire cat from
Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland, Pascal (Rapunzel’s lizard friend in
Tangled) and
Ratatouille’s
Remy, the most popular shoulder pal to date. I spent more than £100 in total:
the Disney store price was £21 per toy, and though I managed to get Remy
secondhand for slightly less, the Cheshire cat, which is one of the newer
releases, cost me just over £30. Being a Disney adult, it turns out, is not
cheap."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
