Gizmodo: stuffed animals

What's Basically the Most Adorable Children's Gift I Can Imagine

Mark Wilson — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST

Here's the idea: your child scribbles an animal on Shidonni's website, they hand-sew a corresponding one-of-a-kind plush toy and mail it to you. Neat, right?

From the looks of this video, sweatshop laborers aren't stitching their fingers to your child's Christmas gift. Shidonni is just a small operation with a really good idea, actualizing a child's design into something they can hold.

I believe the cost is $85, and if you were interested in the gift for Christmas, you'd need to order by tomorrow, December 15th. No word on whether or not Shidonni will sew you one of the deadly tanks firing exploding ice cream cones that I drew as a kid. [Shiddoni]

Snoozy the Sloth Is a Creepy Comforting Stuffed Animal That Really Breathes

Dan Nosowitz — Mon, 18 May 2009 23:35:00 EDT

Parsons student Justin Blinder created the Arduino-based Snoozy the Sloth stuffed animal as "an intimate, yet passive, toy interaction that relaxes and comforts a user." Cuddly, or creepy?

Snoozy the Sloth from Justin Blinder on Vimeo.

The sloth doll uses an Arduino microcontroller, two diaphragm pumps, and a latex glove to act as the "lung;" Blinder makes it clear that he wanted not the illusion of breathing (by having, for example, a mechanically contracting and expanding chest) but the actual intake and expulsion of air. In other words, this thing can gently breathe on your neck, which sounds about the same mixture of creepy and cute as The Police's "I'll Be Watching You." On the other hand, we could totally see kids loving this: They go crazy for dolls with semi-animate features, like giggling Elmo or those dolls that pee (weird!). And kids have less experience than we with machines behaving badly, anyway, so their innocent little minds can enjoy the doll without fear of, you know, horrible robot murder. [Official Site, Thanks Justin!]

Huggable Plush Robots Teach Us Not to Fear the Future

Elaine Chow — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:00:00 EST

Want to indoctrinate your kid into accepting our eventual robot-ruled world? Get them started on loving machines from an early age with these adorable plush robots. Just $9 per Bunk Bot at ThinkGeek. [ThinkGeek]

Robot Wild Animals Are Way More Adorable Than Elmo Live

Elaine Chow — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:15:00 EDT

In case you've got a niece or nephew that's hankering for an Elmo Live, but you personally can't stand the strangely frightening little muppet, why not get them animatronic wild animals from Japan that are, in my opinion, much cuter. Made by Bandai Namco, these cuddly robots react to petting and hugging, make cute baby animal sounds and fall asleep, emitting gentle snores, if you ignore them for five minutes. Comes in Lion, Panda, Polar Bear and Snow Leopard flavors for roughly $50 each from Walmart. [Walmart via Impress]

UBi.ach, the Stuffed Animal That Reads Your E-Mail

Gizloco — Fri, 12 May 2006 11:56:46 EDT

With the amount of e-mail that we get here on a daily basis, finding the time to read it all is quite a chore. Maybe we should look into the UBi.ach, a stuffed animal that alerts the user when a new e-mail has arrived. With a little coaxing (think white list), it'll read subject lines as well. It's the product of the hard work of Gu-min Lee, Chunxi Jiang Gilad Lotan and works due to the combined interaction of several different technologies, such as RF, some PHP scripting here and there, and walkie-talkies. Really, it's nearly as complicated as nuclear fusion. Combine the adorable UBi.ach with some of the filthy e-mails that no doubt flood your inbox, and you're already halfway there to a party. We can't even imagine how hilarious that would be when we're completely sober, let alone when we're, you know, not.

Ubi.ach: Your Networked Email Assistant [Gilad Lotan via Shiny Shiny]