[image description: a round watermelon water bead ice pack, sitting on a red watermelon slice pillow. The pack is a circle of two pieces of clear vinyl fused together at the edges, with a white-green rind printed on the front side and two rough circles of black seeds printed inside the rind. The pack is filled with multiple small red water beads/orbeez. The pack sits inside a plastic bag with a light blue snowflake backdrop and the header, showing a photo of the ice pack sitting atop a lunch box, has the English text “ice pack” beside the red and white Daiso logo.]
Watermelon Ice Pack - Daiso, $2.80 AUD.
Yet another birthday gift! I ended up with watermelons being an accidental theme despite the fact that they’re not my favourite fruit, so now I am gifted watermelon things whenever folks run into them.
(I’ve got several watermelon items now--I should take a photo.)
I’ve had another of the Daiso cool packs that had that very strong musty vinyl smell--it smells like the unholy merging of cheap plastic and my grandparents’ mothball-scented house. I was relieved to discover that this one was only slightly scented and has fully aired out to be a usable toy.
I don’t like it quite as much as my ladybird Cool It pack, as I prefer the matte texture of the vinyl over the glossy, slightly rubbery texture of the watermelon pack, but I’d say that’s more about individual preference than a criticism. The pack is nicely full and makes little in the way of creaking or rustling sounds, very nice for squishing and poking. Unlike conventional jelly or orbeez squishies, it isn’t sticky, and I prefer the gel and water bead cooler packs over the commercial toys for this reason. It’s so much nicer to me to handle.
The beads do slowly crush down as I squish the pack, so folks should keep in mind that they won’t stay whole forever. Eventually, I end up with a crushed mess of red polymer instead of round, red beads. I don’t think this will work for more forceful stimmers, as I do worry that pressing too hard will pop the vinyl!
Daiso has a wide variety of water-bead-filled ice/cooler packs, so there should be a style or shape for most stimmers.
