#cracking squishy

[mimikyustims]

https://www.instagram.com/dotdotbang

[stimtoybox]

[image description: six cracking squishes shaped like biscuits or chocolate sitting on a cream plush carpet. Left to right: two round biscuit squishies with large chocolate chips in pink and brown; two Kit-Kat-style squishies with two breakway pieces in dark brown or green; and two block chocolate squishies made from twelve squares of chocolate in milk chocolate brown or creamy white chocolate. All squishies have a small plastic loop at the top attached to a fine silver ball chain.]

Banggood: Cracking Chocolate Bar/Biscuit Squishy

Price: $6.10 AUD (please check link for regional pricing) with free standard international shipping.

Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 6 cm

For folks wanting an affordable cracking squishy, here’s a listing worth checking out!

[stimtoybox]

Hey, I'm autistic but don't stim, and while looking for diy videos on YouTube I came across minicuteclub, a channel that has a lot of tutorials on how to make various things that could be used as sensory toys, like a cracking squishy and a crunchy squishy. Note that some of her videos are in Japanese but her newer and most popular ones have English subtitles

Thank you so much for thinking of us, anon! Stim DIYs are always incredibly welcome around here!

Here’s minicuteclub’s Youtube profile. She’s got a lot of different squishy tutorials! There’s a lot that are only in Japanese (I speak a little but my vocabulary isn’t good enough for stim toy DIYs) but even those of us who only speak English might find them worth watching for ideas. She has a whole collection of squishy videos, too!

Here’s a couple of super stimmy DIY tutorials that have closed captions in English and an English transcript : a cream puff squishy coin purse | bread squishy iPhone case | Gudetama water egg squishy.

These stimmy DIYs have English subtitles, transcript and (auto-generated) closed captions in Japanese only: cracking chocolate bar squishy | mini cracking chocolate bar squishy.

Again, thank you for directing us to some fabulous-looking tutorials.

- Mod K.A.

[stimtoybox]

Hi, so I finally got my hands on one of those lil cracking chocolate bar squishes... I loved it at first, the texture of it was great and it made a very satisfying snap but uh, after playing with it for like 2-3 hours its almost totally ripped in half, just from cracking it like you're supposed to... so for anyone on a tight budget I wouldn't recommend ordering it, because it may not last u very long :(

Thank you so much for letting us know, anon! I haven’t come across too many user reviews for this item (most of us just talk about how cool they sound), so I am so glad that you’ve taken the time to give us this feedback. Especially since most of us just can’t afford to purchase a toy and have it destroyed on the same day. I know I’d be quite upset.

(I really appreciate, too, discussions that review toys with an eye to the fact that stimmers tend to put toys through heavy use: what’s durable for others is often much less so for us.)

Stimmers who want the crack might want to check out this post on cracking alternatives for a tape measure, this post on slap bands/bracelets, this tutorial on DIY cracking squishies and this post collecting Minicuteclub’s YouTube tutorials, two of which include cracking squishy DIYs. I don’t know if they’re more durable than the bought ones, but it might be worth exploring.

Again, thank you, anon! I really appreciate this sort of ask!

- Mod K.A.

[stimtoybox]

I like snapping the metal part of a tape measure but it's so bulky to care around, does anyone know if anything that produces a similar satisfying snap that's a bit more portable?

Hey, anon! Tape measures sound great, don’t they? I used to keep a small one in my bag because I worked at a game store and the folks who played Warhammer never remembered to bring in their own (and sometimes the store one would get lost). If you’d rather stick with the tape measure, I’ve seen small ones in dollar shops, so you might find one that’s more portable if you’re able to look around. I even got a super tiny one in a Christmas cracker/bon bon one year, so they absolutely exist.

(For folks who celebrate Christmas, or just want to make their own bon bons because they’re fun, it strikes me that there’s a great many stim toys that would fit neatly into a cracker. Hedge balls, bouncy balls, makeup sponges, edamame poppers, kneadable erasers, mochi squishies, spinner rings, bead rings. Remind me to experiment with this at some point! I bet there’s lots of ways to make the outsides pretty stimmy, too, and it’d be easy to leave the snaps out for folks who dislike loud noises…)

You can also cut off a length of the tape from the case, just long enough that you can bend and crack the tape in your hands. Pull the tape out longer than the part you mean to cut off, cut, hold onto the cut edge so it doesn’t retreat inside the case, then stick a couple of layers of gaffer/duct tape over the cut edge, a couple of centimetres longer on both sides than the width of the tape, so when it slides back in the case the hanging duct tape stops the end from vanishing inside. The tape basically replaces the metal stopper you just cut off, meaning you can cut off more pieces another time. Or, just pull the tape as far out as it will go, cut the whole length off and then cut that section up into smaller pieces. For pockets, bags, stim toy kits, desk drawers, your stimming friends…

There’s lots of listings on eBay for those who can’t shop offline, but note that they toss in sewing measuring tapes (made from a flexible plastic that has no snap) and metal measuring tapes together under the same name. Don’t get the sewing ones!

My other suggestions are slide/snap clips and cracking squishies. You can find the hair clips in just about every department and dollar shop - I’ve even seen giant ones at Lincraft. They’re especially prominent in back-to-school sales, where stores sell multipacks in school uniform colours. They don’t snap quite as loudly as measuring tape, but they snap so well they’re recommended to use in DIY snapping squishies.

Check out eBay if you need to shop online - there’s all sorts of listings. This listing has 12 for $1 AUD with free shipping.

(There’s also these cool-looking multi-tool hair clips. The ones in this link cost $4.21 AUD, but there’s several links on eBay. Just in case you want a snapping stim toy that comes with other theoretical functions - said without knowing how well they work in practice, of course, but they look awesome.)

Cracking squishies can be bought or DIY’d. The DIY versions involve gluing a slide/snap clip or a piece of a measuring tape inside a sponge (or two layers of sponge) and then painting the outside to look like a cake or chocolate. (I sewed mine inside a flannelette bag, which you can see in the photo on this post.) There’s a video tutorial on this post, and while I don’t love the feel/texture of the paint, the squishy part is very easy to make. White craft PVA works just fine for gluing the sponges together, and the squishy feel combined with the snap sound is very pleasing!

If you’re looking to buy, I have a few links for cracking squishies under our cracking squishies tag. The cheapest listings I know about are this $6.07 AUD link for chocolate/biscuit squishies on Banggood or @caseydickdanger‘s chocolate cracking squishies on preorder for $3 USD. (Note: they’ve been listed as a preorder for a while now, so if you’re interested perhaps send an ask to find out what the status is. He only ships within the US.)

Silly Squishies has them for $7.94 USD; Aliexpress only sells them in lots for high prices (about $30 and up). I think your best source for these right now, for non-US folks, is Banggood, and I haven’t had any problems in ordering from them so far.

I hope this gives you some ideas, anon, and like always, suggestions are absolutely welcome. Good luck in finding or making a more portable cracking toy!

- Mod K.A.

[stimtoybox]

i dont know if its already been said, but: for people that like clacking soft toys, if you take two soft foam sqaures and a hair clip (that clicks nicely!) and glue the clip's top to one piece of foam, then glue the other foam around the edges like a case (think like making a pillow you dont turn inside out.) it makes a nice clicky stim toy

I’d actually seen a tutorial for this a while ago, but it wasn’t a very good one, so the DIY cracking squishies kind of fell off my radar. Thank you for reminding me that these things exist!

I think one can use many different kinds of sponges - washing sponges, makeup sponges, whatever feels good to you. My one concern, if you paint them like the tutorial below shows (by cutesweetpastries) is the paint cracking over time, so I think I need to make one myself, paint them with the bottle of cheap acrylic I have lying around and then stim with them daily to see how well they hold up. I’m pretty sure I have makeup sponges and mini hair clips in my customising box, and I most certainly have glue!

[image description: a brown Tim-Tam-like DIY sponge squishy with a pink drizzle on the top. The words “cracking chocolate bar squishy” in white letters sit over the top of the squishy.]

The other alternative, which I think would be really durable, is to sew a fabric bag (not that dissimilar from the marble mazes, and using the same sorts of materials) for the squishy to go inside, and then sew the bag closed.

And if you’re like me and just have to try and make things bigger and better … well, I want to find some big sponges and bigger hair clips and try making a big cracking squishy. One I can put into the empty pocket at the back of my handsewn marble mazes. Yes, a marble maze and cracking squishy two-in-one toy, because why not…

ETA: @femmeflannellesbian says,

If you use fabric paint it shouldn’t crack as easily

Yes! Thank you for commenting, because I should have thought of that and didn’t. Thank you!