[image description: a clear jelly squishy, shaped like a light bulb and filled with purple water beads/orbeez, sits on a sheet of clear plastic atop a red watermelon slice pillow. The bulb squishy has a silver-painted end resembling the screw top of a light bulb, complete with raised ridges; the clear bububble end is a simple teardrop-shaped clear case, holding full and a few broken water beads. The effect is somewhat like a water bead holding smaller water beads!]
Lightbulb Jelly Squishy - Mostly $2, $3 AUD.
For folks wanting to find slimes, stress balls and a variety of squishies in offline stores, I strongly recommend that you check out your local dollar shops. Perhaps it’s just an Australian thing, but in the wake of the fading spinner fashion, the stores that stocked spinners are now stocking many kinds of squishies, slimes, plastic slinkies, putties, grape stress balls and balloon stress balls. It’s amazing. I’m not finding a lot in chain stores like The Reject Shop, but the independent dollar shops are a wonderland of stim.
Local prices range from about $2 AUD for the smallest grape stress balls to $13 AUD for the large bread and cake squishies, and the selection is amazing--just today I’ve seen unicorn squishies, bread squishies, two-handed-sized cake squishies and jelly squishies. Many of these are scented, but the larger squishies were slow-rising and quite good quality. Most things are on counter displays by the front of stores, so they’re not difficult to find.
Because of the abundance, though, I’m now only purchasing anything unique or unusual, since I can find most things a little bit cheaper on eBay. (I also have enough squishies now, or so I’ll attempt to keep telling myself.) This lightbulb-shaped jelly squishy caught my eye, though. It’s filled with water beads!
This squishes down really well, and the feeling of the water beads underneath the jelly coating is a softer, quieter version of a bead-filled ice pack. I really love the feel of the beads rolling under my fingertips when I squish down on it, and I think I have to try and make myself some water-bead-filled balloon stress balls. It’s almost a massaging sensation, one I find super pleasing. I suspect some care in use is required, since mine does contain some broken water beads. I wouldn’t toss this in a carry bag for fear of it getting crushed.
Unlike a normal squishy, there’s no slow-rising aspect to this.
There’s two downsides to this. The first is that it has a strong chemical plastic smell, just like many grape stress balls. The second is that the clear bulb part of the ball is sticky. Stick-to-your-hand sticky. It doesn’t leave any residue on your skin, thankfully, so that the ball stops sticking the moment you pull it away. The problem is more to do with dust, dirt, hair or anything sticking to the squishy, and, as I discovered when Dad grabbed at it with sugar-covered hands, washing it makes it more sticky. I suspect a dusting of cornflour will solve this, but it will cloud the clear plastic, so for the moment I’m storing it in a ziplock bag.
It’s not a toy that’s easy to use, and anyone who dislikes the feel of stickiness on their skin should avoid it. I have to say, though, that I still really like the feel of squishing down on the water beads, and it’s such a unique, cool-looking toy. I still like it, probably more than I should.