[image description: a purple Stimtastic Pop Toob sitting on a red watermelon slice pillow. The Toob is a length of purple plastic tubing with accordion-style plastic folds that can be opened and pressed together to expand or retract the Toob, with a short, flat, narrow piece of ridged tubing attached to either end. One end is covered with a white barcode sticker. The Toob is bent into a slightly-uneven upside-down U-shape, with the left side completely retracted, the first corner bent so every second or third ridged section is expanded, and the rest of the tube bent so that every section is expanded.]
Pop Toob - Stimtastic, $1.50 USD.
Dimensions: 19.6 cm long retracted, 70.5 cm long expanded.
This is one of those toys where I like the idea of it better than the toy in my hands. Unlike some of my other toys, I haven’t used this often since its arrival and I store it in my chest of drawers housing my spare toys, not my open baskets.
It’s pretty big, which makes it a fairly unsubtle stim. I’m not sure how I could use this in public without drawing excessive attention, although it isn’t quite so bad when I just hold the ends in each hand, open the Toob part-way and then close again, repeat. Or, instead of opening, bending the Toob between my hands and straightening it again. Because it involves movements of my arms as well as my hands, though, it just isn’t the kind of toy I can hide under a desk or in my lap. Even when it isn’t opened all the way, it’s hard for me to not flap my elbows about.
For me, though, the real drawback is its volume. I really do like the crunching, popping sort of sound, but it’s so loud. So loud! I can’t use this as an occupying stim while watching TV (which is when I do most of my at-home stimming--it gives me something low-impact to do with my hands so I can rest them while keeping me from getting too bored). I can’t use it in public. Where a snap and click will go ignored on a bus, this won’t. It really only works for me when stimming is my only occupation, but even then I can only use it when alone.
It’s also not that durable. I’ve hardly used mine and there’s already bends and stress creases in some of the concertina folds. I’m doubtful it’ll last anywhere near as well as a Tangle or (if you want something with noise) the aforementioned snap and click.
I do really like running my hands over the ribbed sections--the texture is very nice. The volume, though, just makes using this too difficult for me, and I find myself reaching for other toys instead.
