[image description: a clear plastic bag containing two bright purple stretch cords. The cords are two lengths of stretchy purple, quite thick, with rounded ends, and sit coiled inside the bag to form a slightly lopsided heart-shape. The bag sits on a red watermelon slice pillow.]
Stretch Cords - eBay, $1.58 USD for two.
Dimensions: 30 x 1 cm when unstretched.
Variations: Purple, blue, green, pink, orange, yellow. For some reason the pink is only $0.99 USD; the others are the price listed above.
Item has free worldwide shipping.
The seller didn’t mark these as shipped, so I was surprised when they arrived in the mail today, eleven days after purchasing. Very quick!
These have been on eBay in large multipacks for a while, but I’ve finally seen sellers listing these in smaller quantities for affordable prices.
Honestly, it’s a very long mochi squishy. The listing doesn’t say silicone, but it feels, behaves and smells like a mochi squishy. It collects dust the same and it has that same thin outer layer of “skin” that peels off a mochi squishy after it has been stretched/squished a lot. I’d treat it, and store it, like I would a mochi squishy, because I can’t see any difference between them.
I do like it, though. It has a good amount of stretch--the length of my arms easily--and a decent amount of resistance. I find it more useable than a mochi squishy as I can stretch it, coil it, poke it, twine it around my fingers, wad it up, squish it, knot it. Mum thought it was a kind of TheraBand, actually, so if you want an item you can explain away as being for hand exercises, it would work--and I actually did some of my shoulder and hand exercises with this cord. Because it wobbles in a way a TheraBand doesn’t, it has a lot more sensory feedback while offering similar resistance (albeit an ungraded one). I quite like that, but I wouldn’t recommend swapping it out for exercises permanently without discussions with your physio or occupational therapist first (I mean to do this).
There is some snap-back if you stretch it very hard, but not as much as a rubber band. If you want a similar sort of stim with less stinging pain, this might be an option. It does make a nice flicking-type noise!
Mochi squishies are cute, but I find these stretch cords/stretchy strings have far more sensory, stimmy and therapeutic utility, and for stimmers who want more movement, resistance and auditory stim options, I recommend this as a super affordable multi-use toy.
