Is this craze just harmless fun? With adults spending hundreds of pounds on collecting soft toys, criminal gangs have started to target the shops that sell them.
Thieves nab Jellycats amid toy fever
Is this craze just harmless fun? With adults spending hundreds of pounds on collecting soft toys, criminal gangs have started to target the shops that sell them.
Picture the scene. Three men enter a toyshop with their faces hidden behind masks. But instead of emptying the cash registers, they march into the soft toys section. Then they start sweeping toys off the shelves, filling their sacks with soft animals and other "plushies".
Sound unlikely? According to reports, organised crime gangs have started targeting soft toys to sell online. In particular, they are stealing Jellycats, after the brand went viral on social media.
The British toy company Jellycats was founded in 1999. Over the past two years, its popularity has soared among adult buyers. This is partly due to celebrity fans like Kylie Jenner and Bill Nighy, and partly due to online influencers. On TikTok, videos tagged #Plushies have been viewed around eight billion times.1
The Jellycat "Amuseables" series includes stuffed versions of everyday items like coffee cups, avocados and even toilet rolls. Pop-up shops selling these items have reported huge queues, with the rarest reselling for hundreds or even thousands of pounds.
Soft toys are the second largest category in the toy market. Over a quarter of sales come from "kidults" - those aged 12 and above. The trend began during the pandemic, according to one soft-toy shop owner, as grown-ups went looking for objects that brought "happiness and comfort". 2
For some, Jellycats are a bit of fun. For others, they are vital support for mental health issues. One example is Sallyanne Redman, who began going on adventures with a Bashful Puppy toy called Shep, after the death of her husband. "I live on my own now and it is something I can talk to," she explained. Another example is Tiffanie Leeks, who is autistic, but finds comfort and companionship in her toy collection. "I confide things such as my intrusive thoughts."3
Critics argue that the trend for adults to collect Jellycats is another sign of an infantilisedTreated someone as a child. generation. Like the popularity of children's books or superhero films, they show that young adults are struggling to leave their childhood behind.
MillennialsPeople who reached adulthood in the early 21st Century. and Gen ZShort for Generation Z, meaning people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s. have delayed many of the traditional markers of adult life, such as leaving home, becoming financially independent, and starting a family. In Britain, the medianThe median is the middle point in a group of numbers: half of the numbers are smaller than the median and half are larger. age for a first marriage is 33 for men and 31 for women - a decade higher than in the early 1960s. One celebrated study from 2016 showed that Americans aged 18 to 34 were more likely to be living with their parents than their partners - for the first time in 130 years.4
So it is no surprise that four in 10 American adults sleep with stuffed toys in their bed.5 But Jellycats are not the first soft toy brand to become popular with older audiences: in the 1990s, Beanie Babies were collected and traded for many times their original price.
Even if an online trend is embarrassing or strange, that does not make it wrong. Stealing from toy shops is obviously a crime, but we should not condemn adults for owning stuffed toys.
Is this craze just harmless fun?
Yes: People should be free to collect whatever they want. Adults spending hundreds on stuffed toys might be strange, but they should not be blamed for criminal gangs targeting toy shops.
No: Collecting soft toys is more evidence that Millennials and Gen Z refuse to grow up. Adult life may be hard, but queuing up to buy stuffed toilet roll toys is not the solution.
Or... Jellycats are not the first soft toys to have grown-up fans. The trend may be embarrassing, but some people find real comfort and support in their plushie collections.
Infantilised - Treated someone as a child.
Millennials - People who reached adulthood in the early 21st Century.
Gen Z - Short for Generation Z, meaning people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Median - The median is the middle point in a group of numbers: half of the numbers are smaller than the median and half are larger.
Thieves nab Jellycats amid toy fever

Glossary
Infantilised - Treated someone as a child.
Millennials - People who reached adulthood in the early 21st Century.
Gen Z - Short for Generation Z, meaning people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Median - The median is the middle point in a group of numbers: half of the numbers are smaller than the median and half are larger.