Stuffed Toy - History and Types

History and Types

The first commercial concern to create stuffed toys was the German Steiff company in 1880. Steiff used new technology developed for upholstery to make their stuffed toys. In 1903 Richard Steiff designed a soft bear that differed from earlier traditional rag dolls because it was made of plush furlike fabric. At the same time in the USA, Morris Michtom created the first teddy bear, after being inspired by a drawing of Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt with a bear cub. The character Peter Rabbit from English author Beatrix Potter was the first stuffed toy to be patented, in 1903.

Sock monkeys are handmade stuffed monkeys made out of socks that first appeared during the Great Depression. Amigurumi is a Japanese type of handcrafted knitted or crocheted stuffed toys. Amigurumi are typically made to look cute with oversized heads and undersized extremities. Beginning in 2003, they are collected and sold on crafting websites like Etsy.

There are many brands of stuffed toys, including Beanie Babies, a line of stuffed beanbag animals, that was started in 1993. Several marketing strategies were used to encourage collecting of Beanie Babies.

Several brands of electronic and robotic plush toys were fads when they were first released. These include Tickle Me Elmo, a laughing and shaking plush toy based on the character Elmo from the Sesame Street television show, released in 1996, Furby, a robotic talking plush toy with its own language, released in 1998 and Zhu Zhu Pets, a line of robotic plush hamsters released in 2009.

Webkinz stuffed animals were created by Ganz in 2005. Each Webkinz toy comes with a unique "Secret Code" that gives access to the Webkinz World website and a virtual version of the toy for online play. Disney's Club Penguin and Build-A-Bearville from Build-A-Bear Workshop are other online worlds with content that can be unlocked from codes found on associated stuffed toys.

Pillow Pets are a brand of folding stuffed toys. These types have straps that open to transform the toy from the stuffed toy position to pillow position, and close to restore it back to a stuffed toy.