Squishies in Singapore: The Ones Kids Keep Asking For
Hand a squishy to a child and watch what happens to the room. The talking slows down, three more hands appear from nowhere, and whatever argument was brewing about whose turn it is quietly sorts itself out.
Squishies have been around for years, but the current wave is a different animal. The inner fillings have got better, the sounds have become half the appeal, and the shapes have gone thoroughly food-obsessed. We have brought in several new designs this season, with more on the way, and they have been moving faster than almost anything else in our birthday party supplies range.
What makes a good squishy
The test is simple. Press it, let go, and see what the foam does. A good one comes back smoothly and holds its shape after a hundred squeezes. A poor one creases permanently, picks up grime from the first pocket it goes into, or leaves a faint stickiness on your fingers that no child has ever once been bothered by and every parent notices immediately. The difference comes down to two things: the filling inside, which decides how well it springs back, and the surface coating, which decides how clean it stays. You can usually feel both within a few squeezes.
The slow rising bread squishy
This is the one that hypnotises people. Press a thumb into it, let go, and the dent fills back in over several seconds while you watch. The slow-rising squishies come as a soft bread roll and a range of other cute characters, all with the kind of matte finish that makes it look genuinely edible from across a table.
The slow return is what makes it different from an ordinary foam toy, and it is the reason they tend to end up in a bag for long car journeys and waiting rooms. They reward doing nothing in particular, which is a rarer quality in a toy than you might think.
The crunchy butter and peanut ASMR squishies
Sound is the entire point with these. The filling gives a soft crackle as you work it between your fingers, somewhere between crushing a packet and stepping on fresh snow.
That noise is why they have taken off. Children film themselves squeezing them, the clips do well, and then every friend in the group chat wants one. If you have wondered why a particular toy suddenly appears in six different bags at the school gate, this is usually the mechanism.
Fair warning on the flip side. They are not silent, and a dozen of them in one classroom is a sound a teacher will remember. For goodie bags and home use they are brilliant. For quiet time, the slow rising bread is the safer pick.
The squeezy dumpling
A local favourite almost by default. Soft, pleasingly plump, and shaped like something every child in Singapore has eaten that week, which is most of its charm. This is the one people pick up and laugh at before they even squeeze it.
The coconut oil squishy ball
Small enough to close a hand around and soft enough that it gives the moment you do, the coconut oil squishy ball is the most pocketable of the lot. At around 7cm across, it fits in a pencil case, a school bag pocket, or the bottom of a goodie bag without taking over the space. The coconut oil look is purely in the styling, which gives it a glossy, slightly jelly-like appearance that children tend to reach for first.
The different colours work well for goodie bags, where a mix feels deliberate, but plan ahead if you have a child who will only accept pink.
Where they get used
Parents tend to buy squishies for a party and then discover the real use is everywhere else. The long wait at a clinic. The back seat on the way to Malaysia. The twenty minutes before dinner when everyone is tired and nobody wants to start a game that needs setting up.
Teachers use them differently again, usually as a reward or as something a restless child can hold during a long sit-down. The quiet ones suit that job and the crunchy ones absolutely do not, which is the single most useful thing to know before buying thirty of anything.
Choosing for goodie bags versus choosing for keeps
These two jobs pull in opposite directions, and knowing which one you are buying for saves money. Goodie bag squishies want to be small, uniform and cheap enough to hand out twenty of. A squishy bought as a gift can afford to be larger, slower and a bit more interesting to hold.
Before you commit to a quantity, run through these:
How many are you handing out, and does everyone need the same one to avoid an argument?
Will they be used at the party itself, or taken home?
Is noise going to be a problem in the room you are in?
Are the recipients old enough for small foam items, or do you need to check the pack guidance first?
If you are planning around a theme, picking squishies in the same colours and designs as your party supplies for themed kids’ parties ties the table together with very little extra effort.
A word on the younger ones
Squishies are foam, and foam can be bitten through. For toddlers and anyone still putting things in their mouth, check the age guidance printed on the pack and keep an eye on them during play. Older children get on with these perfectly well unsupervised.
Come and squeeze a few
Half the fun of this range is that you cannot really judge one from a photograph. The weight, the rebound and the texture are the whole experience, and they vary more between designs than people expect. The bread one in particular tends to surprise people, because the slow return does not come across on a screen at all.
Drop by and try a few for yourself at SKP. As Singapore's largest supplier of disposable food packaging and a one-stop provider of packaging and party needs, we are happy to let you squeeze your way along the shelf until you find the one you want twenty of, and to sort out quantities once you have decided.