Product Review: Top Paw Angler Fish Stuffy

Normally when I walk into Petsmart, I don't even notice the racks of Top Paw and Grreat Choice plush toys. I just find most cheap mass-market plush toys to be totally unappealing. Emoticons? Sports balls? Anthropomorphic food? My inner hipster shouts "No way!" But a few weeks ago I found a plush angler fish amongst the more typical starfish and seahorses.

Photo by Erin Koski

So at this point I should probably confess that I have a collection of stuffed sealife. No, not normal stuffed animals like otters and sea turtles. I have an octopus, a manta ray, a manatee, an ocean sunfish, and probably a few I can't recall just now. It's a very specific niche into which the Top Paw anglerfish fits perfectly.

Do I still think the vast majority of dog toys look incredibly stupid? You bet! Loofah dogs? Misshaped alligators and teddy bears? Hedgehogs in every shape, size, and color? Everything has been done to death, and the toy companies try to liven things up by giving their animal toys huge heads, or round bellies, or long necks. It's just not an aesthetic I find appealing.

At this point, most of our stuffies are either dinosaurs, stuff we got in subscription boxes, or toys my mother randomly give the dogs when I'm not looking. There's nothing better than arriving home to a shredded teddy bear and not being sure if we've destroyed a family heirloom. (But seriously my mother is awesome for spoiling her granddogs!)

Photo by Erin Koski

Pros: It's an anglerfish. How often do you see a plush anglerfish, let alone a plush squeaky dog toy anglerfish?

Cons: That little fishy lure didn't hold up very well, though to it's credit it's still attached and recognizable.

Bottom Line: I don't actually wish that companies would make more offbeat plush toys that appeal to my weird little foibles, because that would mean those toys were actually popular, and if they became popular I wouldn't like them nearly as much.