Stuffed animal

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"Plush toy" and "Plushie" redirect here. You may be looking for Plush.

For preserved dead animals, see Taxidermy.

Duck stuffed animals

Soft toys are not necessarily animal shaped.

A stuffed animal is toy animal stuffed with straw, beans, cotton or other similar materials. Some stuffed animals are very old – home made cloth dolls stuffed with straw go back to at least the 1830s, perhaps much older. Stuffed animals are also known as plush toys (U.S English) and soft toys or cuddly toys (British English). The most well known type of stuffed toy is undoubtedly the teddy bear. They are often used as comfort objects.

Stuffed animals in the past were used for random stuffing of the evacuated skins of hunted animals. The phrase is still sometimes used to refer to examples of taxidermy. However, with modern technology it is now possible to produce them with synthetic materials. For this reason, plush toy or plushie (U.S. English) or soft toy (British English) may be more appropriate names for modern synthetic stuffed animals.

The first commercial concern to create stuffed toys is apparently the Steiff company, founded in 1880 in Giengen an der Brenz, Germany.

Among the most popular types of classic stuffed animals are teddy bears and sock monkeys.

Some popular commercial manufacturers include Ty, Disney, Steiff, Douglas Gund, Melissa and Doug Russ Berrie, and Build-A-Bear Workshop.

[edit] Image gallery

Bunny stuffed animal, with headphones.	Popular stuffed animals include common domestic pets such as monkeys and hamsters.	This is a stuffed animal of a bear cub.	This is a stuffed animal hippo.
This is a plush teddy bear.	Pig holding a Kinder Surprise chocolate	A unique stuffed cat, with Tuna and TV remote.