#those who know know my offline situation isn't always the best and some days are better than others

[pomshine]

Happy New Year, everyone! <3 May the day and upcoming year be a great one for everyone~! <3

As for me... I'll be frank, I spent most of the last year in a severe burnout. I haven't been writing much, and what I have been writing has been Genshin Impact focused over on my multimuse, @thundertide, and occasionally on Sera's other blog, @sakurarisen - though mostly I've been doing small things here and there with a select handful of people on Discord most often. While I fully intended to be on tumblr more than just lurking for the last year, focuses shifted and I ultimately ended up in a very nasty burnout that I'm only now beginning to come out of, little by little as things offline allow, and shoving every bit of what little daily focus I have into Genshin stuff and minimal interaction. Some days are better than others, of course.

To those who are still here with me even despite this, i thank you from the bottom of my heart, and with everything in me. <3 Dropping off the face of the earth is never my intention like this (again, I'm aware I've done this before and I don't ask anyone to stick around if you'd rather not), and I do plan on remedying this in the coming year - Slowly. Fewer muses, slower activity, and less guilt and anxiety if my focus happens to shift like it has.

I'll be back soon enough, and I'm forever sorry for dropping off again. <3 Happy New year y'all - Here's to hoping '24 is going to be a better one!

~Pom

[stimtoybox]

You kind of already talked about this, but I'm always really nervous about getting something cheap because I'm afraid it won't be durable. I look at reviews, I especially try to look for ones with more stars/positive reviews, but there are always sometimes those negative reviews that say something isn't good or fell apart and I don't want that to be me. I'm nervous I'll be wasting money.

This is a really fair concern, anon. Most of us are in the untenable situation of needing stim toys, not being able to afford the full-price/official toys and not being able to afford to replace broken cheaper toys. It’s why I like to review just about everything I come across, even if fifty people have talked about it already. With fidget cubes and spinners, the market is so flooded right now that it’s hard to know what to expect, and a great many of these items are less than great. It’s why I am so grateful for all the community members who send in asks and submissions about prices, especially if they also talk about how well the toy works!

Please note that you do have some recourse if something is broken or unusable on purchasing or soon after purchasing. You are absolutely not expected to just take the loss of money in that case, and should (if you can) put in a complaint with the vendor or return the item to store. (I’ve already had to do that with a spinner of mine.) The problem, for us, is if something breaks a few weeks after purchasing, at which time it’s harder to defend (especially for enthusiastic stimmers) that unreasonable use wasn’t the cause. Likewise, it’s harder to do something about noisy fidget cubes that still work as advertised: where the lines are grey in terms of function, we have much less recourse.

(And I’m always keeping in mind that it’s hard for many ND people to do this. I was having panic attacks on the way back to the store while returning my poorly-made spinner. Some of us just can’t return a toy or submit a complaint to a vendor.)

I think the items that fall in the “potentially dodgy” category are spinners, fidget cubes, non-homemade slimes and doughs, knock-off Tangles and squishies - things all readily available right now, offline and on. Especially from places like Wish, Banggood, eBay, Aliexpress and dollar shops! These all have cheaper variations and buying them involves some risk. I think the knock-off Tangles have least risk (they feel subtly wrong to me, but they function like any Tangle, just looser) but everything else has a reasonable chance of odour, noise or breaking. (I haven’t had good success with the cheaper squishies. My red apple is now more glue holding it together than it is apple.) You might also find that a lot of the cheaper dollar shop/party section items like plastic slinkies and puzzles vary in quality, too.

I know that these items cost more, but if you’re after items that are less likely to break and can afford the additional shipping costs, check out fidget toy suppliers like Stimtastic and Fidget Club. (There’s also now Zuru-licensed-from-Antsy Labs’ Fidget Cubes available at US Toys R Us stores, although these seem to be a cheaper quality version of the original Kickstarter cube. Likely better than the cheap knock-offs, though.) If you’re in Melbourne, Australia, I’d take the trip down to Sensory Oasis for Kids. Their items have been vetted for quality; it’s part of what these vendors are trying to bring to the community. There are more affordable items - each store has a range of things under $5. You can also find Tangle Creations-branded Tangles on Amazon and Fat Brain Toys (or at Toyworld stores if you’re Aussie) and I haven’t had a problem with one that wasn’t my fault to begin with.

The thing to keep in mind, though, is that even a high quality item can have many good reviews and one poor one. Things happen. Factory errors happen. We can try our hardest to get a good toy and sometimes we end up with something dodgy - in the same way we try to buy a toy we think works for us and end up with something we use once and stash in a drawer. There’s a lot of experimentation involved in stimming and stim toys, which is a hard stress on those of us without money - and much of the reason why I wanted to collate so many toy reviews here.

I think, at the end of the day, you either choose to go with a more reliable supplier or you take the risk on something cheap. Neither choice is the best for many of us, but that’s the way the market seems to be at the moment!

In the meantime, we’ll keep compiling posts and reviews in the hope of giving you more information.

Just know that it’s okay to be nervous, anon. We’re in an awkward situation of needing the toy and not having the money to waste in the first place. What your feeling is entirely valid and reasonable. I wish I had a way to ease it, aside from pointing you to stores like Stimtastic, but I feel they’re your best bet in finding good toys for the smallest amount of money.

I hope you find something fabulous, anon.

And like always, if you found a great and inexpensive toy, please do send in submissions and asks about it!

- Mod K.A.