#bodero

[image description: five cinnamon scroll squishies sitting on a blue microfibre blanket. Four of the squishies are housed in clear plastic bags with a yellow cardboard trim, featuring drawings of a sprinkle-covered cake on the edges and the white text “Squeeze Eez” in the centre. These squishies are arranged in a rough square on the blanket. A fifth squishy, unpackaged, sits atop the packaged ones. The squishies are a baked tan-brown with orange shading and a coil of white paint for icing painted on the layers of the scroll and dripping down the sides. The scrolls have realistic bread-texture dimples and ridges where the pastry would be coiled into a scroll in real life.]

Squeeze Eez Squishies - Bodero, $1 AUD.

Dimensions: 10 x 10 x 11 cm at highest point.

Bodero is a clearance-style discount store. I know there’s stores in Victoria, Australia (and a few come up when I do a Google search) but there’s no website listing all the stores or the products. They often have beauty and homeware type items, but I’ve found storage containers, bathmats and a few odd fidget toys. Yesterday, I found these jumbo-sized scroll squishies for $1 AUD each. $1! That’s better than eBay for something this size!

(I picked one out thinking they were $2, discovered at the register they were only $1, bought it, opened it in the shopping center, and rushed back to the store five minutes later to buy as many for which I had loose change, all the while babbling at the sales assistant about the bargain price and the lack of smell. The sales assistant, by the way, was super nice about my unbridled squishy enthusiasm.)

These squishes are a little denser than most squishies. They’re not stress-ball dense, but they don’t have the nice fluffy-marshmallow texture of a really melty soft squishy. The texture, between the dripping icing, the raised section of the scroll and the dimpling is fantastic for stroking. I opened two: one of them is quite slow rising, but the other is only moderately so; expect some variation in rise and softness. Both have a tiny hole in the top of the squishy, meaning they make that lovely whistling noise when pressed for additional auditory stimming.

What makes these amazing (aside from the price) is that they’re almost completely odourless. There is no added scent. I smell a faint chemical-plastic scent from the foam when held right under my nose, but there is absolutely zero added smell. (I suspect the chemical smell will fade once these have aired, but it’s very slight as is.) These will be perfect to use in public or around folks who need to avoid strong fragrances, and they leave no scent on my hands.

The only drawback for these is that they look realistic enough that I’d be careful with them around pets and small children. They’re larger than the average scroll cake, but not so much that they couldn’t be mistaken for one.

(These would look so good displayed on a cake stand on a sideboard, for adults wishing their stim toys disguised as home decor items.)

De dood van de zestienjarige Franse koning Karloman in 886 biedt het perfecte alibi voor de Noormannen om opnieuw de wapens op te nemen. Ze voelen zich helemaal niet aan een wapenstilstand gebonden met Karel de Dikke, de nieuwe koning van het Karolingische rijk (Frankrijk en Duitsland samen). De mensen van Veurne slaan opnieuw op de vlucht voor het geweld dat drie volle jaren zal aanhouden. Karel…

[image description: two photos, taken on a red and green circular watermelon slice pillow, of two light green chenille cleaning/duster slippers. The slippers are a rough oval shape with green frond fabric bases and a trim of blue/brown/red floral print material, elasticised, forming a loop around the top of the slipper. First photo shows both slippers enclosed in a white cardboard slip case with English text reading “cleaning slippers 1 pair microfibre flying tiger”; second photo shows the two slippers resting side-by-side.]

Chenille Cleaning Slippers - Bodero, $3 AUD.

Dimensions: 25 x 11 cm approx (not fully stretched)

Variations: green, blue, light pink, dark pink, mustard yellow

There’s a new discount store near my local shopping centre called Bodero, which is basically a clearance store akin to The Reject Shop but with no real permanent product lines. There’s no website, but a Google Search brings up references to a few different shopping centres (most of them, I think, Victorian).

These are designed to slip over your shoes so you walk around sweeping the house, and I’ll admit I’m none too sure of the efficacy of this. I’m thinking they’re best worn by stimmers, if you want something to run your fingers through--especially if you sit cross-legged or with your legs tucked up near your hands.

These are pretty loose: I have feet that are on the longer and wider side of average despite otherwise running to the miniature, and they fit me without stretching. I’d say they’d fit most feet traditionally sized as “female” and smaller feet traditionally sized as “male”, but may be too lose for stimmers with very small feet. They’re filled with elastic, which helps!

If you’re just after a source of cheap chenille fabric to make very stimmy plush or bean bags, these will also be suitable--and they’re available in a wider variety of colours than most other mop heads or dusters.