Book Character Plushies

Christmas stories

E.T.A. Hoffmann wrote The Nutcracker and the Mouse King in 1816. One of our customers wanted the life-size pair that malls put by the tree, for their own Christmas photo shoots with children, so we sewed the Nutcracker and the Mouse King at 1.2 m tall each.

Both have a frame inside and a round stand, so they stay upright while kids lean on them. In the book the Mouse King has seven heads. Ours has one.

A smaller Mouse King came from the Bolshoi ballet: a gold crown, a star medallion and a cape with a white fur collar.

Findus is the cat from the Pettson and Findus books, and he’s always up to something. Our first Findus is 50 cm tall and made of faux fur.

For the Christmas Findus, the customer sent the book illustration and asked for the hat and the sock on his tail from the Christmas story. Ruslan wrote that it was “a definitive depiction of Findus, with the same face, green striped pants, and a red winter glove on his tail.”

Down the rabbit hole

The Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland fades away until only the grin is left. We’ve sewn him so often that we gave the family its own page, Cheshiromania.

One Cheshire Cat is fur over a frame, with handmade eyes, teeth, nose and paws, 35 cm long without the tail. Another Cheshire Cat has long dark fur and bright green eyes, and a third one is grey with bright blue stripes.

From the same book: the White Rabbit in his blue jacket, and Bill the Lizard, who does the White Rabbit’s dirty work. Ours wears a white shirt, a vest and a red scarf. Alex said he “appeared to be even better than in the pictures.”

The road to Oz

At the end of the first Oz book the Scarecrow is left to rule the Emerald City. Our Scarecrow King has the job: a silver crown with jewels, a blue coat and straw hands. The Iron Woodcutter, the Tin Man, has a silver riveted body and a funnel hat. More dolls like these are in character dolls.

Bears, foxes and a Gruffalo

Our Winnie the Pooh follows the bear from the Christopher Robin film, red shirt and all: 20 inches tall, with arms and legs that move. The fox from The Little Prince is about 45 cm long, all legs and ears.

The Gruffalo has what the mouse in Julia Donaldson’s book warns about: terrible tusks, terrible claws and a wart on the end of his nose. And from Sergei Kozlov’s fairy tales, the ones that gave us Hedgehog in the Fog, comes Tryam, a hedgehog with ginger faux-fur spines and a zip pocket hidden on his back.

From the page to the screen

Oskar is from School for Vampires, the cartoon based on Jackie Niebisch’s 1983 children’s book. He’s the vampire who faints at the sight of blood. Ours has spiky black hair, two small fangs, embroidered eyes (one a little bigger than the other) and his green jacket.

Greg Heffley from Diary of a Wimpy Kid carries a red backpack and a red book.

Toothless began in Cressida Cowell’s books. Ours is the Night Fury from the films: 45 cm tall and 60 cm long, with wire in his paws and wings. Sandy, in his golden robes, comes from William Joyce’s Guardians of Childhood books, the ones behind Rise of the Guardians. More screen versions are in toys from animated films.

Characters with no toy at all

Shishimora comes from a writer’s own fantasy novella. No shop makes it. We had one piece of reference art, a small creature sitting in a pair of hands, and we needle felted it from that: charcoal-grey wool, huge ears with wispy tufts, amber eyes under heavy brows.

If you wrote the book yourself, send us your illustrations or the page that describes your character. The character stays yours. We only make the toy. Characters you invented are in OC plush, and your own drawings go to plush from drawings.

What you can choose

• Any character from a picture book, a novel or a fairy tale, famous or known only to you.
• Which version. The first edition’s drawings, a later illustrator, the film, or your own colors.
• Any size, from a plush that fits on a bookshelf to a 1.2 m figure.
• Sewn or felted. Soft plush, or needle felted wool like Shishimora.
• Clothes and props: a crown, a cape, a backpack, a hat.
• Extras on request: a frame so it stands, a hidden pocket, a sound module, LED lights. Extras change the price and the time.

Fairy-tale creatures and dragons are in fairytale plushies.

Christmas

A character from the book they read every December makes a good present. Order by November 1 for delivery before Christmas. Details are on our Christmas plush page.

Why readers trust us with their character

We’ve made toys to order since 2009, more than 2,100 of them, each by hand. We’re an independent studio, so a book character plush is a handmade fan piece, not official merchandise. The character belongs to its author and illustrator. We just sew one copy for one reader.

If it isn’t your character when you open the box, you have 14 days to tell us, for any reason. You get a full refund and keep the plush. The details are on our guarantee page.

Questions about book character plush

More answers are in our FAQ. Got a character from a book you’d like to hold? Send the illustrations with the quote form and tell us the size.

Gentle stream flows,
Paths clear in moon’s soft glow —
Easy process.

Custom toys start from $350.
A bigger size or extra details can cost more.