What are Pop It Fidget Toys, and Why Are They So Popular Right Now?

What are Pop It Fidget Toys, and Why Are They So Popular Right Now?

The latest toy craze is here, making waves in households across the country, and

it's basically glorified bubble wrap. Featured recently in The New York Times, Pop Its

have enthralled kids everywhere with their satisfying poppable blisters. Here's what

you need to know about these flexible silicone toys and how they might benefit kids.
    Where Pop It Fidget Toys Originated
    The story of Pop It Fidget Toy

begins with Theo and Ora Coster, a married couple from Israel. Over the years, they

invented more than 190 games—including the face recognition game Guess Who?—and founded a

company called Theora Design, according to the BBC. (Amazing fact: Theo was actually a

classmate of Anne Frank.)
    When Ora's sister died from breast cancer in the mid-1970s, she had a dream about a

field of breasts. "Imagine a field of breasts, that you can press from one side, and

then press from the other side," Boaz Coster, her son and co-C.E.O. of Theora Design,

said when describing his mother's vision. Theo created a prototype, and it sat around

for many years until the couple's sons sold it to Montreal-based games company FoxMind.
    FoxMind manufactured the product in silicone, and it was marketed as a game called Last

One Lost, a puzzle in which two players press the bubbles together, and the player who

presses the last one loses. It debuted in 2013 and was not exactly a smash, but in 2019, it

relaunched under the name Pop It! and hit Target shelves.
    How Pop It Fidget Toys Took Off
    The big moment of Pop It Fidget Toy

has been linked to its appearance in a viral TikTok video. In the clip, a capuchin

monkey-turned-influencer with almost 8 million followers named Gaitlyn Rae can be seen

playing with a Pop It. The monkey's owner, Jessica Lacher, told the BBC: "Somebody

sent her a pop-it for her birthday. … That was the first we had ever seen of them."
    Gaitlyn's video launched a craze. You can now get Pop It-style knockoff toys—not

licensed by FoxMind—in a variety of shapes and colors. You can find versions inspired by

Peppa Pig, dinosaurs, unicorns, pineapples, and more.
    Kids have been loving Pop Its during the pandemic and while learning remotely,

according to The New York Times. "Especially in these times, they can be calming, they

can be soothing," Adrienne Appell, a senior vice president at The Toy Association,

told the outlet. "Even adults are enjoying them."
    The Benefits of Fidget Toys
    Experts say that Pop It Fidget Toy Animal might help kids focus, particularly if they struggle

with ADHD. That's because the act of fidgeting allows the mind to be still and focus.
    "I often tell parents that for their child, as for me, if the feet or fingers are

still, it's a safe bet that the mind isn't," Thomas Beck, M.D., co-founder of

the Winston Center for Attention, Language, & Learning tells Parents.com. "There will

be more problems with focus, not less!"
    But every child is different, as Yamalis Diaz, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and a

clinical assistant professor at New York University Grossman School of Medicine, explained

to The New York Times. She has treated two children with the same diagnosis, both of whom

chose a Rubik's Cube as a fidget toy, and although one child could keep answering

questions while he played with the toy, the other was entirely consumed by it and

couldn't multitask.
    The squid game is a story of 456 players risking their lives to become the last winner

in a survival game with a prize of 45.6 billion won.
    Netizens from Korea and China are arguing over the green gym uniform in Netflix’s

original ‘Squid Game’.
    On the 5th, Chinese media observers and others responded with the news that “China is

claiming that the costumes in the ‘Squid Game’ were copied in Korea.”
    In particular, Sungshin Women’s University professor Seo Kyung-duk took issue with an

article posted on his Instagram the day before.
    Observer Network criticized “Professor Seo has stimulated China many times over this

agenda,” and said, “This time, he chose the wrong target.”
    Previously, Professor Seo mentioned various cases of copyright infringement in China

and argued that the green sportswear of Lee Jung-jae in

‘Squid Game Mask’ was sold

in Chinese shopping malls with the word ‘China’ written on it.
    Professor Seo analyzed in this article, “China seems to feel a great sense of crisis

as Korean content such as Squid Game and Kingdom continues to attract attention from people

around the world.” He also criticized China, saying, “China should learn respect for

other countries’ cultures first.”
    Chinese media claimed that the picture of the training clothes that China copied was a

scene from the movie ‘Teacher, Like’ released in 2019, and that actor Wu Jing wore it as

a gym teacher. The words ‘China’ are engraved on the tracksuit he is wearing.
    Stanford professor Robert Sutton notes that the Pixar movie Cars was chosen from about

500 pitches, and at Skyline, the Originality

Toys design studio that generates ideas for Fisher-Price and Mattel, employees

submitted 4,000 new toy concepts in one year. That set was winnowed down to 230 to be drawn

or prototyped, and just 12 were finally developed. The more darts you throw, the better

your odds of hitting a bulls eye.
    Though it makes perfect sense, many managers fail to embrace this principle, fearing

that time spent conjuring lots of ideas will prevent employees from being focused and

efficient. The good news is that there are ways to help employees generate quantity and

variety without sacrificing day-to-day productivity or causing burnout.