ZURU Snackles plush toys

Series 1: twelve named characters

Series 1 introduced twelve Snackles plush characters with names rather than species labels — Hetty the Yeti, Ellie the Monkey, Finn the Shark — each with a treasure they always carry. Rufus holds a frying pan with a fried egg in it. Rachel the lobster carries sushi. Lola the giraffe has a sundae taller than her own neck. Ten of those twelve are on this shelf. The treasures are not licensed snack brands here; they are objects the character loves, which is a different idea to the rest of the collection.

Most of Series 1 is made at 8 inches with four characters also produced at 14 inches. The hangtag on every plush carries the bio, the hobby, the star sign and the birthdate, so if you collect the stories as well as the toys, keep the tags on.

Series 2: real snack brands, three sizes

Series 2 is where Snackles started pairing plush toys with licensed snack brands. The shark holds a Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme bar, the penguin holds a Baskin-Robbins tub, the hedgehog holds Mentos, and the shrimp holds either a Krispy Kreme doughnut or a tube of Pringles depending on which one you find. Each snack accessory is printed from the real packaging onto fabric and sewn into the plush, not clipped on.

This is the only range made in all three large sizes. A single character — the puppy with the Sonic burger, say — exists at 8, 14 and 16 inches, which makes a size ladder possible for collectors who want one character three ways. Thirty-two Series 2 plush toys are currently on the shelf, which is a third of everything we list.

Series 3: the new wave

Series 3 kept the named-character idea from Series 1 and brought back licensed snacks from Series 2. Josh the yellow chick has Haribo cola bottles. Marco the raccoon has toaster pastries. Matthew the highland bull has a net of Babybel, which is a cow holding cheese and we have made our peace with it. Max the pink axolotl and Olivia the spotted blue character are the two newest additions and are the ones collectors ask about most.

Fourteen Series 3 plush toys are listed, split between the 8-inch and 14-inch sizes.

Disney, Ninja Turtles and the licensed editions

The Disney Snackles are a limited run of seven characters — Stitch with a coconut water, Rex with popcorn, Pua with a coconut, Lotso with a strawberry smoothie, Alien with pizza, plus Minnie and Sulley at 14 inches without snacks. They are limited rather than ongoing, so they do not restock on the same cycle as the numbered series.

The Ninja Turtles edition is the only one where the characters carry weapons instead of food: Donatello with his bo staff, Michelangelo with nunchucks, Raphael with twin sai, all at 14 inches, plus a 5-inch mini.

Super-Sized: fourteen inches and a comic

The Super-Sized range is a separate 14-inch build — wider and lower than the Series 2 body of the same stated size — and every character comes with an origin story comic strip. The chicken with the Tabasco bottle is the one people remember. The elephant curls its trunk around a Chupa Chups lollipop. The cow and the unicorn both carry Froot Loops, which makes them an obvious pair.

Holiday editions and the small sized plush

Christmas, Halloween, Easter and the Love Edition each produced their own closed set. Halloween gave us Moon the Pumpkin, Raven the Ghost, Salem the Cat, Shadow the Spider and Draco the Vampire — Shadow is the only Snackle with eight legs. Christmas brought a Santa, a polar bear with Hershey's Kisses and Ginger the Gingerbread Man. These are seasonal, so stock moves in one direction only.

At the small sized end, the 5-inch minis and the 3.5-inch keychains are the cheap way in. The keychains come as a fixed two-pack with a mini snack each; the Core Series 2 capsule is blind, so you find out which character you have after you open it. Some people collect for display, some collect to trade, and the capsules exist entirely for the second group.