To Everyone Staring at an Empty NeeDoh Shelf: A Note From Us

Needoh Tracker started for a pretty simple reason. Empty shelves are annoying, and driving to three stores to find nothing is worse. If a website could save you even one of those trips, it seemed worth building.

What we didn’t really think about back then was how often the honest answer would be “not near you, not today.” We see those searches. A ZIP code comes in, every store nearby says out of stock, and an hour later the same ZIP comes in again. Then again the next morning.

We can tell you where a NeeDoh is. We can’t make more of them show up. That part has always bugged us.

Squeez’M is a small toy company, separate from NeeDoh and Schylling. They sent us some of their BigBlok cubes to try. We were a little skeptical, honestly. Plenty of squishies look great in a photo and then feel like a sad sponge.

This one didn’t. It’s firmer than a NeeDoh and it feels more substantial in your hand. You have to actually lean into it. That was the thing we kept coming back to when we passed it around, and it’s the reason you’re reading this instead of us politely saying no.

Squeez’M describes the inside as a slow-rise gel and says the cube is about 50% bigger than competing ones. We haven’t measured it against every cube out there, so take that as their claim, not ours.

We asked Brian, who started Squeez’M, how the BigBlok came about. His answer was refreshingly un-corporate. Pretty much everything out there felt too smushy to him, the Nice Cube included. So they made the cube bigger, made the outer shell harder, and adjusted the gel inside until it felt right in his own hand. It turns out a lot of people wanted the same thing.

He was also clear that they aren’t trying to be NeeDoh. He wants it to be the squishy a teacher, a student, or a therapist can count on, something sturdy and safe more than something cute. Kids seem to like it anyway, mostly because it feels different and holds up.

It’s a small operation. Brian calls himself the dad and founder, and a handful of people run the business and take care of customers. He was quick to credit the factory crew who actually make the cubes. If you want the story from him directly, there’s a two-minute video at the bottom of the Squeez’M homepage where he explains it himself.

If someone in your house has their heart set on a specific NeeDoh, like a certain Nice Cube color for a collection, a BigBlok isn’t going to fix that. Keep checking. Restocks do happen, and that’s still what this site is for.

But if what you really want is something good to squeeze on a rough day, at a desk, or in the car line after school, it’s worth a look. It’s a different feel. Firmer, slower to come back, bigger. Some people will like that more. Some won’t.

It also costs more than a $5.99 NeeDoh, so check the current price on their site before you decide.

Squeez’M is a dad-owned business in the US. If a cube leaks, you text a photo to the number printed on the box and, according to Brian, a new one shows up in two or three days, with no return to deal with. We liked that. Squishies do sometimes split, and it’s nice when a company just handles it.

They list it as tested to the ASTM F963 toy safety standard and meant for ages 3 and up. Like any gel-filled toy, it shouldn’t be heated, microwaved, punctured, or left in a hot car or direct sun. Warm gel can get hot enough to burn if the skin breaks. With little kids, squeeze time is better with a grown-up nearby.

It comes in a few colors, plus two- and three-packs if you’re buying for more than one person. Here’s the whole lineup:

Nothing about the tracker is changing. It still checks stores the same way, and NeeDoh results always come first. When everything near you is sold out, you’ll now see a small link to BigBlok under that item. Once a day at most, a little window might pop up suggesting it too. Close it and it gets out of your way.

Thanks for using this little site, and for sharing it with other people who are looking. If you find a full shelf somewhere, go get one. Then tell a friend who’s been hunting too.

Happy squeezing,
The Needoh Tracker team

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