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Budsies – The Must Have Children’s Christmas Gift Of 2014?

By Scott Falkner
Published on: 05:19 PST, Nov 26, 2014

Budsies, a new toy company, will actually take one of your children’s drawings and transform it into a stuffed animal for Christmas.

Every year, there’s a toy that becomes a must have. Sometimes, those toys are just something that drives kids wild, making them beg and beg, and sometimes, the toys become a status symbol that “good” parents manage to find for their children. Past holiday seasons have made everything from Cabbage Patch Kids to Tickle Me Elmo to Furbys to Zhu Zhu Pets must have toys.

Is the Budsies stuffed animal the must have Christmas gift of 2014?

A new, Florida-based company called Budsies will now take any drawing created by your child (including doodles) and turn that drawing into a stuffed, plush toy. The stuffed animal will be a one-of-a-kind handcrafted piece, which is sure to be a draw for status-conscious parents. The founder of Budsies, Alex Furmansky, said that he was inspired to create toys from doodles after watching his younger sister’s drawings go from the fridge and kitchen walls to a box and then eventually be thrown away. By turning his little sister’s drawings into stuffed animals, Furmansky said it enabled her “quirky childhood artistry to live forever.” The first two Budsies ever created were made using Furmansky’s sister’s designs, and the first one ever made has become the Budsies company’s mascot.

The concept of allowing children to participate in the design and manufacture of their own stuffed toys was first realized by the Build-A-Bear Workshop stores several years ago. However, whereas those toys could only be built using specific materials and initial designs, Budsies allows kids to design whatever they want.

The process to get a toy from Budsies is pretty simple. Parents either mail or upload their child’s drawing. Pay about $69 plus shipping, and the finished creation will be delivered to your home. Budsies says it prefers to keep its production process a secret for the kids, explaining that the toys are created with “a sprinkle of fairy dust, a pinch of magic, and a wave of the wand.”

If Twitter is any indication, Budsies are a big hit with both parents and their kids the world over.

My very own @BudsiesToys from @KateDickman

If you want a Budsies animal by Christmas, however, you’ll have to hurry. Orders take several weeks to be filled.

What do you think? Are Budsies the must have toy of 2014?

[Image via Budsies]

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