The toy industry's latest craze is cheap, colorful and very squishy

GUILDERLAND, NY - JUNE 11: Mike Richman, owner of the Ta-Da! toy store, squishes a glitter ice cube squishy on Thursday, June 11, 2026, in his shop in Stuyvesant Plaza in Guilderland, NY. (Jim Franco/Albany Times Union via Getty Images)Albany Times Union/hearst Newspapers | Hearst Newspapers | Getty ImagesDumplings, ice cubes and gummy bears — squishable ones, anyway — are some of the hottest toys of 2026Squishy toys have been around for years, but products such as NeeDoh, made by Massachusetts-based Schylling, have exploded in popularity this year, helped by their relatively low prices and social media appeal. U.S. sales of squishy toys reached about $297 million through June, quadrupling from a year earlier, Kristen McLean, vice president of client insights and the leader of market-research firm Circana's Entertainment Knowledge Group, told CNBC. Unit sales jumped nearly 200% to 58.6 million over the same period, according to McLean."While the price and the stores they are selling in make them widely available and accessible from a price perspective, the NeeDoh run in particular started on social media," McLean said.The combination of "fun colors, interesting packaging, stress re...