Axolotl Squishy or Capybara? Which Trend Animal to Pick

For most axolotl fans the best axolotl squishy is a small glittery one that fits in a pocket, and for capybara fans it's a 9 cm (3.5 in) foam capybara that sits back up slowly. The highland cow and the cat are the other two trend animals of 2026. Below you get one clear pick for each animal. Each pick comes with its size and the maker's age label.

Which animal, which squishy?

Here is our pick per animal at a glance. Sizes and age labels come from the makers' product descriptions, and "no age given" means the maker simply doesn't say.

All of them are pocket-money pieces except the XXL highland cow, which costs the most. The product cards show the live price, in AUD or NZD if you're in Australia or New Zealand. Faire is a wholesale platform where shops buy their stock. Searches by those retailers grew fastest for highland cow squishies in summer 2026 at 219 %, ahead of capybara at 198 % and axolotl at 170 % (The Toy Book, September 2026).

Every axolotl and capybara we stock sits in our capybara and axolotl collection, along with both highland cows.

Which axolotl squishy should you pick?

Pick the glitter axolotl if it's going into a pocket or a school bag. It's light and small, and when you squeeze it, it slowly rises back without losing its shape.

It feels smooth and soft and a little stretchy in the hand. The maker doesn't say what it's made of and gives no exact size, only that it fits in a pocket. It comes in four colours, pink among them.

Want something bigger? The axolotl mochi is a large see-through ball with silver glitter and frilly pink gills that are fun to pinch. It sits in your palm like a little ball. The maker only says "plastic" and gives no measurements.

Which capybara squishy should you pick?

For most people the slow rising capybara is the one. It's plain PU foam with no filling, 9 × 6.5 cm (3.5 × 2.6 in), and it has a sleepy face with tiny paws folded in front. Squeeze it and it sinks in, then it sits back up slowly. One style carries a tiny green turtle on its back like a backpack.

Capybara Squishy, Slow Rising with Turtle or Strawberry HoodView

For a desk, the large capybara is heavier. It's TPR, a soft rubbery plastic, and weighs about 170 g (6 oz), roughly as much as a medium apple. The maker gives its weight but no measurements.

The glitter capybara is for older kids and adults. Its maker fills it with a maltose mix, so it stretches far like taffy and then drifts back into shape. There's no size or age label on it.

Which highland cow squishy should you pick?

Pick the creaky highland cow if you like a squishy that makes noise. It's 8.5 × 5.5 cm (3.3 × 2.2 in) and weighs about 87 g (3 oz). Inside its soft TPR shell sit tiny plastic building block pieces that creak loudly when you squeeze.

Because of those small pieces the maker marks it as not suitable for children under 3. Pick orange-brown like a real highland cow or mint green.

The XXL highland cow is the big one. It measures 14.5 × 11.5 × 15 cm (5.7 × 4.5 × 5.9 in), so you squeeze it with both hands, and it feels solid because it's heavy for a squishy.

Which cat squishy should you pick?

Our pick is the cat with ice cream, a scented PU foam cat that rises back very slowly. Its maker rates it from age 6 but gives no exact size. For a desk at work, the grumpy cat is soft TPR with a bored stare, packed in its own little box. Cat paws aren't automatically taba, though. Taba is the name for soft, skin-like squishies made of silicone, while our paws are foam or clear TPR. Paws and whole cats sit in our cat squishy collection.

Slow Rising Cat Squishy with Ice Cream, ScentedView

How foam and TPR differ from silicone is explained in our overview of types of squishies. For gift ideas sorted by age and budget, see our squishy Christmas gift guide. Delivery takes 7–15 working days, so order by Wednesday 2 December for Christmas, and that goes for Australia and New Zealand too.

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