NAHEIM, Calif. — Give him all the puzzled looks you want. Tanner Dam, a 38-year-old court clerk, will respond with a laugh and say he’s “comfortable in his manhood.” So what if he wants to parade around Disneyland with a plushie affixed to his shoulder?
“No shame,” he said with a shrug, which made his stuffed toy — Zazu, the “Lion King” major-domo — bob up and down. “Besides, all the cool kids have them.”
Not ... exactly.
The magnet-stabilized souvenir, which Disney calls a Shoulder Plush, is a hit at the company’s theme parks around the world. But children are not driving sales. The merchandise, introduced in 2018 with a single item, Baby Groot, has mostly spoken to a theme park subspecies: the Disney adult.
Sweet and sincere in some people’s eyes, and prime targets for mockery and memes in others, Disney adults are supercharged superfans. Many visit Disney theme parks without children. Some shed tears of joy when they spot Cinderella Castle. Almost all find ever-more-creative ways to telegraph their fandom through clothes, accessories and body art.
T-shirts. Mouse ears. Pins. Backpacks. Charms. Lanyards. Clogs. Stickers. Tattoos.
And, increasingly, shoulder sitters.
“Ears are boring — everyone wears them now,” David Gallegos, 23, said as he left Disneyland in mid-July with his girlfriend, Joshelyn Rodriguez, 22. “I wanted something more comical.” He pointed to Rodriguez’s shoulder, where Zero, the ghost dog from “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” had hitched a ride.
Disney declined to provide sales data, but said it was expanding the category because of strong demand. Disney Consumer Products will have released 45 different shoulder pals by the end of next year, with Jiminy Cricket from “Pinocchio” and a new-and-improved Tinker Bell joining the likes of Gus, the zaftig mouse from “Cinderella,” and Anger, the tantrum thrower from “Inside Out.”
“Whenever we introduce a new character, they shoot up to the top of the bestselling list,” said Monty Maldovan, a senior manager of product design for Disney theme parks and DisneyStore.com.
The deltoid-sitting stuffed animals are about 5 inches in height and cost $25 to $30. A magnet inside the toy connects to one placed under your shirt.
“It stays there unless I turn my shoulder too fast,” Dam said. “If I do, I’ll fling it off.” (Sounds like Zazu should go into hiding on certain rides if he doesn’t want to end up as road kill.)
Disney Shoulder Plush was a best plushie finalist for the 2025 Toy of the Year Awards, which are put on by the Toy Foundation, the charitable arm of a toy industry trade association. Alas, Disney lost to Emotional Baggage, an educational set of stuffed balls designed to help children discuss their feelings.
The products may be ascending in popularity as part of the “kidult” boom — adults trying to recapture the magic of being a child through toys and costumes. Pop Mart, a Chinese collectibles retailer, has estimated that its Labubu dolls will generate $1 billion in revenue this year, more than double the amount from last year; women dangle them from their purses.
“Shoulder Plush isn’t mainstream, but I could see it getting there,” said AJ Wolfe, author of the new book “Disney Adults: Exploring (and Falling in Love With) a Magical Subculture.” Wolfe added, “People love to be defined — to feel special and different — and this is one way to do it, even among other fans.”
The precise origin of magnetized shoulder toys is murky. Some people credit Shoulder Fun USA, a small Florida business that began selling items called Shoulder Buddies in the early 2010s.
Disney’s plushie designer, Maldovan, said he was inspired by “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” which Walt Disney Studios released in 2017. The poster for the Marvel movie featured Baby Groot, an anthropomorphic sapling, standing on another character’s shoulder. Maldovan asked a toy vendor to make a prototype. When it arrived, he wore it to work.
“The reaction I got from people was amazing,” he said.
The trend has spread beyond Disney. In April, the Seattle Mariners attempted to market themselves with a stuffed shoulder Moose, the baseball team’s mascot. Streamline Imagined, an online retailer, sells its own assortment, including a $14 shoulder nacho. (“Your perfect companion for nacho average fun!”)
Universal theme parks and consumer products have thrown down the gauntlet, however. Many of its shoulder pals are elaborately interactive, including Snowy Owl, a “Harry Potter”-themed item ($59) that chirps, moves its head and flaps its wings. A baby dinosaur named Dolores ($55), inspired by a character in the recent “Jurassic World Rebirth” movie, moves its neck, mouth and eyes and makes chewing noises.
“We’ve been constantly in chase mode because of demand,” said Justin LaFoe, the global merchandise and retail officer for Universal Parks & Experiences, of the shoulder toys. “Our guests just absolutely love them. It’s a way to extend our storytelling.”
Shoulder Plushes tell the story of the fans, too. On a trip to Disneyland in July, Chris Pattuinan, 35, was accompanied by Stitch, the annihilative blue alien, who was perched on his shoulder.
“He represents the weirdo in me,” Pattuinan said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2025 The New York Times
