Social media-driven craze puts ‘squishies’ up there with evergreen favourites such as Lego and Barbie, Hamleys says A cartoonish banana so addictively squidgy that it is “really difficult to put down” is tipped to be among the must-have toys this Christmas , according to expert buyers at Hamleys.

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The £10 “slow-rise, squeezable, sensory” fruit taps into the “squishies” craze that is fuelling a high street boom in toy sales. In the coming weeks, Hamleys expects to sell thousands of the Big Squij toys, which come in a variety of food and animal shapes filled with a flour-based compound.