Merry squish-mas! NeeDoh craze continues as £30 advent calendar, featuring 24 mini stress reliever toys, sells out - and is going for double the price on Vinted

Daily Mail journalists select and curate the products that feature on our site. If you make a purchase via links on this page we will earn commission - learn moreThere may still be 99 shopping days left until Christmas Day and more than two months until December 1st...but for desperate parents trying to get their hands on this year's must-have kids' advent calendar, it's already too late.The NeeDoh 24 Days Fidget Advent Calendar, which retails at £29.99 and features mini versions of the hugely popular squidgy stress reliever toys, has sold out at every approved UK retailer including Smyths Toys. Merseyside grandmother Jane Hastings, who's run popular toy shop Toys, Toys, Toys on the outskirts of Liverpool for 15 years and has become a trusted seller of NeeDohs, kept her shop open late to meet demand from customers over the summer - and is now out of stock. Some shoppers who did manage to pick one up when they were first released in July, and again last month, have taken an enterprising approach - by listing them for twice the price on pre-loved site Vinted. Several calendars have been listed in recent weeks at around double their original retail price, with one currently on sale for £59.70. NeeDoh has been the toy sensation of the year, experiencing the kind of success Labubu dolls enjoyed in 2025. However, the success appears to have surprised NeeDoh's makers, and there have been supply issues to retailers all year. The squidgy stress reliever toys have been sold-out in the UK for much of the year...and the NeeDoh advent calendar has quickly gone the same way, with official stockists reporting no stock this week Back in August, trusted UK NeeDoh retailer Toys, Toys, Toys announced it would stay open following a second release of the festive calendar While not the most sophisticated product ever invented - described by the US company who makes it as a 'groovy glob', that hasn't stopped NeeDoh flying off the shelves. Gaining popularity first on social media, particularly on TikTok, the NeeDoh Original is described as a 'stress ball fidget toy' that's about the size of a tennis ball - but it's the 'Nice Cube' and 'Dream Drop' versions that have most captivated. The cubes come in a rainbow of often swirling colours with eye-catching black and neon packaging - and they can be pulled, stretched and squeezed in every direction, but will always settle back to their original shape.They've proved a runaway hit, say toy experts, because they tap into the ongoing love affair with toys linked to ASMR - Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, essentially offering soothing, tactile sensations for those holding them. Crucially, the pliable cubes are often allowed into the school environment - because they double up as sensory aids that can help pupils manage anxiety.Made by US company Schylling, based in Boston, the NeeDoh has soared in popularity on this side of the Pond this year, after experiencing similar viral success in America.Responding to the rise in imitation products appearing on the market, Schylling has warned parents this week that 'bricks-and-mortar' stores are the safest bet to guarantee authenticity and safety - and advised against buying 'fraud' products from 'platforms like Temu, Alibaba/AliExpress or eBay'. The first release of the calendar, which contains 24 NeeDoh Teenie Squishies, was back in July with stock quickly flying off the shelves Every single branch of Smyths Toys appears to have sold out of the calendar You might find one on Vinted though, if you're prepared to pay almost double the £29.99 retail priceOn UK high streets, the NeeDoh is sold at major retailers including Smyths, Hamleys and Waterstones although many of them haven't been able to re-stock quickly enough. At a London branch of Waterstones, a store worker told the Daily Mail this summer: 'We will get more in because they're so popular, but they sell out very quickly.' Online, it's a similar picture... online toy store My Small World sells more than 30 NeeDoh products but currently has none in stock. Smyths appears to be currently 'out of stock' on all of its NeeDoh products, although the toy store goliath says it expects more in. UK toy expert Peter Jenkins told the Daily Mail earlier this year that Schylling is basically reaping the rewards of making a slicker version of popular ASMR toys that are already out there, after sensory toys became a hit during the pandemic. 'ASMR [videos] became big, because it was just highly watchable. Slime and dough and ASMR compounds picked up popularity when we were at home and we were making stuff. Manufacturers saw how popular it was.'NeeDoh stands out on quality though, he says. 'It looks curated, there's some thought going into it, from the packaging to the name itself. People saw why it was more expensive, and it became more prolific, and the retailers didn't expect it to explode quite as quickly as it is.'It's next level and it's a more grown-up version. It's not as childish as sticking your finger in a jar of slime and making fart noises as we did back in the 80s and 90s.'Says Jenkins: 'When kids take things viral, it's nothing to do with people who are so-called toy experts, it kind of happens organically, which is brilliant.'