Not long after reviewing Xoddo's design-your-own plush doll creation service, another startup in the custom plush field, CurlyQ Cuties, contacted us with an offer to try out their stuffed monster creation service. We checked out their business online and were surprised to see how different their offering was, so we agreed to give it a try. Since Z had already adopted her Xoddo doll, we all agreed beforehand that this time we'd be creating a doll not for her but for her cousin, G., and that Z would have the pleasure of designing it for him.


CurlyQ's design interface works smoothly, and was a bit easier for Z to master than Xoddo's. This is in part because the two companies offer very different design models; unlike Xoddos, which print a virtually unlimited number of graphic layers onto a constructed "blank," CurlyQ Cuties are made of colored pieces of fabric that are sewn together. Although this means there are fewer options overall for your softie's design, the big win here is in body shapes - in addition to ten types of eyes, belly designs, mouths, eye colors, belly colors, and body colors, there are ten different body styles, which vary pretty dramatically once you've accepted the basic pudgy teardrop body type. You can see all of CurlyQ Cutie's body styles here.

The only pressure we exerted during the design process was to refuse to let her make the body pink, a decision she returned to several times throughout the design process. We did this in part because we honestly suspected her five-year-old male cousin would be less enthusiastic about a pink doll, but also because the doll would be shipped to us for review prior to sending it on to its recipient, and we wanted that process to go smoothly.


This makes Cuties with different eyes (from one to three) or belly shapes (heart, circle, star, etc.) feel dramatically different, as one might have a pair of antennae while another sports flamelike hair. The resulting variety feels more comparable with Ugly Dolls, in fact, than with any other custom-made doll we've seen.


Although we read up on the site and product before ordering one, it was honestly hard for us to appreciate just how handmade this little guy would feel. The doll is made of fleece with felt accents serged on and a stitched mouth (some styles are hand-stitched). The only thing we could have asked for was a little stronger mouth line (it is a thin piece of black thread that blends in with the body and has some gaps).

The dolls are about 12" tall, which is a few inches taller than Xoddo dolls, and a couple inches shorter than a standard Ugly Doll.


CurlyQ Cuties cost $25, and can be personalized with an embroidered name for another $5. For a product that is entirely made in the USA (both CurlyQ and Xoddo deserve praise for that) and the level of customization, this is the right price. Standard shipping is $5, and for another $1 you can request a handwritten note for the doll's recipient. They guarantee your doll will ship within 10 business days or you'll get a 10% discount, and indeed ours arrived within a week or so; it was held at the post office for a signature, and we actually received an email from the company reminding us of this, which may have been automated but was still pretty amazing. They also make "Fairy-Tooth" dolls which are shaped like big teeth, have many of the same feature options plus a pocket in back for the proverbial tooth-cash swap, and start at $15.

You can play with CurlyQ Cuties' monster maker, and order the plush monster of your dreams, at CurlyQCuties.com.

We loved this idea from the start: A website where you can design your own stuffed creature, select from hundreds of visual elements to mix and match however you like, and have the resulting 9" softie shipped to your door. I'm pretty sure this would have been impossible to get off the ground five years ago, and although recent technological advances make customized toys feel like an idea whose time has come, we wondered if the folks at Xoddo had pulled it off or had a disaster on their hands. We asked them to let us design and order a softie through their site to test their software, ordering, and physical product, and they agreed. What we discovered was a pleasant surprise.

Designing your Xoddo softie

When you hit Xoddo.com, you're immediately invited to start designing a softie, and you won't be able to resist browsing the menu of visual elements you can add to and position on the vaguely teddyish design template. There are more items than you'd think, and the menus are obviously built to allow easy expansion; building these out is probably the cheapest part of Xoddo's operation.


One critical area of risk for a site like this is the functionality and friendliness of the design tool. If you don't have fun making your softie, you're very unlikely to be in the mood to order one (we'll get to the price in a minute) once you've battled your way through it, and far more likely to give up on the way. The company clearly understood this, and did a good job of making the tool very easy to use and reasonably intuitive. We worked with our five-year-old on the design, and although she made all the design choices (don't blame me for those freaky alien eyes or the necktie-and-bunny-slippers outfit), as her supplicant navigators of the web Jenni and I both had a little trouble with a couple of the functions, and had to figure them out. Deleting a layer or item you've added, for example, requires you to drag the layer, and sometimes you can't put your cursor on just the layer you want, and have to sort of shift them around to get to the item you'd like to remove. Clearing the entire design is a single button click away, though, and the button is located right next to the figure, which means it isn't hard to accidentally clear a bunch of work and creating some ill will among possible softie shoppers.

But overall we got through it pretty easily, and learned a couple of tricks we'd employ next time, if there ever were one. (If Z has her way, there will be. I told her to start saving.) The company has created a demo video which shows off how the site works. It's designed to instruct you in how to use their site, but basically, if they were relying on an instructional video to get customers through the process, they'd be sunk. The fact that the site is relatively simple to use is proof that they know this, and have worked hard to create a user experience with as few opportunities for confusion as possible. Anyway, here's that video, because it shows off the most surprising thing about the site - how well the company nailed the cute but hip crossover audience this product is perfect for. Accessorizing visual elements ranged from hearts and rainbows to glass-enclosed brains in fluid.


The only features that really should be there are the ability to resize and rotate design elements, at least those that wouldn't cause major problems for the software. These features would introduce a lot more creative freedom into the process of designing a Xoddo softie. You also can't import your own graphics, but I can see the problems with that and appreciate the limits they've set. (If you could upload a graphic, would you want a proof? Or expect them to check your design to make sure it would print properly?) More softie shapes would be nice, but those can come later.

To order, you have to create an account, so that your Xoddo figure can be saved in a personal gallery. I'd question the wisdom of making this a requirement - why not let business come through the revolving door of people who don't want to set up a profile? - but will leave that to the egghead business types. I'm less conservative about setting up random personal accounts than some, so it bothered me only on principle. I might also point out that making a big to-do about creating a gallery and saving your item there for future purchases might beg the question of what you have really accomplished in your design, and if it is not worth preserving for the ages, is it really worth having around? This could dissuade those casual consumers who might otherwise buy impulsively.

What you get

The dolls are pricey - $28 for a version that's 9" from toes to ear tips, or $18 for one about half that size. This may make Xoddo's offer a no-go for some consumers, but people have been paying $30+ for Build-A-Bears and their ilk for years. There is clearly a market out there, and these things have way more hip potential and are far more customizable. For people willing to invest in this kind of object, they need to trust that the quality of both the construction and the printing are high.

Fortunately, Xoddo has invested solidly in the manufacturing process. The colors printed on the fabric are bright and rich and the printing is crisp and clean - not quite as eye-popping as you see on a new T-shirt but far more than what you'd see in an iron-on transfer or from a custom T-shirt shop. And the quality of construction is great - the filling is even, the seams are very neat, and the whole thing is well-put-together. Unlike some competitors' products (which we're also very interested in getting our hands on) this dolly is not designed for short-term use.


Add to this the fact that Xoddo's manufacturing occurs entirely in the U.S., and I don't think $28 is unreasonable for the combined software and real-world service they're providing. Shipping is $4.95 unless you are buying 3 or more, in which case it jumps to $9.95, unless you are buying 9 or more, which takes you to $14.95. But if you have $252 to drop on customized plushies, I'd like to speak with you about some investment opportunities.

Turnaround on our doll was about two weeks, which was a morally reprehensible lapse in Z's opinion; I think she would have led a demonstration at the factory gates if we'd offered to drive her there. But the fact that she asked us, unprompted, at least three times over that period WHEN THAT DOLLY WAS GOING TO COME and WHY WASN'T IT HERE YET is a sign of how powerful the possibility of highly-customized, "user-generated" inanimate playmates can be to a young child. So if you have one (a young child, that is) and you're on the fence about whether it's worth the cost of admission, make sure to check out this site after the kids are in bed, and decide for yourself if you're going to show it to them.

We'll be donating the value of this toy to charity in accordance with our Keep No Stuff policy.