When Plaja Pets debuted last year with their kooky, swappable body parts (subcutaneous magnets held heads and tails to bodies) Jenni and Z both declared themselves fans but I wondered how many families would really want stuffed animals that were quite so cluttery. After the company was bought by Small World Toys, which owns a sackful of other brands (the best-known is the Ryan's Room line of natural doll playsets), Plaja Pets came out with a "Mini" series that finally has us all on the same page.

Plaja Pets' Minis offer the same mix-and-match play in a much smaller package, meaning that the fun units of these little toys doesn't compete in my mind for the amount of cubic toydom they command. The mini versions of these stuffed friends are also cuter than their larger counterparts, because as any four-year-old can tell you, small is cute, and they have introduced a few animals that are themselves esoteric and half-fantastical - a bird with wings that are clearly on backwards, a long, feather-forked tail, and tiny horns above its eyes is a highlight, and makes mixing and matching that much more fun. I think they should come out with entirely mythical beasties so we can mix things up even more. Give me a unicorn, a gryphon, a basilisk, and a centaur and I'll give you four seriously wacky remixed play objects.

The other complaint I had about Plaja Pets has also been addressed with this micro edition - the price. Standard Plaja Pets run $32 per pair; the quality is good, so you can see where the money goes, but it still sort of chaps my cheapskate hide to pay that much for stuffed animals. Plaja Pets Minis are $17 for two, with bodies that are about 4" in diameter and heads the size of a satsuma. We fell in love with them at the ABC Kids' Expo last week, had some shipped to us for vigorous testing, and would recommend them even more highly than the original design, which had our house divided against itself, yet somehow still standing.

Other benefits of thinking small abound. Plaja Pets Minis are easily portable, and Z played with them while waiting for food at a restaurant. Because of their small size they are also very easy for her to manipulate. As previously mentioned, they are also intrinsically more fascinating to her because of their smaller size. As with larger Plaja Pets, the colors are bright and attractive, the construction is high-quality, and the toys function as designed.

You can pre-order Plaja Pets minis for November delivery, then save them for stocking stuffers.