Developed by toy designers Teetersaw, the Food Chain Friends are sets of exotic stuffed creatures who eat each other. It's a brilliant idea, and we were thrilled to get our hands on a sample of their Gamma set, which runs $50 on Amazon and elsewhere. Like their Alpha and Beta sets, the Gamma group is made up of five beings, each of which is eaten by the next larger one in a playful inversion of the nesting doll concept. They are well-made, creatively-designed, brightly-colored, fun to play with individually, and fun to stuff inside each other. As their marketing copy says (and when is the last time I quoted marketing copy?): "They're friends. They eat each other. It's a complicated relationship."

Personally, I think the Alpha set, shown above, is my favorite - I just can't get over the biggest one's obtrusive tongue, or the second-smallest one's eerie rabbit-with-sharp-canines look.

Here's a video demo of the Gamma set, which is also fantastic.


Food Chain Friends are not sold solely as five-piece, $50 sets, but with the lowest three members of the food chain ($20) and the biggest two ($30) sold in their own sets. This means you can spend less and/or mix and match to create your own food chains. The only further they could take this (and we strongly encourage them to!) would be to sell the creatures individually, so, say, I could buy a dozen or so of those wispy-haired tomato spiders for the giant green blob to snack on.

An added bonus of these creatures is that you get multiple "friends" that are stored in the largest member of the group. This is pretty space-efficient, and makes Food Chain Friends the only stuffed animals who must disgorge each other from their bellies in order to play house.

A ZRecs Top Pick for their play value, character design, and massive humor value for children and adults. We love both the concept and the execution of this toy.

We received this toy from the manufacturer. When we have completed our seasonal toy evaluations, we will be allowing Z to keep one or two toys, which we will pay for in accordance with our Keep No Stuff policy. (I'm lobbying for this set - which Z loves - but her heart may already have been won by a stuffed animal we'll be reviewing next week.) The rest of the toys will all be donated to charity or given to children outside our home.