#safetyteam | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

stimtoybox · 7 years

Note

Do you have a master list of online shops for stim toys? Please please please haha

Since there were three pleases…!

Folks may or may not know that we have the retailer tags pages, A-L and M-Z. There’s so many retailers now that they’re difficult to search through unless you already know what you’re looking for, and they’re certainly not a rebloggable resource. I find them useful, but I’m well aware that they’re no longer useful for folks wanting a simple list. So in this post I’m going to give you the highlights, organised by category.

Please note that this master post absolutely does not include all online stim toy retailers. (Not even close. Not even remotely close.) I’m focusing on stores that are well-regarded and often referenced by the followers of this blog. In addition, I’m mostly listing stores that offer international shipping, in order to make this list useful for the largest amount of stimmers.

A huge shout-out goes to @cal3ris for the provision of the Netherlands/European stores added to this list. Thank you so very much!

You also might like to check out our autistic sellers and crafters master post for more autistic-owned stores, especially if you’re a US stimmer, as there’s many more crafters and creators well worth checking out.

So! Let us list!

General Stim and Fidget Toy Stores

A Sense of Self / @asenseofselfshop (USA, Etsy): Autistic-owned, stocks bean bags, marble mazes and fidget jewellery.

Dragon Adventures Crafting/ @dragonadventurescrafting (USA, Etsy): Autistic-owned, stocks plush and plush fidgets.

Fabulous Fidgets / @fabulousfidgets (USA, Etsy): Autistic-owned, stocks a wide range of fidget toys.

Fidget Club(USA): Autistic-owned, stocks a wide range of fidget toys.

Frans Color Creations / @franscolorcreations (USA, Etsy): 3D printed rings, 3D printed fidget toys, beaded fidget toys.

NeuroDelightful / @neurodelightful (USA, Etsy): Autistic-owned, stocks fidget jewellery and stationery.

Spacerobot Studio / @spacerobotstudio (USA, Etsy): Autistic-owned, stocks fidget and communication jewellery.

Stimtastic / @stimtastic (USA): Autistic-owned, stocks chewables, fidget jewellery, weighted items and fidget toys.

Specialist Stim Toy Stores

Antsy Labs (USA): Makers of the Fidget Cube.

Autistic Rabbit (USA, Etsy): Autistic-owned, stocks weighted blankets.

Fidgetland (USA): Makers of a variety of specialised chain fidgets.

GyRings (USA): ADHD-owned, maker of the GyRing fidget toy.

Sister Cat Blankets (France, Etsy): Autistic-owned, stocks weighted blankets, lap pads and stim toy cases.

OT and Therapy Toy Stores

(Note: most of these are heavily focused on therapy and children. Many of these also use alienating language - not person-first, “children on the spectrum”. Please consider this a blanket warning for all the below vendors.)

Children’s Therapy Store (USA): OT toys, chewables, a wide range of specialist fidgets.

Cheap Disability Aids (UK): OT toys, fidgets, chewables.

Educadora (Netherlands): OT toys, fidgets, but mostly chewables.

Fun and Function (USA): OT toys, fidgets, chewables.Note: uses the phrase “special needs” a lot.

Moderne Moeders (Netherlands): Chewables aimed at moms/infants. But they have stuff I’ve never seen at other shops, so worth a mention. Ships also to Belgium, Germany, Denmark, France, UK, Sweden.

Muisje Sensitief (Netherlands): OT toys, fidgets, chewables, weighted materials. Ships to the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Curaçao.

National Autism Resources (USA): OT toys, fidgets, chewables. Has more of a focus on fidget toys.

Senso-Care (Netherlands | Belgium | Germany): OT toys, fidgets, chewables, weighted materials. Ships also to several other European countries, but for these the shipping costs are quite high.

Sensory University (USA): OT toys, fidgets, chewables. More focus on OT toys and chewables.

Sisigma (Netherlands): OT toys, fidgets, chewables, weighted materials. Ships to Europe Zone 1.

Sister Sensory (Australia): OT toys, fidgets, chewables.

Sensory Oasis for Kids (Australia): stim and fidget toys, weighted, chewables.

Skillbuilders (Australia): OT toys, fidgets, chewables.

Therapy Shoppe (USA): OT toys, fidgets, chewables. Stocks a very broad range with items that I haven’t seen elsewhere.

The Therapy Store (Australia): OT toys, fidgets, chewables. Focuses more on fidget toys.

Tink n’ Stink (UK): OT toys, fidgets, chewables. Has a good range of chewables and fidgets.

Toys for Hands (Netherlands): OT toys and fidgets.

Chewable Stores

(Note: most of these are also heavily focused on therapy and children, although more of these do mention adult chewers. Many of these also use alienating language - not person-first, “children on the spectrum”. Please consider this a blanket warning for all of the below vendors.)

ARK Therapeutic (USA): a wide range of handheld and pendant necklace chewables available in three different toughnesses.

Chewigem (Australia | UK | USA | Canada): a wide range of handheld and pendant necklace chewables.

Chubuddy (USA): a wide range of handheld, pendant necklace and tube chewables rated by toughness.

Teething Bling (USA): a very wide range of pendant chewables. Focused on parents-with-children, no toughness ratings. Good for folks after unique styles.

General Retailers

AliExpress (China): sells a wide range of cheap fidget toys and chewables. Be wary about the chemical listings for chewables, however. Free shipping on many listings.

Amazon (USA | UK): sells fidgets, chewables, squishies, Tangles. Note that a large amount of offerings are US or North America only, so often less useful for international stimmers.

eBay (Australia | USA | UK): everything. Knock-off fidget cubes, spinners, squishies, knock-off Tangles and other China, Hong Kong of Taiwan-sourced listings often have free shipping.

Banggood (China): cheap and high quality squishies, spinners, knock-off fidget cubes. Free shipping on the vast majority of their items.

Fat Brain Toys (USA): educational toy store, sells fidget toys, puzzles and Tangles.

K-Mart (Australia): fidget toys, puzzles, mermaid sequin pillows. Very cheap items for Australians.

Office Oxygen (USA): fidget and office toys. Similar to the now-closed Office Playground.

Smiggle (Australia | UK): fidget toys and stationery. International shipping from the Australian store to anywhere not New Zealand is extremely expensive.

Wish (China): cheap squishies, spinners, knock-off fidget cubes, knock-off Tangles. Shipping on items is generally listed as $2 in buyer’s own currency. Has some extremely good low-cost sales, but the non-sale prices on items is higher than eBay or Banggood.

I’ve noticed, in compiling this list, a distinct lack of UK or European online resources. I would be very grateful if our UK and European followers could send me a few good recommendations!

- Mod K.A.

#stim toy #stim toys #ask #text #link #resource list #master post #safetyteam #mod K.A.#long post #very long post #informative #cal3ris

2K notes · View notes

safetyteam · 3 years

Text

Consent Doesn’t Have to be a Nightmare

by Darcy Richardson

Not too long ago a Horror publisher rightfully experienced pushback when they disparaged the concept of trigger/content warnings. I’ve been thinking about that lately as my middle child volunteered for Nightmare Vermont, a local non-profit that puts on an amazing haunted attraction every year. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about how we consent to certain activities throughout our lives in various social contracts and how that works with subject matter that is by its nature horrifying.

(The author’s kid in one of their Nightmare costumes)

When we attend haunted attractions there is an implied consent that by attending we have given consent to being scared. That’s the purpose after all, isn’t it? But what does that mean? What does that look like? What is scary to one person may be only entertaining to another. When does fun scary turn in to traumatizing scary? Does the concept of affirmative consent, that we at The Safety Team are so dedicated to, apply even in these situations?

The publisher I mentioned above stated that picking up a horror novel is consent to being exposed to horrific material, and that content warnings are not only unnecessary but that they were also detrimental to the story and the subject as a whole. To be fair I think they were correct about the first part. When you pick up a horror novel, you go in knowing it’s horror, the books are labeled as horror, that in itself is a content warning. But we don’t need to know that it’s horror to want content warnings. One such website is Does the Dog Die? , which currently tracks 80 categories of warnings for all sorts of material (books, movies, tv) and allows individuals to screen out their deal breakers.

Ok, Darcy, yes, but we’re talking about haunted houses, right? Right! So let’s talk about how Nightmare Vermont handles consent in a horror attraction.

Let’s start with those content warnings. Yup, Nightmare has them, right on their website!

Hmm...but what about the spoiler effect. Does this ruin the plot? Are these warning a kill-joy, sucking the joy out of any spontaneity, as some individuals argue?

Well, let’s see. Let’s look at Nightmare’s trigger warnings for 2021:

Those warnings are a fair indication of troubling content in this year’s Nightmare, but are they spoilers? Well, since this year’s show is now officially over let me be a little spoilery. Do these warnings tell us that it’s a dark science fiction show this year with cryogenic pods and mutant cannibals a thousand years in the future? Do they spoil the fact that we have to save Joanna from her mad scientist captor? Or that when we finally free her she’ll realize maybe she’s right where she belongs...

Content warnings do not have to spoil anything. They just allow people to interact with content they are comfortable with. This is entertainment, not an event to be endured.

But wait there’s more!

So is this all Nightmare does? Nope. Let’s go over what Nightmare Vermont does to ensure affirmative consent in their attraction. As a reminder affirmative consent is enthusiastic, continuous and freely given.

I’m not a Nightmare regular, in fact the only reason I even went this year was to be a supportive parent. My kid has LOVED volunteering for Nightmare and every update has been more exciting then the last, so I knew I needed to go.

We managed to get tickets, though I should have ordered earlier. Nightmare is hugely popular and the shows sell out, but we arrived on a rainy closing night tickets waiting for us at the box office. We were assigned a line for when our group would enter. It was very well organized, they’ve been doing this a long time.

Nightmare as an event is broken into two sides. One side is the narrative portion which follows a script and tells a story. It’s theatrical and although it definitely has the horror elements from a traditional scare, the experience of going through it is more like walking through a play where the actors can direct comments to you. The other side, The Maze, is the more traditional haunted house. It’s the scarier side and, of course, it’s where my kid was.

Now, I love horror, and would happily attend the narrative portion any day, but I hate jump scares! I hate the anxiety of waiting. This was my biggest concern about attending, and the reason I avoid a lot of haunted houses. I know my limits, and that’s one of them.

However, I knew from the website, that monster wards were available. What is a monster ward? At Nightmare a monster ward is a glow necklace that tells the cast to ignore you.

I bought one.

Nothing to see here monsters, no need to jump out and scare me. The peace of mind was well worth the dollar to brightly advertise my limits.

When our group was called we attended a quick briefing on the rules of Nightmare, things like don’t touch the cast, and keep your mask on the whole time, (it’s still a pandemic people!), but this is also where we were briefed on the safeword.

A safeword is used when an individual wants things around them to stop. At Nightmare the safeword was “safeword!” Nice and simple. Easy to remember! When spoken out loud, a staff member would help you leave where you could either take a break and rejoin your group later or you could leave the event all together.

This is an excellent way to ensure that consent stays continuous, because by safe-wording a visitor can revoke the consent to be scared at any time.

After this briefing came the opposite to my monster ward: the teaser. The teaser is another signal that was bid on prior to the start of the narrative, where one person in our group would be given an identifier to tell the cast that they consented to being grabbed or being put into the story. Once the auction was done, the individual not only signed a waiver, but the host announced what this individual had consented to.

After the narrative, which was fantastic, we made our way into The Maze. Prior to entering the staff member at the front explained what The Maze consisted of (i.e a more traditional haunted house with dark enclosed spaces and jump scares). Informed consent is essential to affirmative consent. (And given that I had been transporting my kid to and from practices and set-up I was probably more informed than most) With my glowing monster ward, I was ready!

Yup, I got scared. But it was fun scary. Not panic inducing scary.

So let’s think about all the way consent was intertwined in this event:

Content warnings were available on the website prior to going.

My purchase of the ticket showed my initial consent to attend.

My monster ward advertised the limits of my consent, as did the teaser for those individuals who consented to that option.

A safeword was in place so that consent could be rekoved at any time.

The narrative and Maze had separate entrances with pre-briefings at both. A person could choose to only attend one or the other if they so desired.

In short, yes, this was a horror attraction, but affirmative consent was applied and ensured that this was a fun activity for everyone! I would absolutely do this again, maybe even without a monster ward, but the thing that struck me is that consent can and should be integrated into daily life. When we do that, we ensure that consent is normalized as a cultural practice and in our goal to reduce sexual violence and abuse, doing that is essential.

Consent doesn’t have to be a nightmare.

Nightmare Vermont is a local, volunteer run non-profit organization which presents annual haunted attractions. Check out their website for more information about their program, their charitable donations, or to join the mailing list to hear about next year’s show!

#Consent NightmareVermont Horror Haunt SafetyTeam

1 note · View note