Product Review: Mighty Dinosaurs

The Mighty and Tuffy dog toys, by VIP Products, are unusually sturdy stuffed toys with squeakers. The Mighty toy line is extensive, with several different themes and multiple sizes of toys.

That's a stegosauRu.

I love dinosaurs with the passion of a four-year-old boy. I am also remarkably picky about dog toys because my dogs aren't terribly destructive, and I know those toys are going to be laying around my house for years unless I donate them to the shelter or gift them to a dog friend that is harder on stuffies.

Enter the Mighty Dinosaurs. VIP Products actually has two different toy lines featuring prehistoric creatures.

Now stop biting them for a second and pose, ok?

The Tuffy dinosaurs are as tough as they come. I fell in love with the bright orange Tuffy Pterodactyl when Brisbane was just over a year old. It's huge a heavy with rugged black seams. Little Brisbane enjoyed hauling it around a bit, but he's mostly ignored it during the last couple of years. I waffle between gifting it to a friend with a seriously destructive dog, and tossing it on my couch and calling it a throw pillow.

The Mighty Dinosaurs are a little bit cuter, and a little less sturdy. We have a full-size Brachiosaurus, and the Jr T-Rex, Stegosaurus, and Spinosaurus. Ru's favorite is the Brachiosaurus, most of his favorite toys are bigger than himself. Brisbane prefers the Jr dinosaurs, and likes to hoard them in his lair. This is the only non-edible, non-food-containing toy he considers high enough value to hoard. I assume this is because he knows I love them, therefore they must be special.

Pros: Squeaky, machine washable, and incredibly sturdy. Ours still look brand new, including Pterodactyl at 7 years old. Brisbane says these are very pleasant to bite, for dogs that enjoy biting rather than gnawing or destroying things. Also completely adorable and double as home-decor for the dino-obsessed. (I might actually enjoy these more than the dogs...) There are also dragons, wildlife, a Hydra, and a near-infinite number of other toys in the Tuffy and Mighty lines.

Cons: The Tuffy toys are particularly expensive, though there is a product-tester option for owners of Tuffy-addicts to buy new toys at a discount. The big ones will set you back $50-100 retail. I'm told some of the more elaborate Mighty toys are prone to splitting at the seams, which shouldn't surpise anyone. There's a reason the Tuffys have those ridiculously overbuilt seams and simplified construction.

Bottom Line: These will last longer than any other stuffy out there, and look seriously adorable at the same time. There are dozens of options, make sure you buy some that you like looking at because you'll be seeing them for a very long time.

Product Review: Premier Pogo Plush

The Premier Pogo Plush is a stuffed squeaky toy with a unique design. Inside the body of the toy there is a flexible rubber cage instead of stuffing. This cage contains a squeaker that rattles around inside the toy.

This is actually one of Ru's favorite toys, but Brisbane plays better for the camera. The Pogo is a different design than the popular "skinny" stuffies that just have a squeaker inside and nothing else. The animal-shaped toys have tails that flap around when the dogs shake them wildly. We've had the raccoon for about three years, and it held up remarkably well until this photo shoot, when Briz pulled the rubber cage out of it. He finds it interesting because the squeaker isn't always in the same place, so the Find the Squeak game remains interesting.

Photo by Erin Koski

Pros: Pretty durable, held up for quite a while and didn't become an Unstuffing Challenge once the stitching was breached. Continues to squeak after a couple of years. Definitely a toy that prompted spontaneous play.

Cons: The stitching eventually gave out on the bottom and Brisbane was able to disassemble it, to his extreme satisfaction. I personally didn't find this toy particularly cute, it was sort of faceless and weird. Briz didn't think it was quite as much fun to bite as the average squeaky toy.

Bottom Line: More durable and less messy than the average squeaky stuffy. We enjoyed it, and I will probably sew it up again.

Product Review: Plush Puppies Invincibles

Plush Puppies Invincibles are squeaky plush toys by Kyjen. Unlike most squeaky toys, these keep squeaking when punctured.

Photo by Erin Koski

We have had this toy for several years now, and it's one of Ru's favorites so it sees a lot of action until it is inevitably lost under the couch again. My dogs aren't terribly hard on toys, but once a stuffy has been breached its days are numbered. Brisbane thoroughly enjoys unstuffing his toys. I'd buy him the kind that don't contain stuffing, but I'd feel guilty stealing that joy from him.

Photo by Erin Koski

Ru loves this toy more than Brisbane, but he doesn't actually squeak it. He likes to instigate games of tug, and race around the house dragging the snake. Sometimes he grabs it and spins around until it rests over his back, then wears it around the house like that.

Photo by Erin Koski

Our Invincibles snake is an earlier model than the ones currently available, it doesn't have Extreme Seams. It has held up just fine, however. It is a six-squeak snake, and all six segments still squeak just as advertised. This is awesome because non-squeaking toys just aren't that exciting.



Pros: Continues to squeak indefinitely. Goes through the washer and dryer and comes out looking new. Apparently great fun to shake wildly. Has no visible damage after several years of play. Is cute, durable, and washable enough that I haven't gotten tired of seeing it around the house.

Cons: Continues to squeak indefinitely. This one doesn't set off Brisbane's OCD tendency to squeak nonstop for 30 minutes, but if it did we'd have a problem.

Bottom Line: The Invincibles snake probably wouldn't hold up to a dog that eats stuffies for breakfast, but it definitely works as advertised. My mildly-destructive dogs have yet to kill the squeak in this one, and that's impressive. They also continue to enjoy it every time I fish it out from under the couch again.