At the MoMA's Safe exhibition last year, you may have seen Giant Microbes. The plush toys are humorous and educational. But with some of them made to resemble Gonorrhea or Syphilis, I can't decide if the toys are more "eeew, ick!" or "oooh, neat!". Then again, some of them are pretty cute (just check out the Flu)! Really, though, as a collection on display they could be colorful conversation starters... -regina
I vote for "ewww, ick!"
Looks just like what's on my ballsies.
I think they're kind of interesting. If you work in healthcare, they would be neat teaching tools, too.
I dont know why, but they are so cute! The common cold one I would buy. :)
I love 'em, but I've always been a science nerd...
Greatest.Plush Toys.Ever.
Hilarious. Would also make a great baby gift. LOL!
Has anyone considered the fact that some of these "cute" viruses are fatal and kill people in the developing world every day? Under no circumstances would I want to cuddle up with the ebola virus, thank you very much.
sleeping sickness... just the thing for your little girl's sparkly princess bedroom!
it's Care Bears for the Addams Family.
personally, i'd go for flesh eating. i especially like the embroidered knife and fork.
Now, instead of the dreaded call to ex-lovers, you can just mail a plush toy to let them know you gave them the clap. Brilliant!
bubble,
I am concerned with global healthcare, and I still think these things are cool. AND cute.
They're in the window of a card store on Fifth Ave in Park Slope, near Carroll St I think.
Across the street from Matter, next to al di la,
something like that.
I vote cute. It would make a great gift for my sister if they had a plush shigella, since that is what she is researching at school.
Alas, e.coli and salmonella made the cut, but not shigella.
i love these. i'd use them as pillows in my living room. just imagine the fun your friends would have playing with gonorrhea.
also, and a bit on the tacky side: these would make a really funny, rude gift to your significant other, a la 'sex and the city' when trey gives charlotte the cardboard baby.
I think they'd be great for a high school biology class, and for a pediatrician's office. The exotic ones would be good for a traveler's clinic where one gets shots for the truly scary stuff. Frighten slobby teenagers into cleaning their rooms with the dust mite toy.
I think they're funny - more humor needed on this site sometimes!
Ha, I actually work on a global HIV/AIDS prevention project, and have one of these hanging by my desk. I will admit I got the ebola one, because the HIV one was kind of creepy looking. Definitely a conversation starter with other public health nerds.
Translating diseases into plush toys and adding eyes to anthropomorphize them and make them "cute" just seems rather...I don't know, twisted?...to me. If there hadn't been an attempt to make them "cute" I can see them as a teaching aid or useful prop, but they aren't exactly authentic, just approximations. Cute approximations. And the only illnesses that I can stomach being cute about are a cold or flu. They aren't exactly kid-appropriate (not in the plush-toy age-range anyway). And anyone who thinks they are a great baby gift...!....
They have shigella there, now.
http://www.giantmicrobes.com/us/products/stomachache.html