“Spend a thousand yuan just to hear a sound” This super stress-relieving toy can be crushed in 3 seconds and it went viral. Some people sat for 5 hours to snatch it.

It is soft when pinched, and you can hear a crisp “click” sound when you apply a little force. Recently, a stress-relieving toy called “Crispy Pinch” has become increasingly popular on Chinese social platforms. Related topics continuetik tok The cumulative game volume exceeds 2.4 billion times, and the monthly sales of many products exceed 500,000 yuan (RMB, similar below, approximately US$74,000). Even artists like Wang Junkai and Sun Yi have joined this category. However, while this craze has created business opportunities, it has also created issues such as product safety, price speculation, and consumer disputes.

According to CCTV, Blue Whale News, Qilu Evening News and other media reports, unlike previous pinch toys that can be repeatedly squeezed and slowly turned over, “Crispy Pinch” focuses on the one-time joy of destruction. The toy can be crushed by hand in just 3 seconds. This process is accompanied by a sharp crackling sound, which brings tactile, visual and auditory stimulation.

This type of product was initially popularized by foreign handmade bloggers, and then rapidly spread back to the Chinese market. Inspired by short video platforms, “Crispy Pinch” became a new traffic password. Many Internet celebrities and gamers have purchased the product in large quantities and filmed the crushing process and evaluation videos. Some videos have received more than 10,000 likes. Some people have spent thousands of dollars at a time to shoot different styles of crushing effects. Netizens joked, “Spend more than a thousand yuan to hear the sound.”

The increase in market demand has also made manufacturers reluctant to receive orders. Some industry insiders revealed that “Krispy Knead” has been selling like hot cakes since March and April. Factory order volume this year was ten times that of last year. At the peak of popularity, orders had to queue for up to a month, and merchants even had to personally go to the factory to place the goods in order to receive the goods. Players wait from 2 pm to 7 pm to watch their favorite styles in the popular live broadcast room, which shows how popular “Crispy Noodle” is.

At present, ordinary “crispy knead” models on e-commerce platforms sell for about a few yuan to 20 or 30 yuan, and excellent hand-made models sell for about 30 to 40 yuan. Some rare styles even cost hundreds of yuan, but high-priced products do not mean that they are safe to play with.

Previously, some media sent 11 models of Knead to the laboratory for testing, and all of them were found to have some concentrations of total volatile organic compounds, including formaldehyde, toluene and xylene. Another test of eight products found that six models had excessive formaldehyde emissions, up to 46 times the national standard.

Industry insiders said the quality of products on the market varies greatly. Some small workshops and individual handicraft traders lack testing equipment, and the sources of raw materials are not transparent. They may also use industrial-grade PVC or recycled materials. Prolonged exposure may cause health risks such as skin irritation.

In addition, “Krispy Knead” has also seen several controversies after sales. Some merchants revealed that they have encountered consumers who spent more than 800 yuan to purchase products, crushed all the products, and then applied for returns and refunds based on quality issues. Stress-relieving toys that were originally marketed as “low-cost emotional outlets” have a variety of invisible problems hidden behind them.