🔥 Trending Ooshies: The Collectible Craze and Recent Woolworths Controversy

Ooshies are small, collectible toy figures, often featuring popular characters from franchises like Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars ⁴⁶. They are typically made of a soft, squishy material and are designed to be placed on the end of pencils or used as decorative items ⁷.

Why Ooshies Are Trending

Ooshies frequently trend due to their use in supermarket promotional campaigns, particularly by retailers like Woolworths in Australia and New Zealand ¹². These campaigns involve giving away one Ooshie for every set amount of money spent (e.g., every $30 spent) ¹. This marketing strategy creates a strong incentive for customers to spend more to collect the full set of characters.

Key reasons for their trending status include:

• Collectibility and Scarcity: Ooshies are designed to be highly collectible, with a wide range of characters, including "rare" or "limited edition" versions (e.g., gold/platinum, sparkling Thor) that are harder to find ⁴⁵. This scarcity drives demand and encourages repeated purchases ⁷.
• Engagement with Popular Franchises: By featuring beloved characters from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars, Ooshies tap into established fan bases across various age groups ⁴⁶. This broad appeal ensures a large audience is interested in collecting them.
• Marketing Strategy: Supermarkets leverage Ooshies as a loyalty program. These promotions are highly effective in attracting and retaining customers, as people are motivated to complete their collections ¹⁷. The campaigns often run for a limited time, creating a sense of urgency.
• Secondary Market: The demand for Ooshies, especially rare ones or complete sets, leads to a thriving secondary market on platforms like eBay, where collectors can buy, sell, and trade figures ³⁴⁸. This further fuels their popularity and perceived value. For example, a complete set of 40 Disney Ooshies from Woolworths (2026 edition) can be found for sale online ⁸.
• Appeal to Children: While officially recommended for ages 5 and older due to small parts and choking hazards for children under 3, Ooshies are particularly appealing to children, who often encourage their parents to shop at stores offering these promotions ⁶⁷.

The 2026 Woolworths Disney Ooshies collection, for instance, features a total of 40 exciting characters, plus additional variations, from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars universes, contributing to their ongoing popularity ⁴⁶⁸.