My mum and my sister bought me these really cool soft toys in the shapes of microscopically sized things  for my birthday this year.  But more than just being something a little unusual, they are actually really well made and really clever.  They are by a company in the US called Giant Microbes and the company actually goes to a lot of effort in designing the toy to look like the thing it is meant to represent.  For example if you look at penicillin under the microscope it looks like this:

And the toy that Giant Microbes make looks like:

Which I think looks cute.  Penicillin is my favorite one but they also have things like common cold, flu, rabies, malaria, tinnea, herpes, toxic mould and red tide.

The toys come in a range of sizes, most of the diseases come in the 5″-7″ plush doll (12.7cm – 17.8cm) for around USD $7.95 (AUD $12.95) and the larger 15″-20″ plush doll (38.1cm – 50.8cm) for USD $24.95 (AUD $39.95).  I notice that if you order from the US there is also a version of some of the diseases of three mini dolls in a peitre dish for USD $12.95, though if you have the web site set to the Australian version these mini dolls in the petri dish are not listed.  Also some of the microbes are not available if your location is set to Australia eg Sperm cell and Egg Cell.

I have made up a table that displays them all so you can glance through at your favourites more easily.  Also if you click through the link here to buy the toy then I get a commission which I will put towards the AEReS project.  So do have a look through and maybe find something you like.  They make great gifts and are great educational tools, teaching younger kids about things that they can’t see with their own eyes.

The Flu

    

 The Common Cold

Stomach Ache

Sore Throat

Ear Ache

Cough

Black Death

Ebola

Flesh Eating

Mad Cow

 Typhoid Fever

Anthrax

The Clap (Gonorrhea)

The Pox (Syphilis)

Herpes

Chlamidia

House Fly

Mosquito

 Lyme Disease

HIV

 Hepatitis

 Tuberculosis

Polio

 Bad Breath

Glandular Fever

Tinea (Athlete’s Foot)

Ulcer

Pimple

 

Giardia

Dust Mite

Bed Bug

Bookworm

Louse

Flea

Maggot

Black Ant

Red Ant

E Coli

Cavity

Salmonella

 Heart Worm

 Mange

Rabies

Toxoplasmosis

 Martian Life

Yeast

T4 Bacteriophage

Penicillin

Algae

Scum

Sea Sparkle

Red Tide

Krill

Brain Cell (Neuron)

Fat Cell (Adipocyte)

Red Blood Cell

White Blood Cell

Sperm Cell

Oocyte

 Malaria

Gangrene

West Nile Virus

Sleeping Sickness

 Staph

Pneumonia

Chicken Pox

 Multiple-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus

(Golden Staph)

Toxic Mould

C. Diff (Clostridium difficile)