When Zhu Zhu Pets came out in the beginning of the 2010s they were the hottest toy around. These little stuffed creatures were modeled on hamsters and came with wheels, so they could zip up and down trackways and do all the things Hot Wheels cars could. In addition, they made cute noises when they banged into each other or hit obstacles. Giant plastic playsets that looked like Habitrail cages came out so children could house their zhu zhus together, watching them interact and zip around. (So strong was their impression that for years I thought they were called Zhu Zhu Hamsters, until today when writing this post. That was my Mandela Moment.)
As a gender-neutral toy they were nearly perfect, appealing to both boys and girls. Unlike living hamsters, they could be mashed and crashed with glee, and didn’t need to have their cages cleaned or be fed. That, in my mind, is what made them such a great plaything — they saved the real-life animals from death and neglect.
Ever since I started these Worldbuilding Wednesday posts I wanted to make up randomly assembled names for them, but the project kept falling to the wayside. After my AI posts about hamsters the time seemed right, but to my surprise I received another Mandela Moment shock. I had remembered the creatures in the toy section back then having silly names like Squeaky and Gigglescooter, but in reality, only a few did. Most had more plebian monikers. Nevertheless, I’m sticking to my memories of the names, which would also be fitting for actual hamster pets.
Hamster Names
| Bloobelle
Buttnoodle Captain Tankjet Chubby Primple Chubdoozle Chunkling Coobits Dydeedoodler Flaptootle Flitterbrip Floopster Flubwuffle Flurkler Fushwugguns Fuzzrample Gigglepants Glimkins Hypepper Hyromp Jerringle Kooffle Koozoo |
Li’l Bitstuff
Lompi Major Shirfy Meegle Miss Chunkfluffle Miss Dashdingle Miss Pingling Moogle Mr. Pipkins Mrs. Crashboongle Mugglette Mushboy Nordle Oompers Plooftastic Ploon-a-choo Popscooter Schlubbins Scrunchfrazzle Sergeant Nudgenongle Shiffle Shookmums |
Shootzie
Springle Girl Shrellow Shroomlegs Sir Squashinator Snickershart Snikwaffle Snowheelie Squashcheeks Teapopper Tinkiebomb Toonmallow Tubbystubbs Whufflup Whumpy Wrinkleberry Yefluff Yeekie Yibble Yinky-dink Zoondink Zoybutt |
