Kristin McLean

Kristin McLean is the toy-industry analyst quoted in What makes a toy go viral. She supplies the category context around Squishy Dumplings, saying 2026 had been a strong year for toys and that squishy toys had grown sharply since January.

McLean connects the broader squishy, sensory, slimy, and fidget-toy category to customers looking for playfulness, joy, calm, and relief from anxiety. Her role in the source is to keep the dumpling case from looking like pure randomness: TikTok may have accelerated the hit, but the toy also sat inside a wider sensory-toy trend.

She also identifies Beanie Babies as an earlier model for limited editions, special releases, and timed drops, linking the source’s Collectible Drop Scarcity discussion to a longer toy-industry pattern.

Connections

• Squishy Dumplings - source product case.
• Mystery Toy Packaging, Collectible Drop Scarcity, and Intermittent Reinforcement - demand mechanics discussed around the toy.
• TikTok - platform context that amplified the category.
• [[ReallyMagicalStuff|RMS]] - company whose case she helps contextualize.