Tiger Plush

Stripes, whiskers and an amber stare, with none of the bite: a tiger plush keeps the look of the animal and makes it soft. The plush tigers in this collection fall into two broad looks: lifelike designs with glossy eyes, black-rimmed ears and fine toe lines on their paws, and round cartoon tigers with stitched smiles. Around them sit hand puppets, a tiger-head pillow printed with a photograph of a tiger's face, and furry paw mittens made to be worn rather than hugged.

Lifelike tiger plush: cubs and lounging tigers

The lifelike designs stay close to the animal. The Kawaii Tiger Plush is an orange cub standing square on all four paws, with glossy amber eyes, a pink nose, white whiskers and pale ears edged in black, and even its white-tipped paws carry neat black toe lines. The Adult White Tiger Plush lies with its head raised and its front paws stretched forward, black stripes running across a white coat and a soft ruff of longer fur framing its face. It comes in sizes from 30cm up to 120 cm, from a tiger that fits on a shelf to one that stretches across a bed.

The Baby Tiger Plush lies stretched out flat with its head turned slightly to one side, showing a golden-brown coat, a cream chest and paws, and a black tip to its tail. It is offered in 40cm, 48cm and 60cm, in brown or in white.

Kawaii tiger plush and cartoon tigers

Kawaii is the Japanese word for cute, and in toy design it has come to mean round bodies, big heads and small, friendly features. The Kawaii Tiger Plush uses the word in its everyday sense, for a cub that is cute but true to life. The Japanese Tiger Plush Love follows the style more closely: a round, yellow-orange tiger sitting with its feet out in front, eyes closed in two curved lines, a stitched smile, brown stripes across its brow, cheeks and arms, and two striped hearts on its tummy. Its white feet show pink paw pads, and it comes in 45cm, 55cm and 65cm.

The same spirit runs through several other designs: a seated cub with huge, glittering eyes and a white ruff, a loaf-shaped plush with bold black stripes and a tiny face, and a long-limbed white tiger with an oversized brown nose.

Puppets with a tiger face

Some of the plush toys here are hand puppets, open at the base so a hand can slip inside and work the head and arms. The Tiger Striped Plush Puppet has a golden coat with black stripes, a white face, a brown nose and an open, pink-lined mouth, with a short striped arm on each side. Other puppets come in fluffy orange or white fur, and one dresses for the holidays in a red Santa hat and a green scarf.

Plush to lean on and plush to wear

Some pieces step away from the toy shape altogether. One is a tiger-head pillow with two rounded ears, printed edge to edge with a close-up photograph of a tiger's face, from the striped brow down to the pink nose and white whiskers. Another is a set of paw mittens in golden plush: black stripes run across the backs, each palm carries black pads, a black claw tips every toe, and a ruff of white fur trims the cuffs.

Sizes and colors across the range

Many tiger plush toys list their sizes in their options, and across the collection they run from a small 12cm plush up to the Adult White Tiger Plush at 120 cm. Some designs are made in one size only, while others offer a choice, as the Japanese Tiger Plush Love does. Orange is the main color, with beige and brown on some designs and white tigers in many of the styles, from puppets to standing cubs.

White tigers owe their coloring to a rare gene variant. They belong to the same species as orange tigers, keep their dark stripes and often have blue eyes. Several of the white plush tigers here carry those stripes in black.

The cub behind the plush

Many plush tigers are modeled on cubs, with large heads, round faces and short legs. Wild cubs spend their first weeks hidden in a den, and their eyes are blue at first, turning amber as they grow. Our article, all you need to know about the tiger cub, follows a cub through its first two years, including how the tigress moves her young between dens and teaches them to hunt.

Plush, figurines and puzzles

This collection is one part of our wider tiger toy range. For a tiger that stands on a shelf rather than lying on a bed, our tiger figurine collection renders the animal in miniature, from a tigress carrying her cub in her mouth to a family of white tigers. A tiger puzzle takes the subject somewhere else again, turning paintings and photographs of tigers into jigsaws, most of them 1000-piece designs.

A few questions about these plush tigers

Which plush tigers come in white?

The Adult White Tiger Plush is white in every size, and the Baby Tiger Plush can be ordered in white as well as brown. Two of the puppets come in white, and so do smaller designs such as the Small White Tiger Plush and the White Tiger Lovey.

What is the biggest plush tiger here?

The Adult White Tiger Plush in its 120 cm size, the top of a size range that starts at 30cm.

Is there a tiger hugging a cub?

Yes. One of the seated designs cradles a little cub in its arms, and it is offered in beige, orange or white.