The shop, in a nutshell
Wandering Bard Toys is a US indie running both models at once: a
ready-to-ship shelf of one-off pours, where what you see is the exact toy
that ships, and a made-to-order side where you pick the sculpt, size and
firmness and they pour it for you. One-offs when the right pour appears;
“this sculpt, that firmness” control when you want it, at the price of a
build wait.
The catalogue itself leans classic fantasy — tabletop-adjacent names, a
knotted contingent with their Tabaxi among it,
and a happy sideline in glow-in-the-dark and UV-reactive pours where the
colourway is half the point.
Firmness: published Shore values, with comparisons attached
Wandering Bard publishes the Shore values behind their labels on their
own blog, with household comparisons attached: Super Soft (00-20),
“similar to a gummy candy”; Soft (00-30), “similar to a gel insole”;
Medium (00-50), “similar to a rubber eraser”. Our
firmness explorer leans on the same comparisons, which
turn up independently at more than one maker. Medium is their firmest
standard tier; we found no Firm/10A option in their current range.
Their blog adds two physics notes worth keeping. Thicker toys squish
less, so a chunky 00-30 reads firmer in the hand than a slender one. And
pour temperature can nudge the final firmness — the same batch-variance
candour Pleasure Forge shows, and a good reason
to treat every firmness number as
a comparison language rather than a certificate. Their
Near Clear pours are labelled 00-31, nominally Soft, and like all Near
Clear are prone to firming toward medium with heat and age.
Specs: dual units, and fantasy measuring points
WB spec sheets carry measurements in both inches and centimetres,
girth at named points along the sculpt (head base, mid-shaft, above
base), plus averaged diameters. Fantasy anatomy brings fantasy measuring
points — their tongue sculpts spec “mid tongue” where a shaft would have
mid-shaft — and our database keeps the maker’s own point names attached
to every number instead of flattening them, exactly as
the measuring guide recommends you do at
home.
One reading note: their published diameters are averages, which is the
fair way to describe an oval cross-section but isn’t the widest-across
figure. When in doubt, trust the girth and
convert it yourself.
Which shelf to shop
- Decide which shelf you’re on. Ready-to-ship is exact-object
shopping; made-to-order is exact-spec shopping. Price and patience
differ, so check which a listing is before you fall for it.
- Made-to-order is the firmness-picker’s friend. If the
translation table told you you’re a 00-30
person, this is one of the few places on our shelf where you can simply
order that.
- GITD and UV pours photograph darker than they glow. That one is
community wisdom; charge them under a light and judge at night.
- Size names are house convention. As everywhere,
compare by the numbers. The dual-unit
specs make that unusually painless here.
