69 maker labels translated ·14 makers · strictly 18+

What firmness numbers actually feel like

Firmness is the one thing you'd normally check with your hand in the shop, and there is no shop. So this page is the hand test: scroll, and the finger presses five silicones for you — firmest to softest — then every maker's label lands on one ruler, with real toys at every step.

Ultra soft Shore 00-10 – 00-20 Soft Shore 00-30 – 00-35 Medium Shore 00-45 – 00-50 Firm Shore 10A (Shore A scale) Extra firm ≈ Shore 18A and up

Five even steps for reading, not a linear ruler — the map below shows the real spacing. Squishier is left.

First, the number

Shore hardness is a real measurement

The codes on every listing — 00-30, 00-50, 10A — come from an industrial gauge called a durometer: a small spring-loaded pin pressed into the surface. Zero means the pin sank all the way in; 100 means it barely left a dent. Gel insoles, skateboard wheels and toy silicone are all scored this way.

Squishy toy silicone lives on the Shore 00 scale; the firmest pours cross onto Shore A, a second scale for flexible rubbers. The walk below runs firmest to softest — same finger, same push, and the dent deepens as the silicone gives.

≈ Shore 18A and up

Extra firm

Past the reach of household comparisons. The makers themselves stop at "hard" and "not very forgiving", and leave it there.

Zero give: every millimetre of girth and texture arrives as-is. The makers' own pages say it plainly — generally not recommended for beginners.

Real toys at this step ↓
Shore 10A (Shore A scale)

Firm

Flexed muscle — rigid like erect tissue, but still bendable. Note the scale change: 10A is Shore A, a different ruler that starts roughly where Shore 00 tops out.

Texture you can really feel; girth reads bigger than the same number in a softer pour. Some makers only offer it on select sculpts (or just suction bases).

Real toys at this step ↓
Shore 00-45 – 00-50

Medium

A rubber eraser — or, as one guide puts it, a stale gummy bear next to Soft's fresh one. Squishes under a firm press, holds its shape otherwise.

Holds its line going in, which is why more than one maker points beginners here first.

Real toys at this step ↓
Shore 00-30 – 00-35

Soft

A gel shoe insole — two makers independently use that exact comparison. About the give of the pad of your palm; cushiony, with a spine.

The community's favourite all-rounder. Near Clear pours nominally sit here at 00-31, though the clear silicone firms with age — see “Age and heat” below.

Real toys at this step ↓
Shore 00-10 – 00-20

Ultra soft

A fresh gummy sweet, or chewing gum. Several maker guides reach for the same squishy-body-fat comparison — one says it plainly: adipose tissue.

Wobbles, folds and forgives. Big girth reads gentler at this step — but very soft toys can be genuinely tricky to insert without help.

Real toys at this step ↓
One trap

Shore 00-30 is nothing like Shore 30A

Shore 00 and Shore A are different instruments, and the digits mean nothing across them: 00-30 is a gel-insole squish, 30A is a firm rubber. The two scales overlap rather than continue each other, and no clean conversion exists.

So always find the scale before the number. "00-50" is a medium squish; "10A" is a genuinely firm toy; a bare "50" with no scale named is an under-specified label, and you're within your rights to squint at it.

Illustration: a fingertip pressing into extra firm silicone with the same force — softer pours dent deeper

Same finger, same push. The only thing changing is the Shore number.

The squish test

Extra firm ≈ Shore 18A and up Feels like nothing in the house comes close. Zero give: every millimetre of girth and texture arrives as-is. The makers' own pages say it plainly — generally not recommended for beginners.

See the toys at this step ↓

Every maker's label on one ruler

Dot positions come from maker-published Shore values; hollow dots are our best-evidence reading where no Shore exists.
0A 10A 20A Shore A 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Shore 00 ultra soft soft medium firm extra firm Bad Dragon Bad Dragon “Extra Soft (2 firmness)” — no Shore published Bad Dragon “Near Clear Soft” — no Shore published Bad Dragon “Firm (8 firmness)” — no Shore published Creature Feature Toys Creature Feature Toys “Super Soft 00-20” — 00-20 Creature Feature Toys “Soft 00-30” — 00-30 Creature Feature Toys “NC31” — 00-31 Creature Feature Toys “Medium 00-50” — 00-50 Creature Feature Toys “Firm 10A” — 10A Fantasy Grove Fantasy Grove “00-20 Super Soft” — 00-20 Fantasy Grove “00-30 Soft” — 00-30 Fantasy Grove “00-31 Soft” — 00-31 Fantasy Grove “00-45 Medium” — 00-45 Fantasy Grove “00-50 Medium” — 00-50 Fantasy Grove “10A Firm” — 10A Mr Hankey's Toys Mr Hankey's Toys “Packer Soft” — no Shore published Mr Hankey's Toys “75% Soft” — 75% soft (their scale) Mr Hankey's Toys “Med Firm” — no Shore published Mr Hankey's Toys “40% Soft” — 40% soft (their scale) Mr Hankey's Toys “Extra Firm” — no Shore published Pleasure Forge Pleasure Forge “Super Soft 00-20” — 00-20 Pleasure Forge “Soft 00-30” — 00-30 Pleasure Forge “Medium 00-50” — 00-50 Pleasure Forge “Firm 10A” — 10A Sinnovator Sinnovator “Squishy Soft” — 00-20 Sinnovator “Super Soft” — 00-40 Sinnovator “Medium” — 10A SquarePeg SquarePeg “SuperSoft” — no Shore published SquarePeg “Firmer” — no Shore published Strange Bedfellas Strange Bedfellas “Super Soft 00-20” — 00-20 Strange Bedfellas “Soft 0030” — 00-30 Strange Bedfellas “NearClear 31” — 00-31 Strange Bedfellas “Medium 00-50” — 00-50 Strange Bedfellas “Firm 10A” — 10A Uncover Creations Uncover Creations “Squishy Soft” — 00-20 Uncover Creations “Super Soft” — 00-40 Uncover Creations “Medium” — 10A Wandering Bard Toys Wandering Bard Toys “00-10 Ultra Soft” — 00-10 Wandering Bard Toys “00-20 Super Soft” — 00-20 Wandering Bard Toys “00-30 Soft” — 00-30 Wandering Bard Toys “00-31 Soft” — 00-31 Wandering Bard Toys “00-50 Medium” — 00-50
maker-published Shore value our best-evidence placement (no Shore published) Near Clear — firms up over time, toward 00-45–00-50

The two rulers overlap — they don't convert. Shore A measures firmer materials with a sharper probe, so its zero sits around where Shore 00 stops meaning much; the alignment drawn here is approximate because no exact conversion exists. Click any dot for its receipt in the translation table.

Extra firm · ≈ Shore 18A and up

How hard is an extra-firm toy?

Past the reach of household comparisons. The makers themselves stop at "hard" and "not very forgiving", and leave it there.

Zero give: every millimetre of girth and texture arrives as-is. The makers' own pages say it plainly — generally not recommended for beginners.

browse everything extra firm →
On the shelf at this squish
Firm · Shore 10A (Shore A scale)

What does Shore 10A feel like?

Flexed muscle — rigid like erect tissue, but still bendable. Note the scale change: 10A is Shore A, a different ruler that starts roughly where Shore 00 tops out.

Texture you can really feel; girth reads bigger than the same number in a softer pour. Some makers only offer it on select sculpts (or just suction bases).

browse everything firm →
On the shelf at this squish
Medium · Shore 00-45 – 00-50

What does Shore 00-50 feel like?

A rubber eraser — or, as one guide puts it, a stale gummy bear next to Soft's fresh one. Squishes under a firm press, holds its shape otherwise.

Holds its line going in, which is why more than one maker points beginners here first.

browse everything medium →
On the shelf at this squish
Soft · Shore 00-30 – 00-35

What does Shore 00-30 feel like?

A gel shoe insole — two makers independently use that exact comparison. About the give of the pad of your palm; cushiony, with a spine.

The community's favourite all-rounder. Near Clear pours nominally sit here at 00-31, though the clear silicone firms with age — see “Age and heat” below.

browse everything soft →
On the shelf at this squish
Ultra soft · Shore 00-10 – 00-20

What does Shore 00-20 feel like?

A fresh gummy sweet, or chewing gum. Several maker guides reach for the same squishy-body-fat comparison — one says it plainly: adipose tissue.

Wobbles, folds and forgives. Big girth reads gentler at this step — but very soft toys can be genuinely tricky to insert without help.

browse everything ultra soft →
On the shelf at this squish

Why the same number can feel different

Shore hardness scores a material. A toy is an object — and the object gets a vote.

Geometry

A thick toy deforms less under the same squeeze than a thin one, so a chunky 00-50 reads firmer in the hand than a slender one at the same number — one maker's guide says it outright: thicker toys have less squish. Girth and firmness belong in the same decision; a big number around arrives more gently in softer silicone.

Batch variance

Silicone is cooked chemistry. Pleasure Forge openly notes that firmness varies between units with the batches they receive, and calls Shore hardness a tool for comparison rather than a lab certificate. That's the right frame for every number on this page.

Age and heat

Translucent Near Clear pours arrive around 00-31 and measurably firm toward 00-45–00-50 with heat and age. The Near Clear note has the detail, and every affected label is flagged in the table.

Two firmnesses in one toy

Dual-density sculpts pour a softer skin over a firmer core: the core sets how the toy moves, the skin sets how it lands. Neither number alone describes it, so where a maker specs the layers separately we store them separately — the table never collapses a dual-density pour to one step.

Why a firmer toy feels bigger

An illustration of the principle, not a measurement — silicone doesn't have one number for “give”.

Two toys can share a tape-measure number and feel a size apart. A firm pour keeps its full cross-section under pressure; a soft pour compresses and forgives. That's why firmer reads bigger at the same girth — and why sizing up in a softer pour is the gentler route.

Drawn at around — firmness follows the slider above.

A 6″ toy poured extra firm arrives exactly as measured, every millimetre.

as poured ⌀ vs under a snug squeeze
Cross-section, drawn to relative scale. The dashed ring is the girth on the listing; the solid shape is what a extra firm pour does under the same squeeze.

Which firmness
should you get?

Three questions, scored from the makers' own guidance. No email, no account — the result updates as you answer.

— the reasoning is spelled out with the result
Where are you starting from?
What matters more to you?
And the girth you're eyeing?

Answer all three and your step appears here.

Quick answers.

What is Shore hardness?
A standard score of how much a material resists a small spring-loaded pin pressed into its surface, read on a gauge called a durometer: 0 means the pin sank fully in, 100 means it barely dented. Squishy toy silicone lives on the Shore 00 scale; firmer pours cross onto Shore A, a second scale for flexible rubbers.
What does Shore 00-30 silicone feel like?
Like a gel shoe insole — two indie makers independently use that exact comparison — or the pad of your palm. It's the classic "Soft" tier: cushiony with enough spine to use easily.
Is Shore 10A firmer than Shore 00-50?
Yes. But careful: Shore 00 and Shore A are different scales that overlap rather than continue each other — 10A is a firmer material than 00-50, while 00-30 is nothing like 30A. Never compare the digits across scales.
What firmness is best for beginners?
More than one maker points beginners at Medium (Shore 00-50): it holds its shape, so insertion is predictable. Softer pours forgive girth and texture more; very soft ones can be floppy enough to be tricky. Extra firm is the one tier makers themselves say isn't beginner territory.
Does a firmer toy feel bigger?
Yes, noticeably. A firm pour keeps its full cross-section under pressure, so every millimetre of girth arrives as-is; a soft pour of the same size compresses and forgives. If you're sizing up, softer is the gentler way to get there — same tape-measure number, easier arrival.
Why does my Near Clear toy feel firmer than when it arrived?
That's real, not your imagination. Near Clear (the translucent, pigment-free silicone several makers pour) is ~00-31 fresh but firms up with heat and age, drifting toward 00-45–00-50. It's a property of the clear material itself, whoever poured it.
Are firmness labels exact?
No — and several makers say so themselves. Pleasure Forge openly notes batch-to-batch variance from their silicone supplier, and thicker toys read firmer than thin ones at the same Shore number. Treat firmness as a comparison tool rather than a lab measurement.
What is a durometer?
The gauge that takes a Shore hardness reading — a spring-loaded pin with a dial. "Durometer" also gets used loosely to mean the reading itself, as in "this toy's durometer is 00-30". Same idea either way: press, read, compare.
Every maker's label, translated → The Shore value behind each label, the sources for it, and what owners found when they squeezed one. Girth ↔ diameter converter → One measurement, three names — converted live, drawn to scale on your screen. Find my fit → Start from a toy you own; we rank the whole shelf against it — feel included.