r/PoolToyFurries

I wish I could post this on r/InflatableandPlush, but there's some mention of popping and purposeful damage of toys that they don't allow, and I really feel like I just need a place to vent this at. Also why I have pop tag

When I was a kid I DREAMED about having these toys, dreamed about playing with them, dreamed about tugging their valves open and hearing/seeing them hiss some sort of way particularly. Years before I found out about furries or the pooltoy community by extension. I definitely did have thoughts about my own imaginary toys but of the ones that are real, the unicorn, dragon, and duck were definitely some of the ones I thought about a lot.

We had a duck when I was younger, probably about 11, for a little while which was the first time I got to play with any of the toys I saw that I really was wanting for YEARS, but family left the bag out of the basement once probably the winter after that summer and the cats clawed it and they burned ALL the toys and I was so angry when I found out but couldn't express it because there's no way I could make it look not weird that I would be super focused on wanting to keep these pool toys.

Now that I had finally been 18 during this summer as an adult with my own money and my own car, I made it a point to buy the toys I could get because there's no way I could order them since my family wants to see every box I get and are super judgemental about my interests and tell EVERYONE they know in extended family and friends+ who tell everyone they know as well what is going on, and the time that stores stock pooltoys is only a small couple month window, so every time I came home from college I went to a new store on the way back and spent a little of my cash on a toy and then put the store bag in my backpack and went to my room and put the toy in a tote in my closet until I could play at night.

I was so confused and upset that the one time I was able to buy them, even big places like Walmart did not have any of the intex island toys like the duck, unicorn, dragon, etc, and the only ones they had were smaller or ones I didn't care about. I was also mad that the store that always had those pool candy floats didn't have anything more than beach balls and some simple things this year. No bigmouth sprinklers either anywhere. This whole summer I was able to get only two bigmouth dino rings that unfortunately have unrepairable seams now and some off brand rings and a unicorn ride on that was much smaller than the intex one I want, and some dollar store toys that unfortunately couldn't hold my weight.

I'm so mad because all the toys that were staring me in the face for the last 15+ years since I've been old enough to form a memory are no longer in stock the one time I get the chance to buy them. I understand that some of them you can still get but I was particularly very distraught when I found out that the intex islands were largely discontinued since I now will never be able to buy a new one now and they will only get rarer and rarer and I seen them so many times wanting one and I will never get the chance now, unless years later when I move out I can probably order them from second hand but then I'll be paying an exorbitant amount for a "vintage" item and have to actually be conscious about the fact that there's only so many left when I want to ride and play with them heavily