Clip & Go Red Panda

Clip and Go Red Panda — a buggy toy that cannot be dropped

Every soft toy you take out of the house gets thrown on the floor of a bus. This one clips on. The attachment fastens to a buggy bar, a car seat handle or the strap of a changing bag, and once it is on, your baby can let go of it as often as they like — which they will, roughly every forty seconds — without anybody having to get out and pick it up.

Small practical thing, enormous difference. It is the whole reason clip-on toys exist, and it is worth saying plainly because it is the bit that sells itself once you have lived it.

🐾 The tail is the point

A red panda's tail is nearly as long as the animal, which makes it the best handle in this little range. Babies grip long, soft, slightly weighty things far more easily than round ones, so this is the one a three-month-old will actually hold on to rather than bat at. It is also the Zoo Crew animal people stop and ask about, which is not nothing when you are pushing a pram round a supermarket.

🦷 There is a teething ring built in

A textured ring sits on the toy, so there is something firm and chewable in reach without a second item to carry or lose. It comes into its own around four to six months when gums start to hurt in places you cannot do anything about from the driving seat. The ring is also the part you can clean properly, which matters — more on that below.

♻️ Recycled filling, and it pays for conservation

The stuffing is recycled material rather than virgin polyester. The range is made by Make Believe Ideas with London Zoo, a ZSL conservation zoo, and ZSL state that every purchase supports their conservation work in the UK and around the world. Red pandas are genuinely at risk, which is why they are in the range. A buggy toy that funds something is a better buggy toy.

What we like about it

• It clips on, so it cannot be dropped, thrown or left behind in a car park
• The long tail is the easiest thing to grip in the Clip and Go range
• A textured teething ring built in — one object instead of two
• Suitable from birth, so it goes on the pram from the first week
• Filled with recycled material
• The unusual animal of the four — the one that gets asked about
• Made with London Zoo; every purchase supports ZSL conservation work

Specification

• Suitable from: birth
• Size: approx. 19cm x 12cm
• Attachment: clip for a buggy, pram, car seat or changing bag
• Features: soft plush, textured teething ring
• Filling: recycled material
• Care: surface wash only
• Range: Zoo Crew by Make Believe Ideas, made with London Zoo, a ZSL conservation zoo

❓ Frequently asked questions

It has a teething ring but it is surface wash only — how does that work?
Fair question, and the honest answer is that the two parts get treated differently. The ring is the bit that goes in the mouth, and it wipes clean properly with a damp cloth. The plush body is surface wash only, so you spot clean it and let it dry — no machine, no soaking. In practice a clipped-on toy stays a lot cleaner than a comforter does, because it lives on the buggy rather than being carried everywhere. If you want something you can boil, sterilise or put through the dishwasher, buy a silicone teether as well and keep this one for the pram.

Will the clip actually hold?
It is a plastic clip of the usual kind — fine on a buggy bar, a car seat handle or a bag strap, and it will take a baby pulling on it. It is not a carabiner and we would not hang it off a moving pushchair axle. Clip it where you can see it and it will do its job for as long as you need a pram toy, which is about the first eighteen months.

Is 19cm big enough to be a proper cuddly toy?
It is a travel toy, not a cuddly one, and we would rather say so. At 19cm it is sized to hang off a buggy without swinging into the baby's face, and that is the job it does well. If you want something to actually cuddle, the full-size Red Panda Plush Toy is the same animal, properly cuddle-sized, with a tail built for the purpose.

From birth? What does a newborn do with it?
Watch it, mostly. For the first couple of months it is a thing that hangs where they can see it and moves when the pram moves — which is plenty. Grabbing arrives around three to four months, chewing the ring around four to six, and by a year they are taking it off the clip and carrying it about.

Does it make a good gift?
One of the best small ones, because almost nobody buys it for themselves and everybody ends up wanting one. It is the present a second-time parent recognises immediately. If you want to spend a little more, pair it with the matching plush so there is one for the pram and one for home.

🔍 Which Clip and Go?

Four animals, and they are not interchangeable — the shape changes what a small hand can do with it:

• Red Panda — this one, 19 x 12cm. The long tail makes it the easiest to grip, and the animal nobody else has.
• Giraffe — 21 x 7cm. The tallest and the slimmest, so the neck is a natural handle and it dangles best.
• Elephant — 20 x 16cm. The biggest and chunkiest of the four, with the most to hold on to.
• Lion — 18 x 12cm. The smallest and lightest, with a mane for texture.

If your baby needs more to do on the pram than one toy can offer, the Jungle Activity Spiral wraps right round the bar with a mirror and a teether on it. And the rest of this range sits in our Zoo Crew collection — eight full-size plush animals, four hand-puppet cloth books and two board books.

Our guides to when soft toys and comforters are safe to introduce and travelling with a baby go into more detail.

❤️ From our family to yours

Carefully chosen products for babies, toddlers and parents. Browse more cuddly toys and the rest of the Make Believe Ideas range — free UK delivery on orders over £25.