Line #54 Main/SentimentalHomemadeToy


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5	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/antoniosjaguardoll5.png]]]]
6	[[caption-width-right:350:"I made this, so when you move into your cool new room you always have something to snuggle with."]]
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8	->''It may not be perfect, but it was made with love!''
9	-->-- '''Description of the Handmade Magical Hair Usuki Plushie''', ''{{Website/Neopets}}''
10
11	[[HandmadeIsBetter Everything is more precious when it's made with love]]. That goes double when it's a special toy that Mom or Dad (and it's usually Mom) made by hand just for you. (If Mom made it, it's usually a doll or stuffed animal, and if Dad made it, it's often a wooden carving of some sort, due to the association of woodcarving with masculinity and [[TextileWorkIsFeminine sewing with femininity]].) Sure, it's not as fancy as the princess dolls in sparkly gowns or the super-cool, gadget-filled toy robots on the shelves at the grocery store, and you might get teased on the playground about how old and worn it looks. But it's the only one of its kind in the whole world, and it's yours.
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13	In the narrative, this toy represents the bond between two characters: the one who made it (usually a parent) and the one it's being given to (usually a child). For extra pathos, the giver is likely to be missing or [[DeceasedParentsAreTheBest dead]], and the toy is the only thing the receiver has to remember them by. And to stir up drama, the toy may get lost at some point, causing its owner to panic until it's safely recovered.
14
15	In another version of this trope, it's the parent who is holding on to the toy as a way to grieve for a lost child--perhaps carrying around a toy they made for their child, or even sadder, mourning a miscarried or [[TragicStillbirth stillborn]] child who never got to play with any toys.
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17	This trope has its roots in RealLife. Before mass-marketed, store-bought toys became popularly available, most toys were handmade by parents and given to children, and many indeed became treasured possessions or even family heirlooms.
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19	Subtrope of ToyBasedCharacterization and HandmadeIsBetter. Related to SentimentalShabbiness, SecurityBlanket, and CompanionCube. If the giver is dead, the toy may be an OrphansPlotTrinket, TragicKeepsake, and/or MementoMacGuffin. Compare EmpathyDollShot, and see also CrushTheKeepsake, if such an item is callously destroyed.
20	----
21	!!Examples:
22	[[foldercontrol]]
23	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
24	* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesDiamondAndPearl'': The two-part episode "[[Recap/PokemonS11E19PokemonRangerAndTheKidnappedRioluPart1 Pokémon Ranger and the Kidnapped Riolu!]]" focuses on a Riolu which has been abducted and taken far from home. It is fearful and suspicious of humans, and only begins to trust Ash after he saves its most prized possession from being swept away in a river--a little wooden Riolu doll that its human caretaker carved for it.
25	* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has a non-toy example: [[spoiler:during their stay on Egghead, a then-six year old Bonney drew her dad Kuma a cute doodle of him. Kuma liked it so much that he made it into his Jolly Roger when he became a Warlord of the Sea]].
26	[[/folder]]
27
28	[[folder:Fan Works]]
29	* ''Fanfic/TheRugratsTheory'': After Tommy is stillborn, his grieving father Stu spends all his time in the basement inventing toys for his son who never got to live.
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
33	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'': Mirabel sews a stuffed jaguar for Antonio, her youngest cousin, as a gift to help him feel less nervous about his gift ceremony because she knows he loves animals. He greatly cherishes the gift. When their house begins to collapse, Antonio lets [[spoiler:his uncle Bruno]] borrow it to calm his nerves.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
37	* ''Film/{{Babe}}'': [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when Arthur Hogget makes and gives a homemade dollhouse to his [[SpoiledBrat unnamed granddaughter]]. She rejected it and throws a fit stating that she wants a dollhouse she saw on TV.
38	* ''Film/SawIV'': Bobby the Puppet is a harlequin doll that John had made for his unborn son Gideon, and he became very possessive of it during his depression after [[ImperiledInPregnancy Jill's miscarriage]]. In one flashback, John is seen softly touching Bobby after putting it back on a table from which Art accidentally knocked the doll over. Bobby itself would eventually become the basis of the design of the [[Franchise/{{Saw}} franchise]]'s iconic Billy the Puppet, and was later seen in the background of ''Film/SawV'' and ''Film/Saw3D''.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Literature]]
42	* ''Literature/AmericanGirlsCollection'': Most of the girls live in historical eras where store-bought toys weren't widely available, or even available at all. Some of them have special handmade dolls made by their mothers.
43	** Addy has owned two rag dolls, both made by her mother. The first, Janie, was made when she and her family lived in slavery. When she's forced to leave her baby sister Esther behind as she escapes, she gives her Janie to hold on to until they're together again. Later, when she and her mother are living in freedom, her mother makes her another doll for Christmas, this one wearing a beautiful purple dress and little hoop earrings, and stuffed with beans. Addy happily calls her Ida Bean. Her love for both dolls is a reflection of her love for her family.
44	** Josefina's family has a doll named Niña that was made by her deceased mother and is passed down to each daughter at Christmas the year she turns eight, along with a new doll dress. When Christmas comes and Josefina is old enough to receive Niña, her older sister Clara says she can't find the doll, but it turns out Clara is secretly keeping Niña for comfort because she misses their mother so much. Josefina is upset, but Tía Dolores convinces her to let the matter go for the time being and keeps the sisters busy teaching them colcha embroidery to fix the damaged Christmas altar cloth. Finally, on Christmas Eve, Clara feels she is ready to give Niña to Josefina, and even continues the tradition by making her a new doll dress that matches Josefina's. She explains that she thought Niña was all she had left of their mother, but repairing the altar cloth helped her realize she has their mother's gift for embroidery.
45	* ''{{Literature/Cookie}}'': Beauty's favorite toy is a ragdoll handmade by her mother, which she calls PJ, short for Plain Jane. She looks a little lopsided, but Beauty loves her anyway and finds her comforting.
46	* ''{{Literature/Discworld}}'': Subverted in ''{{Literature/Hogfather}}''. When Albert recounts how he'd gotten a hand-carved wooden horse from his father instead of the huge store-bought rocking horse he'd wanted for Hogswatchnight, Death thinks it was a heartwarming moment. Albert retorts that sort of sentimental stuff is how adults think, and children are short-sighted, selfish little bastards. Besides, his father got drunk and stepped on it later that same day.
47	[[/folder]]
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49	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
50	* ''Series/{{Coroner}}'': Darkly subverted in "The Bridges" confronted by [[SerialKiller Gerald Henry Jones]], Jenny tries to appeal to his sentimentality arguing despite his faults his father must have loved him as he whittled him a toy out of wood. Only for Jones to reveal his father never gave him anything and that it was himself who whittled it, years later using the same Chisel to kill his father and all his other victims.
51	* ''Series/LostOllie'': Billy's mother made Ollie the stuffed rabbit for him when he was just a baby. [[MommasBoy Billy is shown to be very close to his mom]], as such, and his friendship with Ollie remains for years to come. Ollie also becomes a TragicKeepsake for Billy after [[spoiler:his mother [[MissingMom dies from an illness]], at least until he abandons Ollie in an attempt to look mature.]]
52	* ''Series/SweetTooth'': Gus is very attached to his stuffed animal Dog, which his father made for him and which is Gus' last tangible reminder to his father after the latter passes away.
53	[[/folder]]
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55	[[folder:Webcomics]]
56	* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': The eight-year-old [[https://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch04/ch04_50.html Matty Quigley]] has Chitz, a small stuffed blob that his mother sewed for him -- very poorly, albeit with love. Since the attack that killed her and blinded him, it doubles as a TragicKeepsake and is [[{{Magitek}} enchanted]] to "see" for him; he [[CompanionCube treats it like it's alive]] and [[ParrotPetPosition keeps it on his shoulder]].
57	[[/folder]]
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59	[[folder:Web Video]]
60	* ''WebVideo/CriticalRoleCampaignThree'': The [[spoiler:werewolf]] gnome woodcarver Chetney Pock O'Pea is a GrumpyOldMan (over 400, and proportionately grumpy), but as he becomes friends with the PlayerParty, he starts making each of them a personalized wooden toy. Out of character, Creator/TravisWillingham actually made the physical toys to give to his castmates.
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Video Games]]
64	* ''VideoGame/Bioshock2'': Eleanor keeps a doll she made herself of her Big Daddy, Delta, as a memento of him after being separated from him by [[BigBad her mother.]]
65	* In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', potential companion/romantic interest [=MacCready=] gives you a handmade toy soldier that his deceased wife Lucy carved and gave to him when they were teenagers. Upon reaching max affinity with him, since he can't offer you something of greater monetary worth after helping to save his son's life, he gives you his most sentimentally valuable item.
66	-->'''[=MacCready=]''': "I figure I owe you something... and I always pay my debts. Here... I wanted you to have this. I know a carved toy soldier is a strange reward for risking your life, but this one's special... it means a lot to me."
67	* ''VideoGame/FugaMelodiesOfSteel'': When you rescue Sheena, all she has left is her life, her [[CursedWithAwesome unwanted magical powers]], and Bleuette, the doll her mother made for her.
68	* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'':
69	** Klee goes nowhere without Dodoco, a doll her sorceress mother Alice made for her. In the first Golden Apple Archipelago story, the plot involves someone named Dodo-king threatening to take Dodoco away from Klee as she is not worthy...turns out it was just Alice making sure that her little girl and her friends had a great summer vacation on some tropical islands.
70	** The unnamed child that Scaramouche befriended made a doll in his image. It got burnt to ash along with the child's house after his death. Scaramouche, after becoming Wanderer, learns embroidery from toymakers in Sumeru and recreates the doll at some point.
71	* ''VideoGame/IWasATeenageExocolonist'': If Sol searches through their belongings [[spoiler:after the Faceless attack in Year 5]], they retrieve only the first handmade doll Tammy gave to them.
72	* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'': Ventus carries a wooden replica of his Keyblade, symbolizing his relationship with Terra, Ventus, and Aqua during their time training under Master Eraqus. Their falling-out at Radiant Garden deeply affects Ventus, but his visit to Neverland inspires him to leave the trinket behind in the Lost Boys' treasure chest; secure in the knowledge that their friendship transcends the object itself. Tragically, Vanitas gets a hold of the item and [[CrushTheKeepsake cruelly breaks it in front of Aqua]] during her arrival later.
73	[[/folder]]
74
75	[[folder:Western Animation]]
76	* ''{{WesternAnimation/Rugrats}}'': Chuckie's favorite toy is a worn-out teddy bear named Wawa that was made by his deceased mother, Melinda.
77	[[/folder]]

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