PRECIOUS PLUSHIES

THE OLYMPIC TOYS THAT ARE ALMOST AS TOUGH TO GET AS A MEDAL

- STORY: ANDREW KEH / NYT

People with keychains of Tina, a Winter Olympics mascot. Plushies of the Winter Games mascots Tina, left, and Flo.

(PHOTO:AFP)

The clerk at the Olympic gift shop looked deadly serious as he leaned in for a whisper.

I'd just asked for help locating a stuffed toy — Tina, the mascot of the Winter Games —and he'd already informed me they were sold out everywhere. But now he was shooting furtive glances around the store and coming closer to me.

“Come back at 4pm,’ he said into my ear. “Bring cash”

I asked whether this meant the dolls would be restocked then. He winced.

“Meet me outside,” he said, motioning to the rear of the building. He repeated: “Bring cash”

There was reason for his illicit offer. Olympic spectators have fallen hard for the plush mascots — Tina, a white stoat, and Milo, her brown counterpart representing the Paralympics. But the effort to buy one, for most in Milan, has been fruitless. The stoats — available in four sizes, ranging in price from €18 (665 baht) to €58 — have been generally unavailable at official shops and competition venues. The online store has been entirely picked over, too.

“T can’t find them anywhere in Milan,” said Reed Alvarado, 33, who travelled from Los Angeles to watch the Games.

Emphasising that he was “not obsessed” with the dolls — merely trying to get them for friends who were — he nevertheless tried to explain their appeal: “There’s a cuteness factor to them. They almost have a Pokémon quality”