The Toy Story franchise has included a mixture of real and fictional toy brands from the beginning, and Toy Story 5 could present the perfect opportunity for additional real-life toy characters to appear. Including recent toy brands could help connect the film with today’s children, while revisiting popular toys from past decades could offer a nostalgic return to childhood for people who have been fans of the franchise since it began.

Toy Story 4‘s success largely involved the introduction of the character of Forky, and it’s possible that Toy Story 5 could introduce new fictional toys that become popular in real life as well. However, introducing fictional versions of toys that already exist could help cement the legacy of Toy Story 5 and provide modern toy brands with the chance to be part of one of Pixar’s most popular franchises. One of the fun things about the Toy Story movies is how they allow kids to see some of their own childhood favorite toys as characters in a movie.

10

Furby

Owned By Hasbro

Furbies have been around since 1998, and it’s hard to believe that they haven’t been featured in a Toy Story film by now. Toy Story 5 could use a Furby to explore a character who is able to interact with children at least somewhat more openly than most of the toys.

Perhaps a Furby would act exactly the same around other toys as they do with human beings. Alternatively, it may have a different personality and speak more clearly. A lot of people consider Furbies creepy, so if Toy Story 5 features a Furby, the film could potentially play up the creepiness of a Furby character. Evil Furbies appeared recently in The Mitchells vs. The Machines, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think Hasbro could allow creepy Furbies in Toy Story.

9

Squishmallow

Owned By Kelly Toys

Squishmallows have been very popular in recent years, and they could be the perfect inclusion of a modern toy brand in Toy Story 5. In real life, there are many different Squishmallow designs with different names and personalities on their tags. It could be fun to see different variations of the same Squishmallow character interacting with the main characters. The inclusion of Squishmallows could also call back to Lotso’s character from Toy Story 3, since he was also a very soft and huggable plush toy.

Squishmallows have inspired other companies to create similar stuffed animals, so it seems likely that they or a similar toy could show up. The popularity of Squishmallows means that it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility to get to see them in Toy Story 5. If Squishmallows are in the movie, their inclusion could potentially play a big role in grounding Toy Story 5 in the modern era.

8

H๏τ Wheels

Owned By Mattel

While the Toy Story franchise has seen toy cars, there have not specifically been any H๏τ Wheels toys. In 2010, many of the Toy Story characters were turned into H๏τ Wheels, including RC Car, who is of an ambiguous toy brand in the film franchise. The RC car H๏τ Wheels toy was called “R.C. To Go,” as it was not an exact replica of the Toy Story character.

Putting H๏τ Wheels in Toy Story could be a nod to those real-life toys. Toy Story 5 could personify the toy cars, especially if they have names and faces like the real-life Toy Story H๏τ Wheels, or it could have other small toys using them as vehicles. With a H๏τ Wheels movie also coming up, the inclusion of H๏τ Wheels in the Toy Story franchise could play off the success of the Barbie movie by making jokes about the upcoming film and connecting Toy Story‘s Barbie with the popular 2023 film.

7

Littlest Pet Shop

Owned By Hasbro

Littlest Pet Shop toys have been popular since the 1990s, so Littlest Pet Shop would be the perfect toy franchise to feature in Toy Story 5. Since they’ve been around for about thirty years, it could be possible to see Littlest Pet Shop toys once owned by children who have now grown up, or it could be possible to see brand-new Littlest Pet Shop toys.

The toys were just revamped in 2024, so it could be a good time for them to appear. In the past, new television shows have lined up with the release of new generations of Littlest Pet Shop. Instead of creating a new television show, the newest generation of Littlest Pet Shop could line up with the franchise’s inclusion in a movie series.

6

Beanie Babies

Owned By Ty

The Toy Story franchise has focused on the idea of toys as a collector’s item in the past with Toy Story 2, but Beanie Babies would be the perfect avenue to explore that idea further. Toy Story 5 would have many different options for types of Beanie Babies to explore, much like with Squishmallows, though with a longer history.

One way that Toy Story 5 could turn the idea of a collector’s item on its head would be to feature people holding onto collections of Beanie Babies that don’t actually contain anything valuable, because they believe they could be worth something. Children watching the movie might not understand the Beanie Babies craze, but referencing people collecting Beanie Babies could be a fun callback for older fans.

5

LEGO

Owned By The LEGO Group

Toy Story Legos have been created, but Legos themselves have never been seen in a Toy Story film. As LEGOs are a very popular type of toy, it feels unlikely that none of the kids would have had any around. However, film rights for Lego are owned by Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures rather than Disney, as seen through Warner Bros.’ The Lego Movie and Universal’s Piece By Piece.

Lego versions of films owned by Disney have been created, however, so it doesn’t feel unreasonable for Disney to be given permission to make a film that includes Lego characters. The ways that Lego characters are able to be taken apart and put back together could be an interesting idea to explore within the world of Toy Story. With other longtime popular franchises such as Barbie and Mr. Potato Head being in Toy Story films, it almost feels like an oversight for Lego never to appear.

4

Cabbage Patch Kids

Owned By Wicked Cool Toys

Cabbage Patch Kids are another toy that might be nostalgic for viewers from older generations. Though Cabbage Patch Kids are still sold today, the peak of their popularity was in the 1980s, before the Toy Story franchise began. While we’ve seen collectors with older toys as well as older toys being pᴀssed down to younger generations in Toy Story, we haven’t seen it as much with real toys.

It could be interesting to see a Cabbage Patch Kid who has been held onto by an adult from their childhood, similar to how Andy almost held onto Woody in Toy Story 3. The Toy Story films have done a good job of providing insight into the different types of lives a toy might lead, whether they get held onto, pᴀssed down to a new child, or go off on their own. It could be interesting to see some of these concepts explored with toys that people might have done these things with in real life.

3

Hatchimals

Owned By Spin Master

Like Furbies and Cabbage Patch Kids, Hatchimals were a best-selling toy, though their popularity was more recent. A lot of young children watching Toy Story 5 might own Hatchimals, and teenagers might even remember getting them when they were most popular.

In addition, the concept for Hatchimals could be interesting to see in Toy Story 5. The idea of a toy that hatches could be fun to explore, as it showcases one of the many unique types of toys available to kids. It could be a great opportunity to explore what the lives of different types of toys look like.

2

Plai Poe the AI Story Bear

Owned By Plai

Plai Poe the AI Story Bear is one of the newest items on this list, so it might be one of the most recognizable to children today. The thing that makes Plai Poe unique is the fact that the toy uses AI to tell stories, so Toy Story could use the character to explore what the use of artificial intelligence means for a toy. It could be possible that the toys interact with an AI much like humans do, or Plai Poe could have an actual personality outside its AI.

Featuring Plai Poe could give Toy Story 5 the opportunity both to explore the effects of a modern concept like AI and reference a toy that today’s children are familiar with. Movies’ depictions of AI science are usually inaccurate, so Toy Story 5 portraying AI in a way that’s true to real life would make it unique. This could make Plai Poe the AI Story Bear the perfect toy to include in Toy Story 5.

1

Marvel Action Figures

Owned By Marvel

The Marvel Cinematic Universe and Pixar both being owned by Disney could offer some really fun opportunities for crossover. While Wreck-It Ralph 2‘s Disney cameos were pretty universally considered a disaster, Toy Story 5 crossing over with toy versions of beloved Marvel characters could help redeem it.

We’ve seen with Buzz in the past what it can be like when an action figure thinks that they really are the character that they were based on, and the Star Wars references in some of Buzz’s interactions show that Toy Story isn’t afraid to connect its toys with popular film franchises. It could be a hilarious gag if Toy Story 5 decided to give a cameo to a Marvel action figure that believed the same thing about their own character.

We could see a tiny Captain America running around trying to ᴀssemble the Avengers, or a Spider-Man who’s convinced that he has the superpower to climb up walls. Alternatively, they could create characters who look like the original Marvel characters but end up acting entirely different since they are new characters, even providing a villainous superhero toy or a heroic villain. Putting Marvel action figures in Toy Story 5, or any other popular real-life toy brand, would also give many audience members a character they love even before they’ve met them within the film.