-When they've been in my basement,
I certainly have had nightmares.
I think that people sometimes have an attachment
or a fascination with things that they find frightening.
-My name's Brian. I'm from Portland. And I'm a bartender.
-And I'm Sara, and I'm a school psychologist.
And, also, we take creepy toys from people who don't want them,
and we rehome them with families who really like freaky stuff.
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[ Cash register dings ]
[ Music box twinkling ]
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-Unsettling Toys is a small, independent business
that rehomes kind of creepy- or odd-looking dolls.
We've been at this for two years.
Should you want to look at the Unsettling Toys
that we have up for adoption,
you can hit the "Unsettlingly Available" tab
and kind of browse.
-We custom-match people with their toys.
You can't just click a button and buy it on the Internet here.
People might be more hesitant to send us
their really special items because there would be --
You know, anyone could just click and buy it.
We had a client once who adopted a doll
and became uncomfortable around it and actually burned it.
We try to always be very mindful
so that they're matched up appropriately with a family.
Loretta is one that we've had someone
who identifies as a psychic tell us
that she's with spirit and actually told us her name.
We try to respect everyone's different beliefs.
There's a lot of people where things being with spirit
or things being possessed or possibly haunted
are really closely tied in with their personal beliefs
and their spirituality, and there's also the people
who just really like sort of the nostalgia and the history.
He had the idea one day.
On his birthday, I just basically did the website,
the Instagram, and business cards.
I thought it'd be fun for us to have something like that
to do together. It was a fun project.
-We had no idea where it was going to go.
-But then, almost immediately, it took off.
We started getting phone calls and e-mails and packages.
I think we were massively unaware
of the size of the community
that was going to be interested in these.
So, you were thinking of adding to your fabulous collection,
and I have a couple that made me think of you.
His former owner thought that he heard breathing at night
coming from Ernie.
-Now, this one...
-Ooh She's pretty!
Oh, she's cool! I like her. -Yeah.
-I think I like her the best.
She'd totally fit with the girls in the bedroom.
I think I want to get Shadow. Seriously. I like her.
-All right! -All right!
-Well, that's perfect. We can send her to you.
Thank you, Michele. -We'll be in touch.
-I'll send Shadow over.
Shipping varies wildly and is very expensive.
Within the United States, we sometimes can ship,
like, a small, non-fragile toy for 10 bucks.
But we've had it be over $100, depending on how big of a toy
we're shipping to what country.
There is an adoption fee. We have to charge an adoption fee
because we often send people money
when they're going to send us a toy,
then we'll send the money for shipping.
But we generally try to keep the adoption fees as low as we can.
Our adoption fees are generally between $35 and $100.
There's a couple exceptions in either direction,
and that includes shipping.
We include shipping within the United States on that.
It's been growing so fast lately that the extra income
that we get from unsettling toys
is just going right back into the business.
I'm going to need scissors for when I do the...
-I -- I know where scissors are. -Thank you.
-We don't have to make any of this up.
[Laughing] They actually do help me pack everything.
♪♪
The packaging, it's very labor-intensive.
Like, we do, like, a little card and stickers
and magnets and buttons and, like, a thank-you note
and wrap it all up in brown paper
and do a wax seal on the top of it
so that when it arrives,
it comes with a little bit of presence, you know?
We send a certificate with every doll that's adopted.
It's our certificate of adoption and placement.
We put their name on it.
Just so that they have a little thing that shows
that they adopted from us.
-When we like one, it usually gets rehomed,
but some of the ones in the permanent collection
are really cool, though.
-This is Maria.
It's definitely one of the weirdest things I've ever seen.
The person who sent her to us went and picked her up
but then was driving home from buying her
and was in a car accident.
That was the first of the weird things to happen
when he took Maria home.
-This is Grace. This is your average creepy doll.
-One day in May of 2020...
So, the toy, she didn't show a lot of interest in it.
She played with it once or twice, and the family
actually cleansed their house in a ceremony with holy water,
and the nightmares have largely gone away.
This is a box that we got from a client
who didn't want these things in their house.
-And if it's a clown, then I leave the room immediately.
-Yeah, Brian does not like clowns.
-Oh. -Aww. There's some good babies.
Oh, she said that this one's from when she was a kid
and that she liked this one a lot, but that her kid,
her own child actually yelled when she saw it.
[ Chuckles ]
This is the one. -Ohh.
-[ Laughs ] -That's horrible.
-I think we have some clients
that'll really like this one, don't you?
Look at his face. -Yeah.
♪♪
-So, we're about to do a psychic reading...
-Hey, guys! -Hey, guys!
...with one of our clients and one of the psychics
that we've met through the business.
-What I want to do is pick up on the energies
that the dolls are emitting,
the emotional imprints that have been left on the dolls.
-I have four dolls already.
-Was there any specific energy
that you feel that your dolls currently have
that you're trying to blend them with?
-It seems like I'm getting, like, a male spirit
and a female spirit and a little-girl spirit.
-Okay. -So kind of something
that would blend in to maybe a family atmosphere
that likes cats.
-You need to get some of these spirits to start paying rent.
[ Laughter ]
-This one came from a house
where they were feeling uncomfortable.
They would sometimes, you know,
feel like someone was in the room with them.
It's the girl with the bonnet.
She's about the same size as your other one.
-I'm definitely sensing a frustration
or, like, an element of betrayal in some capacity.
-This one, they had a dog
that would look at it and would whine.
-From that close-up, I get --
I get, like, kind of a frenetic, frantic energy.
Like, I get the feeling this doll
has probably moved around quite a bit
that is leading to a sense of, like, a lack of stability.
-Okay, and then the last one we grabbed looks like
she may have been snuggly at one point.
-But there was -- there was something amiss, though.
-The doll is -- is unnerving to look at.
-Part of me also wants to rescue it because I don't want it
going to somebody who's going to try to say
there's a demon in it. You know what I mean?
-Yeah. -Yeah. We understand that.
-Yeah, we do. We get that 100%. [ Chuckles ]
This one, Sara thought of immediately.
-Yeah, that was the first one when I looked at --
I peeked at your website,
and I was like, "Ooh, I like that one."
-Do either of you have any -- any feelings or intuitions
or preferences about a name for her?
-I'm -- I'm getting Raquel.
-Raquel. -Ooh.
-Aww. -That's a perfect --
-That'll work. -Yeah.
I think she'll -- I think she'll go really nice
with your other ones.
-I do, too. I really... -Awesome!
♪♪
-At Angelo's on 46th and Hawthorne,
we're gonna have a pop up
where we'll have all this on display.
People will be able to adopt any of these little guys.
It's gonna be a good time. -Oh, my gosh!
-She's 150 years old, we think.
-[ Gasps ] Wow!
-Isn't that amazing? -Look at those eyes.
-I know. She's really striking.
And here is Emma.
-Aww. -She's very sweet.
-That's...
-I'm so glad she's found a good home.
I can't wait to e-mail the person that sent her to us.
She'll be -- She'll be really happy.
She's only been with us about a week.
-This one knows a good thing when she sees it.
-She does, yes. -[ Laughter ]
-Yeah, it was -- it was a fun day.
It was a success, I think, in many ways.
At first, I thought,
well, this is just kind of, you know, for us.
Once we started placing some of these little terrors,
people are happy.
♪♪
I am floored by how many people enjoy the idea.
You know, even if they're not involved quite yet,
I think it's just perfectly odd.
-It is a lot of effort,
but it's really worth it to us, for the community
and for the opportunities to do something
both that makes people happy and that is gloriously spooky.
-I hope that at some point we can open a small shop
and do a lot more community outreach.
-It would be super-fun to open a storefront,
and it would be really fun
to just sort of grow the amount that we're removing
and the number that we're adopting out,
but I think, at the same time, it is very apparent
two years into this that we have absolutely no idea
where this is going from here. -[ Laughs ]
-'Cause at any point during the last two years,
if we had tried to guess, we would get it completely wrong.
Like, it -- it has a life of its own,
and it's taken off.
While we are on the ride, we are not necessarily
steering the ride. -We are not steering the ride.
-Everything's got a story -- people and dolls --
and everything's got some damage -- people and dolls.
And that's what -- that's what makes everyone unique.
-We're only here in real bodies once,
and I think if you find something that you enjoy doing,
I think you just have to give it a shot.
♪♪