Help me find a selfie stand-in

May 25, 2018 8:49 AM

I'm hopefully taking some solo road trips in the near future. I will be taking pictures, obviously. In addition to the pretty landscape shots, normal travellers take selfies. I hate selfies. I hate being in pictures in general. So, I want a stand-in I can put in some shots that will say "cgg was here" without me actually being in the picture!

Ideally, i'm thinking of some sort of colorful quasi-unusual stuffed animal for these shots. It should be fairly visible in what will be mostly nature/outdoor pictures, so nothing black, grey, brown or even dark green. Nothing branded or brand-adjacent. (For example, one thought i had was a purple dinosaur. But... Barney. So thats a nope. Also no disney, no pokemon, etc.) My selfie stand-in has to be of a reasonable size to live in the cab or on the dash of my car, but big enough to visible enough in pictures. And if there's some way for it to be attached to various things for more amusing pictures (or easily modified for easy attachment), that would be a huge win! (Velcro monkey arms? A tail that can be tied to things? Something else?) For this selfie stand in I'd prefer cute and adorable to realistic. Being able to apply some sort of geekish, sarcastic or canadian symbolism to my stuffie stand-in would be an bonus, but not necessary.

I could just meander through a toy store or amazon, but i thought i'd see if the hive mind had any fun ideas first for inspiration! Thanks all!

posted by cgg to Grab Bag (25 answers total)

For example, one thought i had was a purple dinosaur. But... Barney. So thats a nope.

Depends on the degree of likeness, I'd think. Nobody would see a purple brontosaurus and think of Barney.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:51 AM on May 25, 2018 [2 favorites]

How about a custom Lego Minifig that looks kind of like you. You could give it various accessories or poses to interact with whatever location you're in.
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:56 AM on May 25, 2018 [26 favorites]

Custom My Little Pony?
posted by bq at 9:00 AM on May 25, 2018 [2 favorites]

I have a Facebook friend who does this with a playmobil person.
posted by Valancy Rachel at 9:06 AM on May 25, 2018 [2 favorites]

You want a giant stuffed banana.
posted by phunniemee at 9:06 AM on May 25, 2018 [3 favorites]

Action figure of something meaningful/interesting to you - a fandom (look at Dr Who in Mesa Verde!) or a concept (like the Accoutrements brand with professions and historical figures) or if you want something cuter, maybe this pirate. Pirates like unknown landscapes.
posted by aimedwander at 9:07 AM on May 25, 2018

If you have any pets, you could get their likenesses made into a pillow. Like so.
posted by something something at 9:12 AM on May 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

Mini-you! Do you have one of those customizable 3-D action figure shops near you? Not cheap though.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 9:15 AM on May 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

Thirty years from now you'll see a (rare) photo of yourself and think "wow, I had no idea how good I looked then." Sure, take some pix with your substitute to share now, but take some selfies you can look at down the road and smile.
posted by kate4914 at 9:24 AM on May 25, 2018 [19 favorites]

I found a website selling Canadian souvenirs that include 11-inch white teddy bears with Canadian flag shirts that might do the trick. (Also bunny rabbits, cows, and plush footballs and baseballs.)
posted by current resident at 9:34 AM on May 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

Canadian:

An elk.
A bear.
A Canadian Mounty.
posted by DoreenMichele at 9:40 AM on May 25, 2018

I know a few people who are dedicated to the shoes selfie. They somehow find a way to recline and put their feet up in those pictures.
posted by advicepig at 9:47 AM on May 25, 2018 [7 favorites]

I have a few little flags I made just for this purpose, by using one of those iron-on transfers to fabric you can print out on a printer. I made it nice and tidy by folding the edges together and using seam glue or tape (stitch witch) to a same sized piece. One is for a geology group so it has our logo on it, and another has names of various people who have supported me in my journeys. You can do anything, and it's really easy when you're making it to make a little flag pole. (I could type up instructions for you.) Then I put 'em in the pic by either holding it up or using sticky-tac (like the stuff you use to hang up posters on walls) as a mini-insta holder for the flag pole, or my feet, or what have you.

I like it because it's very personal.
posted by barchan at 9:52 AM on May 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

Do you know your patronus? Do a hunt for that + [fav color].

Anything floppy and/or with long limbs you could pretty easily attach velcro to the paws to make it able to wrap around stuff.

Or do something like this rainbow narwhal, bc cute.



Honestly in this situation I would probably be tempted to do funkos of my otp, but that doesn't pass your branding requirement.
posted by tan_coul at 10:07 AM on May 25, 2018

Action figure! Your favorite superhero obviously needs a vacation too.
posted by lydhre at 10:23 AM on May 25, 2018

I frequently read your username as "egg" rather than "cgg" so my vote is some sort of plastic/non-delicate egg.

Another suggestion I have is that on this trip you might want to search for a stand-in for your next trip. It will be a fun thing to look for, and on your next trip you'll have a call-back to this one. I am currently driving around with "Mississippi Spider," which is just a silly pet squeaky toy that called to me when I was exploring the Big Muddy.
posted by queensissy at 10:24 AM on May 25, 2018 [2 favorites]

Pretty sure that this is exactly what garden gnomes are made for.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 10:49 AM on May 25, 2018 [2 favorites]

Why not the best of both worlds? The Lego Lawn Gnome!
posted by MonkeyToes at 11:15 AM on May 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

I was going to suggest the same as queensissy. My partner & I don't like to take too many photos of ourselves, but we picked up this guy (Krtek) in Prague years back and now he goes everywhere with us and ends up posing in many photos.
posted by Laura in Canada at 12:18 PM on May 25, 2018 [3 favorites]

seanmpuckett: How about a custom Lego Minifig that looks kind of like you.

If you want something bigger than a tiny minifig, you can get a $30 Go Brick Me BrickHeadz "chibi-like" mega-fig. I haven't seen the contents of the kit, but a DuckDuckGo image search displays a pretty impressive range of results.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:25 PM on May 25, 2018

Otherwise, go to a toy shop with a decent selection and have fun! There are so many weird and interesting toys available now, from large plastic/rubbery toys, strange stuffed animals, particularly if you get into vinyl toys like Dunnies and Labbits (both links are to Kid Robot which is a wonderful/ terrible time sink of amazing, more expensive vinyl toys).
posted by filthy light thief at 12:30 PM on May 25, 2018

I did this when I studied abroad: I'd take pictures of a little amigurumi octopus that my friend made me (his name was Admiral Otto) in different places, Flat Stanley-style. This was before smart phones were ubiquitous and taking selfies with a digital camera was kind of awkward. The little dude was a hit! I also know a lady who takes a little toy Bender around with her different places and they make her Instagram food pictures a little more fun than most.

HOWEVER: I'm with kate4914 on this. Having a photo proxy for some things so you're not constantly taking selfies is a good idea, and I'm happy I did it, but if I have a regret, it was leaning a little too hard on my eight-legged photo proxy and not coming home with just a couple more photos of myself in these awesome locations. YMMV.
posted by helloimjennsco at 1:10 PM on May 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

I used a posable Barack Obama figure, much like the one in the first post in this thread. I'd pose him and have him point at various things and write a caption for him. This was before the nation went crazy though - I'd still use Obama rather than YKW.
posted by bendy at 3:17 PM on May 26, 2018

I cut out an image of Sean Spicer like so, and glued it to an identically- shaped cut out using heavyweight paper. I tucked Sean into various locations for a fun photo project (hiding in my garden plants, inside the window of a screen door, etc). If you're able to keep the cut out fairly flat while traveling that could work.
posted by mcbeth at 9:00 PM on May 26, 2018

For me it's shoes/feet. I love looking back at my travel pictures and seeing my feet on some sort of surface or propped up with a gorgeous backdrop. It's neat because those pictures not only show the place, they remind me of exactly how it felt to be there in my body - to stand on those pine needles/rocks/sands/city streets, or to recline against a boulder with a mountain view at my feet. It's a fuller sensory memory.
posted by Miko at 8:24 AM on May 27, 2018