Rachel Metivier and her 10-year-old daughter popped into more than a dozen stores in recent weeks with one question: Do you have NeeDoh squishy toys?

Nope. Not right now. We’ll post on Instagram if we get a shipment, store employees said.

Finally, at their third Target, the Parkville mother-daughter duo spotted NeeDoh’s distinctive black-and-neon signage. Macie, a fifth grader, sped over, only to find disappointment. The shelves were squishless.

No Cool Cats. No Nice Cubes. No Happy Snappies. No Dig’ It Pigs. Every brightly colored, uniquely textured, goo-filled squashable tchotchke was gone.

“It’s so crazy,” said Metivier, 43, of NeeDoh fever. “It’s ridiculous basically.”

Although NeeDoh products have been around for nine years, a flurry of TikTok and YouTube videos in recent months has prompted a run on the toys. Small shops and mass retailers are sold out across the Baltimore area.

Parents (let’s keep it real, mostly moms) are racing around the region to buy the toys from secondary sellers, ordering online at huge markups and trading tips about incoming shipments. Have you tried Walgreens today? Staples? DSW?

“The real start of it for us was late January,” said Marlo Reppert, manager of Franklin’s Toys in Severna Park. “People started going nuts for them.”

In the 80 minutes after opening Tuesday morning, store employees fielded 18 calls about NeeDoh, Reppert said. A recent shipment of hundreds sold out in an hour. And that was with a two-per-customer rule.

“Every time we have had them since mid-February, they’re gone instantly,” she said. “People are making lines out the door.”

Many parents turn to resellers on Facebook when they can’t find NeeDohs in stores. Marie Ferguson, of Towson, purchased 15 NeeDoh toys and other trendy squishies from other moms after her daughter declared they were all she wanted for her 13th birthday.

Sierrah Collins, of Dundalk, said she has seen people asking for as much as $50 for a single NeeDoh that normally sells for under $10. She wound up paying $50 for two Easter-themed NeeDoh toys for her children.

Last year, Paul Alexander Butler plopped a NeeDoh into the goody bag of every child who attended his son’s birthday party.

This year, Butler, the owner of Glen Burnie’s Games and Stuff, doesn’t have a single NeeDoh in stock but is awaiting a large shipment on back order from Schylling, the toys’ Massachusetts-based supplier.

Paul Weingard, Schylling’s CEO, said in an emailed statement that there are more than 50 varieties of NeeDoh.

“We’re constantly creating new styles, tactile experiences, and product forms,” Weingard wrote. “We have many exciting new NeeDoh products in development and some will be launching later this year.”

The NeeDoh craze reminds Butler of other toy fads: Cabbage Patch Kids, Tickle Me Elmo dolls, Pogs, Beanie Babies. Today‘s social media, especially TikTok, speeds the spread of toy trends, Butler said, like last year’s Labubu hullabaloo.

Butler understands NeeDoh’s appeal. He spent 15 minutes handling the squishies at Schylling’s booth at an industry conference, Toy Fair, in February.

“They’re very satisfying to touch,” Butler said. “Every one of them feels a little different.”

Chris Byrne, an industry expert known as The Toy Guy, said children have been playing with goopy substances, like mud and clay, forever. Play-Doh appeared in 1956, and the first commercial toy slimes a decade or so later. But it was the rise of social media that kicked off a passion for DIY slime in the 2010s.

Since then, the category of sensory toys and fidgets has also exploded, with a plethora of products to pop, click, flip, squeeze or chew. The items help kids — and adults — concentrate and manage anxiety and stress, Byrne said.

Since NeeDoh usually costs $5 to $10, it’s an inexpensive way for kids to feel trendy, he said.

“I want something that marks me as being here now,” Byrne said. “I’m part of this cohort. I’m part of this community.”

Beth Foxwell, co-owner of Shananigans toy store in Roland Park, said tactile toys are an antidote to our increasingly virtual lives. Many teens and young adults collect NeeDoh for their own use, she said

The toys — and the videos promoting them — are not without risks.

Children have received serious burns after copying influencers who microwave the squishies, according to news reports. One parent was even burned by exploding goo after a NeeDoh toy was left in a hot car, according to Consumer Reports.

Others have irritated their skin by snipping open NeeDoh toys and touching the gel inside. (This reporter did not appreciate certain children leaving a cut-open squishy in her car.)

But, when handled properly, NeeDoh can be a relaxing and inspiring plaything, parents said.

As her daughter approaches middle school, Metivier, the Parkville mom, is grateful to find a toy the tween still enjoys.

“She brings them to school, and her friends are oohing and aahing,” she said. “You don’t want the innocence of their childhood to go away completely.”