If you have a daughter of around 4 years old, one day, one way or another you will find yourself being manipulated into buying a mermaid. Our first encounter was with another kid's full blown, original merchandise type. My daughter M forgot her fear of water while she played in the pool with it so I figured it was a worth while investment and found myself agreeing to making sure she had her own mermaid too. Later as sanity prevailed I remembered that we avoid buying plastic nonsense and we seriously avoid buying anything that is just another toy! Most of M's toys are passed down from her big sister so we have some old and mostly naked dolls hanging around. Using just some tin foil around the legs and some sticky metallic tape that we already had in our DIY kit we created a tail upon an existing doll. We have a plan for fairy wings upon another and there is nothing to stop you making temporary modifications to any of your kids toys to satisfy their temporary phases and interests. If you are worried that your kid will be teased for their weird, altered or home made toy make sure that both you and your kid are rightfully confident in yourselves. Every tiny action that frees us from being slaves to a polluting consumerism counts and the sooner our kids learn that the better.
Mermaid enjoyed her travels but was specifically fond of her trip to the sea. She and Panda didn't mind the suitcase and she felt quite at home among our dive equipment, but some specifically turbulent play resulted in protrudent foot, luckily some extra aluminium tape saved the day.