Sit on your favorite Mac with a Throwboy pillow [Review]

Throwboy pillows by Roberto Hoyos are a series of soft, squishy pillows that resemble your favorite Apple products. You can decorate your living room with astonishingly accurate facsimiles of the fan favorites — the Macintosh 128k, the iMac G3, the iPod, the iPhone — as well as the cult classics — the Lisa, the iMac G4 and the G4 Cube.

When I say “astonishingly accurate,” I’m not exaggerating. I was blown away by the attention to detail.

Hands-on review of Throwboy pillows: A cushion for the rest of us

This hands-on review of Throwboy’s pillows comes hot off the heels of the wallet that looks like a folder icon; I was sent several pillows for which I have matching machines in my collection of classic Macs. I tried sitting on them, seeing if my dogs sat on them and had the most fun photo shoot ever.

All of the Throwboy pillows are made from a high-quality, soft fabric on the outside. They’re fuzzy like a Squishmallow, though firmer in shape. They take their names — 1999, 2001, and so on — from the years of the machines’ release. They do not use Apple’s product names, for obvious reasons. Nonetheless, it’s immediately obvious what computers they represent.

iPod

The 2001 pillow resembles an original iPod. It’s taller than a standard pillow, but relatively shallow. It works well if you just need a little back support, or for propping up your legs when you’re laying down.

As you can see from the front, it has the iconic original click-wheel. The back is gray, evoking the original’s metallic finish. On the top, there are stitched outlines of the headphone jack, FireWire port and Hold switch.

Buy from: Throwboy

iBook G3

Hang on. The 1999, a mimick of the iBook G3, isn’t a remotely pillow-shaped pillow. You might think it wouldn’t be a good pillow at all.

If you sit on it behind your back, with the ‘laptop’ sitting vertically, it wraps around you kind of like a bucket seat in a sports car. It also works well to your side for bolstering a poorly padded armrest. It might work well for a toddler as a cushion on a small wooden chair, too, but I was only sent the pillow, not a baby.

Buy from: Throwboy

Mac Pro

Substantially thicker and taller than the 2001, the 2003 — an imitation Power Mac G5 — is a weird shape to put behind your back. I found it works great as a middle arm rest on a love seat as it’s wide enough to stand up on its own.

The attention to detail on this pillow is immaculate. Every port is individually stitched. The dot pattern on the face is printed very sharply considering its fuzzy fabric, and it lines up perfectly with the embroidered panels. It even has some kind of shiny material stitched into the power button to match the polished finish on the original.

Buy from: Throwboy

Macintosh

An even squatter shape than the G5, I found this pillow to be just the right size for going under my head when I’m laying down.

The shade of beige seems perfectly color-matched. There aren’t individually stitched ports on the back, but the sheer number of vents all around the sides and the back do a great job of invoking the Macintosh’s unapologetically mid-80s design.

Buy from: Throwboy

iMac G4

All right, this is just a weird shape for a pillow to be. It’s a weird shape for any object to be. Even actual sunflowers don’t have a bulbous base. The absurdity of the pillow only exemplifies the absurdity of the computer.

Every other pillow in this collection is relatively easy to stand up. Most of them are square-ish. The 2002 pillow, a la the iMac G4, was a great challenge to photograph. It constantly flopped over. In that sense, it’s a good imitation of the real thing — the 17-inch and 20-inch models are known to droop as they age.

It’s not the best pillow as a display piece, and it’s not the best pillow for a human to sit on, either, but my dogs took to it immediately. I’d just pay attention to make sure he doesn’t try carrying it around by the arm.

Buy from: Throwboy

iMac G3

The 1998 is inspired by the iMac G3 in its iconic Bondi Blue color. It’s not quite as oblong as the actual iMac G3. In fact, in profile, it more closely resembles the joke flat panel iMac than the egg-shaped original.

It seems to be missing a few elements — the door for the ports on the right side, some of the vents around the rear. Some printing on the back to suggest the translucent plastic might have looked cool, but I can imagine it would be hard to pull off.

A detail that I can appreciate is the placement of the Throwboy tag, so you can feel like you’re hauling an iMac around the room by its ‘handle.’ Though I seem to remember the iMac G3 being a little heavier…

Buy from: Throwboy

Finder

This is the most normal pillow of the bunch. It is virtually identical in size and shape to a collection of four nondescript throw pillows that have resided on my sofas for years.

The most interesting part of this pillow to me is the legality of using the Finder icon. If you really want this pillow, maybe you should buy it fast before Apple notices.

Buy from: Throwboy

A great gift for nerds in your life

Computer nerds aren’t easy to shop for, Mac nerds especially. We’re a picky bunch. If someone in your life has any of these computers, they would be overjoyed to unwrap a matching Throwboy pillow. I’m impressed by their quality and attention to detail.

Throwboy has other products, too — a series of blankets, t-shirts, hats and stickers.

And Hoyos is trying to grow the company, too. A Kickstarter launching later this year will help them open up a pillow factory. You can sign up to be notified when it’s live.

These pillows celebrate the whimsy and fun of Apple’s history. Browse the shop here.

★★★★☆