Since moving to New York City, my social media algorithm has completely rewired to show me about the current happenings, big and small, in the city. If you don’t live here, you might not have heard of an up-and-coming local celebrity: a giant stuffed Yoshi that’s been sitting on some subway tracks in Brooklyn for almost a month.
I first caught wind of what is slowly becoming colloquially known as the “Classon Ave Yoshi” on December 4 after a TikTok video from user @jeremypinson321 came across my For You Page. The earliest mention I can find of this poor, battered baby dinosaur was on November 14, when New Yorkers first found him lying in the middle of the tracks at the Classon Avenue G train station, which is on the west side of Bedford-Stuyvesant, a neighborhood in Brooklyn.
At some point in the past few days, some kind soul got onto the tracks and helped the Classon Ave Yoshi. He’s no longer laid out like he’d been thrown from an open subway door, and instead is propped up on one of the pillars on the tracks.
After a recent night out with friends, I took a detour to see if Yoshi was still there, and lo and behold, the tattered toy was chilling against the pillar.
© Photo: Kenneth Shepard
I didn’t anticipate it being as large as it was, but make no mistake, this is a giant plush. I wasn’t about to walk on the train tracks and get either arrested or killed by an incoming train or the electrified tracks to find out his actual size, but this Yoshi is probably at least two feet tall, and seems to have an official Super Mario-branded tag on its hand. I looked around to try and figure out which plush this might be, but there are several big, stuffed Yoshis on the market. I couldn’t nail it down without putting my life at risk.
The environmental storytelling of the Classon Ave Yoshi is tragic. Did a child lose their best friend on the way home? Could a parent who bought it for their kid for the holidays have dropped it as they hurried off the subway? Is this just a joke some prankster teenager is playing to see how social media tracks the poor guy’s encroaching filth? It could just be a cheap promotion for the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which Yoshi will debut in. We’ve reached out to the MTA for comment and will update the story if we hear back.
As someone who watched Toy Story too much as a kid, the sight of a stuffed animal being left behind and exposed to the elements of a New York City subway station elicits an uncomfortable amount of empathy from me. I wish I could save him from this terrible fate, and I’m not the only one. As I was waiting for the G train to arrive to take me home, a pair of New Yorkers also pulled out their phones to capture the Classon Avenue Yoshi’s plight, and said, “I want to save him!” As of last night, he’s still chilling against a pillar. I need a heartwarming comeback story from this. Someone save Yoshi and get him to a toy preservationist who can make him good as new, then send him to a museum. He’s part of New York City history now.
Update: 12/5/2025, 12:48 p.m.: The MTA has confirmed in a statement to Kotaku that the Yoshi plush has been removed from the tracks. We have inquired about whether or not the stuff animal has been sent to the lost and found, or has been discarded and will update when we hear back.
Update: 12/5/2025, 4:28 p.m.: A TikTok user has posted an image of MTA workers removing Yoshi from the tracks,
© bbqbiscuitbitch on TikTok
Kotaku asked if we could claim the Yoshi to try and find its original owner, and an MTA spokesperson said that the crew had followed its internal processes to add it to the NYC Transit lost and found.
