Tuesday, 29 September, 2026 UTC
Summary
What does it take to run one of the internet's most wholesome animated empires? Apparently, a lot of spicy chips.
Jenine Pastores and Josh Jackson are the creators behind Tubby Nugget, the tiny animated character whose relentless optimism and goofy sense of humor have helped him amass more than 14 million followers online. What started as an inside joke between the couple has since expanded into plushies, music videos, live events, and an increasingly ambitious animation operation.
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How Tubby Nugget grew from a doodle into a beloved internet brand
But when Mashable asked Pastores and Jackson what creator essentials they couldn't live without, Pastores had one immediate problem with the premise. "You know what's funny? We make it from home," she said. "So I'm like, what's in our bag?"
As it turns out, quite a bit. There's the iPad Jackson uses to draw Tubby, Pastores's increasingly chaotic system for capturing ideas, an emergency kit worthy of a grandma's purse, and enough glasses wipes to theoretically last Jackson years — if he could stop losing them.
And, most importantly, there are snacks.
Tubby Nugget's creators share the essentials behind their wholesome empire.
Credit: Ian Moore/Mashable/Getty Images/Grupo Bimbo
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"It's gonna sound very Tubby Nugget, but it's snacks," Pastores said. "I feel like we cannot work without snacks."
For Pastores, that generally means spicy chips. Specifically, Takis. Unfortunately, Jackson has appointed himself the household's unofficial Takis regulator. "She eats a lot of Takis, and I often have to ration it for her because it gives her a stomachache," Jackson said.
Pastores immediately objected. "You want to know what he does to me? He hides the Takis on the top shelf because I can't reach it."
"Even with a ladder, she can't reach it," Jackson added.
"You didn't have to hear that part," Pastores said. "It's really sad."
Jackson's system has become surprisingly sophisticated. He portions the Takis into a small bowl rather than giving Pastores access to the entire bag. "I'm like, 'You can eat this many Takis,'" he said.
"No!" Pastores replied.
"This whole segment is gonna be Josh roasting me about my Takis obsession," she said. "You guys heard it first. Honestly, any spicy chips. It's pretty bad, but I love it. It's delicious."
An iPad and Procreate
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There is, thankfully, some actual creator tech on the list. Jackson uses an iPad and Procreate to draw Tubby Nugget, making the device one of the more obvious necessities in their creative workflow.
"Josh draws everything on Procreate," Pastores said.
"Yeah, it's pretty essential," Jackson added. "It's what we do."
For a character that now exists across social media, merchandise, music videos, and the real world, a major part of the Tubby Nugget operation still comes down to Jackson sitting down and drawing on an iPad.
A journal and some extremely chaotic Apple Notes
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Pastores needs somewhere to capture an idea whenever inspiration hits. "My journal, in case I have ideas," she said. "That's really important. My journal is very important to me."
She still keeps a physical journal, but increasingly, her ideas end up somewhere considerably less organized: the Notes app on her phone.
"I did start transitioning to using my Apple Notes," she said. "But it's like the nonsensical Apple Notes where it's just like, 'fire in kitchen.'"
No further explanation of "fire in kitchen" was provided.
A grandma-level emergency kitPastores describes herself as "a grandma with my purse," and she has the supplies to prove it. "I have my favorite pill box, which has every single pill imaginable that I might need," she said, listing staples like Advil, Benadryl, and Allegra.
Jackson considered this a perfectly legitimate creator essential. "No, it is important. It is important," he said. "Most people are like, 'My camera,' and you're like, 'My pills.'"
Not every tool of the creator trade needs a charging cable.
So many glasses wipes
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Jackson's essential is simple: glasses wipes. The problem is keeping track of them. "The man loses his glasses wipes constantly," Pastores said. "He has ordered the 12-pack maybe like 12 times."
Jackson disputed the frequency somewhat. "Two times a year, I order like a 12-pack of glasses wipes because every six months I lose all of them."
Pastores eventually finds them. "They're just all over our house," she said.
For now, Jackson's actual glasses remain decidedly low-tech. But when Mashable asked whether he'd ever try smart glasses, he was intrigued by one possibility.
"Maybe if we could do a Tubby AR and a real-life Tubby could be floating," Jackson said.
The pair already has a Tubby Nugget Snapchat filter, which got them thinking. "We have to work on this," Pastores said.
"Maybe Tubby AR," Jackson replied.
Add it to the bag.