Every toy maker dreams of hitting the next Beanie Baby.

Now think Beanie Baby meets Mr. Potato Head.

That’s what Jason Johnson and Adam Kittelson think they might have.

The young entrepreneurs’ PlajaPets are catching on with local kids and those from South Korea — and they’re getting interest from the famed F.A.O. Schwarz in New York City.

“Kids love ’em. They say they’re like a cross between Mr. Potato Head and Beanie Babies, only cooler,” said Johnson of Mankato.

The soft, plush toys have interchangeable heads and tails (attached by magnets inside the fabric) that allow kids to create hundreds of variations.

Johnson, 28, and Kittelson, 26, both from the Twin Cities, met in 1998 as freshmen at Minnesota State University. Johnson got a degree in international business while Kittelson graduated with an international relations degree.

Kittelson went to China and taught English classes, while Johnson looked for a job in Mankato.

“I didn’t find anything that I liked,” Johnson said of his job search.

Two years ago, Kittelson came back to Mankato to get his master’s degree and stayed at Johnson’s place.

Johnson, who’d been tossing around an idea for plush toys for a few years, began working on designs with Kittelson, who has an artistic touch.

“Adam would draw them and we kept changing them until we got what we wanted.”

Decision time came. “We’re both optimists and both motivated,” Johnson said.

“Adam dropped out of the (master’s) program and went back to China to find a manufacturer, and I stayed here and got patents and set up the business side.”

They tapped their savings and borrowed from family and from banks to put together a prototype of a set of six PlajaPets.