Hooligans

The Japanese called them Bakemono. The Germans called them Baumesal. But in the United States, these ugly yet cute critters were dubbed Hooligans, and became the latest craze for every teenager living in Sunnydale, California. Needing to re-establish a foothold on this plane quickly, the Baumesal came to Buffy's old rival, Ethan Rayne, a would-be lord of chaos with a proposition. In exchange for Ethan's assistance, they would make him filthy rich. They were alone in this dimension and wanted their mother to cross over with them. In the middle of a clearing in Miller's woods, there was a hole in this world, small enough for the Baumesal, but not for their mother. In order to free her, they needed to steal special things to which the owners of those object were emotionally attached. Bringing the trinkets to their mother as tribute, the Baumesal would drain off the residual energies imbued in those objects and give it to their mother to widen the hole.

Rayne set up shop in Sunnydale, and renamed the Baumesal 'Hooligans.' The Hooligans had the ability to imitate a lifeless doll, and were sold by Rayne to the youth of Sunnydale. After the Hooligans became the latest craze, they waited until their owners were asleep and stole prized possessions for their mother. Buffy became suspicious of the Hooligans after noticing that all the teenagers who purchased a Hooligan doll began to exhibit signs of irrational behavior. Managing to catch the Hooligans red handed, Buffy traced the work back to Rayne.

Learning from Rayne that once the mother was freed, she would eat all the people whose possessions helped to free her. Heading over to the gateway between worlds, Buffy failed to prevent the Hooligans' mother from crossing over, however, she did manage to overpower her and threatened to kill her, unless the Hooligans returned to their home dimension with their mother, to which the Hooligans agreed.