What do a robotic hamster, a pink three-storey townhouse and a fleet of Storm Troopers all have in common?
They seem to disappear at this time of year.
Take a stroll through the toy section at your local department store on the days leading up to Christmas and it’s easy to tell which toys will be appearing under the tree this year.
As the final days wind down before Santa’s big arrival, Heather Hersey of the toy department in St. Albert’s Wal-Mart is having a hard time keeping the hottest toys on the shelf.
The board games Boggle and Perfection have been a popular gift this year, said Hersey, along with the Easy-Bake Oven and Crayola Glow Station, which creates illustrations with light.
Other toys, such as Lego Star Wars and the Barbie Dream townhouse, came in as a special order and were snapped up by desperate parents within days of their arrival.
Hersey said the popularity of some of the toys all has to do with how they are marketed on television.
“We had some toys since September and October and nobody was touching them. As soon as the advertising starts, everybody wants one,” said Hersey, who always receives numerous inquiries from frantic parents about the most popular toys. “Good luck to the parents who haven’t done their shopping already.”
According to TopChristmasToysThisYear.com, a site dedicated to providing information about the latest and most popular Christmas toys of 2009, this year’s most popular toy is the Mindflex game by Mattel.
The game features a headset that reads your brain waves, along with a levitating foam ball. Players strap on the headset and use the powers of their concentration to move the ball around the game console and obstacle course — all for the whopping price of about $230.
Rounding out second spot on the list is Elmo’s Tickle Hands from Fisher Price. These red furry gloves shake when you tickle someone, play a song and come with an exclusive DVD that teaches kids how to do the accompanying dance.
Another eye-opener on the list, which also includes Lego Star Wars, Bakugan, and Barbie’s Doll’d Up Nails (the ultimate custom manicure), is the arrival of the Zhu Zhu Pets’ hamsters, which are proving to be one of the most popular, but hard-to-find, toys this holiday season.
The robotic hamster looks and acts like a real hamster as it scurries across the floor and comes complete with its own unique personality and whimsical sounds.
The hugely popular toy, which has been hard to find in Canada, also comes with a host of accessories so children can build their own hamster habitat.
The hamster hasn’t made its way onto toy shelves at the Wal-Mart in St. Albert, despite more than 40 inquiries from the public about the toy.
Nonetheless, Hersey is pleased to see a spike in the popularity of some of the good, old-fashioned board games.
“There is a lot of board games and I am glad they are going. It’s more family time,” she said.
The list of top-selling toys is compiled using data from best sellers from retailer sites, such as Toys ‘R’ Us, Target, KB Toys, Amazon, Wal-Mart.
