Hot for the Holidays : A Wish List of Toys for the Large and Small
In what may well be the biggest comeback since Lazarus, video games are predicted to be the triumph of the toys this holiday season.
The craze that captured the nation early in the decade only to fizzle into relative oblivion is seen by industry experts as the leading buy this year.
Local stores already are reported to be having a hard time keeping in stock the Nintendo Entertainment System (about $140 for the deluxe set, plus $25 to $50 for cartridges). And Atari Corp. (which started it all with Pong in the ‘70s) is enjoying similar success with its new XE video game system (about $150 for the system, plus $20 for cartridges). Sega also has a video entry (system about $100, cartridges $30 to $40).
“Retail sales to consumers for the video game industry are expected to reach $825 million this year, much of it during the holiday shopping period,” said Bonnie Powell, spokeswoman for Nintendo of America Inc.
Sales Comeback
That doesn’t quite match the $3 billion that was spent at the peak of the craze in 1982, but it will be a big improvement over the valley of $100 million that sales of the video games plunged to in 1985.
“Besides,” said Frank Reysen, editor of the toy industry trade publication Playthings, “there hasn’t been a holiday single blockbuster since the Cabbage Patch doll in 1984 and Trivial Pursuit the year before that.”
Rick Anguilla, editor of the trade publication Toy & Hobby World, added that there probably won’t be any such triumphs in the four weeks ahead either. “Cabbage Patch was like Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak,” he said. “Anybody who comes close will be doing pretty well. Cabbage Patch and Trivial Pursuit were aberrations. You can’t expect an encore every year.”
So what else will Christmas and Hanukkah shoppers for toys (both for children and adults) have to choose from? What’s hot, what’s not this season?
Starting at the top, for those with champagne wishes and you-know-the-rest:
Hammacher Schlemmer in Beverly Hills is offering a hydraulic helicopter amusement ride that enables a child to pilot it to a height of 7 feet and travel 5 feet. The price is $5,400 and it is not recommended for indoor use.
“For someone older,” store manager Jeff Overdorf said, “you might want to consider a talking scale with memory ($97). After up to five members of a family each programs in what he or she weighs, every time that person steps on it, the battery-operated scale announces how many pounds have been gained or lost. And, even if you don’t feel you’ve earned it, the scale signs off with: ‘Have a nice day.’ ”
The ever-popular pasta machine, after a run of about 25 years, is a definite out this year, according to Hammacher Schlemmer spokeswoman Susan Sanders.
“Our market analysts identified the trend a couple months ago,” she said. “People don’t want to spend the time with the machines. What we’ve replaced it with this year for the first time is an automatic bread maker ($334). You simply put in flour, yeast, salt and shortening, and in four hours the machine comes forth with a one-pound loaf of homemade bread, complete with the aroma throughout your home.”
Hot Dog Cart
Aroma of a different kind, and different price, can be obtained also from Hammacher Schlemmer with a Delancey Frankfurter Cart ($3,795), complete with umbrella, a familiar sight in New York City for decades, and increasingly being seen on the streets of Los Angeles.
For further exotics, F. A. O. Schwarz in Costa Mesa is offering (for $1,500) a 56-inch replica of a double-hump camel.
The same store also is selling a 2-foot-high, 24-karat gold musical carrousel, complete with 16 miniature animals, 128 blinking lights and stereo cassette player with two speakers. Price: $12,000.
And Beverly Hills Motoring Accessories, for $6,000 to $12,000, will let you select a back seat from one of your favorite cars of yesteryear, and convert it into a couch for your living room--even if your choice is an Edsel. The customized sofa comes complete with tail lights that flash on and off at the flick of a switch.
All of which doesn’t mean you and your children can’t have happy holidays on a more modest budget. In fact, when asked what will be hot this year, the opinion of Douglas Thomson was: “Basics.”
Thomson, president of the Toy Manufacturers of America, said in an interview that boring as it may seem to some, such standbys as Etch A Sketch, Lego Building Systems, Bubble Mower, Hot Wheels, Monopoly, Matchbox, teddy bears, crayon sets, Barbie, Mr. Potato Head and GI Joe all figure--in the absence of a standout seller--to do well.
“The retailers will be ordering them on a steady basis, the reason being they’ll know they won’t have to mark them down,” Thomson said. “And consumers will find that prices will remain relatively low, because manufacturers will schedule longer productions runs.”
As did Reysen and Anguilla, Thomson said certain video games will do well this year.
What won’t be as hot, he predicted, are action figures--Masters of the Universe, Rambo, Mask, Star Wars.
“Retailers last year ran into difficulty in having so many items that seemed to be the same,” Thomson said. “They don’t want to take writedowns this year, which is why they are going back to basics.”
As for parents, he added, “many of them purchased some of those action toys last year, only to find that their children weren’t that interested. Mothers and fathers, therefore, are saying that maybe they ought to buy something more tried and proven.”
All of which doesn’t mean that everything has to be gift-wrapped mashed potatoes, particularly for the older crowd.
Master the possibilities, 1987 version:
Relax Videos, the brainchild of Jacob Podber in New York City, are 60-minute tapes (about $30 each) which include the sun rising above the ocean, accompanied by the sound of surf; a blazing fireplace, complete with snaps and crackles; and the countryside of New England, which can be switched on while the viewer pedals an exercise bike. Available by calling (212) 496-4400, or via mail order from 2901 Broadway, Suite 128, N.Y., N.Y. 10025
You’ll need a Horchow Collection catalogue from Dallas for this one, but why not spend $45 and get someone a black-nylon rope necklace complete with colorful Christmas tree bulbs. Matching earrings, one bulb each, are $15.
Available at most stores, and new this year, are gift batteries. Inasmuch as so many presents require batteries to operate, Eveready has come out with Energizer Gift Mates ($2.75 for a pair of “C” size), which are batteries that can themselves be given as gifts, because they come in patterns featuring Santa Claus, snowmen, ornaments and “Season’s Greetings.”
For the performing arts-minded, the Music Center’s Shop on the Plaza is offering as a Christmas tree ornament a gold-plated, solid brass replica of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion ($10).
For sports fans, consider Chick Hearn’s Dream Game Sports Cassette, a five-minute audio cassette that reproduces the deciding moments in the seventh game of an NBA finals. As Hearn and Keith Erickson call the action, the name of the recipient is described as he comes off the bench, scores the winning basket at the buzzer, and is named the series MVP. Available for $150 by calling (213) 478-7827.
For board game devotees, a new one in the stores is “Quest for the Ideal Mate,” ($24) created by Shirl Solomon of Florida. “It is played by a mixed group, involves tossing a di (not the princess), landing on a personality trait, answering one of four questions on that trait’s cards and hopefully finding compatibility with another player of the opposite sex,” Solomon said.
Another new one for adults (“Mid-life Crisis” has become a basic by now) is “Corruption,” developed by a Connecticut dentist, Joseph Siemiatkoski, and offering players a lesson in how to parlay a political appointment into wealth through bribes, payoffs and kickbacks. Available by calling (800) 541-GAME.
As he has in the previous nine years, another dentist, Tom Kuhn of San Francisco, once again is offering the venerable yo-yo, this year’s Diamond Special ($25) crafted of hard rock maple and inlaid with precious stones that sparkle during the spinning. A spool with 60 feet of string is included. Available by phone or mail--(415) 921-8138, address 2383 California St., San Francisco, 94115.
Many of the local department stores carry the Ronde line of products, which this year includes a portable safe that poses as a coat hanger ($60). Made of steel and shaped like a hanger, the safe bolts to any permanent clothes rod and has a hollowed vault, secured with a combination lock for safekeeping of passports, jewelry, medications, etc.
Despite this being a festive time of the year, it isn’t without the usual controversy regarding certain gifts.
Apparently one such is Gotcha (about $25), a toy gun that shoots paint pellets. The Consumer Affairs Committee of Americans for Democratic Action recently urged all toy stores to refuse to sell it.
Ann Brown, chair of the committee, pointed out that the product carries warnings such as that goggles should be worn, that the gun shouldn’t be fired at anyone from a distance of less than 5 feet and that it is for outdoor use only.
“The manufacturer admits by the inclusion of the goggles and the warning label that the gun has a potential for danger,” Brown said.
To which editor Anguilla responded: “Gotcha is running about 12th in popularity so far this year. Although the product may be controversial, my feeling is that toys reflect society. Kids want what the parents want.”
An interesting fact, he said, is that “during wartime, toy guns have a difficult time selling. When there is no war, but a threat of it, toy guns sell well.”
Thomson had this opinion: “Most of us have played with toy guns as children without any harm resulting. Occasionally somebody does something stupid. Why blame the product for the stupidity of a few individuals?”
Perhaps a little-known cause of toy-related accidents, Thomson said, are balloons. The very young, he explained, if left alone while trying to blow up one, can inhale and cause a balloon to lodge in the windpipe. Or, if the balloon pops, a tyke may chew it, sometimes with an unhappy result.
Dr. Phillip L. Kaufman, an Illinois optometrist who began evaluating the safety of toys a decade ago, said: “As many as 160,000 children suffer eye injuries from toys every year, and most of those injuries are around Christmas.”
Controversial Toys
This year he singled out, among others, the Rambo M-16 combat Target Set (fires plastic silver bullets), the Rambo Tri-Tracker Heat Seeking Missile Launcher and the Rambo Defender 6 x 6 Assault Vehicle (they fire potentially eye-damaging missiles, he said).
Terrence Scanlon, chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, also warns against lawn dart games. “Parents shouldn’t allow their kids to play with lawn darts,” he said.
Finally, there is some controversy over the new Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future toys ($20 to $70 for any one of five), which are “interactive” with the show that premiered on nationwide television in September.
“During the interactive segments, the toys can respond to signals encoded into the TV program,” explained Kathy Thorpe, spokeswoman for the manufacturer, Mattel Toys, of Hawthorne. “The users aim at targets on the screen, and score points for hits.”
A television show has become a video game.
However, this hasn’t gone over well with Peggy Charren, president of Action for Children’s Television. “For kids who don’t have the toy that interacts with the show, watching it is a little like going into a shooting gallery without the quarter needed to participate,” she said.
Thorpe said because only about three minutes of each half-hour Captain Power show are devoted to interactive battles, viewers need not have any toy to enjoy the program.
Reysen, of “Playthings,” said there are an estimated 150,000 different toys on the market, of which about 5,000 are new this year.
“The industry is highly cyclical--fade in, fade out,” he continued. “Radio-controlled vehicles, which were very strong four years ago, faded and now are staging a comeback. A lot of the old stuff were imports, and there were too many product returns. Now the major American manufacturers have gotten into it with quality versions that don’t break down.”
Better Quality
Anguilla agreed: “The second generation of the radio-controlleds are here, and are selling well. They have turbos, and can go much faster--40 m.p.h. to 50 m.p.h.--than the earlier models.”
Said Thomson: “They didn’t always do what you wanted. Now they have better suspensions, among other things, and they are more reliable.”
As for why video games are suddenly hot again, Powell, of Nintendo, also cited the new-generation factor. “The graphics are more refined, the technology is more state-of-the-art,” she said.
Michael Katz, president of Atari’s entertainment electronics division, said his company’s new video game system is vastly improved over that of the early ‘80s. “It has the power and capabilities of a computer,” he said.
In the recently completed “Playthings” survey of buyers for more than 2,500 retailers nationwide--including the major department store chains--Nintendo’s new entry ranked No. 1.
Like that trade publication’s editor, Katz mused on the cyclical nature of the toy industry: “Rollerskates, for instance, become popular again about every seven years.”
And finally, Thomson said he detects a definite trend toward more purchasing and giving of educational toys.
“Mothers and fathers are worried about their children being able to make it in an increasingly complex world,” he said. “They are feeling that the sooner they get their kids started, the better his or her chances will be.”
Christmas for trendy toddlers!
