Pot Rocks : Retailers Are in the Chips, Thanks to the Blossoming Popularity of Dancing Flowers
Pee-wee Herman, hear this: You’re not the only one with partying posies in your playhouse.
From shimmying sunflowers to twisting cattleyas, Rock’N Flowers, plastic blossoms that boogie to music, are fast replacing the Pet Rock of recent past as the toy of today.
Manufactured in Tokyo and distributed by WACO Products Corp. in Fairfield, N.J., the wild bunch of sunglass-wearing and instrument-carrying flowers bop to hip-hop sounds thanks to the magic of a concealed microchip. The chip gets its dance fever from two AA batteries in the flower’s faux terra-cotta pot.
Priced at $29.95 each, the floral four (hibiscus, gerberas, sunflowers and cattleyas) are the rage in Japan and proving to be just as popular in selected cities in the United States, says Monica Cesareo, publicist for the New Jersey firm.
Available only in California, New York, Texas and parts of New England, Rock’N Flowers are the hottest-selling novelty item on store shelves, salespeople report.
“They are the new Pet Rock--we’ve sold over 2,000 of them in 10 days and had to reorder several times,” says Cheryl Fox, publicist for Bullock’s, whose Century City location has had its cash registers ringing with sales of the whimsical flora.
At the Beverly Center’s Future Tronics, where for a month a window full of hip hibiscus has stopped mall traffic, sales are reported at 100-plus potted plants per day.
Talk about flower power.
“We haven’t had anything like this before. We’ve had to reorder, sometimes twice in one day,” says the store’s district manager, Mohammad Sharifzadeh. “Everybody who passes by stops to look at them. And then they come inside and want to figure out how they work.”
Fodder for Frenzy
A booming boom box, a turned-up high-tech stereo system, even nonstop talk can send the flowers into a nonstop frenzy. Standing at 12 inches, the flowers have stems that can be shaped into a squiggly, slightly curved or straight-up positions, giving each bud a personality of its own when the music plays. Depending on the preferred performance, they can wriggle like Charo or twist like Chubby.
At Future Tronics, Mark Kruh, a self-described 29-year-old yuppie with a penchant for the latest trend, was stopped in his tracks by the dancing display. Minutes later, a couple of dance-crazy sunflowers (“Everyone needs a partner,” he says) were en route to Kruh’s West Hollywood digs.
Alicia Mendoza, the mother of a teen-age son with “dreams of becoming the next Jon Bon Jovi,” also bought a guitar-carrying sunflower for her future rocker.
“He’s into heavy metal,” she says. “And I just think these things are cute. They make me laugh.”
Cesareo says WACO plans to launch full-scale nationwide distribution of the budding dancers in stores this fall: “It’s trendy and there’s nothing out there like it right now. That’s the attraction.”
Think of it, adds Mark Hennessy, a Future Tronics salesman. “It’s just the beginning. Who knows what the microchip will bring next?”
Maybe a moonwalking marigold? Or a bat-dancing begonia? How about vogueing violets? Whatever gyrates in your electronic garden, the best part will be that it won’t require a green thumb.
