Take a Toy, Any Toy: Field Is Wide Open
So here you sit. The Shopping-Days-Left-Till-Christmas countdown has reached single digits, and your list is still littered with blanks and question marks.
And that’s just the adults. You haven’t even thought about all those kids yet, and you hate elbowing your way through those crowded toy store aisles.
So here’s the good news: Relax. No need to panic.
It’s not one of those years where there’s one must-have toy. No Teddy Ruxpin. No ET. No Transformers. No Rubik’s Cube. No Cabbage Patch Doll. No pressure to either deliver that one hot item or face that unbearable look of crushed adolescent hope.
Or is that the bad news? Without your selection predetermined, you are free to use your imagination. Or even--God forbid--your own childhood memories. You can go toy shopping this year with the knowledge that it’s a wide-open playground out there.
“There’s no steamroller,” said Jim Woodward, manager of the FAO Schwarz store in South Coast Plaza. “The Nintendo units, which dominated last year, are still hot, but there’s no one ‘must-have’ thing. Instead, people are shifting their attention to things that get overlooked in steamroller years.”
“Parents generally Christmas shop with a particular figure in mind of what they want to spend,” explained Mark Haag, general manager of the Toys R Us chain, which has four stores in Orange County.
“If there’s one hot item, and that item costs X , and X is 80% of that person’s budget figure, then there’s not much left over to spread around on other toys. But if no one thing demands to be bought, then the money gets spread over several items, and that’s what we’ve been seeing so far this season.”
But no steamroller does not mean no monster toys. These are, after all, kids we’re dealing with, and kids are nothing if not malleable. You want help? Here are some of the season’s hottest toys:
Video Games: For the third straight year, Nintendo home units are the champ, but this year they are joined by a new Nintendo hand-held unit called Game Boy.
Prime software for both the home and hand-held units includes Tetris, a block-building game of Russian origin, Super Mario Brothers II and Teen-Age Mutant Ninja Turtles (yes, them again). Caveat: Nintendo is notorious for limiting supply to juice the demand. Don’t wait till Christmas Eve to pick up a Game Boy.
Two other full-scale systems have taken home video games to a new level with their 16-bit processing: Turbo-Grafix-16 from NEC and Genesis from Sega. Both are off to strong starts in area stores.
Dolls: The hot newcomers: Oopsie Daisy, who crawls, falls down, cries and picks herself back up (battery-powered); Li’l Miss Dress Up, whose dress changes colors (special pen-operated); and Pretty Penni Chatterbox, who talks as you stroke her hair (patience-operated).
The perennials: Barbie, particularly the Happy Holidays version, part of her 30th anniversary (how does she stay so young ?) edition; Betsy Wetsy (“People seem to want dolls that wet their diapers again,” offered Paul Daverio, manager of the Play Co Toys branch in Anaheim); and Tiny Tears, the original crying doll.
Superfast Cars: These battery-powered racers are about six inches long and can get up to almost 20 m.p.h. They’re the steamroller item in Japan, where they originated, but have not made the impact in Orange County that was predicted at the start of the season.
“The cars are doing very well, the tracks for them only so-so,” notes Play Co’s Daverio. “I try to explain to people that the enjoyment is limited without the track. I mean, where’s the fun is running it for a few seconds until it hits the wall, then chasing it down? But so far, I haven’t had much luck getting the point across.”
Batman paraphernalia: Yes, kids still want it, but it’s not as omnipresent as it was last summer, when every 10-year-old was required by his peers to sport some Batman symbol somewhere on his person at all times.
“The video (release) has kept demand up. BatCars, for instance, are still doing well,” Toys R Us’ Haag says.
Interestingly, there is a shortage of some Batman-related items because, of all reasons, much of it comes from mainland China, and some factories were shut down last summer during and immediately after the student/worker revolt.
Still worried? Here’s the best news: You can rely on your own experience. Remember what you liked when you were a child? Buy it. As Cole Porter promised, “Everything old is new again.”
Pop sociologists explain it this way: Baby boomers are having their own children. No generation is as self-absorbed as this one. What was good enough for their childhood is obviously better for their own kids.
Industry analysts see it this way: Parents fear buying the wrong toy, so they buy whatever’s safe. Normally, that translates into what’s hot. With nothing super hot, safe translates into familiar.
So what else is selling this Christmas? Try board games: Monopoly, Chutes and Ladders, Candyland. Try wooden toys: trains, rocking horses, human figures. Paper dolls that you cut out. Jump ropes. Piggy banks. GI Joes. Dollhouses.
“Out of the blue, a lot of the classic toys have stepped up their advertising campaigns,” said Woodward of FAO Schwarz. “Maybe they sense the nostalgia of the baby boom parents. I don’t know. All I do know is that the basics, the classic toys, are taking a larger share of the holiday market than in any other season in recent memory.”
Lest you think, however, that the ‘80s will go down without a fight, we leave you with this piece of information: At B.N. Genius, an upscale, adult toy chain whose store in Crystal Court is three months old, the hottest item is the Coin Puter. A savings bank, it is described as a “savings toy for all ages” and features a digital display of both the amount being deposited and the amount accrued inside.
Perfect for that acquisitive child of your favorite yuppie cousins. Unless, of course, you would rather get him a box of crayons.
