Some holiday shoppers prefer bizarre gifts
By Joseph Cress, November 28, 2004
No child would want a Charlie in the Box or a squirt gun that shoots jelly.
So went the sad tale of rejected gifts stranded on the Island of Misfit Toys in that classic holiday special "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer."
But a tree ornament or plush toy version of the beloved characters could cost a pretty penny on eBay this Christmas season.
So if a market exists for misfits, why not offbeat toys such as wind-up hopping lederhosen?
A plastic model of a Bavarian folk costume, this pair of pants jumps up and down across any flat surface and is a popular item this year for Archie McPhee, a Seattle-based novelty and toy company.
Another hot item is the cat-a-pult which shoots . . . what else . . . tiny plastic cats.
In keeping with the theme,
the best seller this year is the Crazy Cat Lady action figure of a spinster dressed in a bath robe living with a pack of felines, says David Wahl, company spokesman.
He believes customers either buy it to make fun of themselves or tease a person who fits the stereotype.
Adults go for absurd
But a joke can backfire. A librarian action figure, introduced last year, caused a stir among people in that profession upset about how the toy shushes people for being too loud, Wahl says.
Wahl says the trend in the mainstream toy market is almost exclusively toward licensing from movies and TV shows. "You do not have to pay for advertising character people are already familiar with."
He adds other companies find it difficult to market strangeness, preferring instead to follow fads that disappear with changes in popular culture. "There is a constant need for the new and unusual."
In response to the popular Hello Kitty product line, Archie McPhee introduced its own merchandise called Parasite Pals," including "Tickle the Tapeworm" and "Dig-Dig the Head Louse."
Wahl says his company does not really market toys for children. Its customer base are people age 35 to 55 "with a real good sense of the absurd" and earning more than $100,000 a year.
John Reilly, spokesman for K-B Toys, sees it differently. "The same rules apply to the offbeat as apply to mainstream. If a toy is unique or fun... if it has play value or collectible value ... it is going to move."
For the most part, K-B Toys sells mainstream items but occasionally scores success with unusual toys, Reilly says. Last year, the hot item was the George W. Bush elite force naval aviator action figure.
That toy came out just months after the president made his controversial "mission accomplished" speech on an aircraft carrier shortly after the fall of Baghdad.
The most unusual item this year is a dog translator called Bow Lingual in which a transmitting device clipped on a dog collar sends out a signal to a hand-held walkie-talkie.
There's more
On a tiny display, the receiver prints out the meaning or the bark as "I'm hungry," "I need a hug" or other such messages. "It's a little something out of the box," Reilly says.
Other examples of offbeat toys and gifts include:
* Tellmi, the interactive electronic hedgehog with blinking lights and moving limbs. He illustrates his emotions by making the lights in his body blink in strange patterns.
* Root-Vue Farm, a glass enclosure where children can watch seeds grow into vegetables.
* Wind-up walking rubber Sushi in realistic colors and textures.
* A rock-em, sock-em President Bush toy that punches out likenesses of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
* What's In Ned's Head, a plush toy head containing fake vomit, bugs, moldy cheese, rats and worms.
* A dancing hamster toy dressed in a Godzilla costume and "I Love Tokyo" T-shirt which sings its rendition of the classic Blue Oyster Cult tune about the rampaging monster.
* The Talking and Singing Mona Lisa — a motion-activated 3-D version of the famous painting that sings "I Wanna Be Loved by You" and . . . of course . . . "Mona Lisa."
* The singing Bible keychain — press the cross and it plays the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah.
* The John Kerry punching bag.
* The Mr. T chia.
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