"Tfs a popular toy this Christmas" says the news media

[roller]

Saturday December 13 issue


The West Australian newspaper has a small article on popular toys this Christmas.

In the top 5 toys for boys number 3 is 'Transformers Universe (2) deluxe class figures' pictured is a boxed Acid Storm.

In the article it also says "A Kmart spokesman said that for boys, the Ben 10 and Transformers action figure ranges were popular, as well as perennial favourite Lego"


Stop the Presses!

[dirge]

popular toys this Christmas.

In the top 5 toys for boys number 3 is 'Transformers Universe (2) deluxe class figures' pictured is a boxed Acid Storm.

<casts a look at STL>

This is all due to you...

[griffin]

If the newspaper article quotes their list from 'Austoy' and not Kmart, then it is a legit popularity list. Or if they say it is a list of what HAS been popular so far, and not, what WILL BE popular.
If it was from Kmart, listing what WILL BE popular, it was basically free advertising for them to sell the five toylines they most want to sell (either smaller profit magins, or they ordered the most stock of them).
They hope that parents or relatives of kids, who don't know what the kid is actually into, use the list as a guide to what the kid is most likely into. Each year some stores release a list to a news source of 'the top toys for Christmas', which covers some of the high demand lines, but is mostly made up of stuff that store wants to move. It's why in recent years you see the Robo/dino/homer-sapien toys taking out top spot - not because kids want them (as a 'popular' list should be), but because they are so expensive, the stores probably can't afford to heavily discount them later just to move the unwanted stock.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I think it was the what will be the hot sellers list. It had that new talking elmo toy up the top of the list somewhere as well. An interview with some people from kmart and Toys R Us pushing that Fur Real dog I think and generally all the pricey toys.

On a side not, it mentioned that Cabbage Patch Kids have been going for 25 years. Is that right? I think they dissappeared for a while and have made resergence as of late but I didn't think they were running since B.T (Before Transformers).

Never see the Garbage Pail Kids anymore now that I think of it either

[roller]

ive just been reading through one of the magazines that comes with the West Australian, the 'West Weekend magazine'

there is an article called "Ramsay's relish" and in it the writer (Michelle Phillips) writes about getting christmas presents for celebrities

she says "Richards, Oliver: a Transformers Cyber stompin' Bumblebee action figure for owning up when he broke the window with his cricket ball"

i have no idea who Oliver Richards is

[griffin]

I think it was the what will be the hot sellers list. It had that new talking elmo toy up the top of the list somewhere as well. An interview with some people from kmart and Toys R Us pushing that Fur Real dog I think and generally all the pricey toys.

Ah, so it is future-tense, AND lists a lot of the pricey stuff the stores want to make sure they sell *before* Christmas, or be stuck with heavy discounting later.
It's like I described, the stores providing the list are only aiming to generate the demand in the toys they list, so the cause and effect is reversed. Instead of listing items that should become the big sellers, they are listing random toys that WILL become popular due to their article/advertisement that many parents and relatives will use as a guide for gifts, to kids they don't know well enough to know what they really want. It's like when big share-broker companies 'predict' which stocks will go up or down - the herd mentality of the average investor buys and sells according to what they now believe will happen to the stock - which ends up sending the price of the shares in the direction first predicted. So it isn't as much a prediction, it's more of a guiding of the market. Or in this case, the toy customer.

I actually like something I saw on one of those breakfast shows a few years ago - they got several *kids* and let them loose in a toyshop/toysection for half an hour, and got them to recommend the toys they liked most (the REAL popular toys). I think the results were a lot different, as the kids had little interest in the stuff retailers were listing as 'popular', as they mostly went for simpler cheaper stuff more than the expensive, complex, electronic toys. There was a greed element in chosing some expensive things, but the cheaper items were rated with a higher 'fun factor' when asked why they chose each item.

[roller]

i can't wait to see you fellows, in a few years time, i wonder what you will be your spending habits in regards to your offsprings toys

will you buy the toy recommended by other parents or the big names like lego et al

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I think we will be better informed than the average joe parent.

And our buying habits will be run by a golden rule:

"One for Junior, one for me!"

[Kyle]

All my kids will need are Transformers and Legos. But I'll teach them to leave daddy's toys alone...

[1orion2many]

Didn't work for me, many a missing missile when my back was turned. Long hours of searching I can tell you.