SMELLING PROFIT
Bathroom trend in toys promises potty of gold
This year’s forecast for the toy industry is in the toilet — literally.
A new game called “Pull My Finger” — in which players compete to pull a purple monkey’s finger without releasing a noisy fart from its oversized, inflatable butt — did “gangbusters” when it hit shelves at Toys ‘R’ Us ahead of the Christmas crunch.
That’s according to Jakks Pacific, a toy manufacturer based in Malibu, Calif. The publicly traded company is likewise plotting to launch a gun-like gadget in August called “Skid Shot 30,” which spits out wet balls of toilet paper.
Toys that crank out fake feces, show spectacular flatulence and otherwise look like turds are expected to ring up blowout sales in 2018, as big chains like Walmart, Target and Toys ‘R’ Us increasingly bet on potty-driven trends in the $20 billion industry, experts say.
“I’m calling 2018 the year of the poop collectible,” says Jim Silver, president of TTPM, a toy review Web site. “There are a lot of very big companies betting on this.”
This week, some 36 characters from a 2-month-old YouTube show called “Poopeez” will be hitting stores. Among them are “Skid Mark,” a skateboarding turd; “Lil’ Squirt,” a diminutive drop of urine; and “Toot Fairy,” a green cloud bedecked with a crown and plunger. Each comes packaged in a toilet paper roll and costs $4.
The one-inch, squishy, stretchy collectibles are made by Basic Fun, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based firm that has cre- ated a toilet-themed universe called Kerplopolis. This fall, another 72 Poopeez are coming, with plush toys and outhouses also in the works.
“When I started showing the brand a few years ago, everyone was shocked by it,” Poopeez creator Ashley Mady told The Post.
For decades, toilet-themed toys didn’t stray much beyond gag gifts like whoopie cushions and curls of fake rubber doggie doo.
More recently, “they usually have to do with potty training or dolls with realis- tic diaper functionality,” said Sean McGowan, a toy consultant with Liolios. “This is the first time I can remember the toys or products focusing so directly on the matter.”
Some experts believe retailers got a push from the popularity of the smiling poop emoji on the iPhone, which was prominently featured in “The Emoji Movie” this summer.
“Or we have a new generation of young parents that were raised on South Park’s Mr. Hankey,” McGowan says.
Toilet toys currently on the shelves include Poo Dough from Skyrocket, Despicable Me Fart Blaster by Thinkway and Gas Out Game from Mattel. While most have emerged over the past couple of years, “they are especially prevalent” of late, says BMO toy analyst Gerrick Johnson.
In 2010, Plano, Texasbased Goliath Games introduced Doggie Doo, in which players feed a dog that makes ever-louder farting noises as it revs up to shoot the food from its rear.
The gross-out game has since rung up $3 million in sales, and last year was its best yet, says Goliath’s Chief Executive David Norman.
“Originally, we were worried that moms wouldn’t buy it,” Norman told The Post. “But they love it as much as the kids.”