The toy you just can’t get

THE biggest-selling Christmas toy of the year is an egg — one that hatches.

Known as the Hatchimal, it comes in five “species”: Pengualas, Draggles, Owlicorns, Burtles and Bearakeets. All incubate inside an egg, which is how you buy them in a shop.

The Hatchimal is an animatronic toy created by Spin Master Corporation. You probably can’t get one.

The craze has given Spin Master — which, with its Build-a-Bear Workshop and Etch-a-Sketch, is no stranger to blockbuster toys — one of its best product launches yet. Shops have created waiting lists for Hatchimals, which cost about R850 each.

“Consumer demand has far exceeded ours and retailer expectations,” said Spin Master CEO Ronnen Harary. “For a time in October, Hatchimals were the single biggest-selling toy at Amazon and Walmart.”

The key to the Hatchimal’s success is that it hatches. Play with its large plastic egg, and the Hatchimal inside will react, gurgle and start pecking its way out. Put it down, and it stays quiet and intact.

To keep kids playing with it, the company’s development team added three life phases through which the Hatchimal progresses; how quickly depends on how much it’s played with. After it’s done, it can be reverted to the baby phase — a gurgling, giggly period.

The Hatchimals first appeared at the New York Toy Fair in February, but the public met them only when Spin Master launched the product last month, accompanied by a deluge of YouTube videos, social media campaigns, news reports and TV ads.

Since then, the toys have flown off shelves and sold out online, as parents contemplated the price — six times the average cost of a toy, which is around $10 (R140), according to the US Toy Industry Association — and added it to holiday shopping lists.

“Anything that expensive, $50 to $60, it’s very seasonal,” said toy analyst Gerrick Johnson. “It’s one of those things that parents say: ‘You want that? Maybe you’ll get it for Christmas.’ ” Maybe, but not likely. —Bloomberg