Hatchimals is a line of mini-figures produced by Spin Master. The flagship toys feature a robotic creature—representing one of various species—that "hatch" themselves from an egg. After their initial release in October 2016, the toys faced an unexpectedly high demand. Media outlets expected them to be the top seller of the holiday season, leading to raffles and waiting lists over the limited stock, and comparisons to other major toy phenomena such as

Cabbage Patch Kids Cabbage Patch Kids are a line of cloth dolls with plastic heads first produced by Coleco Industries in 1982. They were inspired by the Little People soft sculptured dolls sold by Xavier Roberts as collectibles. The brand was renamed 'Cabbage ...

and

Tickle Me Elmo Tickle Me Elmo is a children's plush toy from Tyco Preschool, a division of Tyco Toys, of the Muppet character Elmo from the children's television show ''Sesame Street''. When squeezed, Elmo shakes, vibrates, and recites his trademark giggle. T ...

History

In 2014, Invented by David McDonald he envisioned a concept for a toy that could "unbox" itself. This idea evolved into a concept for a

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be c ...

ic creature that would hatch itself from an egg, necessitating the design of a mechanism for the hatching, and a material for the egg itself. Hatchimals was officially launched on October 7, 2016, backed by advertising on television and digital platforms, such as

social networking service A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...

s. On launch, five possible species were available: Bearakeet, Burtle, Draggle, Penguala, and Owlicorn. In 2017, Spin Master introduced Hatchimals Colleggtibles, a line of miniature, collectible figures also invented by David McDonald in a blind bag form.

Demand

On launch, demand for Hatchimals was extremely high, which led to them being designated as the "hottest" toy of the 2016

Christmas shopping season The Christmas season or the festive season (also known in some countries as the holiday season or the holidays) is an annually recurring period recognized in many Western and other countries that is generally considered to run from late November ...

. By late-October, Hatchimals occupied multiple spots on

NPD Group The NPD Group, Inc. (NPD; formerly National Purchase Diary Panel Inc. and NPD Research Inc.) is an American market research company founded on September 28, 1966, and based in Port Washington, New York. In 2017, NPD ranked as the 8th largest mar ...

's top ten list of best-selling toys in the United States, including first, second, sixth, and ninth place. The firm compared the phenomenon to those surrounding

and

. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' documented the organisation of raffles and waiting lists for the toys, and sellers on websites such as

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...

and

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

selling Hatchimals at over three times their suggested retail price of

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

60, if not higher. The high demand made defects with some of the toys more prominent, with some customers complaining that they had issues initiating the hatching process (which involves interacting with the egg over a period of time), or that the batteries in the toy within did not have enough capacity left to complete it (necessitating manual extraction). The company did acknowledge that some customers had difficulty with the hatching, stating that it had increased the capacity and business hours of its customer care call centres, and had posted tips and tutorials online to assist in the process. Prominent lawyer

Mark Geragos Mark John Geragos (born October 5, 1957) is an American criminal defense lawyer and the managing partner of Geragos & Geragos, in Los Angeles. Early life and education Geragos was born in Los Angeles, California, where he attended Flintridge Pr ...

backed a lawsuit over Hatchimals, alleging that Spin Master purposely intended the toy to not operate successfully all the time, causing disappointment and frustration among the parents who made great lengths to purchase it for the holidays. Spin Master was caught off-guard by the unexpected demand; the company originally stated that the toy would appeal primarily to girls aged 6 to 8, but Hatchimals ultimately became popular among boys and older youth audiences as well. The company attempted to address the supply issues by having its remaining stock from China delivered via air freight instead of by ship, but stated that there may not be new stock of Hatchimals until 2017. However, Martin added that the company planned to introduce new species and features to the Hatchimals line, and asked customers to be patient.

References

{{reflist, 30em Toy brands Products introduced in 2016 2010s toys 2010s fads and trends Electronic toys Entertainment robots Toy animals Toy controversies

History

Demand

See also

References