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The Holiday Hype: Zhu Zhu Pets By: PoisonRamune, the Apathetic Lizardman You may have heard about them in the news because they’re the hottest holiday toy this year. Or you might have heard about how one of the Zhu Zhu pets, Mr. Squiggles has high amounts antimony (a metal that causes similar symptoms to arsenic poisoning). Either way Zhu Zhu Pets are the buzz this holiday season. It’s a little refreshing to see an actual toy as the hottest holiday toy this year, since the last 3 years were all years of the Wii (with the Wii itself being the hot toy of 2006 & 2007, and the Wii Fit taking 2008). As I mentioned before, the toys themselves are pretty stupid. I wish I could tell you what they’re like first hand; however, every time I go to Target there’s always a huge banner hovering over the toy section that says “ZHU ZHU PETS, SOLD OUT!!” From what I gather, these are basically little hamster robots that scoot around habitrails (network of hamster tubes). I’m sure they’re not much different from the way that they’re depicted in the commercial, so I’ll link that here for your viewing pleasure.
The fact that they’re this year’s hot holiday toy is a little weird. Not only were Zhu Zhu Pets designed to be very accessible (being a cheapy $10 toy), but the toy is seemingly hyped by parents more than it is by the kids they’re for. After reading several “mom blogs” and various media coverage about the Zhu Zhu Pets, I’m led to believe that their demand was actually generated by parent speculation, commercial hype and scarcity, rather than from children actually wanting this. I find it a bit strange that I haven’t heard one kid ask for a Zhu Zhu Pet for a Christmas gift. In fact, if I didn’t hear about Zhu Zhu Pets on the news radio, I wouldn’t have known what the heck they are. It really makes me wonder as to how these things got so popular, as I normally always hear about some kid whining about: Furbies, Tickle Me Elmos, Ugg boots, or Wiis this time of year. However, this year I haven’t even heard of some kid asking the radio Santa on KOST 103.5 for a Zhu Zhu Pet (however, I did hear some kid ask for Kota the Triceratops, last year’s runner up for hottest holiday toy).
Another strange thing about the Zhu Zhu Pet is how these toys are the masters of nickel and diming. I always thought the Wii was the most accessory driven toy I’ve ever seen; however, the Zhu Zhu Pets might have easily dethroned the Wii in that category. While the actual hamsters cost a paltry $10 each, the accessories range anywhere from $13 to $30 (with a pretty extensive line of add-ons you can get for your robotic hamsters). It can be argued that the whole cheap figure and expensive playset combo has been done to death throughout the 80’s with the copious amount of superhero action figures that were being made. However, Zhu Zhu Pets take the figure/playset pairing to the extreme, as most of the Zhu Zhu Pets’ functions are dependent on their playsets. I’ve read that the Zhu Zhus have 2 modes, “free mode” where they just exist and make noises and “interaction mode” where they actually start meandering through their playsets on their own and will apparently power their vehicle accessories like the hamster car.
This brings me to my final point, in that the Zhu Zhu Pets are absolutely pointless toys. The robotic hamsters basically seem like they play with themselves, which basically means this year’s hottest toy is an over hyped, accessory heavy version of Penguin Race. Is this what our society has degenerated to? It saddens me to think that the toy many kids will be receiving this year is something that doesn’t reinforce a child’s creativity at all and is seemingly less interactive than a Newton’s cradle. Though this really is a very depressing telling of how our society is becoming a community of people that expects something to do all the work for them as they just watch.
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