Haven't heard of Zhu Zhu Pets yet? You will. The furry toy hamsters cost just $10 and slide around the floor squeaking and squealing adorably with the push of a button. Chunk, Pipsqueak, Squiggles and Numnums function in three modes: talk, explore and sleep. Zhu Zhus — the name, loosely translated, means "little pig" in Mandarin — are also this year's must-have toy: stores nationwide are having trouble keeping the play rodents on shelves, while hard-to-find models are being auctioned for thousands of dollars on eBay. Oh, and they were also allegedly poisonous: in early December, a consumer-watchdog website reported finding toxic levels of heavy metals in Squiggles. Federal safety inspectors have since given the hamster a clean bill of health, which is nothing but good news for Cepia, the toy makers behind the motorized rodent. The small, St. Louis–based company expects to sell as many as 10 million Zhu Zhu pets by the end of the year.
Tamagotchi
These days, Tamagotchis — the handheld virtual pet that took the toy world by storm in the '90s — seem almost laughably low-tech, made primarily of cheap plastic and old-school LCD screens. But some 70 million of the ovoid timewasters have been sold worldwide since they debuted in Japan in 1996. According to Bandai, the Japanese company behind the craze, the name is a portmanteau of the Japanese word tamago, which means egg, and the English word watch, as in timepiece. Tamagotchi pets require constant attention including feeding, playtime, grooming and training. Neglected pets go hungry and pretty much die — or, in more kid-friendly parlance, produce a "game over" for their keepers. Some young owners were driven to care for their pets around the clock, even in school, prompting administrators to ban them. (And thus, a whole generation of latchkey Tamagotchi pets was born.) Furby
How could kids not like a toy whose name is short for fur ball, and whose big eyes have blinking lids? When the Tiger Electronics toy debuted at the International Toy Fair in 1998, it quickly became the year's must-have plaything. Priced at $35 apiece, Furbies flew off shelves when they were released just before the holidays, and easily fetched more than three times that amount on the Internet. Youngsters liked the fact that the Gremlin-like creature conversed in its own language — Furbish — and "learned" to speak English thanks to the embedded computer chip that enabled it to repeat words it heard. In 2005, after 40 million units of the original toy had been sold worldwide, the company released a new version with advanced voice-recognition software and the ability to respond to questions. Such abilities made Furbies unwelcome guests in the offices of the National Security Agency because of the chance the toy could repeat confidential information. Meanwhile, airlines classified the toy as a personal electronic device and banned it from flights. Rest assured, though: Furby is not a terrorist. Bratz Dolls
For more than 40 years, Barbie ruled as the queen of tween fashion dolls — until the Bratz came along in 2001 and curb stomped her back into the 1950s. Fans applauded the four original dolls — Yasmin, Sasha, Jade and Cloe — as the funky, edgy, multiracial alternative to Barbie's wholesome blandness. Parents, meanwhile, deplored them as far too adult (read: slutty) for kids, accusing the doe-eyed, pouty-lipped toys of fostering an unhealthy body image among young girls. The Bratz dolls wore provocative clothing and came with fabulous accessories like hot tubs and limousines; California-based MGA Entertainment, the company behind the dolls, earned more than $1 billion from them in just a few years. In 2006, Bratz became the best-selling fashion-doll line in the U.S., displacing Barbie for the first time. The blonde may have had the last laugh, however; Mattel sued MGA Entertainment, alleging that the Bratz dolls had been designed by a Mattel engineer working on company time who then left to start his own company. In 2008, a judge agreed, awarding Barbie's manufacturers $100 million and ordering MGA Entertainment to cease all production and sale of the Bratz dolls. The judgment has been suspended until the end of 2009 to allow MGA to appeal. Tickle Me Elmo
These days, Tamagotchis — the handheld virtual pet that took the toy world by storm in the '90s — seem almost laughably low-tech, made primarily of cheap plastic and old-school LCD screens. But some 70 million of the ovoid timewasters have been sold worldwide since they debuted in Japan in 1996. According to Bandai, the Japanese company behind the craze, the name is a portmanteau of the Japanese word tamago, which means egg, and the English word watch, as in timepiece. Tamagotchi pets require constant attention including feeding, playtime, grooming and training. Neglected pets go hungry and pretty much die — or, in more kid-friendly parlance, produce a "game over" for their keepers. Some young owners were driven to care for their pets around the clock, even in school, prompting administrators to ban them. (And thus, a whole generation of latchkey Tamagotchi pets was born.) Read more, click here... source: Time.com