DEATH TO TOY FADS

[Dreamstalker]

Gee... why does that not surprise me.

What should surprise you is that I only have one (damn lack of money)

When it was first released, my main Ghostbusters forum actually had a thread where people were making "live" updates when it was spotted at a store. The thread wound up being pulled by a moderator for too many updates (I think it hit 10 pages in a little over 2 days and his server couldn't handle the load).

The only thing I've ever gotten on Black Friday was my aforementioned DS; I didn't have one yet and my dad wanted to get it for me. We wound up in a mall cafe for most of the day watching the human swarms.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Still bugs the hell out of me that I can't get more track for the Lego trains.

If you want more track, BrickLink is your friend. You can also try making your own track.

[JohnnyReynolds]

$200 new from amazon now, $279 back then.I buy from Amazon re-sellers all the time. I haven't had any more (or less) problems with them than I've had with any other internet vendors.

Recently I came to know that there is a website named AmazingWatcher.Com which is a free website that will “watch” items for you on Amazon and let you know when amazon has them in stock at regular retail price.It got so awesome!
Good luck everybody!http://www.amazingwatcher.com

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Forgot about this one...

I may have mentioned this someplace else, but I don't remember. At the beginning of this month, corporate decided to sell Zhu-Zhu pets and accessories through its online store only. Every day a certain quantity of the toys would be released for sale, and it would be first come, first serve. IMO, this is probably a good decision, in that I won't have to face customers fighting each other in-store just to get their hands on some crappy, Chinese-made fake hamster.

I just checked the online store now. We're sold out of everything Zhu-Zhu related. I don't know if that means we're sold out completely until after Christmas.

Corporate sent down signing for each store to place in the toy department, and managers discussed this change in huddles, so employees would know what to say to customers requesting Zhu-Zhu pets.

However, in doing this corporate forgot to tell us one very important detail: The Zhu-Zhus wouldn't be available in the online store until December 6, and management was informing us of all this days before then. So we'd be telling customers to just go to our online store to buy Zhu-Zhu pets, they'd go to our online store, find no Zhu-Zhu pets listed there, and then call up the store and whine and bitch and piss and moan. Not without reason, mind you.

And then there were the folks spazzing out on us because they didn't have computers at home, so how were they supposed to be able to buy them? Not my problem.

[cinema guy]

In the UK Toys R Us was selling them online, but they were selling out so fast that their website was accepting payments even though they sold out. It took up to 30 days to get payments refunded.

[Amina516]

I feel for you guys dealing with people who think Christmas entirely depends on their ability to conjure up some toy that sombody else decided TEH hot. The first time i saw a Zhu Zhu commercial, i thought to myself how ugly it was. Lol. i actually saw them in the stores a few times and kept walking. My daughter asked for one, but being 4, she forgot about it soon after. Lol.

My FIL has an extraordinary ability to find and purchase shit when no one else can find it. i dont know how or why, but anytime i need something thats impossible to find, i give him a call and he ships it to me. He managed to get me a Tickle Me Hellmo (thanks for that name btw) when it was hot, i was dating my husband @ the time. Also, i was showered with beanie baby upon beanie baby. Lol. He also got his paws on a Wii when they first came out for Xmas that year. Hes amazing. I however refuse to fight people in stores for items.

Ive only been out for Black Friday twice and will most likely NEVER go again. Sales online can be just as good!

Im honestly waiting for the after christmas recall of Zhu Zhus b/c the fur is toxic or something breaks off easily and is a choking hazard.

[jjllbb]

I just checked the online store now. We're sold out of everything Zhu-Zhu related.

Hey Irving, have you heard? They're coming out with new colors

Plus I got my first bribe attempt today.

Another lady almost threatened to beat me up because she has "six kids" and HAS TO HAVE THEM.

There is only one problem with these toy fads. We sell out of the "hot items" within 10-20 minutes of opening (AKA 6am) and i've got these whiny parents telling me they simply can't be here at 6am because they want to sleep, or they don't want to drive in the snow, or they've got other things to do and why can't i hold them?????

[simplyanother]

The big item at Glitter Hell has been the Crayola Crayon Maker.

Which we're out of. Which we have no more on order.

We had a ton though, and they all sold out. EVEN though they are 40 bucks at GH.

I think I had 25 people ask for them one day last week.

[cinema guy]

$40 for a pen?!

For that much it had better be able to turn me into Michealangelo and reproduce the ceiling of the Cistine Chapel on my kitchen ceiling.

[jjllbb]

$40 for a pen?!

For that much it had better be able to turn me into Michealangelo and reproduce the ceiling of the Cistine Chapel on my kitchen ceiling.

it's like an easy bake oven for crayons. You can put your crayola crayons into it (broken ones, etc) and melt them into twisty colors therefore recycling them.

It's a neat idea. That's on our top 20 hottest toys this season too.

[simplyanother]

it's like an easy bake oven for crayons. You can put your crayola crayons into it (broken ones, etc) and melt them into twisty colors therefore recycling them.

It's a neat idea. That's on our top 20 hottest toys this season too.

It IS a nifty idea. Though I couldn't see paying 40 or 25 dollars for it. But I like crayons.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I noted this in my Impending Suck post about "P-Day," but as I was watching the back door before the store opened on Dec. 5th, one of the calls I fielded (most of which had to do with information about the event) was basically, "Are you selling Zhu-Zhu pets?"

We aren't, and I told the woman so. After I hung up, I had to choke back a sob, remembering this thread.

[LadyAndreca]

it's like an easy bake oven for crayons. You can put your crayola crayons into it (broken ones, etc) and melt them into twisty colors therefore recycling them.

It's a neat idea. That's on our top 20 hottest toys this season too.

I did that accidentally by leaving a clear jar full of old crayons in the sun in the summer once. My parents weren't too too mad because it WAS the old jar of leftovers from previous school years, after all. That was just all I was going to have to color with for a while, unless I used my allowance to buy new crayons.

I broke up the big block by smashing it on something and colored things funky marbly colors for a while. It was pretty!

[Shalom]

it's like an easy bake oven for crayons. You can put your crayola crayons into it (broken ones, etc) and melt them into twisty colors therefore recycling them.

We did something like that when I was in camp as a kid, except that we hung a string down into the melted mess and made psychedelic candles out of them.

(We used mostly plain white wax, with the crayons added for coloration; I don't know if pure crayons would make a decent candle as is, might melt at too low a temperature or something. They burned yellow no matter what color the wax was, which was a bit disappointing...)

[dalesys]

We did something like that when I was in camp as a kid, except that we hung a string down into the melted mess and made psychedelic candles out of them.

(We used mostly plain white wax, with the crayons added for coloration; I don't know if pure crayons would make a decent candle as is, might melt at too low a temperature or something. They burned yellow no matter what color the wax was, which was a bit disappointing...)

The psychedelic additives go in the watcher, not the candle...

Oooooo - nice paisley horsie!