by Michaela Wang ‘21, Staff Writer

Every holiday season, there is one specific toy that becomes so popular waitlists emerge, fights brawl, and the battle between retail stores for restock becomes limited.  In 2014, the most popular toy was the Barbie Malibu Dreamhouse, it was hoverboards in 2015, and this year, it’s the Hatchimal, created by Spin Master.  “Consumer demand has far exceeded ours and retailer expectations,” Spin Master’s chief executive officer Ronnen Harary said on his company’s third-quarter earnings call last week. “For a time in October, Hatchimals was the single biggest-selling toy at Amazon and Walmart in any category.”  Whether you know what this product is or not, the word “Hatchimal” itself already tells all- it sounds like something you could find in your little sister’s room.  The Hatchimal is a furry stuffed bird that interacts with little gibbers of noise in their undefined language.  They come in all different kinds such as panda, unicorn, penguin, and even pandicorn- whatever strikes your 7-year-old preferences.  The one thing that makes Hatchimals unique is that they come in speckled egg shells.  After 25 minutes of rubbing the egg or “encouraging” the creature to come out, the Hatchimal will peck its way into the world.  Many parents purchase this $60 gift because it teaches  children educational lessons that after hard work, there will be a reward, one just has to have patience.  However, what if the Hatchimal doesn’t come out, and all that hard work from rubbing doesn’t have a reward?

It’s not a surprise that this overrated toy has inconveniences.  Customers found out that the closet door from the Barbie Malibu Dreamhouse could cut your child’s fingers, and a hoverboard burned a house into flames.  I ventured onto retail sites like Walmart, Amazon, and Target to read reviews on Hatchimals.  Many parents stated that the egg would not even hatch.  Their children’s anticipation was all for nothing and the sixty dollars was a huge disappointment.  Other customers were enraged that the Hatchimal’s gibberish noises sounded like curse words.  Sometimes, the toy died after only a few hours of playing.  A mother on the Target site said that the pricey toy was pointless:  “This toy is all hyped up for Christmas, but it’s not worth the money.  You have to play with it and it will slowly hatch which is cool but after, you end up with a ferby kind of toy (but not even as good as half a ferby).”  Children should not count their chicken before they hatch – Hatchimals are rotten eggs.