WEBVTT - What Makes a Must-Have Christmas Toy? 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:04.200 Hello, Seattle and surrounding Greater Seattle area. We love you. 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:06.480 That's why we come to see you every January, and 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:09.920 we're doing that again this year coming up yep, Thursday, 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:12.440 January six, We're going to be at the More Theater 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:14.800 and you can get tickets and info by going to 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:17.840 s y s K live dot com and follow all 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:20.599 the links there. You can also go in person to 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:23.680 the box office of the Paramount Theater, who is apparently 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:26.560 selling tickets to our show at the More Theater to 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:29.600 get around a lot of those online fees. That's right. 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:31.360 So we'd love to see you there. We have rubbed 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:33.479 our stank all over that theater and we want your 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:36.040 stank on that theater as well. Yep, we'll see you 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:39.680 guys in January. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:48.400 production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:51.400 welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:53.800 if you choke, Brian over there there, Jerry over there, 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:59.440 and this is Stuff you Should Know. Early Christmas a dish. Yeah, 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:03.520 we're kicking it off early like the rest of the 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:07.240 retail world, do you, uh yeah? Man. This year you 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:11.480 could find Halloween Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff in stores at 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:14.119 the same time, like it was just the most normal 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:17.200 thing in the world. But, um, you don't follow me 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:20.160 on Twitter, and you should. I'm not on Twitter. Well 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:21.920 that's what I'm saying. You should get on Twitter to 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:25.480 follow me. But at seven thirty in the morning on 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:30.720 November one, the day after Halloween, I tweeted Merry Christmas. 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:35.280 I got a lot of hate back for it. Yeah yeah, 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:42.760 you people like that, Yeah, pretty much just troll I got. Yeah, 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:45.680 well that was my plug for Twitter. Oh yeah, yeah, 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:49.960 here we go. So, uh, let's see back, Chuck. You 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:56.680 were twelve, okay, I was seven. Um, you didn't have 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:00.240 a cabbage patch kid, did you. Well, there's just right 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:02.280 there if you really want to know. I think you've 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:05.360 told it before, but let's have it. Well, we bought 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:09.240 my sister one of the very first little people is 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:12.959 what they were called before they were cabbage patch kids 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:18.120 and Helen Georgia when they were handmade by Xavier Roberts, 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:22.079 who I recently learned stole that idea from a woman 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:25.519 and uh it took it as his own and made 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:29.400 millions of dollars off of her idea. Yeah, I mean 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:31.320 I wanted to maybe we'll do a short stuff about that. 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:33.760 I wanted to do a full length episode. But we 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:35.720 I mean, we definitely talked about that because I think 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:38.080 we have talked about like must have toys of the past, 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:41.800 and and maybe last year's or the year before Christmas edition. Yeah, 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:44.200 and we had she got this doll. Its name was 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:47.480 Chuck Um, which was kind of funny because that's my name. 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:50.560 And uh, it was a big deal. I think it 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:53.119 was like the number seventy something or eighty something made 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:55.160 and now it's worth a lot of money. Does she 0:02:55.240 --> 0:03:00.240 still have it? Oh? That's great, Um. And we'll fish 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:02.520 with Cabbage Patch Kids and then I'll take issue with you. 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:05.639 So go ahead, Okay, I know what you're gonna take 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:07.400 issue with. Oh I don't know if you do know, 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:10.160 let me so, let me, let me. Let me start. 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:16.120 So back in Cabbage Patch Kids were like the must 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:19.840 have toy of the Christmas season, and from what I 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:25.800 can tell, they were the first must have Christmas toy. Ever. 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:30.760 Now that's not to say there weren't extraordinarily popular toys 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:37.640 at around Christmas time before Star Wars very famously offered 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:41.880 their Early Birds Certificate package, which was basically an empty 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:45.240 box that said, at some point in the future you 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:48.520 will get Star Wars figures instead of this empty box. 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:52.520 One of the great great marketing gems of all time. 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:56.160 So that was a thing all the way back in two. 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:59.520 Mr potato Head was a hot toy that year. Robert 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:03.520 the Robe was a hot toy in And when you 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:07.000 say hot toys, it's tough to to overstate that like 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:11.040 Robert the Robot had T shirts in the fifties. Didn't 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:13.800 even know people wore T shirts in the fifties. He 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:16.880 was in a movie. Um like that, there was there was, 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:20.440 These were big deal toys. But my premise is this, 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:23.040 this is my thesis. Okay, this is my own so 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:26.520 I'll take the hit if it's wrong. But that in 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.839 just the same way that there were hit movies like 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:35.120 The Godfather or like ben Her before Jaws came along, 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:39.400 there wasn't such a thing as the summer blockbuster until 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:42.560 Jaws came along and made the summer blockbuster a thing. 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:47.000 There wasn't such a thing as the must have toy 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:50.960 of Christmas until the Cabbage Patch Kid came along and 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:54.479 made that a thing. Okay, so what issue are you 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:56.599 going to take I can't take it any longer. You're 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:58.720 driving me crazy. Well, I don't think it was. I 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:00.880 don't think it was Cabbage Patch. It's that was the 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:05.919 must have toy, the first must have toy. That's what 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:08.720 I take kiss you with the first Well, I don't know. 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:11.320 I mean, I'm just speaking from my own life, Van, 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.919 and I definitely think Star Wars counts because if you 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:18.240 can sell an empty box to a kid for Christmas, 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:21.920 then that that's pretty strong position as it must have thing. 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:24.839 And by the way, if you're listening, the reason they 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:28.160 sold empty boxes is because they didn't know Star Wars 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.039 was gonna be a big thing. So Kenner didn't have 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:32.640 as many of these made in the run up to 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:36.360 the film release pre Christmas. Uh so they got caught 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:38.560 with their pants down and they realized that there was 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:42.719 a big demand, a huge demand. They sold like million, 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:49.279 no million boxes, I'm trying to yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:52.760 I don't know forty million Star Wars toys at that 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:56.280 inside of a year, so okay, yeah, I'm not surprised 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:58.040 to hear that. And did you know that you can 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:03.200 even buy these empty box kits on eBay? Now? Oh yeah, 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:06.200 I'm sure that's all enlisted for Bucks. I'm not at 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:09.000 all surprised. Uh. And then, just very quickly, I also 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:12.480 want to point out that the biggest, most in demand 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:17.520 toy of my young life was the Atari pac Man cartridge. Boy, 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:23.440 that's sold seven million cartridges. Okay, great, Great, the numbers 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:27.000 don't lie. That's a big, big number, seven million, forty million. 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:29.400 You can toss big numbers out all day long. But 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:32.440 let me ask you this. For that empty box of 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:36.440 Star Wars for the Atari pac Man cartridge, did a 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.800 woman have her leg broken because the crowd trying to 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:42.440 get their hands on those things turned violent? Or before 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:46.280 you answer, in addition to that, did a department store 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.640 manager in Charleston, West Virginia have to arm himself with 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:52.640 the baseball bat to defend himself from his very customers 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:54.880 who are trying to get to the Star Wars empty 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.560 box or the Atari cartridge? I would guess that the 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:03.000 answers no, Well, I think human behaviors have changed over 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:09.000 the years. I don't know. Three well, I guarantee I 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:11.720 could find one violent incident about the Atari cartridge. I'll 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:14.520 bet you couldn't. Well, you know there wasn't then, because 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:18.200 there was they met the demand. Okay, so that's a 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:20.800 big part of it too, right, So there have been 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:23.600 well let's just move on from this the cabbage Patch 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:26.720 cabbage Patch kids if not worthy first, which they were? 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:30.120 Did you have Yeah? Yeah, Webberdno, you had a cabbage 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:32.840 Patch kid. Yeah. I ended up taking his head off 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.200 and giving him a mohawk as I grew older. But 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:39.960 because not to be too like gender binary here, but 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:42.040 I didn't know a lot of boys that wanted the 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:50.200 cabbage Patch kid. What I've I've always broken the mold chuck. Well, sure, no, 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:52.080 I mean there's nothing wrong with it. I grew up 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:54.440 with William wants a doll on free to bu and me, 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:57.120 so I get it. But that's why I just don't know. 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:00.520 I think it must have Christmas toy would be one 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:04.960 that everybody wants. Yeah, as far as I knew, everybody 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.560 wanted a cabbage Patch kid. We'll just put this one 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:13.120 to bed, like a cabbage Patch kid with a mohawk. Yeah. So, 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.520 um right, well that was a big thing. Like there 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:18.720 was there was some hallmarks to the idea of a 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:22.440 must have toy that were surrounding Cabbage Patch Kids. Violence 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:26.920 is one, Um, there was a lot of buzz that 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:29.240 was picked up by the media, and one of the 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:32.880 ways that that was generated was by UM, I think Coliko, 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.160 who owned cabbage Patch Kids at the time, sent these 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:40.320 dolls directly to reporters. That was a big one. UM 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:44.040 and the fact that there was not enough supply to 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:46.599 meet the demand. These things kind of came together to 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.160 make Cabbage Patch Kids and must have Christmas toy and 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:51.600 this has been carried on as a tradition ever since then, 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:57.120 ever since that very very first time with Cabbage Patch Kids. Uh. 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:02.280 There were Nintendos that dominated back in eight uh and 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.640 three years in a row, Nintendo had three different products 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.920 that were like the must have Christmas toy, UM, that 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:13.319 first game console huge, the Game Boy Huger it felt 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:18.200 like uh, and then of course possibly the best game 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.320 gaming system of all time if you look at just 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:25.320 relative to the time, the Super Nintendo Console. I don't know, 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:27.920 man in sixty four was pretty great with Golden Eye. 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:31.280 Oh God in sixty four was great. Yeah with gold 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:33.560 and I I mean like it would have been, you know, 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:35.959 fine on its own, but the fact that Golden Eye 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:38.280 existed was the thing that made in sixty four to 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:41.840 me that game blew my mind. Um. Yeah it was great, 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:44.640 especially the Battle Royal where you could play your friends. 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:46.480 Oh man, that was finn. Yeah, we called it Hunt 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:49.840 and Chase. Yeah. I used to get so mad in 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.160 those like that's the only time I ever got mad 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.120 playing video games because I don't do that thing where 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:56.520 you play online and you can you know, you can 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:58.720 exact revenge on people. So I did not take it 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:00.719 well when my friends stock behind me and shot me 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:04.560 in the head. Right, Yeah, that was always a bummer. 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:07.640 What about Tickle Myoma? That was a big one, thanks 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:09.719 to Rosie O'Donnell. That was a little old for that. 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:14.240 Oh really, that was in my mid twenties. I had one. 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.520 Oh yeah, well you were high school, not really, yeah, 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:21.800 this was this is post high school even. But this 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:24.920 was such a craze that there was that um characteristic 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:28.199 violence where a Walmart employee was trampled while he was 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:33.240 trying to restock the display um late at night, I believe. 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:35.920 But he had a pulled hamstring, injuries to his back, 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:40.120 his jaws, knee broken, rib, a concussion, um. And it 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:42.760 continues on like I haven't read about any violence from 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:44.760 hatch a Moles, but from two thousand and sixteen to 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:48.680 two eighteen. They were the if not one of the 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:51.959 top um must have Toys of the year, and so 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:57.480 hatcher molesw come because you have to put it in 0:10:57.080 --> 0:11:00.319 a dish or a bowl that you eat out of, 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:02.880 and you have to leave it there and leave it 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.200 there and leave it there, and then it hatches into 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:10.400 a garbage toy. Oh. So my experience is that it's 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:14.760 they're they're pretty, They're good. Oh yeah, yeah, so you 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:18.200 you like your hatch the mole? Yeah? Are you talking? 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:22.960 Is it like animatronic? Huh? Is it animatronic? I'm talking 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:25.480 about hatch the moles. Yeah, it's it's so okay. So 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:27.760 I don't know anything about the dish. I just my 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:30.040 experiences from my niece, and I don't remember any dish. 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:32.200 Oh wait, this isn't the Are we talking about two 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:35.320 different things. This is the thing you put in water. No, no, no, 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:39.360 electrocute yourself when you touch it. Okay, maybe I'm thinking 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:41.640 about some melts. This is like an animatronic thing that 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:44.240 hatches from an egg, but like you have to like 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:46.400 teach it and train it and raise it and give 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:49.320 it attention everything. It's a bit like the tamagochi but 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.920 like an animatronic pet. Oh, I got you now, I'm 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:54.520 thinking of the thing that you It's an egg that 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:56.160 you put in water and after a few days it 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:59.800 hatches into a garbage toy. Yeah, no, that's that's not 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:03.480 the hatch moles are much different. So so there's this 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:06.400 tradition of them must have Christmas toy um and you 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:08.839 can find all you want about them every year because 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:11.680 they're everywhere all the time, and the media reports on 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:14.000 this kind of stuff, and they're on TV, and there's ads, 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:17.440 and there's like social media stuff. Now, but there's like 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:20.120 a really big question that doesn't have a lot of 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:23.520 press associated with it, and certainly no studies or anything 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:26.760 that I could find. But there's a question, Chuck, like, 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:32.400 how does a toy become a must have Christmas toy? Well, 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:34.440 let's take a break and look get to the bottom 0:12:34.440 --> 0:13:00.320 of it. Right after this, that was quite a set up, 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:05.280 I think. So. So back in the day when you 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:07.959 were shopping for Christmas, if you were a kid or 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:10.080 a parent, it didn't matter do you knew exactly what 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:12.319 to do, you knew exactly how to do it. There 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:14.920 was no no frills, no nothing. It was all just 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:19.520 holiday joy and the goodness of the Christmas holiday season. 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:23.360 That's right, That is correct. And you learned what you 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:27.439 wanted if you were a kid from two things. Saturday 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:33.920 Morning cartoon commercials and uh, whatever your catalog was. The 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:37.800 Seer's wish Book is certainly one service. Merchandise catalog was 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:41.960 another big one for us. Yeah, there's a Montgomery Awards catalog. Yeah, 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:45.800 of course. And um you put this together and you 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:51.200 introduced me to a website called wish book Web that 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:56.520 might as well be called um time suck dot com. 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:58.959 Yeah it's pretty great, isn't that because someone has gone 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:04.360 through and scan end Uh is it just year's wish books? No, No, 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:07.880 it's Sears J. C. Penny and Montgomery Ward. And then 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:12.240 I think there's the occasional what store is that here there? Right? 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:17.080 They have scanned these entire wish books up to nine, which, 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:20.600 from everyone knows, is the cutoff date for nostalgia. That's right, 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:24.440 from the earliest days of nineteen thirty three. And boy, 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:26.920 let me tell you, dude, and I know you know 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:28.920 this because you've done it. If you go through and 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:32.480 spend a few minutes clicking through these things, in the 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:37.360 years where you were like six to twelve waves of nostalgia, 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:41.120 nostalgia wash over you, like like John Hodgeman would succumb 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:44.800 to these waves. Yeah, I know, it's amazing. I remember 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:50.400 some specific pictures. I remembered the I mean the NFL 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:54.000 section alone brought tears to my eyes and I forgot 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:57.080 how much they hyped football back then. You just can't 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:01.320 stop crying. It was crazy that the clothes, the alarm clocks, 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:05.760 the clock radios, the the tech section. Um, it was 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.080 just it was off the charts for me looking through this. 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:10.840 I almost did nothing else today. Yeah, I know it is. 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:13.640 Wish book Web is pretty awesome. Like somebody went through 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:18.080 and scanned every single page of these several hundred pages 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:22.880 each catalog's for decades worth of catalogs. It is. It 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:25.600 is God's work. And just to get laughs by like 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:30.120 seeing the the two four year olds posing in bathrobes, 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:34.640 like it's really really funny, right, well, it's got like 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:37.440 a pipe that blows up. God. This is just amazing. 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.360 What a great website. So so wish book Web is 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:44.040 kind of preserved how you used to figure out what 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:47.160 you wanted for Christmas, which was you go through these 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:49.520 wish books or these catalogs or whatever, and then you 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.360 tell your parents you dog ear them, maybe drop some hints. 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:56.040 It was the correct way. Century has a kind of 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:59.160 an updated version of that, but it's still kind of 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:04.520 follows this same general contours right where there are lists 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:08.840 still and like catalogs, but now it's not just department 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:11.600 stores that have like the market cornered on them. Like 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:14.240 that's actually kind of gone away. It's very tough to 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:18.760 find a department store catalog. I believe Myers still does that. 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:22.880 I think they're kind of like a Midwestern Target. Yeah, 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:25.280 and they have a toy catalog that they put out still, 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:27.760 I believe to this year. Well now if you get 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:34.120 the Restoration Hardware right or Ikea, but the But there's 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:36.680 lists everywhere, and it seems like every retailer has one 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:40.680 or all the major retailers have one, and depending on 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:44.560 where it's coming from, it's some are more trustworthy or 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:48.760 above the boards or or objective than others when saying 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.840 like these are the must have toys, Like, I'm on 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:56.600 one end of the spectrum. You have um like third 0:16:56.640 --> 0:17:01.320 party websites and publications and organizations like the Spruce or 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:04.840 Toy Insider or Toys Tots, Pets and more, and they 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:08.680 actually evaluate the toys when they make their lists. Yeah, 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:10.920 I mean these it's just different now. And I don't 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.440 think it's nostalgia like thinking things were better back then, 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:17.440 but it was. It seemed easier and better to let 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:21.760 a kid sift through a catalog and pick out stuff 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:24.520 than I guess what are you supposed to do today, 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:26.760 like sit down with your kid at one of these 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.919 websites and at look at the top twenty hot toys 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:31.920 and say what do you want? Like, I don't. I 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:33.560 don't know how it works these days. I don't know. 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.399 Maybe instead of like dog earing the pages, you send 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:41.160 your parents links. I'm sure you do, actually you know, yeah, 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:42.840 But I mean if your kids are too young to 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:45.199 be on the internet, I'm not sure how to do it. 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:47.800 Because I could hand my four year old catalog and 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.120 say pick out some stuff would be great, But I'm 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:52.960 not gonna say, hey, just log onto the spruce and 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:56.159 go uh scroll down and see you find something you like? 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:02.080 Stay out of their parents section. What do I mean? 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:05.040 What do you do? You have? You literally have a kid, chuck, 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:07.200 what do you do? I don't know, I mean we buy, 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:11.120 we just buy things that we think she might like. Um, 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:13.919 so there's like a whole world out there of like 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:17.360 lists and websites that showed toys and stuff that she's 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:21.920 unaware of. Oh wow, she's got a big surprise ahead 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:26.840 of her. So that's great. I'm excited for her. Actually yeah, 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:29.240 but I mean you definitely feel like you're sort of 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:32.679 stabbing in the dark. Let's do like I mean, a 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:35.600 parent can go through and look at those lists, but 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:39.600 you know, kill me. Well, a lot of people are 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:41.640 excited about that kind of thing. They're like, good, this 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:43.199 is Yeah. I don't have to like go to the 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:45.719 store and stand there and be like what are we 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:49.919 getting here? You could go to some website or USA 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:53.560 Today or the Today Show or whoever is partnering with 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.320 some of these trusted sites like Toys, Tots, Pets and 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:59.680 More or Toy Insider, and like they kind of take 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:02.119 a lot to the guesswork out of you. They're basically saying, 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:05.200 these are what experts are saying your kid is going 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:07.160 to want. If you go by this, you will score 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:09.199 a home run with your kid. Yeah. I think my 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:11.760 problem is I don't know what has bought and what 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:15.520 is real reviews because as you have dug up and 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:19.040 I didn't even know this, of course they do this. Um, 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:21.600 if you go on Amazon, they you know, you can 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:25.760 spend two million bucks as a retailer to be on there, 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:30.000 you know, on their top list or whatever. So okay, yes, 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:33.399 And what I saw though, was that they you spend 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:38.000 that money to nominate them to nominate your toy for 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:41.160 their consideration to include on the West for a nomination. 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:43.760 I don't know how the process works, but yeah, I saw. 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:46.719 I saw like the headline say you pay two million 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:48.920 for a slot, but if you read the finer print 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:51.040 and saying you pay two million for them to even 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:53.400 consider it, and then I guess I don't know how 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.520 they curated. They actually kind of keep a close lid 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:58.720 on it. But it generated like a hundred and twenty 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:02.240 million dollars in revenue for Amazon just to be on 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:06.520 their list of hot toys for the year. Walmart they 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:11.040 charged ten grand a month per toy to be on 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:15.200 their Buyer's Picks toy list. And uh, like you point 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:18.919 out here, they Walmart starts their list in August, and 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:21.080 you've got to wonder, is that because they're making tin 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:24.080 grand of pop right off of all of the stuff 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:27.719 per month. Yeah. Yeah, they released There's in late August, 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.120 before Labor Day even and like this isn't like, hey, 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:32.919 we think these toys are going to be hot this year. 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:37.639 It's here's the hot list of holiday toys, and Target 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:40.800 released There's at the beginning of September. Um. I think 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:43.840 Bull's Eye is the name of their mascot dog mascot 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:48.560 spuzz Mackenzie basically, And I couldn't see if they charge 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.360 for placement or how they compile it or anything like that, 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:54.400 which actually makes me suspect that they don't, because there's 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:57.040 plenty of ink about Amazon and Walmart's lists and how 0:20:57.080 --> 0:20:59.000 they charge for him, and the fact that there's not 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:02.359 one for Target makes me think either they're really keeping 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:05.320 a lid on it or um, they actually don't charge 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:07.920 for that. But so there's there's kind of two lists 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:11.080 where if you're a parent you need to ask, Yeah, 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:13.680 you need to ask dogs and dog people and cat people. 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:17.040 You need to ask, where is this list coming from? 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:19.679 And if it's coming from a third party site, go 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:21.880 look up the third party site and they will tell you. 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:24.800 And they're like about us section, how they determine what 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:27.160 toys or what and if you really want to get 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:30.600 that information, that's fine. But even if Amazon or Walmart 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:34.520 or even if Target charges for placement on their lists, 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:36.760 just the very fact that those things are on their 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:40.119 list is going to make them among the hot toys 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:42.600 of the season. So it's like a self fulfilling or 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:45.960 self paying prophecy. Yeah, I mean, I guess anytime you 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:50.520 look up something on a major retailer website, those first 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:55.439 few things are sponsored and they say sponsored in little letters. Oh, 0:21:55.560 --> 0:21:59.199 sometimes they don't really, Yeah, I mean sometimes it's kind 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:02.080 of hard to discern, uh, whether or not you're looking 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:05.280 at the real top thing or the sponsored thing, right, 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:07.520 And I think, like with the Giftless in particular, I 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:09.760 don't believe that they say that these are sponsored. I 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:13.880 think it's just like here's the hot lists according to Amazon. Well, 0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:16.960 let's talk a bit about marketing in general around the holidays. 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:20.080 Um that you know, it's a it's a science in 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:23.960 a way, and they have found out through science that um, 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:28.840 happy people buy more. Uh you are not everyone's happy 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:31.560 around the holidays, but they definitely as marketers, play on 0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:35.199 the idea that you are happier around the holidays, and 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:38.879 so you should be in the buying spirit. Uh, definitely 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:41.960 when you're talking about kids, that is the case. They 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:46.359 pummel children with ads. There was one study here the 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:50.720 University of Hertfordshire counted one hundred ads and a three 0:22:50.880 --> 0:22:56.560 hour Saturday morning kids uh slot Christmas hundred in a 0:22:56.600 --> 0:23:00.000 three hour slot. That's a lot of ads, it is um. 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:01.920 And then of course, you know children are on more 0:23:01.920 --> 0:23:04.480