With the Black Friday 2013 sales and holiday shopping season quickly approaching, Toys R Us has recently unveiled their "2013 Toys R Us Fabulous 15 Holiday Hot Toy List." The Fabulous 15 is actually part of a larger list of 36 toys overall, with this year's entries ranging from Sofia the First to Elmo to Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
According to NorthJersey.com on Sept. 27, the annual preview show for all of the latest toys for the holiday season took place on Thursday at New York. Among those featured were a new Elmo doll, a flying fairy doll, and about thirteen more toys which made the cut for Toys R Us' top 15 list. Lisa Harnisch, senior vice president and general merchandising manager for Toys "R" Us said, that "this is when the game starts. This is when Toys 'R' Us shines." She noted that the toy retailer has a strong position in all of the "top toys" for the holiday season, and parents will most likely be able to find those "hard to find" toys in stores for shopping season.
Among the hot toys from Toys R Us that are mentioned are the new Big Hugs Elmo from Hasbro and the Cra-Z-Loom bracelet maker from Cra-Z-Art, both of which received positive response early on. There are toys on the new list based on movies, including a "Disney Sofia the First Royal Talking Vanity," as well as the "Despicable Me 2 Minion Dave, Agnes and Gru" collector's edition figures. In terms of electronics, the LeapPad Ultra is on the list, along with the Tabeo e2 8-inch Kids tablet.
The new Microsoft Xbox One video game console made the top 15 hot holiday toys list, and while the Sony PlayStation 4 is on the list, it made the top 36, not the top 15. This may surprise many consumers based on the fact that gamers have seemingly had more praise for Sony's next generation console. Not only that, there's a $100 price difference between the two, with the standard Xbox One going for $499 versus Sony's PS4 at $399. With the next consoles, it's expected the older generation consoles (PS3 and Xbox 360) will be among those big deals in stores and online as retailers move out their old stock.
It's expected that Toys "R" Us will face serious Black Friday and Cyber Monday holiday sales competition from the likes of top retailers Walmart, Target and Amazon.com. However, toys price matching has been made available to match items from the Toys list with Amazon.com prices this year, according to the North Jersey article.
Ironically, back in 1996 "Tickle Me Elmo" was a huge toy that parents were paying as much as $1,000 for to make sure their kids had one. There's a new Big Hugs Elmo on the 15 Toys list, this time it hugs kids back, sings songs and tells stories for an interactive experience. Will it reach the heights of the 1996 doll?
Laurie Leahy of timetoplaymag.com said, "Every year people ask, 'What's going to be the next Elmo?,' This year it really is Elmo."
See the full Toys "R" Us Hot Holiday Toys List here at Toys R Us website.
