[URBAN NOTE] "Hatchimals: this year's Christmas blockbuster toy - and a Canadian innovation"
CBC News' Dianne Buckner looks at how a Toronto company is behind the latest Christmas gift craze.
Quick. Can you name the Canadian toy company that's growing faster than Mattel, Hasbro and Lego?
No need to worry if you can't. But ask any child between three and nine years old and they probably can.
Toronto-based Spin Master is the maker of this year's impossible-to-find Christmas toy, "Hatchimals," a furry little robot that hatches from an egg and responds to its owner's cues.
"We have an advance concept team, and they had the idea that wouldn't it be amazing if you could actually do an unboxing like you see on YouTube, but in real life?" explains co-founder and co-CEO Ronnen Harary. "And what would be more magical than a character that actually comes out of an egg and comes to life?"
As it turns out, the product and its popularity can be linked to YouTube. Amateur reviews of the toy uploaded to the video-sharing website boosted demand worldwide, says Harary. Now parents from London, England, to Fayetteville, Ga., to Corner Brook, N.L., are scouring stores, desperate to find one.
Quick. Can you name the Canadian toy company that's growing faster than Mattel, Hasbro and Lego?
No need to worry if you can't. But ask any child between three and nine years old and they probably can.
Toronto-based Spin Master is the maker of this year's impossible-to-find Christmas toy, "Hatchimals," a furry little robot that hatches from an egg and responds to its owner's cues.
"We have an advance concept team, and they had the idea that wouldn't it be amazing if you could actually do an unboxing like you see on YouTube, but in real life?" explains co-founder and co-CEO Ronnen Harary. "And what would be more magical than a character that actually comes out of an egg and comes to life?"
As it turns out, the product and its popularity can be linked to YouTube. Amateur reviews of the toy uploaded to the video-sharing website boosted demand worldwide, says Harary. Now parents from London, England, to Fayetteville, Ga., to Corner Brook, N.L., are scouring stores, desperate to find one.