What's Selling

If you're a retailer and would like to take part in PLAYTHINGS' monthly survey of what's selling, e-mail the editors at dgerardi@cahners.com.

Unless otherwise noted, all prices listed below are retail prices.

The Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia is peppered with small towns and cities rich with history. In spite of its rustic image, the region is also considered part of the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. There has been a large influx of people from Maryland and Virginia who, preferring the quality of life in the Panhandle for their homes, commute into the capitol area for work. So the region's population is a mix of native West Virginians and 'expatriates' from neighboring states who now call the Panhandle 'home.'

The region is also home to an array of apple and pear orchards, traditional farms and manufacturing companies. Mass-market retailers and specialty toy stores speckle the region.

While the Panhandle offers its own brand of diversity, its kids apparently are in accord with those in other areas when it comes to one of the hottest selling lines: Lego Bionicle.

At one retail giant in Charles Town, Bionicle was the hottest selling line during the fall months, a trend that was reflected in other shops throughout the Panhandle.

Additional popular items included Dragonball Z, WWF and Power Rangers action figures, Bandai's Digimon Digivice, Trendmasters' Rumble Robots and Bob the Builder products by a variety of manufacturers.

Other top sellers included the MXS Freestyle Bikes and RXS Xtreme Race Cars by Road Champs, according to another retailer. "Hot Wheels Matchbox cars and NASCAR cars sell really well. A lot of grown-ups buy them, too," the retailer added. Lincoln Logs also were a winner at the store and Traps by Trendmasters was sold out.

While Harry Potter merchandise was receiving a lot of retail space across the board in late fall, the products really were not selling well at large retailers. Neither were a wide variety of Techno Bots. And Huffy's See No Evil and Hear No Evil micro bikes weren't performing as well as expected, with one mass-market retailer saying the store was selling about one per day.

Another mega-retailer said, "All of the learning toys, like LeapFrog's Learning Stations and Explorer Globe, are selling well. So are the new Barbies— especially Nutcracker Barbie—and Bratz Dolls."

Heather Patterson, assistant manager of KB Toys in Martinsburg, said the top sellers were games for Sony's PlayStation and PS2, as well as Lego Software's Bionicle game ($39.95), Boogie Lights Disco Ball for $19.99 (originally $29.99), Razor Scooters ($39.99) and mini 'trick' bikes.

"One of the hottest things right now with the kids is the Hit Clips, which plays music but is small enough to keep in your pocket," said Patterson. Tiger Electronics' Hit Clips micro music system ($9.99) plays micro music clips ($4.99) by popular artists like Britney Spears and Destiny's Child. She also held up the small Kung Fu Hamster, which she said was very popular.

KB Toys had slashed prices for a quick sale on Rugrats' Bounce and Babble Dil to $9.99 (originally $44.99), pogo-jumping Scooby-Doo to $9.99 (originally $39.99) and Robo-Chi Pets to $9.99 (originally $29.99).

O'Hurley's General Store in Shepherdstown is over 100 years old and still sells classic toys like wooden yo-yos, flip books, Slinkys, spinning tops, building blocks and cast iron cars, trucks and tractors.

The proprietor said the most popular sellers are tin toys, sling shots, rubber band rifles, an assortment of hand and finger puppets, marbles, wooden toys and trucks and music makers like lap harps and harmonicas. Roy Toy Log Building sets were also available for between $15.50 and $26.50.

Favorites of both children and adults are the slide whistles, kazoos shaped like airplanes and race cars, recorders and pennywhistles.

Doug Spitzer, who owns Bathman Comics & Collectibles (cleverly named for the town of Bath, in Berkeley Springs) said, "Most of the games are great sellers. Magic the Gathering is huge, so is Dungeons and Dragons and anything Harry Potter-related sells really well." He added, "Transformers have always been popular and probably always will be. Action figures and Hot Wheels continue to sell year-round."

Spitzer believes both Pokémon and Beanie Babies have had their time, and that time is over. In the future, Spitzer said, "All of the Lord of the Rings stuff is going to be big; I've got a lot of that on order. Role-playing games that challenge kids' intellects will also be big, like a new game coming out by Marvel Comics called Recharge."

He also predicts Wizards of the Coast's NFL Showdown will be really hot.

Confronted by harsh outside forces—a war, terrorist attacks, a faltering economy—retailers were understandably cautious in their pre-Christmas ordering.

October ordering lists from two toy stores consisted of three well-known toys: Rokenbok, Playmobil and Mattel's collector Barbies ($89.99). At the same time, a hobby store reported ordering Bachmann's Easy Track HO-scale starter set, while a comic book store was ordering DC Direct's Alfred E. Neuman Flash and Green Lantern figures.

Two store owners emphasized that they had on hand two toys they believed will blossom in December. A Simi Valley owner named Lego's 15-piece Harry Potter line. A four-store, Los Angeles-based owner maintained that Tiger's i-Cybie robotic dogs ($199) were packed with Yuletide potential. "Relative to Sony's $1,500 pooch, the i-Cybie does a lot of things for a fraction of the cost," he explained.

His current sellers? Lego's Bionicle headed his list, "even though supply problems persist. Yet after Bionicle, there's a big sales dropoff." Runts or tiny but powerful tricycles and bikes from Just Go ($99.99), Lego's Life on Mars and other non-Bionicle sets, as well as Learning Curve's Thomas the Tank Engine continued his best-seller list. K'nex's Lincoln Logs ($5.99 to $89.99), Ohio Art's Betty Spaghetty ($17 to $27.99), Bandai's Gundam and Power Ranger figures and American flag-colored pens and stickers completed his list.

Patriotism was intense after the September attacks, the owner agreed, "but one asks how long will it last?"

Intending to re-order all the toys on his current mover list, a four-store San Diego-based store owner put Manhattan Toy's Groovy Girls, the Magz construction sets from Progressive Trading and Pogo Sticks from Sportstime in that lineup. He added the four Language Little dolls, Neurosmith's Jumbo Music Blocks, the entire Wild Planet line and Munchkin's Mozart Cube.

Yet like the October ordering lists, some current seller lists were short.

A San Luis Obispo toy store executive (who noted, "still haven't received my first Bionicle (figures)") described Lego's Life on Mars ($3.99 to $79.99) as a good mover. Ditto for Wild Planet's Spy line, in particular its Spy Door Alarm, and the Ballerina card game from International Playthings. The exec also named Neurosmith's Music Blocks ($69.99) and Castle's Pound A Ball ($17.99) as good movers. The September terrorist attacks, the owner added, had little impact on sales.

The Simi Valley store owner who ordered collector Barbies put Lego's Bionicle at the top of his best seller list in late fall. After that, he named Irwin's Dragonball Z figures, Wizards of the Coast's Harry Potter trading card games, Bandai's Gundam fighters, L.A. Lakers collectibles from Upper Deck and Salvino's beanbag figures.

Halloween in 2001 reflected the nation's patriotic mood. Firefighters and policemen costumes from Disguise and Rubies, respectively, were popular at a party specialty store, part of a chain. "I get requests for Uncle Sam costumes," a spokesperson noted, "but sadly, I don't have any." Otherwise, he said Disguise's Power Rangers ($14.99) and Rubie's Josie and the Pussycats ($21.99 to $29.99), from the 2001 movie, were further favorites.

Although national retail sales plunged in September, a Santa Monica hobby store owner denied the attacks had hurt sales. He divided his merchandise between role playing and board games. In the former, he named Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons third edition, Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K, Vampire from White Wolf, Steve Jackson's Gurps and Palladium's Rifts as leaders. Board games? He mentioned Avalon Hills' Risk 2210, updated and for two to six players and Mayfair's Board Settlers of Old West Caton.

Across the border in Nevada, in nearby Las Vegas, by contrast, a hobby store placed Traxxas' T Maxx and E Maxx RC model cars at the top of its current sellers. Other notables, continued a spokesperson, were Wizard's of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons third edition and Harry Potter trading card games, Bandai's Gundam fighters and WizKids Mage Knight, a miniature game. The spokesperson pointed out that he anticipated two products as future best sellers: Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings, a wargame, in November and Bachmann's train set in December.

Celebrating Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman character, a Laguna Niguel comic book store also liked Todd McFarlane's new Japanese Akira action figures, its Clive Barker's Tortured Souls and its Movie Maniacs figures from such hair-raising movies as The Blair Witch Project. While a spokesperson described Hasbro's Star Wars figures as less than stellar sellers, he ranked Playmates' The Simpsons and DC Direct's Batman, Superman and Alfred E. Neuman characters higher. He also gave good marks to Toy Biz's Spider-Man and X-Men: Evolution figures.