UK NEWS

HAMSTERS GO GO-ING TO BE CHRISTMAS HIT

Go Go pet Mr Squiggles

Tuesday November 10,2009

By Louise Barnett

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THEIR names are Mr Squiggles, Chunk, Num Nums, Pipsqueak and Patches.

And the furry toy hamsters are set to follow in the footsteps of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Furbys and Cabbage Patch Kids to top children’s Christmas lists this year.

Retailers are frantically re-ordering Go Go Hamsters to cope with a sales surge.

The battery-operated toy pets – which respond to touch and “explore” their plastic tunnel house or simply sit and “coo” in your hands – have caught the recession-hit mood with their relatively low £9.99 price tag.

Toys R Us and Argos have already predicted the toys would be popular – but have been surprised at how much.

Mike Coogan, UK marketing director for Toys R Us, predicts the Hamsters to become as big a phenomenon as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the early 1990s.

“We are trying our hardest to get as much stock in as possible,” he added.

And Jon Diver, managing director of British distributor Character Options, said he expects to sell more than 700,000 of the hamsters in the run-up to Christmas.

“They’re cute, fun and really affordable,” he said. “But we’re still taken aback by the surge in sales.”

Argos toys trading manager Ian Chaplin said: “We’d advise people to get hold of theirs sooner rather than later.”