Zhu Zhu Pets
Robotic plush hamsters that scurried, squeaked, and detonated the 2009 holiday season. Mr. Squiggles and friends retailed for nine bucks and resold for forty when the shelves went bare.
Zhu Zhu Pets came from Cepia LLC, a small St. Louis toy company, created by toy inventor Russ Hornsby and launched in 2009: palm-sized robotic plush hamsters—Mr. Squiggles, Pipsqueak, Num Nums and the rest—that scurried around squeaking, with an ecosystem of hamster balls, tubes, and habitats to buy alongside. At about $9–10 each they were priced for recession-era stocking stuffers, and that was part of the magic.
Then came the panic. Zhu Zhu Pets became THE must-have toy of the 2009 holidays; shortages emptied shelves and resale prices hit $40 and up on eBay and Craigslist as parents hunted the little rodents down. December brought a scare when consumer group GoodGuide claimed Mr. Squiggles carried excess antimony—but the Consumer Product Safety Commission reviewed the toy, found it met the federal standard, and GoodGuide apologized, acknowledging its testing method differed from the government's. Like most craze pets, the frenzy cooled almost as fast as it ignited; within a couple of years the hamsters had scurried off to yard-sale bins, leaving one perfectly preserved memory of the last great pre-tablet toy panic.
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