{"id":28267,"date":"2025-11-21T00:04:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T00:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=28267"},"modified":"2025-11-21T00:04:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T00:04:06","slug":"mystery-toys-take-over-holiday-aisles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=28267","title":{"rendered":"Mystery toys take over holiday aisles"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>While US consumers scramble for the elusive Pop Mart Labubu, toy makers are rolling out their own cheaper, easier-to-find \u201cblind box\u201d products ahead of the holiday shopping season, aiming to capitalise on the craze sparked by the fuzzy mini monsters.<\/p>\n<p>Hot gift lists from stores such as Walmart feature a new crop of blind box figurines and trading cards, and companies including Hasbro and Mattel are selling versions of toys like Furby and Barbie in mystery packaging.<\/p>\n<p>These products conceal the specific toy inside, encouraging shoppers to keep buying until they collect the full set. Labubu drove excitement for the trend this summer, quickly selling out and later appearing on resale sites like eBay for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n<p>Because of their cost and scarcity, they are not featured on major toy lists. But now aisles at holiday destinations such as Target are packed with mystery-wrapped goods. Retailers and analysts predict blind box toys will be big sellers because they are low-cost, addictive, and appeal to both kids and adults.<\/p>\n<p>Target has doubled its assortment for the holidays, including items from Baby Three, MGA Entertainment\u2019s Miniverse, Zuru\u2019s Minibrands, and Aphmau. \u201cWhen people buy it, they don\u2019t buy one, they buy 10, and 30. There\u2019s the chase,\u201d said Juli Lennett, US toy industry adviser at Circana.<\/p>\n<p>Many blind box toys remain affordable despite rising overall toy prices due to tariffs on goods from China. Fans like Ashley Harseim, 29, of New York, enjoy the surprise element. \u201cThe surprise is cool, it\u2019s a nice little dopamine boost and who doesn\u2019t need that now?\u201d she said, noting she spends $6\u2013$10 on cat-themed blind boxes.<\/p>\n<p>Collectibles, including trading cards, helped drive toy sales growth in the first nine months of 2025 after two stagnant years. But blind box toys may have limited impact on overall holiday spending, as many were already sold year-round as impulse buys. Circana anticipates unit sales for overall holiday spending may fall by as much as 2.5% in November and December.<br \/>\nSpecialty retailers such as Miniso, Ohku, and Showcase, which sell authentic Labubu and other blind boxes, are preparing for record holiday sales. \u201cBlind boxes are going to be very big,\u201d said Showcase CEO Samir Kulkarni. \u201cThis Christmas will be a record Christmas for that reason.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While US consumers scramble for the elusive Pop Mart Labubu, toy makers are rolling out their own cheaper, easier-to-find \u201cblind box\u201d products ahead of the holiday shopping season, aiming to capitalise on the craze sparked by the fuzzy mini monsters. Hot gift lists from stores such as Walmart feature a new crop of blind box [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}