The supply chain is messing with the squishy golden dumpling everyone wants
An animated dumpling called "Dart," with a shiny gold chrome body that pops out of its head when you squeeze its squishy cheeks, is creating quite a stir as parents scramble to score one of this year's must-have toys.
Dart belongs to a family of interactive dumplings from toymaker WowWee that hit stores in mid July. They're basically what the name suggests -- squeezable but inedible dumplings big enough to fit into the palm of your hand.
And they're increasingly difficult to find. Like with everything, blame the supply chain.
"It's a s**tshow," said Michael Yanofsky, the company's managing director of sales. "It's not just the holdup at the ports, it's labor shortages and backups all along the transportation network that's been a struggle to get the toys to retailers."
"Our bet is made for Black Friday," said Yanofsky. "Whatever inventory of dumplings is in is it and we hope it all makes it onto store shelve. There's no chance of getting more unless we put them on planes."
WowWee is trying to navigate the serious supply chain issues to ensure it has enough inventory overall of its dumplings to satisfy strong demand through to Christmas. The dumplings, like most toys sold in the United States, are made in China.
Sold out
The first four in the lineup are named "Doe," "Dip," "Dee" and "Dot." They each speak a weird "Squish-Pop" language and giggle and laugh. The cheeks change color and the top of their head lights up to a color code that matches their current "mood" -- energetic, happy, silly. Then along came "Mel the Marshamallow, " "Peace the Peach" and "Coco the Cotton Candy Cloud."
But it's Dart, the golden dumpling who flaunts 24K gold glasses, that everyone desperately wants. He's sold out on Amazon (AMZN) where WowWee launched him at the end September. Dart has been popping up on eBay (EBAY)at twice the retail price.
Its popularity even caught the attention of MyBookie.com, an offshore gaming site, which was accepting bets this month on whether the squishy little golden dumpling would sell out on Amazon before Black Friday.
Hitting all the trends
The $15 dumpling toy is popular because it's hitting a few dominant trends in toys right now, said Marissa Silva, editor-in-chief of The Toy Insider, a toy review and news website.
She said kids are obsessed with collecting tiny cute toys that come in tiny packages, as proven by the Shopkins mania.
"Dumplings are a little bit bigger but collectible," said Silva. "They're also affordable and not overly complicated for kids to figure out."
Plus, the soft squishy texture of the dumpling and the popping out of their body also cleverly plays into the current bubble fidget poppers toy craze.
There's one other appeal: the food inspiration.
"Food-themed toys continue to be very hot trend. We've seen this with Shopkins and with Mini Brands," said Jim Silver, a toy industry expert and CEO of Toys, Tots, Pets & More, an industry review website. Mini Brands are tiny shrunken versions of popular consumer products like a can of Spam, or a bottle of Dove Body Wash that come hidden in tiny bags."
"These food-inspired toys are also so easy for kids to have fun with on social media," said Silver.
The squishy dumplings are the brainchild of Sydney Wiseman, vice president of brand development and creative strategy for WowWee. She came up with the idea for them 18 moths ago. "I wanted to do a toy based on a dumpling for a long time," she said. And she wanted the dumpling characters to be in a band. That aspect is infused in their look and the accessories they wear.
More are coming
WowWee in August announced a partnership with Nickelodeon to produce animated digital music videos that feature the squishy characters in a band.
Wiseman is thrilled with the dumplings popularity overall, and especially of Dart's, which WowWee only produced 100,000 pieces of as a very limited character. She said Dart holds a special meaning for the WowWee team. "He's named after a dear friend of ours at WowWee, Art Janis, who recently passed away," she said.
There's still a possibility to score Dart after Black Friday. WowWee is launching a two-pack set with the golden dumpling and a rose gold dumpling on November 30 on Amazon.
供应链正在搞乱每个人都想要的软软的金饺子
一个名为“飞镖”的动画饺子，当你挤压它柔软的脸颊时，它的头部会弹出闪亮的金色镀铬身体，引起了不小的轰动，因为父母们争先恐后地为今年的必备玩具之一评分。
Dart 属于玩具制造商 WowWee 的互动饺子系列，该产品于 7 月中旬上市。它们基本上就是顾名思义——可挤压但不能吃的饺子，大到足以放进你的手掌。
而且越来越难找到。与所有事情一样，归咎于供应链。
“这是一场 s**tshow，”该公司的销售董事总经理 Michael Yanofsky 说。 “不仅仅是港口的滞留，运输网络中的劳动力短缺和后备人员一直在努力将玩具送到零售商手中。”
“我们赌的是黑色星期五，”亚诺夫斯基说。 “不管有多少饺子库存，我们都希望它们都能上架。除非我们把它们放在飞机上，否则不可能得到更多。”
WowWee 正试图解决严重的供应链问题，以确保其饺子的整体库存充足，以满足圣诞节前的强劲需求。饺子和大多数在美国销售的玩具一样，都是在中国制造的。
售罄
阵容中的前四名分别命名为“Doe”、“Dip”、“Dee”和“Dot”。他们每个人都说着一种奇怪的“Squish-Pop”语言，并且咯咯地笑着。脸颊会变色，头顶会亮起与他们当前“情绪”相匹配的颜色代码——精力充沛、快乐、愚蠢。然后是“棉花糖梅尔”、“桃子和平”和“棉花糖云可可”。
但每个人都非常想要的是Dart，这个炫耀24K金眼镜的金色饺子。他在亚马逊 (AMZN) 上售罄，WowWee 于 9 月底在那里推出了他。 Dart 以两倍于零售价的价格出现在 eBay (EBAY) 上。
它的受欢迎程度甚至引起了离岸游戏网站 MyBookie.com 的注意，该网站本月正在接受押注，押注这种柔软的小金饺子是否会在黑色星期五之前在亚马逊上售罄。
抓住所有趋势
玩具评论和新闻网站 The Toy Insider 的主编 Marissa Silva 说，这款售价 15 美元的饺子玩具很受欢迎，因为它目前正迎合玩具领域的一些主要趋势。
她说孩子们痴迷于收集小包装的小可爱玩具，正如 Shopkins 狂热所证明的那样。
“饺子有点大，但可以收藏，”席尔瓦说。 “它们也很实惠，而且对于孩子们来说并不太复杂。”
此外，饺子柔软的质地和从它们的身体中弹出也巧妙地融入了当前的泡泡指尖波普尔玩具热潮。
还有另一个吸引力：食物灵感。
“以食品为主题的玩具仍然是非常热门的趋势。我们已经在 Shopkins 和 Mini Brands 上看到了这一点，”玩具行业专家兼行业评论网站 Toys, Tots, Pets & More 的首席执行官吉姆·西尔弗 (Jim Silver) 说。迷你品牌是流行消费品的缩小版，例如一罐垃圾邮件或一瓶藏在小袋子里的 Dove 沐浴露。”
“这些以食物为灵感的玩具也很容易让孩子们在社交媒体上玩得开心，”西尔弗说。
松软的饺子是 WowWee 品牌发展和创意战略副总裁悉尼·怀斯曼 (Sydney Wiseman) 的创意。她在 18 个月前为他们提出了这个想法。 “很长一段时间以来，我想做一个以饺子为基础的玩具，”她说。她希望饺子角色在一个乐队中。这方面融入了他们的外观和佩戴的配饰中。
更多来了
WowWee 在 8 月宣布与 Nickelodeon 合作制作动画数字音乐视频，这些视频以乐队中的软弱角色为特色。
Wiseman 对饺子的普遍流行感到兴奋，尤其是 Dart's，WowWee 作为一个非常有限的角色只生产了 100,000 件。她说 Dart 对 WowWee 团队有着特殊的意义。 “他以我们在 WowWee 的一位好朋友 Art Janis 的名字命名，他最近去世了，”她说。
在黑色星期五之后仍有可能获得 Dart。 WowWee 将于 11 月 30 日在亚马逊上推出包含金色饺子和玫瑰金饺子的两件套套装。
