calamitysandra
Posts: 1682
Joined: 3/17/2006 Status: offline
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There has been a toy this year that just about every boy between the ages of 5 and 10 in Germany had, or wanted to get his fingers on. Bey Blades, some kind of fighting dreidels. Don't even ask me, I really have not much of an idea. Shortly after the fall holidays a monumental merchandising campaign was started, anime series and all. For weeks it was Bey Blades this, and Bey Blades that. Which friend was already a "Blader", what motive was the most coveted, and sorry we are late from school, there was this battle going on we simply had to see. Being the mean Mum that I am, I did refuse to buy my poor underprivileged boys a freaking spinner for starting at 20 Euros with Christmas already looming. The Christkindchen would bring one. Well, when the Christkindchen wanted to get it over with and go buy the darned things at the end of November, they were nowhere to be found. Sold out. Everywhere. The sales people all got that "not again" look when you even mentioned the name, and explained that the things are sold out, the manufacturer is not able to fill the demand, and new deliveries are expected for mid January at the earliest. Other customers stopped to relate their own woeful tales of searches high and low. I saw one mother cry, after listing the different cities she had visited in hopes of scoring one. Retreating to the internet and the world of online shopping I learned that yes, you could still buy them. The single packs for as low as 50 Euros, starter packs being a steal at about a hundred bucks. Yes, for spin tops, and yes, people are buying. All the while, the marketing machine keeps roaring. At this point I had a heart to heart with my younger boys. I related that the Christkindchen simply had no way of getting more of those things, but that there where some options. There is a cheap knockoff on the market, which offers a set with a whole assortment of the things and a fighting arena, as well a different brand that also offers metal fighting spinners like the originals are, and those would stand up to the schoolyard spinner fights. They are getting the cheap set together to play at home, and each one of the metal fighting ones to play with their friends. We settled on this just in time as it seems, as now the price for the knock offs too, is shooting through the roof. I would really like to have a silent word or two with the people who settled on this brilliant strategy.
< Message edited by calamitysandra -- 12/23/2010 10:00:30 AM >
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"Whenever people are laughing, they are generally not killing one another" Alan Alda
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