Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Capitalism at Its Best

Is it me or are toy commercials for kids getting stupider and the products getting more and more pointless. I really started noticing this with those Zhu-zhu Pets but I know toys created just to sell more toys have been around for years.
Our toys seem much cooler.
The KooKoo Birds are a group of toys featuring a bunch of stone-eyed brightly colored birds that...well, I don't really know what they do. They are made by Jay at Play and the Jay at Play website doesn't really elaborate on what the KooKoo Birds are but if you want to know everything about the MushaBellys then this is the place for you.  Here's the KooKoo Birds commercial which kind of explains what the hell they are.

I don't know why all the birds look stoned--I assume it's because the developers were when they created these things. It's good to know that you can put goggles on the birds and that there is a club house you can purchase that can house your KooKoo Birds. And I am all for prefixing ordinary things with random words to cater to the toy companies.  "Turtle" Van, "Lego" Games, "KooKoo" Cars. And the KooKoo version of the Pillow Pet is pure genius.
It's a pillow. It's a pet. It's a Pillow Pet.
I love the KooKoo Birds that fart and poop other KooKoo Birds. The girls in the commercial seem excited about it too. I'm just wondering what the significance is of finding the Golden KooKoo Bird (which, by the way, looks like real gold). Can you trade it in to get your money back for these things?
I would at least try.
Another toy that I don't understand are Gomus. Obviously something from the good people of Japan, Gomus are collectible erasers. Yes, that's right, collectible erasers. Basically it's the eraser equivalent of collecting comic books and cutting out the X-ray specs or sea monkey ads from the back. Gomu is possibly something I could get behind because I like stupid stuff like that. I would just use them as sit-around junk though. The best part about Gomu is the guy singing the theme song.

See? Isn't that awesome?
Almost as awesome as all the varieties of Gomu.

Squinkies are one of those toys that I wonder why people want. Squinkies run about $10 for 10. Squinkies are also very similar to a toy that I can buy from a vending machine at my local pizza buffet for 25 cents. I'm not saying that the makers of Squinkies are just after our money but it's very likely.