Feature
Fidget Toys
In praise of
the craze
Earlier this year, several retailers longingly told Toy World that what they really needed was a craze, and now their prayers have well and truly been answered as fidget toys have made a stunning comeback. Rachael SimpsonJones talks to two companies leading the charge in this arena to find out the history behind their fidget toys, and asks retailers what’s driving sales.
C
ast your mind back to 2017, the year of the fidget spinner. Suppliers scrambled to get shipments into the UK fast enough to keep up with demand, as retailers sold thousands of units a day and schoolkids jostled in the aisles of toy shops in a race to blow their pocket money on them the fastest. Fidget spinners were a huge boost to the industry, but for the past few years another craze has been sorely lacking. How apt, then, that in the months when UK retail was just starting to find its feet again following the pandemic and successive lockdowns, that another craze would emerge in the form of poppers, and that fidget toys as a category would rise like Lazarus to reappear on the toy scene in a major way. The popper craze took hold in February and March, with suppliers bringing in huge quantities as demand soared. April saw This Morning presenters Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield
get hands-on with HGL Pushpoppers during a segment on the show, further boosting the appeal of the rubber mats, which let kids (and adults) enjoy the relaxing sensation of popping bubbles back and forth. HGL was one of the first to market in the UK with its poppers range, thanks to parent company Tobar’s decision to fly in shipments by air. New designs are constantly coming though, keeping demand high in the same way new waves of collectibles boost sales. Later this year, HGL will be launching new variants including a keyboard popper, which CEO David Mordecai has high hopes for. “We’re constantly adding new products to our poppers portfolio; that’s one of the main things retailers have been pleased about,” he explains. “It all adds up to a comprehensive range. In terms of best-sellers, rainbow and tie-die have been the most popular colours, while the classic shapes – square, circle, hexagon – continue to top the charts.”
Toy World 114
Although very much in the public eye this year, the origin of these toys goes back much further, having its roots in something quite surprising. David Capon, CEO of Foxmind games, which created the first silicone popper in 2013, takes up the tale. “The original popper was invented by a classmate of Anne Frank, Theo Coster, and his wife Ora,” he tells me. “In 1974, following the untimely death from breast cancer of Ora’s sister, the sculptor and feminist Zvia Mayrose, Ora had a dream featuring, in her words, ‘a field of breasts’. The following morning, she told her husband it could be the basis for a toy and asked him to find a way to do it. Theo went to work and created a triangular-shaped popper.” However, the couple’s attempts to convince major toy companies to license their unique toy were in vain until, 35 years following its creation,
