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 Simpson- Jones 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.

Cast 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.”

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, David met the family at a tradeshow. While the initial response from the development team was ‘lukewarm’, David insisted the product had a wide appeal and fit the ethos of the company.

“Our company motto is ‘Smarter Fun’, so the combination of a simple yet clever logic game and an amusing fidget toy made the Coster’s product a perfect fit for us,” he says. “In 2014, the year after we launched our first popper, we introduced a square version called Go Bong!, and in 2019/20 we decided to consolidate all versions under the Pop It! and Go Pop! brands. In the US, we started by giving Target exclusivity for the Pop It! line, while in the rest of the world we use the trademarks Pop It! and Go Pop! in different territories and for different lines.”

The underlying unifying element across all brands is the game ‘Last One Lost’ (a registered TM of FoxMind) which has a different level of complexity depending on the form of the popper. The object of the game is to be the player who, by thinking ahead, forces their opponent to press down the last bubble on the board. This, David says, is what convinced him to start producing poppers: “I believe that the Last One Lost gameplay is what differentiates our line from all other fidget toys. It’s a game that invites interaction between people, rather than being something kids just play with by themselves, as they would with spinners, for example.”

Like poppers, Tangles boast a rich history going back four decades. Richard X Zawitz is an artist as well as the founder and CEO of Tangle Toys. He created the first Tangle toy almost 40 years ago and has gone on to sell over 250m units, with tens of millions more orders received around the world this year alone. Tangles have sold globally from New York to New South Wales, and in the UK is now seeing a huge resurgence in demand. But why?

“Tangles have helped people during the lockdown,” says Richard. “We receive testimonials from all over the UK, and indeed the world, yearround. Stress relief from fidgeting helps people to calm down and focus. Indeed, Tangle is so good at reducing stress that the US government awarded it a medical device registration for relieving minor stress, and not too long ago the NHS bought 2m units to send out with its smoking cessation quit kits. There is no question that the pandemic has spurred a resurgence in the need for fidgets from a mental health perspective, so we’re working around the clock to fill orders in the UK and around the world.”

Anyone familiar with Tangles will know and appreciate their fluid, curving structure and addictive hand-feel; I have one at the office which mysteriously keeps finding its way into my hands when I should in fact be typing, while my husband’s came in very handy during the final of the Euros. I was keen to find out where the Tangle concept came from and what exactly it is that makes it so appealing. According to Richard, the curve is seen in every culture and has been since the beginning of time. He adds: “In nature, and the science that studies it, you will find curves, waves and spirals right down to quantum particles like DNA. Tangle is based on shapes that are just absolutely essential to humans and our universe. We humans also have a basic need to fidget. After I built my first prototypes as an artist and sculptor over 40 years ago, it was the Tangle shape that friends just couldn't put it down.”

Midco Toys owner Dave Middleton prides himself on the vast range of fidget toys on offer in his two stores, which feature prominently in multiple posts on the retailer’s Facebook page. Poppers lead the way, he tells me, the bigger the better – the biggest at Midco is a whopping 60” in diameter. That’s a lot of popping to be done. Second to poppers, interestingly, are the reversible octopus plush. One face looks happy, while turning them inside out reveals a decidedly grouchier expression. While arguably not a true fidget toy, there’s no doubting the popularity of these plush cephalopods. TikTok is awash with videos from creators keen to show theirs off, while #reversibleoctopusplush has 9.1m views associated with it. In Dave’s opinion, social media is definitely what’s driving the current trend for all things fidget, so the creation of a hybrid reversible fidget-popper octopus was only ever a matter of time. George at Foxmind, meanwhile, says social media has been instrumental in creating the ‘nuclear explosion’ the popper phenomenon has become. “Pop It! and Last One Lost!, both FoxMind brands, were initially the only products of this nature to feature on social media such as TikTok and Facebook,” he comments. “Now they’ve reached over 6b views in two years.”

Brian McLaughlin, retail manager at Toymaster, told Toy World a number of weeks ago that kids going back to school may result in a craze, and for Jason Marshall, owner of Marshall’s Hardware in Bristol, this predication was bang on. He’s been selling impressive numbers of fidgets for a few months now, coinciding with the return of schools, saying: “Kids have been buying poppers and other fidgets and taking them to school, where their friends then see them and want one for themselves. It’s chaos around here at half past three, when the schools are let out and the latest bunch of kids comes looking for their own toys.”

The flipside of the playground craze is that retailers such as Dave Middleton expect sales to slow down slightly when schoolkids break up for the summer holidays. Crazes are notoriously short-lived, but that doesn’t mean poppers and other fidget products won’t sell yearround. A low cost, everyday item, Tangles have a long track record in the market and have stayed on trend by evolving constantly whilst keeping curving shapes and fidgetability at their core. Sold from small independents to mass retailers and everything in between, the Tangle range not only appeals to kids, but to their parents and their grandparents too, spanning generations and cultures. Importantly, Tangles also come in at pocket money price points and are collectible too.

“Retailers should stock Tangle for two very important reasons,” explains Richard. “Reason number one is they sell in high volume year in, year out, even after around 40 years of continuous sales. Reason number two is that Tangle has many wellbeing applications, from stress relief to mindfulness and focus, as well as therapeutic applications for those with special needs, from ADHD and Autism right up to patients with Alzheimer’s. The vast number of applications mean that a huge range of shoppers buy Tangles for all kinds of different reasons, year-round.”

Like Tangle Toys, Foxmind also believes that the pandemic is, at least in part, behind the current fever-pitch demand for its toys. In David’s opinion, the heightened stress experienced by many has caused a chain reaction in people looking for soothing fidget toys, including the company’s popping items. The effects of the previous 18 months will surely be felt for some time, so it stands to reason sales may well continue for some months yet. There are other good reasons for stocking Foxmind’s products too, which are distributed in the UK by Asmodee.

“We offer authenticity – we developed and commercialised the original popper concept,” David outlines. “Secondly, for those who consider morality, we pay royalties to the late inventors’ family. Thirdly, we possess other intellectual property rights such as trademarks in the UK for Pop It! Poppit!, Go Pop!, Last One Lost and others. Last and not least, our products are tested to the highest safety and quality standards, as we need to comply with standards for most countries around the world, not just the UK and EU but also the US, Japan, Australia, and others.”