Zhu Zhu Pets—-the cute and cuddly, life-like motorized toy hamsters—-are the bane of many parents existence right now.
I know, because I was smack in the middle of Zhu Zhu mania a few months ago. I thought things were bad back then, but after witnessing an ugly riot over the battery-powered rodents in a local Toys R Us last week, I’m beginning to re-evaluate the importance of getting my hands on the interactive furballs in time for Christmas.
My 5-year-old daughter is the proud owner of Mr. Squiggles and Chunk, but instead of embracing her good fortune, my kid acts like a Zhu Zhu addict. Now that she has two, she wants the entire Zhuniverse.
“More Mommy! More Zhu Zhus!”
She’s morphed into a starving puppy desperate to wrap her hands and lips around a fluffy fake hamster. Pathetic.
She got a taste of the butter bean-shaped creatures and now she’s like those crazy cat women who turn their homes into way stations for feral felines.
Her need to collect Zhu Zhus is insatiable.
The problem is she’s not the only one craving Zhu Zhu love.
The pet hamsters are marketed primarily to girls ages 4-6, but I recently discovered that real pet owners are also on the hunt for Zhu Zhus. According to a woman I met hovering around a row of empty shelves in Toys R Us, (the bare shelves marked with massive signs that read: “ONE Zhu Zhu per customer ONLY!”) her pooch loves chasing the motorized hamsters around the house.
Great! So, now I’m in competition with dog owners to get a toy designed for little girls.
And let me tell you, Zhu Zhu hunters are a loyal bunch.
Late last week the makers of Zhu Zhu experienced a PR nightmare when a consumer group that tests products for safety announced that certain Zhu Zhu Pets contained unacceptable levels of a chemical called antimony, a heavy metal that can cause cancer, lung, and heart problems.
Talk of a product recall swirled, but toymaker Cepia, retorted by hiring a crisis communications firm and publishing the company’s own product test results on its website.
Cepia’s quick action forced the consumer group to issue a public correction, saying chemicals found in the toys did not exceed federal limits.
Despite all the brouhaha, Zhu Zhu Pets were still selling like bottled water on a blistering hot day at Disney World.
People were still fighting over the Pets when I was at the store last week, so either they were clueless about the antimony claims, or they simply figured they would take their chances buying their kids potentially tainted toys.
Or, perhaps, they were driven by a scarier prospect: Disappointed Zhu Zhu-loving kids whose glass-shattering tantrums dwarf any pain caused by harmful chemical exposure.
Do you Zhu Zhu?
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