The hottest toy this holiday season may be a robot dog that whimpers, blinks its eyes, wags its tail and responds to a rub on the head.
The only thing Dog-E won’t do is soil that expensive rug – another possible reason why the $79.99 pet could be impossible to find on shelves before December, toymaker WowWee said Monday during the annual Toy Fair at Javits Convention Center.
The app-controlled toy – which comes with a leash and a dog bone that sticks to its snout – does provide an electronic notification after it has made a virtual poop among its 200 interactions.
The toy, released Sunday, has already sold out on Amazon and WowWee has been scrambling to get more shipments in by November, Sydney Wiseman, the company’s vice president of brand development, told The Post. It is also sold at Target and Walmart.
Dog-E is one of the few toys bucking the industry trend of relying on familiar standbys – such as Elmo, Furby and, of course, Barbie – to juice sales this holiday season for the beleaguered toy business.
Other coveted gifts on the “Hot 20” list, released by Toy Insider, include the Sesame Street Elmo Slide plush toy, which sings and dances – and has its own billboard in Times Square. The stuffed Elmo, from Just Play, costs $49.99.
Sales of the Elmo Slide are “out performing” Just Play’s forecasts, the company’s managing director of marketing Jimmy Chang told The Post.
“All things nostalgia have been trending,” in the toy industry, Chang said.
A talking Furby – for $69.99 from Hasbro – also gets an interactive upgrade, blinking its eyes, moving its big ears and rocking and back and forth.
A ‘Mayhem Pizza Fire Van’ for $39.99, featuring characters from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, is also expected to do well during the holidays, according to Toy Insider.
Barbie maker Mattel, which is hoping for a massive holiday season thanks to the blockbuster hit, has a full lineup of Ken and Barbie dolls along with the $199.99 Barbie Dreamhouse Playset.
Hasbro, meanwhile, unveiled its Marvel Spidey and his Amazing Friends Web-Spinners Playset for $129.99.
For more affordable options – as inflation continues to eat away at family budgets – there were several popular stocking stuffers for under $20.
Among them, the slime-related Googames from Sky Castle. The hand-held games, for $8.99 a pop, replicate a mobile phone but are filled with water that is manipulated to move things inside with “squishy buttons.”
WowWee also relaunched its famed hit, Fingerlings, for $15.
Toy Fair, the nation’s largest industry trade show, began Friday and runs through Tuesday. However, it will wave goodbye to its longtime home in the Big Apple – after nearly 120 years – and move to New Orleans in January 2026, the Toy Association announced on Sunday.
The trade show is in flux after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, industry experts said. This year’s convention for the first time ever was moved from its traditional February dates, resulting in a number of large West Coast companies, including Mattel and MGA Entertainment, not showing up.
Vendors who showed up this year were not happy about moving Toy Fair to New Orleans in January, where they say it will be hard to get press coverage – compared to the media capital of the world – and where international attendees will struggle to book non-stop flights.
Toy Association inked a three-year deal with The Big Easy. The new date is sandwiched between the end of hurricane season and right before Mardi Gras, attendees noted.
“Having it in New Orleans will hurt us because some buyers don’t want to go to New Orleans,” World Tech Toys founder Kev Kouyoumjian told The Post.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
