Forget the Tiny Tots Dolls or actionof Elmo this year, this Christmas eason is all about a little robotic hamster sold under the name Zhu Zhu Pets.

The Zhu Zhu sell for about $10, but have accessories, like car and home are available separately. The scarcity of small robots store gave birth to an escalation on the Web, where they found $ 40.

The experts can not understand how Zhu Zhu has been able to differentiate themselves in a toy market as overcrowded. Hamsters run around, make little noises and drive cars, but they do not always behave as expected and range of motion is very limited.

But as said analyst Gerrick Johnson of BMO Capital Markets, the mere fact that they are suddenly impossible to find enough to pique the interest of consumers. It also stresses that they are very inexpensive, unlike robots like Kota the Triceratops which cost up to $ 250.

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The Zhu Zhu has been created by Russ Hornsby, a veteran toy industry. His company, CEPI, has only 16 employees in St. Louis, United States, and thirty in China.

The company did not expect such a success and she hardly meet the demand of parents desperate. Some have unearthed the cell phone number of Mr. Hornsby, which earned him calls at 4am, while others have completely phoned in China to try to get a little robot directly from the supplier.

A website was even created on Facebook, for which subscribers exchange information regarding the availability of the toy.

Parents must also deal with retailers that chilly closely monitor their inventories in an economic downturn.

Mr. Hornsby and his partners have taken extraordinary measures to try to fill a demand that is just as three new factories were opened in China and imported by air retailers millions of copies – a strategy of last resort very expensive for them.

Mr. Hornsby believes that sales of Zhu Zhu will reach U.S. $ 100 million this year and perhaps $400 million U.S. by the end of next year.

For his part, the analyst Gerrick Johnson said in the toy industry, 2010 will definitely be “the year of Chinese hamster.

But Are They Toxic?

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is currently looking into safety issues regarding the popular hamster toys.

The report claims that the toys contain high levels of both lead and warns consumers to return the product as soon as possible.

The chemical may cause cancer, lung and heart problems, according to San Francisco-based group the GoodGuide.

In a released statement, the company disputed the findings saying that test results show all Zhu Zhu Pets products, are well within U.S. government standards and these results have been certified by the world’s leading independent testing organizations.

“We are disputing the findings of Good Guide and we are 100% confident that Mr. Squiggles, and all other Zhu Zhu Toys, are safe and compliant with all U.S. and European standards for consumer health and safety in toys,” said Russ Hornsby, CEO of Cepia LLC.

“All our products are subjected to several levels of rigorous safety testing conducted by our own internal teams, as well as the world’s leading independent quality assurance testing organization, and also by independent labs engaged by our retail partners,” Hornsby said. “The results of every test prove that our products are in compliance with all government and industry safety standards.”

Zhu Zhu Pets May Be Toxic