Snack Toys Replace the Time-Consuming Habits of Kids

Who has time? Even youngsters are all on a schedule these days, it’s time for Johnny’s playdate, oh, we gotta leave now to get to Susie’s soccer practice!  Who has time to play games that take as long as 30 minutes?   I read a story yesterday by Anne Marie Chaker in the WSJ about a new trend. “Snack-like Toys” that don’t take too long to play that fit into the busy lives of our youngest citizens.

One example is a cute little set of toys that come in spice containers, complete with the wooden rack. Spicy Games can fit inside your kitchen cabinets and is four different ‘mini-games.”  Well, you buy them individually for $8 each, and inside the plastic jars are games, like Cheater’s Chili or Sugar Cubes. The first one is a guessing game with coins, and Sugar Cubes is a word game that you play with a timer. It’s a perfect short-attention span entertainment for those boring moments while we’re all waiting for dinner to be ready.

Lego too, is jumping on the snack toys bandwagon.  Everyone knows how long it can take to assemble one of the company’s daunting construction sets, complete with so many parts that you’re bound to lose some under the sofa soon after you open it.  The company now makes “Mighty Micros” which only cost $5-10.  Contrast this with the big sets, that can run $20-30, or way more for the very complex sets.  The Micros are more simple, for $10 you get two characters, one superhero and a villain and the makings to build two small vehicles. What more do you need, really?

For girls, the trend continues with a twist. The Tsum Tsum Mystery Stack Packs are $3 and you don’t know what your’e actually getting. This encourages kids to pick up three or four, said Kim Ferguson, VP of Marketing for Jakks Pacific. She said the volume makes up for the small per-unit profit.

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