When news about a new line of toys by Spin Master called “Hatchimals” came out towards the end of 2016, they were looked upon as a new “spin”, pardon the pun, on the concept of Tiger Electronics’ “Furby” toys back in 1998. After all, the idea of a toy needing to be hatched from an artificial egg and taught games seems like a retread of Furby’s vocabulary learning abilities. However when the Hatchimals finally landed on the holiday market, the resulting chaos as stocks were immediately depleted was more akin to the 1983 Cabbage Patch Kids and 1996 Tickle-Me Elmo toy sellout frenzies.
Barring some buggy units here and there, Spin Master’s latest offering was a success, so that early this year they’re rolling out some new expansions on the Hatchimal brand.
Smaller Hatchimal
Canadian-based company Spin Master is capitalizing on just how popular their Hatchimals have gotten, not only with the intended target demographic of girls aged 6-8, but also similarly aged boys and older youth of both genders. To that end they’ve come up with two new variations of their egg-hatched toy critters, at a greatly varied price range to really sell how affordable they can be. First is the Hatchimal take on Japanese capsule-enclosed toys and figures, the Colleggtibles. These are markedly tinier than the original Hatchimal toys, which start out inside egg cases the size of an emu or ostrich.
They also start out like their bigger brothers in little chicken egg cases, and can be brought out the same way by constantly rubbing a certain spot in the shell (a heart indicator) until you’re able to crack it open. The Hatchimal Colleggtibles are tiny cute yet static plastic figures that are for collecting as their name implies, but there are 70 variants of these right off the pop to encourage kids to hatch them all.
Glitterier Hatchimal
The other offering of Spin Master for 2017 is…the Hatchimal toy again, but with more bling. Known as the Hatchimal Glitter, they’re what can be called the deluxe version of the basic toys, with plenty of glitter dotting not just the dolls themselves but the eggs they hatch from. Furthermore, the Glitter series comes with new sounds for the Hatchimals as well as new songs and games they can play through their learning systems.
For the moment the Glitter Hatchimals come only in the first two versions available, the adorable “Penguala” and cuddly “Draggle”.
For those looking forward to either getting into the Hatchimals craze or expand their existing collection (and are willing to wait longer past the release of the Nintendo Switch console), the Hatchimal Colleggtibles with be in stores starting May (in either single or 4-packs), while the Glitter Hatchimals will come in July. Learning from the lesson of 2016, Spin Master will have more to offer than the 2-million sold old from their original run.
