There’s plenty of potty humor in kids’ books and movies. Now, it seems that toymakers have also gone to the toilet for their latest creations.
Mattel, a company best known for its Barbie dolls, is set to release a game called Flushin’ Frenzy that sends a brown plastic poop flying into the air.
Rival Hasbro, whose water-squirting game Toilet Trouble was a hit last year, stuck with the potty humor this year and released Don’t Step in It, a game in which players are blindfolded and have to avoid stepping in poop that’s molded out of a claylike substance.
Toy analysts and experts say the potty-related toys are hitting stores because of the popularity of the poop emoji, which has also made it more acceptable for parents to buy poop toys for their kids. At this week’s New York Toy Fair, the industry’s biggest gathering of the year, toymakers showed off poo-shaped action figures, squishy toys and other creatures from the toilet.
“Yeah, poop is a theme,” says Juli Lennett, the toy analyst at market research company the NPD Group. “Kids think it’s funny.”
Sticky the Poo, a squishy likeness with eyes, clings to walls and ceilings when thrown. The company behind it, Hog Wild, also sells a rainbow version called Sticky Unicorn Poo. Its Sticky the Plunger is sold separately.
There’s poo for collectors, too. Flush Force, by toymaker Spin Master, sells 150 nickel-size mutant critters that kids can collect. Poopeez, meanwhile, makes tiny, squishy collectibles with character names such as Pooji, Skid Mark and Dumpling.
Poopeez are aimed at boys age 7 and older, says Ashley Mady, who created Poopeez and works for toy company Basic Fun. But she thinks the appeal will spread.
“We really believe poop is for everyone,” she says.
