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Robotic hamsters are the new must-have toys this Christmas, sales figures showed today.
Go Go Pets, costing about £10 each, are selling out fast on both sides of the Atlantic.
The battery-powered toys, which respond to touch with squeaks, can be set to run about randomly in "explore" mode, or to "coo and chirp" calmly when held.
Jerry Storch, chief executive of Toys R Us, said the craze is on a par with that of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the smash hit of Christmas 1987. "It is just phenomenal," he said.
The hamsters - Mr Squiggles, Patches, Chunk, Pipsqueak, and Num Nums - were launched this summer by Cepia, a small US company based in St Louis founded in 2004 by Russell Hornsby, a toy entrepreneur.
He has shipped six million pieces so far but expects to double this by the end of the Christmas period.
Reader views (3)
What size of cage do I need for one?
- Jock, London
Are they sentient beings with intelligence and self-awareness, we wonder? Are they about to take us over, we ask ourselves?
- Graham Rodhouse, Helmond, Netherlands
To think we used to laugh at hilarious programs by Clive James in which clearly bonkers Japanese reality-TV contestants were ritually humiliated and people played with robotic pets because they hadn't the time/space for a real one . . .
- Roz, France
