The Tsum Tsum craze keeps going strong. There hasn’t been such a big interest in a particular stuffed toy since the Beanie Babies in the 1990s.
This prompted BlendingCool to ask a very valid question – are Tsum Tsums the next Beanie Babies? The answer is not that easy.
At first glance it seems they have everything they need to do it. Tsum Tsums are very popular. They are very up-to-date with the latest trends and popular characters in pop culture.
And they are very cute and very importantly – very cheap. Plus, they have their unique touch – you can stack them up one on top of the other and form a pyramid of plush galore.
By these marks Tsum Tsums share quite a few common points with the Beanie Babies. Plus they are heavily promoted by Disney. The company is even extending the brand to T-shirts, kitchenware and quite a lot of other non-plush stuff just to milk as much as it can from the popular toy line.
So they seem to have it all to become the next big thing in the stuffed animal market since the Beanie Babies. But will they do it? Probably to a point. You see, times are now different.
One of the main reasons why Beanie Babies were so popular, was a lot of people thought the toys were going to become collectors’ dream and will be able to resell the toys for a fortune. So quite a lot of people bought Beanie Babies not because they liked the, but because they were hoping to resell them for a big profit. This never happened for the most part so the Beanie Baby fad quickly faded.
The Tsum Tsums currently don’t have this. They are bought pretty much only by people who like them. Disney doesn’t market them as limited edition toys. Most of them are easily bought at any point in time. Plus, you can even do that over the Internet. The same Internet also keeps people more informed and they won’t fall that easily for the trap of false hopes for easy riches by reselling plush toys.
In fact, Disney has more to gain if it sells you the Tsum Tsums and not someone who is reselling them. So in the end we think that the Tsum Tsum craze will continue for the time being. It probably won’t balloon to the huge fad Beanie Babies were, but that’s a good thing. It means people will be buying them because they like them and that’s the best way to keep a market going.
