Zuru's Nick Mowbray reveals what makes kids tick when it comes to toys. Photo / Supplied
Zuru's Nick Mowbray reveals what makes kids tick when it comes to toys. Photo / Supplied
If the sight of your child’s Christmas wish list has sent you into a yuletide stupor, you’re not alone.
Shopping for little ones can be a minefield – not least because they may have suddenly changed their mind about that Squishmallow you stood in a long queue at Kmart for just last night.
This week on podcast One Day You’ll Thank Me, toy guru Nick Mowbray from Zuru shares what makes kids tick when it comes to toys and the trends he believes are here to stay.
“Kids are very fickle,” says Mowbray, who co-founded toy manufacturing giant Zuru with his siblings, Mat and Anna.
“They change their minds quite quickly, and so probably one of the main things is staying on trend.”
One trend he says isn’t going anywhere fast is toys that offer an element of surprise or have collectable components with a sense of rarity.
”[Kids] just love a surprise.
“I guess it’s that element of not knowing what you’re going to get, trying to collect the rare ones, trying to get the super rare ones, this element of scarcity. It’s not there for very long. And kids seem to really, really like that.
“It’s part of the reason that, you know, a lot of the card games [like] Pokemon are on fire right now.”
Nick Mowbray says kids are fickle but there's one toy trend he believes is here to stay.
For parents who fear their children may be growing up in a world where physical play is being traded for screens and virtual realities, Mowbray says data bodes well for a sustained interest in toys and the physical play they encourage.
“I guess maybe for two decades now, everyone said, ‘oh, the digital world’s coming. And the toy market’s going to go backwards and kids are just going to play games and live in this sort of virtual world’.
“And elements of that are true. Kids are loving platforms like Roblox, where they’re playing a lot of games and building a lot of games. But it seems that physical toys don’t seem to be going anywhere. I think the world of physical play is never really going anywhere, actually.
In fact, the market continues to grow, right? Year on year, on year.”
This year Mowbray has revealed the most popular items kids seem to want placed under the Christmas tree and the toy that’s already almost sold out.
To find out what Mowbray’s top toy picks are this Christmas, listen to this week’s episode of One Day You’ll Thank Me.
