The world’s largest rodent is having a big moment.
The capybara — a semi-aquatic South American relative of the guinea pig — is the latest in a long line of “it” animals to get star treatment during the holiday shopping season.
Shoppers can find capybara slippers, purses, robes and bath bombs. There are cuddly plush capybaras and stretchy or squishy ones. Tiny capybaras wander across bedding, T-shirts, phone cases, mugs, key chains and almost any other type of traditional gift item.
Photo: Palm Beach Zoo via AFP
Last year, it was the axolotl that took pride of place on many products, and the endangered amphibian remains popular. Owls, hedgehogs, foxes and sloths also had recent turns in the spotlight.
Trendy animals and animal-like creatures are not a new retail phenomenon; think the talking Teddy Ruxpin toys of the 1980s or Furby and Beanie Babies a decade later. However, industry experts say social media is amplifying which animals are hot — or not.
“It’s really the launch on TikTok, Instagram and other social media platforms that allow these characters or animals to blow up like crazy,” said Richard Derr, who has owned a Learning Express Toys franchise in Lake Zurich, Illinois, for nearly 30 years and is also a regional manager for the specialty toy store chain.
Social media is also speeding up the cycle.
Must-have animals might only last a season before something new captures customers’ imaginations.
“It’s really important to keep feeding that beast,” said Juli Lennett, a vice president and toy industry advisor at market research firm Circana. “If you are an influencer, you’re not going to talk about last year’s stuff.”
Skyrocketing plush toy sales — fueled by a need for comfort during the pandemic — are also increasing the demand for new and interesting varieties, Lennett said.
In the first nine months of this year, sales of plush animals were up 115 percent from the same period in 2019, she said. Overall toy sales rose 38 percent in that time.
Consumers are seeking out increasingly exotic species that they see in online videos, games and movies. Highland cows, red pandas and axolotls, a type of salamander native to Mexico, have all popped up in popular culture.
Searches for axolotls shot up in June 2021 after Minecraft added them to its game, Google Trends showed.
“Nobody knew what an axolotl was in 2020,” Derr said. “Now, everybody knows axolotls.”
Vermont Teddy Bear Company product designer Cassandra Clayton said rising sales to adults are also fueling the demand for unique — and collectible — plush toys.
“Stuffed animals are really becoming an ageless item,” she said. “Especially with the boom of self-care in adults and turning towards comfort objects to help de-stress and relax in your life.”
Clayton said she expects demand for unusual stuffed animals to continue to grow. Among the oddest she has seen: a stuffed version of a water bear, a type of microorganism also known as a moss piglet or a tardigrade.
“It doesn’t necessarily inspire you to cuddle with them, but you’re really seeing the industry start turning towards those characters,” she said. “I think that’s the next trend.”
Figuring out the next “it” animal — or microorganism — is a challenge for toymakers.
“You never know exactly when they’re going to hit and how big they’re going to be,” said Sharon Price John, the president and CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshop, a chain of nearly 500 stores that offers an expanding menagerie of animals and characters for customers to customize, including capybaras and axolotls.
The St Louis-based company watches social media and gets ideas from talking to store employees and patrons, John said.
It usually takes Build-A-Bear up to a year to introduce a new stuffed toy, but the company can move faster if it spots a trend, she said, adding that it sometimes tests a small batch online to make sure a trend is sticking.
Annual trade shows in Asia, Germany and elsewhere are another place to spot new trends.
Punirunes — digital, interactive pets that also come in plush varieties — are big in Japan right now and would likely take off in the US, toy store owner Derr said.
“Here, I can’t give them away. They’re too new. But give it a year or two,” he said.
Companies can kick off their own trends too. Build-A-Bear’s Spring Green Frog, introduced in 2020, was an immediate hit thanks to videos posted by customers.
It remains popular, with nearly 2 million sold, John said.
John said she suspects people are drawn to friendly, slow-moving capybaras, because watching videos of them are so relaxing. However, shoppers who want one need to act fast. A Build-A-Bear holiday capybara with red and green sprinkles on its fur — dubbed a “cookiebara” — has already sold out, she said.
Until US President Donald Trump’s return a year ago, when the EU talked about cutting economic dependency on foreign powers — it was understood to mean China, but now Brussels has US tech in its sights. As Trump ramps up his threats — from strong-arming Europe on trade to pushing to seize Greenland — concern has grown that the unpredictable leader could, should he so wish, plunge the bloc into digital darkness. Since Trump’s Greenland climbdown, top officials have stepped up warnings that the EU is dangerously exposed to geopolitical shocks and must work toward strategic independence — in defense, energy and
For the second year in a row, a Brazilian movie has wowed international audiences and critics, securing multiple Oscar nominations and drawing fresh interest in the Latin American giant’s film industry. Experts say the success of The Secret Agent, which has won four Oscar nominations, a year after I Am Still Here won Brazil its first Oscar, is no fluke, with a bit of a push from the country’s political climate. “This is neither a coincidence nor a miracle. It is the result of a lot of work, consistent policies, and, of course, talent,” Ilda Santiago, director of the Rio International Film
AI SPLURGE: The four major US tech companies have lost more than US$950 billion in value since releasing earnings and outlooks, while equipment makers were gaining Four of the biggest US technology companies together have forecast capital expenditures that would reach about US$650 billion this year — a flood of cash earmarked for new data centers and all the gear within them. The spending planned by Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Meta Platforms Inc and Microsoft Corp, all in pursuit of dominance in the still-nascent market for artificial intelligence (AI) tools, is a boom without a parallel this century. Each of the companies’ estimates for this year is expected either near or surpass their budgets for the past three years combined. They would set a high-watermark for capital spending
IShowSpeed, a 21-year-old African-American influencer, has raced a cheetah, leapt with Maasai warriors and drawn huge crowds in a month-long tour of Africa that has also busted cliches about the continent. The YouTube and Twitch star’s tour, which started on Dec. 29 last year, took him to 20 countries, showing his tens of millions of followers a different side of Africa as he visited a diamond mine in Botswana, discovered Ethiopia’s rich cuisine and attended the Africa Cup of Nations football final in Morocco. IShowSpeed — born in Cincinnati, Ohio as Darren Jason Watkins Jr. — is one of the most followed
RSS