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Get ready for a trip down memory lane, as we explore those unforgettable products that didn't just sell out, they incited a frenzy! From groundbreaking toys to must-have video games, these items weren't just popular; they redefined holiday shopping chaos, turning retail aisles into battlegrounds for bargain hunters and nostalgic parents alike. Join us as we revisit the craziest Black Friday stampedes caused by the most sought-after goods of their time. These weren't just sales; they were legends!
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00:00About $35.
00:01$35.
00:02Why is it so expensive?
00:05Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're looking at products popular enough to clog up stores on Black Friday through the years.
00:12Beanie Baby values may explain tight security at the gift store we visited.
00:18Guitar Hero 3, Legends of Rock
00:21The first two iterations of Guitar Hero turned gamers into rock stars.
00:25But with Legends of Rock, they could actually play their favorite guitar gods.
00:30And in my head they'd always been just to repeat
00:31Like a flyman that I jumped into the beating kind of teeth
00:34Like a face that looked to speak
00:36When all I knew was how to bite
00:38Promotions featuring Slash of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver
00:42amped up the hype for a blockbuster launch in October of 2007.
00:46The following month's Black Friday sales performance was unlike anything seen with a video game before.
00:51Here comes to wash away the sins of you and I
00:56Activision continued its ambitious annual release of a Guitar Hero installment until 2010's Warriors of Rock.
01:14Of course, Legends of Rock stands out for fine-tuning the formula in both gameplay and holiday sales pitch.
01:20Zuzu Pets
01:21It seemed that the age of consumer electronics had done away with toys as the hot item for Black Friday.
01:28Then, Zuzu Pets scurried along in 2009.
01:31Wake up, Zuzu Pets!
01:33Zuzu Pets go here and there
01:35Zuzu Pets go everywhere
01:36There's a big world to explore and fun through every door
01:39Kiss me, claws, a hamster wheel
01:41Change their world, it's no big deal
01:43These adorable robo-plushies simulated the sounds and behavior of hamsters, with a retail price of only about 10 bucks.
01:49And yet, they were so popular upon release that Toys R Us could not keep them on shelves during November sales.
01:56Earlier, as we followed those parents inside the store, one parent had been here since 4.45 in the morning.
02:03He was getting one of those little critters for his daughter.
02:06He claims his wife sent him out into the cold.
02:08Besides being the holiday season's it toy for kids, Zuzu Pets blew up the secondary market due to their scarcity.
02:15Online resales would go for hundreds.
02:18In defense of the buyers, you had to get to the store pretty early to nab a Zuzu Pet for Christmas 2009.
02:24We had a special treat. The first 100, choppers through the door, had a chance to purchase a Zuzu Pet, which is the hot toy.
02:31That's what everybody wants to get their hands on this year.
02:33Okay, so hopefully you'll get more of those in before, you know, the holidays arrive.
02:37Teddy Ruxpin
02:38Toy manufacturers and retailers were eager to produce the next Cabbage Patch Kids in the mid-1980s.
02:44Hi, my name is Teddy Ruxpin. Can you and I be friends?
02:49Yeah.
02:50I really enjoy talking to people.
02:53That wound up just being a teddy bear. That could talk.
02:56Created by Disney Imagineer Ken Forsey, Teddy Ruxpin captivated children with its animated storytelling feature.
03:02And with a retail price of $70, parents were in a frenzy that Black Friday.
03:07There seems to be only one really hot new toy this year, but we can't show it to you because this toy store, like many others, is already sold out.
03:16The discounts have since surely been trumped by the impact of declining demand on the product's value.
03:21Some good-conditioned vintage models now go for half the launch price.
03:24The first run of Teddy Ruxpin may not have inspired any war stories anyway, but the first hot holiday toy since the Cabbage Patch Kids is still worth talking about.
03:33Nine months ago, Teddy Ruxpin looked like this, but after a carefully orchestrated campaign, he's become the bestseller of the Christmas season.
03:41A half million sold already.
03:43Razor scooters.
03:44So many kids wanted to glide into the new millennium on Razor USA's innovatively lightweight, foldable model of scooter.
03:51They're the hottest way to get around town on two or even three wheels.
03:55What is this new form of transportation, and could it be the answer for your daily commute?
03:59But not many parents wanted to drop $100 just for the basic addition.
04:04Ironically, you would have needed a Razor scooter to make it to a store fast enough to get one on Black Friday.
04:10This further boosted the generation-defining scooter fad and all the painful wipeouts that came with it.
04:15We now take for granted the relative comfort of electric Razor scooters that even adults love, as well as the popular deals on Black Friday.
04:23Razor, the worldwide best-selling scooter, brings you their new super-fast E-Series electric scooters, the Razor E100.
04:31It's still nice to roll back to when the original version ruled the holiday season along with the sidewalks.
04:36Super-chargeable batteries and high-torque motors, these E-scooters will amp up your ride.
04:43The Razor E-Series, your ride electrified.
04:47Tamagotchi.
04:48The world was once effectively conquered by a handheld digital pet console from Bandai.
04:53The Swedish Retail Institute even named Tamagotchi the Christmas gift of the year going into the 1997 holiday season.
05:00As soon as a rumor spreads that a shop has the Tamagotchi, huge queues form outside.
05:04The United States clearly agreed, as the seemingly mundane device drew big crowds on Black Friday.
05:11This image epitomized a craze that infamously took over high schools and gave kids some weirdly vivid lessons on the death of pets.
05:19Tamagotchi is only a game, but like any pet, if it doesn't get what it needs and wants, it dies.
05:25So somebody has to look after it. It's like a pet. If you can't look after it, don't get it.
05:29All the controversy was a factor in Tamagotchi ending as a global phenomenon about as quickly as it began.
05:35In Japan, however, the toy continues to evolve as a hot holiday gift for kids and nostalgic adults alike.
05:42Canadian distributor says she hasn't seen a craze like this in years.
05:46But then again, most people can remember the pet rock of the 1970s and try to find one of those today.
05:52Furby. Tiger Electronics revolutionized robotic toys with the lovable and talkative Furby.
05:58What's that?
05:58Wake up.
05:59It's my Furby.
06:01Furby loves you, love, and touch.
06:03Tickle me.
06:04Furby, the first gigapet you pet.
06:06Their first language may have been Furbish, but parent company Hasbro sure knew how to speak the language of the retail market.
06:13After much promotion, Furbies were released in October of 1998 to become the must-have item of the holiday season.
06:20The technology is about equivalent to the Apple II.
06:23What is the appeal?
06:24What do you, uh...
06:25I don't know.
06:25I'm just getting them because everybody else is.
06:27It was the best-selling item of Black Friday that year, with inventory selling out within an hour.
06:33The reports of riots were history.
06:35Tiger Electronics actually had to put out a statement condemning adults acting like the target demographic of a children's toy.
06:41But they weren't necessarily complaining about some of the longest lines in the history of Black Friday.
06:47He even comes with a Furbish English dictionary and eventually learns English.
06:51Furby's also big on bodily functions.
06:55Gesundheit.
06:58Shut up.
06:59Nintendo Wii.
07:01New Nintendo video game consoles have been a staple of Black Friday all the way back to the Nintendo 64.
07:07This Santa Monica Toys R Us store sold out in 15 minutes, but the store model is attracting Nintendo fans like crazy.
07:13Releasing the Nintendo DS right at the start of 2004's holiday season was such a lucrative move that the company repeated it two years later.
07:21Sure enough, the Wii was launched in the U.S. five days before Black Friday and sold approximately 600,000 units within the week.
07:29The crowd is absolutely crazy.
07:31Wii!
07:32Thousands of fans have gathered since early this afternoon, probably as early as the beginning of the week, waiting for a chance to get their Nintendo Wii.
07:40With shelves clearing out in the days leading up, the sale was absolute chaos.
07:45The revolutionary Wii was a revolutionary hit.
07:48And still, the Wii U undersold during the week of Black Friday 2012.
07:53Hey, Nintendo can't always bowl a strike.
08:00Beanie Babies.
08:01It's common knowledge that Beanie Babies were a big deal in the mid-to-late 90s.
08:05They were, in fact, so big that they dominated Black Friday for two years straight at their peak.
08:10These are the feet...
08:11This craze is just...
08:13It's scary.
08:14...of Beanie...
08:15They're just cute.
08:16Crazed...
08:17That's the new patty.
08:19Collectors.
08:20The retail price was only around $5, but the variety and scarcity of these cuddly plushies inspired a fervor that spiked with the holiday climate.
08:27Fights were breaking out between desperate parents and collectors who could resell Beanie Babies at a huge profit.
08:33Once they retire, the value goes...
08:35Up.
08:36In, like, two years, they're worth, like, $245 and stuff.
08:41He's worth about $4,000.
08:43Then, the so-called Beanie Bubble burst when Thai Ink produced beyond the demand, while theft and counterfeits ran rampant.
08:51Even with a product hot enough for several holiday seasons, consumer frenzy isn't always a good thing.
08:56By the turn of the century, Beanie Babies will become has-beens.
09:01Tickle Me Elmo.
09:02Who doesn't love the star resident on Sesame Street?
09:05Well, the first holiday season with Tickle Me Elmo wasn't as wholesome as people today like to think.
09:10One of the clerks was sent to hospital after being trampled in the frenzy.
09:14Somebody in the crowd yelled,
09:17There's the Elmos, and they rushed us.
09:20Black Friday 1996 was a powder keg between this toy and the Nintendo 64.
09:24After all the tedious waiting and ironic violence among shoppers, the original 400,000 units of Elmo dolls were sold.
09:32This product, $28 in value, could then be resold for up to four figures.
09:37No wonder he's laughing.
09:39All the way to the bank.
09:41Because North America has been gripped by Tickle Me Elmo hysteria.
09:45It was a success in holiday chaos as historic as Tickle Me Elmo itself.
09:50More careful distribution of Tickle Me Elmo Extreme 10 years later ensured a successful Black Friday without the crowd getting too extreme.
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10:19Cabbage Patch Kids
10:20Modern Black Friday shopping goes back to the 1950s, but no one fully understood the ominous term until 1983.
10:27Wherever Cabbage Patch dolls are sold, they're not sold for long.
10:32For example, in San Diego, there is no Cabbage Patch doll to be found.
10:36Coleco had cultivated overwhelming demand for Cabbage Patch Kids through anthropomorphic promotion and scarce production of uniquely designed dolls.
10:44It was then no surprise when hundreds of people camped out for a chance to get one on Black Friday.
10:49But the ensuing buying frenzy, extending well into the holiday season, came to be known as the Cabbage Patch Riots.
10:56It's like a fever taking hold.
10:58Potential buyers are not above elbowing, shouting, and crying so they can walk away with their coveted prize.
11:05It got so bad that Coleco had to pull advertising and collaborate with retailers on crowd management.
11:10It's not like they had to worry about their inventory.
11:13With a marketing strategy to influence generations of nostalgic shopping excess.
11:17My husband works here and I can't even get what I want.
11:20I miss work. I'm late for work to get this for my little girl.
11:23I'm not going to tell my boss. I'm trying to get there now.
11:26What other goods do you remember fondly and Black Friday sales do you remember with terror?
11:31Take us back in the comments.
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