The brand manager of a Canadian family toy company once wondered if one of their engineers could turn her mild obsession with the pygmy marmoset, a tiny Amazonian monkey, into a small robotic toy that resembled it.

Two years later and that’s just what he, along with the rest of the team, did.

Now, according to the New York Times, it’s this year’s hottest toy, after being introduced to the market earlier this year by the company, WowWee:

For decades, there has always been a must-have holiday toy — Cabbage Patch Kids, Beanie Babies, a Tickle Me Elmo doll. Parents drive long distances to scour stores for the one item in short supply at exactly the moment when everyone wants it.

It’s called the Fingerling: hold it in your hand and it drifts to sleep; press its head and it passes gas. It also grips anything with its legs and arms, as it babbles, blows kisses and blinks its eyes in response to you:

A Fingerling can snore, say hello and babble in monkey gibberish. If one Fingerling starts singing, it triggers sensors in nearby Fingerling monkeys — the company hopes you’ll buy several — that get them to join in.

Said pygmy marmoset-obsessed Sydney Wiseman [above]:

“You know you can trust a toy company if its toys fart. It knows what kids want.”

Fair enough – but they look damn cute as well. If you haven’t got one yet, well sorry for you: it might take a while before you get your finger all wrapped up.

But why? Well, for one, the toy is very scarce. Every toy shop and online store that stocks them has nothing left to sell:

Not long after the social media push in August, the monkeys were basically sold out everywhere, and WowWee was able to pull back on its marketing.

WowWee ramped up shipments of Fingerlings in October and November — way ahead of the number of Hatchimals that were shipped to the United States at this time last year, according to data supplied by Panjiva. Retailers say Fingerlings are being bought up as quickly as they can be stocked.

And because of this demand, some retailers are selling the toy for over R1 200 in South Africa, despite the recommended selling price of just $17,99 (R246). There are also counterfeiters duping desperate parents into buying knockoffs, and we all know that ends in tears.

To think that they were selling at Walmart for a measly $15 before they too ran out.

You want one now, don’t you? OK, fine, it’s for your child, sure – but right now there’s only one way to get them into South Africa.

Although the Fingerling website lists three regions from which you can buy the toy online, you’re going to have to wait until they have stock. You can see those regions here when you click Buy Now! on the top right-hand corner.

So the best option is to add it to your Amazon wishlist.

Once that is done, you will then have to get it to South Africa, and you can use your Postbox Courier account to do that.

The process of setting it up is around 100 times easier than trying to get a legit Fingerling for your child before Christmas:

• Sign Up
  Register free of charge with Postbox Courier via their website. They will assign you with a Personal Postbox at each of our worldwide depots. Look out for the confirmation email which provides a link to activate your account.
• Sign In
  Once you have activated your account, you will be able to login to view your unique Postbox addresses, by clicking the “View your Personal Postbox addresses” banner. Your addresses are permanent, so you can save them and start sending items to your Postbox!
• Notify us of incoming items
  Each time you send something to Postbox Courier, please notify them via the Parcel Pre-Alert (in your Parcel Manager).
• Manage your orders
  You can ship single items or multiple pieces combined into a single shipment. If you do wish to consolidate orders from different suppliers (in the same origin country), you will be able to do so in your Parcel Manager. Just notify them of each shipment that is en-route to your Postbox, and then use the ‘Group’ button to let them know which items you wish to combine.
• Pay for shipping
  Once they receive the items that correspond with your booking they’ll let you know via email and invite you to login to your Parcel Manager and make payment, upon which they will courier your items to your door within South Africa immediately.

To your door, and you didn’t even need to brave the madness that is any shop selling children’s toys over the festive period.

Oh, and one last thing: if you’re going to go around proclaiming you want one a Fingerling, be sure to pronounce it clearly.

[source:nytimes]