Original subtitles

- [Narrator] It's the height of the Great Depression

and most Americans are thinking

about anything but Christmas shopping.

- Unemployment is still at 25%.

Thousands of people are in bread lines.

People are wandering from town to town looking for work.

It's a really, really challenging time in America.

- But there is a shining beacon of hope

and her name is Shirley Temple.

- Shirley Temple was the icon of the day.

She was a all around entertainer, singer,

dancer, actress.

- And the Ideal toy company decides

this is a great opportunity to put

out a celebrity doll, a Shirley Temple doll.

The retail cost of a Shirley Temple Doll in the fall

of 1934 is $3, which at the time is a substantial portion

of the average Americans' weekly salary.

- Who would spend the majority

of their income on a Shirley Temple Doll?

- Everyone.

- Everyone.

- Everyone bought this thing.

- [Narrator] The Shirley Temple Doll earns

Ideal $45 million in sales,

nearly a billion today, and creates an entirely new market.

- It is definitely the first Christmas craze toy

- [Narrator] But what's to come will make

the Shirley Temple craze look like child's play.

- Let's say it's December 13th, 1983

and you, a fool, have not yet bought a cabbage patch doll.

- [Narrator] From store aisle riots.

- I'm gonna rip a cabbage patch kid

from a seven-year-old's hands in order to bring that home.

- [Clerk] Hold it! Hold it!

- [Narrator] To soaring speculation.

- These toys start going

for hundreds of dollars, thousands of dollars.

- [Narrator] These are the stories

- Everybody wanted to Tickle Me Elmo.

- [Narrator] Behind the biggest toys in history.

- Achieving the purchase of a Furby was

a hundred percent a status move by parents.

- [Narrator] And how they help transform holiday shopping.

- The trample filled, rush the doors, door busting nonsense

that Black Friday is today

- [Narrator] Into a 1.1 trillion event.

(rock music plays)

- [Narrator] A half century after the Shirley Temple Doll,

the austerity of the 1930s has given way to a material age.

- For all of American history up to the 1980s,

most American parents when they were asked

by their child, will I get that toy that I really want?

Most American parents said, we'll see.

And then in the 1980s, parents faced

with that same question, said yes and tore out the door

to the nearest mall to try to get that toy for their child.

- I think that,

is all about, in a lot of ways

the unbridled capitalism of that era.

The kind of greed is good ethos of that moment totally

filters in to this approach to toys and to this frenzy.

- [Narrator] But in an unprecedented era

of electronic innovation,

the toy that will supercharge

Christmas isn't high tech.

It doesn't even have an on switch.

- Cabbage Patch Kids were sweet and home spun

and very folksy.

- In fact, Coleco thought they might not succeed

because they defied the norms of the day.

Dolls in 1983 were beautiful.

They were cute, they had great big eyes

and the cabbage patch kids were sort of strange.

A little bit homely, a little bit weird, and oddly enough

this seems to be what made them turn out to be special.

- The retailers in Cleveland didn't know

that the Cabbage Patch Dolls were going

to be as crazy as that.

No one can predict demand like that.

- [Narrator] But thanks to an ad list

that puts them on the cover of Newsweek

and customers buying an average of 3 dolls each.

A staggering 2 million Cabbage Patch Kids are sold

by October 6th, 1983

leaving shells practically empty before the holidays.

- This was completely by accident.

Coleco actually didn't see this coming.

- Coleco was having a hard time keeping up with demand

and you couldn't find a Cabbage Patch doll anywhere.

- This is the beginning of Christmas really,

really becoming like a spectacle.

- I got my doll, I got my doll.

- [Narrator] Coleco runs their Hong Kong factories

24/7 even renting private planes to ship

whatever they can to the US,

but they still can't meet demand.

(uplifting music)

- The parents were in there, they were begging,

they were bribing, they were waiting

for trucks in the middle of the night.

- You get all these news reports about grownups in stores

like knocking people down to buy a Cabbage Patch Kid doll.

- [Clerk] Hold it! Hold it!

In one case, a woman's leg gets broken.

There's footage of store managers like standing around

with baseball bats like to protect the dolls.

- Fisticuffs going on to cop this piece of cloth,

you know, with yarn hair was just something

that was otherworldly for me.

- It's nuts.

Who's the customer?

Who are the people that are screaming

for Cabbage Patch Dolls?

Bribing for Cabbage Patch Dolls,

pushing and shoving and grabbing from other people.

- Cabbage Patch becomes this iconic experience and story

and obviously every other toy company

in the world wants to have that same experience.

- [Narrator] As companies everywhere try to replicate

the Cabbage Patch magic,

retailers see their opportunity to boost their bottom line.

The result, an entirely new holiday is added

to the calendar. A shopping day to rule them all.

That will come to be called Black Friday.

(people shouting)

The Cabbage Patch riots of 1983 spawn a new age

in Christmas shopping and marketing,

introducing the nation to a new idea.

Black Friday.

- Until the 1980s,

there were still traditional norms about how you shop.

When you shop, where you shop.

In many cities in the United States,

it would've been hard to find someone who'd be

willing to work in a department store at 8:00 PM

and I think a lot of that went out the window in the 1980s.

- So Black Friday, which we hear about every year,

it started in the 1950s in Philadelphia

when all of these spectators from the suburbs would come

into the city to watch the Army Navy football game,

and they would come

to shop and they would cause so much mayhem.

They would overflow the stores.

And so the cops actually started to call it Black Friday

in this really negative way.

- [Narrator] By the 1980s,

that definition changes,

now referring to the supercharge sales

that would turn profits

from red to black at major retailers.

And manufacturers begin using scarcity

as a marketing strategy.

Limited stock drives large crowds

for that year's must have products.

- It's the day after Thanksgiving you really saw

this escalation just sort of year after year.

- With that kind of mass event,

of course, comes the potential for mass violence

or insanity.

Toys in the 1980s become the center

of a lot of those stories.

- [Narrator] But few toys succeed

in matching the Cabbage Patch craze

until another unlikely hit in 1996.

- Oh my gosh. The Tickle Me Elmo was that doll

that you tickle and it talks.

First of all, if you're gonna give me Elmo,

- [Producer] We're going to give you Elmo.

- you might not get him back.

- [Producer] Alright.

Oh this is like OG.

Elmo laughs and shakes when tickled.

Try me.

All right, I'll try.

You press tummy.

(Elmo laughs) That tickles.

- The most annoying toy ever.

- The laugh over the high-pitch laugh.

- I'm gonna roll my eyes.

- It's a doll that when you tickle it like laughs

and talks in Elmo's very cute, childish voice,

which some people find annoying.

(mimicking Elmo's laugh)

- And it didn't tickle me once.

I mean, I was like, tickle me Elmo

and that doll just sat there.

They needed that Teddy Ruxpin technology.

- [Narrator] In 1996 when Tickle Me Elmo is released,

Tyco has no idea it will become one

of the first viral hits.

All thanks to an unexpected fan.

- Rosie O'Donnell

at the time had this great daytime talk show, you know,

national TV show that everyone watched.

She had gotten one Tickle Me Elmo and she showed it on air.

- And that was almost

like the social media of the day, right?

Daytime TV that kind of boosted its popularity

and made it the Toy.

- [Narrator] Tyco originally forecast sales

of 100,000 units.

After Rosie, demand rockets to more than 10 times that,

making it nearly impossible to get one.

- With that began the Tickle Me Elmo craze.

(upbeat music)

- It's a real Tickle Me Elmo right here

- How much? in the box brand new 200.

Or we can talk about it. - Alright.

- People were getting in fights, there were assaults,

arrests, all kinds of wild behavior

by parents trying to get Tickle Me Elmo for their kids.

(people shouting)

- Apparently 48 Elmos were delivered

to a store that was having this Midnight Madness sale.

There were 300 people that wanted the Elmos

and they did trample the clerk, trying to get their hands

on these Elmos.

- They're gone.

They're gone.

- In the lead up to Christmas of 96 when Tickle Me Elmo is

the hot toy that people can't find,

they sell a million of them.

In the next year,

like from 96 into 97, they get up to 5 million

which is just a really lot

of stuffed Elmo dolls that laugh at you.

- [Narrator] Christmas crazes like, Tickle Me Elmo,

don't just change the way we shop.

For some parents, they transform the product itself,

from a kid's toy into a commodity.

- As a child, you see a cute little cuddly toy

you wanna touch it and then the parents will say,

actually that's not for touch.

That's just meant for investment.

- On these toys,

start going for hundreds of dollars, thousands of dollars.

I mean, that's just insane.

(child cries))

- [Narrator] Both Cabbage Patch Kids

and Tickle Me Elmo were unintentional Christmas crazes.

The next trend will be carefully calculated,

but with unexpected results.

- The Beanie Baby is a small little lovable animal

that became an incredible craze

and frankly an investment opportunity in the eyes of many.

- And I hate to admit it, I was one

of those crazy moms that had every local store calling me.

I was caught up in it.

- But it was like a wildfire.

Everyone had to have these Beanie Babies.

- Beanie Babies are small plush animals that are beanbags.

They basically have like weighted butts.

They're all different kinds of animals.

They're made by a company named Ty.

And when you buy one, it has like a little tag.

And then, when you open it,

it'll have like the name of the Beanie Baby.

So, it's a character.

- [Narrator] More than just the appeal of a $5 doll.

The rise of the Beanie Baby can be attributed

to the genius of one man.

- Ty Warner made two very key decisions

that changed the entire Beanie Baby economy.

One, they released only a certain number

of each type of Beanie Baby.

And the second decision was they would retire them.

Initially, Beanie Babies were retired because of supply.

They wouldn't be able to make enough

of this particular Beanie Baby.

They would move on to another one.

- So, he uses this word retire.

We're gonna retire it.

Telling the public, okay, we've decided

that you can't have this anymore.

And people go, what?

Wait, I can't have it.

Well, no, I need it.

- People went nuts for these things.

Oh, there were books about how to collect the Beanies

where to find them, how much they were worth.

- This Beanie Baby will be worth $300 in one year.

There's no reason they would know this.

Like this is like a totally made up number.

And so, people are buying them and then embalming them

in plastic so they can like preserve their mint

conditioned Beanie Baby to sell

in two or three years when it's worth like $15,000.

- They were sold for $8,800 at different places.

- People starting to buy into the Beanie Babies

thinking the value would continue to go up.

Just as we've seen with so many different commodities.

What they're talking about stocks we're talking

about homes and frankly it turned

into a Beanie Baby bubble.

- They were gonna buy Beanie Babies and send their children

to college and buy beautiful homes and sports cars.

We can be millionaires.

- When you can buy a Beanie Baby or a car

and you've gotta make a decision, that's when you know

you may have crossed the line a little bit.

- There was apparently somebody called a Beanie Baby Bandit

in New York and it got attention in New York media

that somebody was stealing a substantial amount

of Beanie Babies.

That also has to be the most embarrassing reason

to be in jail.

What are you in for?

And the guy has to be like

I stole $20,000 worth of Beanie Babies.

- [Narrator] The hunt for hard to find

Beanie Babies becomes

the first internet sensation

and turns a budding website originally called Auction Web

into a billion dollar household name.

- Ebay brought it to a whole new level.

You could sell your Beanie Babies to anyone anywhere.

- [Narrator] At one point,

a staggering 10% of all eBay transactions are Beanie Babies.

Some selling for $5,000 or more,

a thousand times their original price.

- The irony is that now when you go on eBay or anywhere else

Beanie Babies are only worth $3.

- By 1999 supply, finally, eclipses demand.

Beanie Baby sales fall by 20%.

One year later they filled Dollar Store discount bins.

But just as Beanie Babies crashed to earth,

a new cuddly character is gearing up to enter

Christmas crazedom.

Setting off a whole new kind of panic.

- The fear was that Furby was watching you.

That Furby was Big Brother, that they were listening in.

- A ha.

- [Narrator] Every Christmas craze has one thing in common.

Irrational behavior.

But in 1998,

a new craze takes toy induced panic to the next level.

- A ha.

- A Furby is kind of a furry birdlike creature

with a beak and plastic eyes that blink.

- Has a sweet little voice and this big eyes

and you just wanna pick it up and hug it.

- You know, I wanna say it's a little gremlin

a little Ewok.

His 23 and Me is going to have a lot of that in it.

- Furby was one of the first examples

of a great interactive toy that combined robotics

and technology and the cute plushy fur.

- And it has eyes

with sensors in them.

So, if you like move

by it or talk to it, the Furby will react to you.

- When you open it up,

it speaks Furby's language.

(Furby talking its language)

But the more you care for it,

it starts learning some loosely-based English words.

- They don't really learn

they just are programmed to know more English over time.

But it mimics the way an animal

or person might learn English.

(Furby speaking)

- The kids loved it and it was really great,

but there was no off button, no off button (laughs).

- I really find them upsetting (laughs).

- They didn't shut up.

So, every night my children had to wrap their Furbies

in a blanket, put it downstairs

in the basement and go two flights up to their bedroom.

So I didn't have to hear it.

- [Narrator] But for some the issue isn't

about Furby talking.

- The fear was that Furby was watching you.

That Furby was Big Brother, that they were listening in.

- So much so that the NSA wanted to pull the toy

from the market.

They were very concerned

that people would've unwitting let themselves be hacked

by hostile powers.

- The FAA, the NSA, a host

of other organizations are concerned

about the technological capabilities

whether this is gonna disrupt telecommunications,

whether it's gonna disrupt air traffic.

- There's this concern that the electronics might interfere

with instruments on airplanes and cause planes to crash.

- Now, in fact, Furby didn't have that capability.

This was a gimmick.

But it shows the extent to which that toy had such impact

outside the realm of play.

- People lost their minds.

Not only was it the must have toy of the holiday season,

it became like the must have centerpiece and talking point.

Now, everyone needed this toy

because they all wanted to tell their friends

that they had one.

- In 1998 it featured at FAO Schwartz

and it's sold out incredibly quickly.

You have to go to the second hand market

on eBay and it becomes

like another must have toy in the long entry

of must have toys for Christmas seasons.

- At the end of 1998, there were over 1 million Furby sold

and by that time next year it was 14 million Furby sold.

- [Narrator] The impact Furby makes is great,

but it's also short lived.

By Christmas of 2000,

interest is sort of dissipated.

- Furby is more representative of what we normally see

with Christmas crazes where there's a huge rush

and a huge amount of need to have a Furby

for Christmas 1999.

And then, within a few months they're kind

of a punchline right?

It's like, oh yeah, the Furby, ha ha ha.

But six months earlier, like that was the hot toy

everyone had to have.

Everything about toys is

a marketing plate.

It is a commercial business.

They are selling things to children through their parents

or alongside their parents.

And that's neither good nor bad, nor neutral.

- Between Furbies, Cabbage Patch Kids, Tickle Me Elmo,

it was all about what's the best toy for my kids?

What is capitalism telling me to buy?

- There are still toy crazes.

There are still the must-have toy of the year.

There are still toys that are so hard to get your hands on.

- The truth of the matter is

that all those toys are just commodities, right?

Now, they're essentially worthless.

Maybe not in sentimental value,

but you can buy them maybe a dime a dozen online.

What does that say?

Well, I think it shows how fleeting

our consumer passions are.

And maybe the optimistic take on that is

that we should really focus on the emotional value

of things because we have a lot more control

over our emotions than the markets.