There's a strange new toy taking over America.
Much like Furby or Tickle Me Elmo, the Hatchimal — an egg that, if cared for, cracks open to reveal a furry animal — has become such a hot-seller that stores like Toys "R" Us are restricting sales to one-per-customer.
Parents are standing in line for hours to snatch one of the coveted items for their children. Apparently, Kids can't get enough of the furry specimens.
"I feel incredibly lucky, I can't believe that I got one today," said one mother at a Chicago Toys "R" Us.
Toy hysteria is nothing new to the American consumer during the Christmas season. There was the Cabbage Patch Kids., Tickle Me Elmo Mania and, of course, the Furby frenzy.
Dottie Russo, a New Jersey mom, hatched a YouTube rant last month when she saw that individuals on Ebay attempted to sell the Hatchimals for hundreds of dollars above the normal $69.99 price tag.
"I have been to every Toys "R" Us from here to Timbuktu in the last five days," Dottie Russo said in the video. "Only to be told, again and again and agian, sorry, we didn't get the shipment, sorry we're sold out."
She blamed "that guy" — a "43-year old guy" who is "sitting in his mother's basement" — for snatching the hot toys up early and reselling them on line for a big markup.
"Have you no soul?" said Russo in the video. She continued, "Do you not know what it was like to be a kid?"
"It's wrong to take advantages of parents who just want to make their kids happy on Christmas morning," Russo told NBC News. "I don't think you can put a price on that, and you and you shouldn't."
For Russo and lots of other parents, that happiness that one special toy brings her kids — for now — is, indeed, priceless.
