By Kim Se-jeong
With Christmas less than a week away, toy stores and online shopping malls are bustling with parents looking for gifts for their children.
Especially when children want specific toys that are popular, then searching for that toy becomes a “war” as those toys are already almost sold out. Such wars are repeated every year. This year, the toy being fought over is: Turning Mecard.
Turning Mecard is a popular children’s cartoon TV series, and the related merchandising is scarce in toy stores. The product line is comprised of transformable toy cars that turn into different forms, such as robots, with only the touch of a finger.
“My son wants a Turning Mecard character, but it’s nowhere to be found,” a mother in Mapo-gu, Seoul, wrote on a community website. “Another mother wrote that Home plus in Hapjeong had some so I called, but all were gone.”
As the toys disappear quickly from the stores, parents turn to online shops, but they are not easy to find online, either.
At Auction, an online shopping mall, Turning Mecard toys accounted for 20 percent of the total toy sales between Dec. 1 and 17. On the GS Shop website, Turning Mecard toys have been bestsellers in the toy category along with Lego, a traditionally popular toy. The online shopping malls even restricted customers to buying only one toy each.
Parents who failed to buy the toys even online are turning their eyes to secondhand goods exchange websites. The price tags of the toys were no more than 20,000 won initially, but the prices get hiked when traded on such websites. They are being sold at 70,000 and 80,000 won in some venues, drawing complaints from parents.
There are also fraud cases in which some Internet users say they have Turning Mecard toys to sell, receive money from desperate parents and just don’t send the items, saying they just sold out.
“It doesn’t make sense when I have to pay so much for a little toy. The manufacturer is trying to rip off consumers. And they even charge a lot for warranty services when the toys are broken,” another mother wrote. “The company is being too greedy. It has to produce more toys or stop producing altogether.”
The manufacturer, Sonokong, said its manufacturing lines are in full operation to meet the demand.
“Since Children’s Day on May 5, production has been increased four times,” a Sonokong official said. Sonokong has the exclusive manufacturing rights. The company put the blame on the traders for the shortages.
A similar scarcity of toys happened over Children’s Day. Back then, it was “Yogoe Watch,” a toy watch tied to a Japanese cartoon which was aired on cable TV. And last Christmas, it was Power Rangers Dino Force DX Tirano King, another transforming toy.