ZhuZhuPets

In the overwhelming thunder of 2009's Big Fizzle (the economy) many smaller yet important fizzles may have escaped public scrutiny. Here are nine that our writers found worthy of drawing to your attention. Feel free to add your candidates as comments. The Jay Leno Show Jay Leno, the former...

Zhu Zhu Pets have been this year's Beanie Babies: toys that are so ridiculous in concept, so cheap and simple in execution that you knew they were going to cause long lines and incredible prices on the Black Friday back-alley aftermarket. This year being as it was, retailers were accused of...

If you're trying to figure out what to get your friends and family for the holidays, it helps to be a Google Trends watcher. In other words, you can get some pretty good ideas for gifts by following the crowd. So on this Cyber Monday -- called that because the first Monday after Thanksgiving...

If you've heard of Zhu Zhu Pets, those furry, robotic toy hamsters, you likely know they're popular. And now we know how popular. The Associated Press interviewed Chris Handy, who, after watching a story about their newfound fame on The Today Show, bought 15 Zhu Zhu Pets at a Target store (they...

Where do you find what's hard to find? With the holidays around the corner, finding that great item becomes all the more urgent. So, with Zhu Zhu Pets on the brain -- my 5-year-old girl really wannnnnnntttsss them for Christmas -- I set out to put some of my best-tested methods up for a comparison.

UPDATED (12/1) The elusive Zhu Zhu Pets faux hamsters continue to tease those who covet them. They show up at a handful of major retailers and disappear as quickly as they showed up. Most Zhu Zhu hunters didn't even know they were there. Such is the life of the hot toy of the year -- following the...