The Top 5 Toys of Christmas 2016
The Christmas of the egg that hatched, the retro console that vanished and the tiny groceries with faces: five toys that appeared on the 2016 lists, with the documents behind each.
November 3, 2026 · ZABI LLC
Every few years a toy turns Christmas into a hunt, and in 2016 the quarry was an egg. By early December parents were queuing outside Toys R Us stores for a limited release. ABC15 described hundreds waiting near Buffalo, New York, for about 70 Hatchimals and 30 Nintendo systems, with buy-and-sell groups springing up on Facebook. A history of hard-to-find toys at Yahoo Finance (drawing on Business Insider) named those two, the Hatchimals and the NES Classic, as the season's two most popular toys, in the line of the Cabbage Patch Kids in 1983 and Tickle Me Elmo in 1996.
That is the headline, and it is true, but it was not the whole of 2016. The shelves also held a collectible that had been the top-selling toy line of the year before, a roller coaster in bricks, and an electronic puppy. If you shopped that December, you may recognise one or two. Looking ahead, Christmas 2017 is the season of Fingerlings and a Hatchimals sequel.
The five
Documented on: the 2016 DreamToys list and the Toys R Us list of 15; Innovative Toy of the Year at the February 2017 awards
Hatchimals
CNBC described the toy on 2 November 2016: an interactive creature that arrives in a speckled plastic egg and, after being nurtured, taps and pecks until it cracks open. The animal inside can be taught to walk and talk. There were five species, and some were exclusive to particular shops; Toys R Us was the only seller of the Owlicorn. Spin Master released it in early October.
An NPD analyst quoted by CNBC said that nothing in the previous four years had matched its early sales, and that it could be the Tickle Me Elmo of 2016. By December the shops had few left. The Hatchimals maker, according to ABC15, was against reselling at a markup and expected plenty on shelves by January. At the Toy Association awards the following February it won Innovative Toy of the Year, though not the main prize.
Named among the season's most sought-after toys by Yahoo Finance; covered by ABC15 and Fortune
NES Classic Edition
Nintendo brought out the NES Classic Edition in November 2016. Fortune described it as essentially a sleeker version of the original Nintendo console, built to work with today's televisions and loaded with 30 games from the 1980s, among them Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. It was in the ABC15 queues in December alongside the Hatchimals, and Fortune said demand was so strong that retailers struggled to keep up, in spite of more advanced consoles being available.
It was, in other words, a toy for the parents. Nintendo announced in April 2017 that it was ending production, saying the NES Classic had not been meant as a long-term product. If you wanted to give someone the afternoons they once spent in front of that grey box, this was the version designed to work with a modern television. It is worth checking that the television at home will take it before you wrap it.
Documented on: the 2016 DreamToys list and the Toys R Us list; Girl Toy of the Year at the February 2016 awards
Shopkins
Shopkins are tiny plastic characters made to look like everyday grocery items and shop-window goods, each with a name and a face. Fortune, reporting NPD figures in January 2016, said Shopkins was the top-selling toy line of 2015, with its 12-pack ranking first. The Washington Post, in November 2016, called it an explosively growing line and a caption called it the hottest toy in toyland.
The lists went for the play sets. DreamToys picked the Chef Club Hot Spot Kitchen, the Toys R Us list had the Tall Mall, and the Shopkins Scoops Ice Cream Truck won Girl Toy of the Year at the February 2016 awards. Collecting is the point, and with figures this small, a box to keep them in is worth planning for.
Documented on: the 2016 DreamToys list; overall Toy of the Year at the February 2017 awards
LEGO Friends Amusement Park Roller Coaster
The Toy Association named this set the overall Toy of the Year at its February 2017 gala, while Hatchimals took Innovative Toy of the Year. Brickfact lists the set at 1,124 pieces for ages 8 to 12, released in June 2016. It has a roller coaster with four carriages, a drop tower and a Ferris wheel, and four mini-dolls; a light brick comes on when a mini-doll sits in the front carriage.
DreamToys put it in its twelve for 2016. The age range suggests a present for your 8-year-old rather than a toddler, and the number of pieces suggests the building will take a while. It is a quieter kind of success than an egg that sold out, but it is the one the Toy Association chose.
Documented on: the 2016 DreamToys list, the Toys R Us list of 15 and, per its maker, The Toy Insider Hot 20
Snuggles, My Dream Puppy
Snuggles is an electronic puppy from Moose Toys' Little Live Pets line. According to Moose's own press release of 27 September 2016, it moves and responds to touch, can be fed from a bottle and falls asleep, and comes with an adoption certificate. The release recommends it for ages 5 and up and says it launched in August.
Two independent lists back it up. DreamToys included it, and the Toys R Us list of fifteen named it. The release also says The Toy Insider put it on its Hot 20, and that one retailer had been airfreighting extra stock; we could not confirm those claims elsewhere, so treat them as the maker's. For a household not ready for a real pet, an electronic one is an easy first step, which the adoption certificate seems to anticipate.
What the year tells us
Star Wars took the Property of the Year award in February 2016, Doc McStuffins took the main prize, and the toys that made the news in December were an egg and a console. The year sorted itself into three parts: a toy that was impossible to find, a toy that was easy to find but hard to put down, and a toy that was a gift mostly to the parent. It is worth remembering which one you were buying for.
Sources
Where the facts in this post come from. Rankings and lists belong to the people who published them; the selection and the stories are ours.
- It's official: the 12 best-selling toys this Christmas (DreamToys 2016), Toy Retailers Association via Bastion UK — 2016 DreamToys list, 9 November 2016, panel selection
- The 15 toys that Toys R Us says will be the most sought after holiday gifts for 2016, WCPO — Toys R Us 2016 list: Hatchimals, Shopkins Tall Mall, Snuggles
- Hatchimals is vying to be hottest toy this holiday season, CNBC — How Hatchimals works, five species, NPD analyst comments
- Hit Christmas gifts causing parents to camp out, ABC15 — December 2016 queues for Hatchimals and NES Classic
- The hardest-to-find toys each holiday season since 1983, Yahoo Finance — Hatchimals and NES Classic as the 2016 hard-to-find toys
- Nintendo NES Classic console discontinued, Fortune — What the NES Classic was, 30 games, demand, discontinuation
- Toy industry top-selling toys of 2015, Fortune (NPD Group) — Shopkins was the top-selling toy line of 2015
- Toy craze: how Shopkins have become big business, The Columbian (Washington Post) — What Shopkins are, November 2016 description
- Toy of the Year awards recognize the most outstanding toys and games of the year, PR Newswire (2016) — 2016 winners: Doc McStuffins, Shopkins Scoops Ice Cream Truck, Star Wars
- Top toys and games honored at annual Toy of the Year Awards gala, PR Newswire (2017) — 2017 winners: LEGO Friends Roller Coaster, Hatchimals Innovative
- LEGO Friends 41130 Amusement Park Roller Coaster, Brickfact — Pieces, ages, release, features
- Moose Toys delivers the hottest holiday toy for the second year in a row, PR Newswire — Snuggles: features, ages 5+, launch, maker's list claims