The Top 5 Toys of Christmas 2017
A robotic monkey that sold out, a doll wrapped in seven layers, a stretchy hero from 1976 and two more toys from the lists that shaped the shops that December.
November 3, 2026 · ZABI LLC
By November 2017 the pattern of the year was clear enough to print. Fortune published the NPD Group's list of that holiday's ten toy hits on 9 November, with the warning that the popular ones would turn scarce once Black Friday arrived. Two of the ten were tied to a Star Wars film opening on 15 December, five had come out after October 2016, and three were L.O.L. Surprise! products. The advice was to buy early, which is the toy writer's version of a weather forecast.
What followed was a December of searching. CTV in Canada captioned a photo of Fingerlings monkeys on 13 December as the hot toy of the holiday season, and parents who had been through the hunt for Hatchimals a year earlier, in Christmas 2016, knew the routine. You may remember some of it. For the year after, see Christmas 2018.
The five
Documented on: the 2017 DreamToys list and the NPD top ten reported by Fortune
Fingerlings
WowWee's Fingerlings are small interactive baby monkeys. CNBC's explainer said they have touch sensors, a microphone that responds to claps and blown kisses, and motion sensors; rocking one gently in a horizontal position puts it to sleep, and it has more than 40 sounds and animations. Left alone for over a minute, it dozes.
The same article reported that Toys R Us said the monkeys sold out online and left shelves quickly, with customers lining up early in the morning. WowWee shipped by plane in place of slower container ships and added a third factory, and it sued 165 counterfeit sellers. That is a fair indication of the scale of the December of 2017. The NPD list put the Fingerlings monkey assortment second. If you were one of the parents refreshing a retailer's page that month, this is probably the toy you were refreshing it for.
Documented on: the 2017 DreamToys list and the NPD top ten reported by Fortune
L.O.L. Surprise!
Money described L.O.L. Surprise! as a blind-pack toy from MGA Entertainment: each ball hides a collectible doll and small accessories, and each doll is wrapped in seven layers. The limited-edition Big Surprise, a glittery gold ball holding 50 smaller surprises, sold out almost immediately after launch, Money reported on 2 November. Fortune's NPD list had the L.O.L. Surprise! doll assortment at number one, with two more of its products in the ten.
An analyst quoted by Money linked the appeal to YouTube unboxing videos, and another credited the small size and wide variety for making the dolls collectible. The part that matters to the buyer is the ritual: it takes some minutes to open, and someone usually wants the wrapping kept. DreamToys included Series 2 on its UK list.
Documented on: the 2017 DreamToys list and the NPD top ten reported by Fortune
Hatchimals Surprise
The original Hatchimals were the hot holiday item of 2016, and Fortune noted that many parents struggled to find one. For 2017 Spin Master made a second generation, which Fortune described on 5 October: each egg contains two creatures, and the line adds two new species, Peacats and Giravens. One creature repeats phrases said to it, the other dances and plays games, and when the two face each other, they play together.
NPD's list had a Hatchimals egg at number six, and DreamToys named Hatchimals Surprise among its twelve. If you remember the wait for the 2016 original, the logic of the sequel is plain: the same trick, with a second creature in the egg. Fortune's advice in October was that preordering was probably the best way to get one.
Documented on: the 2017 DreamToys list; the Construction Toy winner at the February 2018 Toy of the Year awards
LEGO Star Wars BB-8
The Last Jedi opened on 15 December 2017, and two of NPD's ten toys that season were tied to it (a Sphero R2-D2 and a Hasbro figure range, not a LEGO set). LEGO's BB-8 was on the DreamToys list and later won Construction Toy at the Toy Association awards. The lists name it only as LEGO's BB-8, without a set number, so if you are shopping for it, read the listing carefully before you buy.
That is a specific sort of gift. A model that takes two to three hours to build, by that site's estimate, is for your 10-year-old or for the adult who will end up helping, and it sits on a shelf afterwards. The film did the selling; the bricks give it somewhere to live.
Documented on: the 2017 DreamToys list
The Original Stretch Armstrong
Kenner released the first Stretch Armstrong for the 1976 holiday season. Mental Floss reports that a design director, Jesse Horowitz, had the idea in 1974, that a colleague suggested filling the figure with syrup, and that retailers sold through their stock quickly. Sales were steady until about 1979, and then interest faded.
By 2017 the figure was back, as The Original Stretch Armstrong from Character Options, in a partnership with Hasbro, according to Toytales. The new one is about 12 inches tall and stretches to about four feet, and its filling is now a self-contained, non-toxic glucose solution. DreamToys listed it. It is a very good present for a parent who owned the first one, because the conversation starts itself: yes, it did leak. For other toys with that kind of staying power, see classic toys that outlived every craze.
What the year tells us
Fingerlings and L.O.L. Surprise! were the toys people hunted for, Hatchimals Surprise was a sequel, BB-8 came out of a film, and Stretch Armstrong came out of 1976. The shortage stories get the headlines, but the quieter lesson is how many of the year's toys were built on something already familiar: a film, a toy from the year before, a toy from your own childhood. It is an easy year to describe to someone who was there, and an odd one to explain to anyone who was not.
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.
- Hottest, hardest-to-find toys of the 2017 holiday, Fortune (NPD Group) — NPD top ten for holiday 2017, Last Jedi date, buy-early advice
- DreamToys announce 2017 top twelve toys for Christmas, Toy Retailers Association (via Bastion UK) — 2017 DreamToys list of twelve, 8 November 2017
- How WowWee's Fingerling toys work, CNBC — How Fingerlings work, sell-out, shipping, counterfeit lawsuit
- Search is on to get hottest toy before Christmas, CTV News — Fingerlings as the hot toy of the season, 13 December 2017
- All about L.O.L. Surprise! Big Surprise, Money — What L.O.L. Surprise! is, seven layers, Big Surprise sell-out, analysts
- New Hatchimals Surprise, Fortune — Hatchimals Surprise: two creatures per egg, 2016 shortage, preorder advice
- Collectible toys take home top honors at 2018 Toy of the Year Awards gala, PR Newswire — LEGO Star Wars BB-8 won Construction Toy, February 2018
- Stretch Armstrong, Mental Floss — Kenner 1976 origin, design story, sales
- The Original Stretch Armstrong from Character Toys, Toytales — Relaunch with Hasbro, size, filling