The Top 5 Toys of Christmas 2020
A year spent at home, a green character with no toys yet, and a puppy that unwraps itself: five toys that were on the lists in the strangest Christmas of recent memory.
November 3, 2026 · ZABI LLC
Christmas 2020 was a toy year only in the sense that it was a year of being at home with them. The NPD Group counted US toy sales up 16 percent on 2019. Sales had been flat until the middle of March, then lockdowns began, and money that would have gone to cinemas, amusement parks and restaurants went into the toy cupboard instead. October alone was up 33 percent, a month that included holiday promotions and Amazon's Prime Day.
By Black Friday, LEGO had to put online shoppers into a virtual queue because its website could not take the traffic. Parents were shopping early, online and with more patience than usual, and the toys that rose to the top were often the ones with something to wait for. Skip back a year to Christmas 2019 and the mood is entirely different; skip forward to 2021 and the shelves are recovering. This is the one in the middle.
The five
Documented on: The Toy Insider Hot 20 for 2020; a Mattel Child toy on the 2020 DreamToys list
Star Wars The Child, Animatronic Edition
The Child arrived in The Mandalorian on Disney+ in November 2019, and for that first Christmas there was nothing to buy, according to Money. So the demand that built up over a year went into one object: Hasbro's animatronic version. Fox Business reported in February 2020 that it sold out less than a day after pre-orders opened, with shipping not due until December.
By October a toy expert quoted by Money was warning of possible shortages, and the second series of the show began on 30 October, right at the start of gift-buying. The DreamToys list carried a different Child toy, made by Mattel, and Star Wars appears among the most popular brands in the NPD figures. Meeting it again is mostly a pleasure in the waiting: here was a toy people had been told, a year earlier, they could not have.
Documented on: The Toy Insider Hot 20 for 2020 and the 2020 DreamToys list
LEGO Super Mario Adventures with Mario Starter Course
LEGO announced the set on 7 April and released it on 1 August. It is a course of 231 pieces, from a Start Pipe to a Goal Pole, and a Mario figure that reacts to colour as it moves. He has a speaker for the old game sounds and small screens for his eyes, mouth and belly, and he collects virtual coins along the way.
It suits a household that wants the building first and the game second, with the playing done on the table, though a free app keeps scores. The starter course is also the key to the expansion sets, so one gift can lead to another. It is listed for ages 6 and up, so it suits your 6-year-old better than a younger sibling; check that you are buying the starter course, as the expansions depend on it. Your job is mostly to find the carpet space.
Documented on: The Toy Insider Hot 20 for 2020 and the 2020 DreamToys list
Present Pets
Spin Master announced these plush puppies on 24 September 2020. Each one comes in a box with a bow and an oversized gift tag; pull the tag and the puppy barks and paws its way out, and after about two minutes the front of the box falls away. There are two possible pups in every box, from the Fancy Pups and Glitter Pups groups.
The company itself said that quantities for North America were limited, and it made a selling point of it. Amazon placed Present Pets eighth on its Toys We Love list, and the Hot 20 and DreamToys both included it. It is, when you think about it, a toy that saves a parent the task of unwrapping it, which in December is no small mercy. Spin Master recommends it for ages 4 and up, and since each box holds one of two pups, it is worth reading the listing if your 4-year-old has a favourite style.
Documented on: the 2020 DreamToys list; the brand was also named among the most popular brands in the NPD figures quoted by CNBC
L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G. Remix
The NPD Group's list of the most popular toy brands of 2020, as reported by CNBC, named L.O.L. Surprise!, Barbie, Star Wars, Pokemon and Marvel as the most popular brands. Together those brands made up 13 percent of toy sales. L.O.L. Surprise! had also placed four items among the Toy Association's 2020 Toy of the Year finalists, announced the previous November.
The year's new line was the Remix, which MGA introduced to the public in a livestream on 26 September. It was the first L.O.L. Surprise! release with a full-length album, covering pop, hip-hop, country, R&B and rock. The O.M.G. Remix fashion doll was the one picked for DreamToys. The surprise in the name is the point: the toy is a small piece of theatre about opening things, which suits a year spent indoors.
Documented on: The Toy Insider Hot 20 for 2020; a Pokemon set also on the 2020 DreamToys list
Pokemon Trading Card Game Battle Academy
Pokemon turned up twice in 2020: the Battle Academy box on the Hot 20, and a Pokemon Carry Case Playset on DreamToys. The brand is also on the NPD list of the year's most popular brands. Battle Academy went on general sale on 31 July. It holds three ready-to-play decks of 60 cards each, led by Charizard-GX, Raichu-GX and Mewtwo-GX, plus a two-player board, a rulebook, tutorial guides, a large metal coin and damage counters.
Pokemon's own page describes it as a way to learn the card game, and as something for a family game night. That is the honest appeal of the thing: a lockdown year left a lot of evenings, and a box that teaches the rules and then plays the first match is easier than a pile of loose cards and an argument.
What the year tells us
All five were on the DreamToys list or the NPD list of popular brands, and four were on the Hot 20, but the thing they share is not size. The Child, Present Pets and the LEGO set all gave something to look forward to, whether a delivery date or a box to open. Pokemon and L.O.L. Surprise! offered a game and a performance that could be played again. A year when everyone was home does seem to have favoured toys that gave an evening a shape.
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.
- The Toy Insider experts help shoppers sleigh the holidays with the hottest toys of 2020, PR Newswire — Hot 20 for 2020: The Child, LEGO Super Mario, Present Pets, Pokemon Battle Academy
- The top 12 dream toys for 2020 Christmas lists, The Manc (DreamToys, Toy Retailers Association UK) — 2020 DreamToys list and who selects it
- US toy sales surged 16 percent in 2020, CNBC — NPD sales total, October rise, top brands, LEGO Black Friday queue
- Hasbro Baby Yoda plush toy sold out, Fox Business — Sold out less than a day after pre-orders, December ship date
- Baby Yoda toys roundup, Money — No Child toys in 2019, shortage warning, season two date
- Present Pets announcement, Spin Master — What Present Pets does, limited quantities, Amazon ranking, Hot 20
- LEGO and Nintendo unveil Super Mario Adventures starter course, The Brothers Brick — How the set works, 231 pieces, announcement and sale dates
- 2020 Toy of the Year award finalists unveiled, PR Newswire (The Toy Association) — Four L.O.L. Surprise! finalists, announced 11 November 2019
- L.O.L. Surprise! Remix, The Toy Insider — Remix line, album, 26 September debut
- Pokemon Trading Card Game Battle Academy, Pokemon.com — Box contents, decks, 31 July 2020 launch