21 of the Most Popular Gifts of the Century

Razor scooters arrived under the Christmas tree in 2000 and their appeal has not dimmed. Sleek and cool, the best motorized razor scooters are used for tooling around the streets of cities. Some of these contraptions have an attachment for carrying cargo such as groceries, books, or luggage.

Bratz dolls, which were created by Carter Bryant, a former employee of Barbie-doll-maker Mattel, were branded as the anti-Barbies when they first came out in 2001. They dressed more provocatively, wore lots of makeup, and carried themselves with more attitude than Barbie. The dolls flew off the shelves. Initially, there were four Bratz dolls – Chloe, Jade, Sasha, and Yasmin – but their numbers grew over time. So did revenue: By 2005, more than 125 million dolls had been sold – $2 billion’s worth. This was much to Mattel’s chagrin. The company sued Bratz maker MGA Entertainment, claiming the dolls resembled Barbies, and won a $100 million judgment. MGA fought back and in a retrial got $310 million from Mattel. Bratz dolls’ popularity led to movies, CDs, and video games.

In Beyblade, kids compete in a battle with spinning tops with names like Drago, Storm Pegasus, and Dark Wolf. The game originated in the Japanese graphic comic novels known as manga. Hasbro sold 150 million of the tops, earning $500 million in sales.

Hullabaloo is a sensory game that educates preschool children with a series of play pads in different shapes and colors, with images of food, musical instruments, and other things, to be placed around your living space. A console that comes with the game tells children to run, jump, or twirl from place to place. Hullabaloo was named the game of the year in 2003 by the Toy Association.

Wow Wee Toys teamed up with robotics physicist Dr. Mark W. Tilden to develop an affordable intelligent entertainment humanoid. Robosapien is based on applied biomorphic robotics – originally developed for government agencies, including NASA – which enable a humanoid to act more like a human. A remote control commands Robosapien to perform functions such as picking things up, throwing, high-fiving, dancing, and executing various karate moves.