Moments after hearing about the L.O.L. Surprise! Big Surprise on a Chicago radio station, Crystal Lessner was on the hunt for the popular — and increasingly sold out — toy.
But first, she had to figure out what it was.
She logged on to YouTube, where a 24-minute “unboxing” video clued her in.
The $69.99 toy, she learned, is quite simple: A glittery, dome-shaped plastic case filled with 50 surprises — four dolls, along with accessories, clothing, charms and other knick-knacks — that must be individually unwrapped.
But much of the appeal of the Big Surprise is in its slow reveal. It can take hours, purchasers say, to peel away the toy’s layers and figure out exactly what’s buried inside. Some dolls cry, spit or “tinkle.” Others change color in cold water.
Watching that process unfold has become a pastime in itself, and there are thousands of L.O.L. Surprise unboxing videos on YouTube to prove it. One, a 13-minute video of a woman opening the Big Surprise has been viewed 6.1 million times since it was posted on Sept. 30.
Lessner fast-forwarded her way through one of them and then set out in search of this season’s hot toy.
“I knew it was going to be a challenge to find one,” Lessner, 36, said. “But I was determined to be a cool mom for the first time in my life.”
L.O.L. Surprise! dolls — which stand for Little Outrageous Little Surprise — have become an unlikely blockbuster hit in an era of high-tech, movie-inspired toys.
The Big Surprise, which was released six weeks ago, is sold out online at Target, Walmart and Toys R Us and is commanding 10 times its asking price on eBay. (Amazon.com, meanwhile, is selling the toy for $116.99, while Walmart’s Jet.com is charging $142.24)
The toy, industry insiders say, is one of the first to be both inspired by and created for an era of YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat. Executives at MGA Entertainment — the privately held California company behind hits like Bratz, Lalaloopsy and Little Tikes — came up with the idea for L.O.L. dolls after seeing a proliferation of “unboxing” videos on YouTube. (For the uninitiated, the videos are exactly what they sound like: footage of people, or sometimes just their hands, unpacking any host of newly purchased items, including figurines, chocolate eggs, coffeemakers and even iPhones.)
“Frankly, we were seeing these videos everywhere and thought, why not just bring an unboxing toy to these kids?” said Issac Larian, 63, founder and chief executive of MGA.
The toy’s success, analysts say, builds on the popularity of earlier hits like Hatchimals and Shopkins.
Like its predecessors, the L.O.L. Big Surprise has a built-in element of surprise — children don’t know exactly what they’re getting until they’ve opened all 50 layers — and is filled with colletibles they can share and trade.
“So much of the fun is getting to the final layer and seeing what you’ve ended up with and then figuring out what to do with all of those pieces,” said Jim Silver, chief executive of toy review website TTPM. “It’s almost like you have to go on a scavenger hunt before you get to the toys.”
Finding the item at stores can feel like a bit of a scavenger hunt, too. Crystal Lessner says she spent the better part of a day tracking down the L.O.L. Big Surprise for her 9-year-old daughter. Toys R Us was already sold out, as were the four Target stores closest to her Chicago-area home. Amazon, meanwhile, was charging a $50 premium on the toy. (Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.)
Lessner ended up driving 20 miles to a Target in another town, where she bought the last one on the shelf. She was so thrilled, Lessner says, that she snapped a selfie with the toy and posted it on Facebook.
“First gift of 2017,” the 36-year-old wrote. “The hottest Christmas gift of the year!”