Mini record player on track for No 1 in Christmas toy parade

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Industry experts pick out tiny turntable as one of their ‘15 hottest toys’ for the festive seasonA record player so small it belongs at a party in a Barbie Dreamhouse is one of…

Industry experts pick out tiny turntable as one of their ‘15 hottest toys’ for the festive season

A record player so small it belongs at a party in a Barbie Dreamhouse is one of this year’s must-have Christmas gifts as the vinyl revival takes an unexpected turn.

The £19.99 micro music set plays dinky 1.5in records and comes with an exclusive “mini vinyl” of the school disco favourite APT by Rosé and Bruno Mars. The toy makes the Toy Retailers Association’s annual DreamToys list of the 15 “hottest toys” this festive season.

The Mini Brands record player taps into the huge market for collectible toys. Part of the appeal is the 45 mini records to collect, ranging from Billie Eilish’s Birds of a Feather to Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline. The discs are sold separately in £8 “blind balls” with part of the attraction being the mystery of which songs are inside.

The trend for miniature products comes because making something smaller “makes it feel cuter”, suggests Melissa Symonds, executive director of UK toys at market research company Circana. While adults enjoyed the novelty, she suggested that children would relish acting out playing records in the same way that their parents did.

The record player is unlikely to satisfy high-end audiophiles, however, because the “vinyl” isn’t real. Instead, the discs contain a chip that activates a 30-second clip from the player’s internal memory.

The rundown of must-have toys comes as retailers brace for their most important trading period: the final three months of the year typically account for 45% of annual toy sales.

Hopes are high after sales jumped 13% to £2.6bn in the first nine months, according to Circana, which it said was the “fastest growth in a decade”. During that period, 257m toys were sold – 38m more than in the same period last year.

The buoyant picture is partly due to the “squishies” craze. Retailers are racing to keep up with demand for the sensory toys with NeeDoh the most popular official brand.

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