Toy Show serves up seasonal giddiness, great performances

GIANT DINOSAURS, a doll that poops green gunge, an inflatable Dalek-shaped bicycle — they were just some of the stars of last night's Late Late Toy Show, the ratings juggernaut which has become, in many households, the official start to Christmas. But as every year, the children were the real stars, fizzing with the energy that only giddy kids can manufacture.

Host Ryan Tubridy did a good line in giddiness too. It's his third toy show and there was a theme. In 2009 it was The Wizard of Oz, then Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, while last night Tubridy, a man built for skinny jeans, opened the show dressed as Woody the cowboy from Toy Story.After the lively opening song and dance routine where Andy's toybox came alive, he ditched the cowboy kit — a mercy as he looked slightly mortified in his piebald waistcoat — and changed into the most feted item of clothing on TV — the Toy Show Christmas jumper, this year a blue crew neck with an appliqued skiing Santa.

“The elves like making that tea set because it doesn’t cost a lot of money,” said Tubridy, early on, in the first of many recession-conscious asides aimed at parents, subtle enough to go over little heads. Irish-made toys got a look in “We need to buy Irish and look after our own” said Tubridy though really there weren’t a lot of them.

This year’s must-have toys featured: Let’s Rock Elmo, the all-singing all-dancing muppet, “Can you imagine that for six hours on Christmas day?,” sighed Tubridy taking a little time to get into the spirit of things; Doggie Doo, a revolting sounding game where the dog poops and the players scoop it up “one of them is still constipated from what you did to it,” said one girl accusingly to her playmate and adding to the “kids say the darnded things” quota. Fijit, a purple robot that has a vocabulary of 150 phrases and can dance and tell a child friendly jokes — the ideal chat show guest perhaps — except that Tubridy and his assistant adorable Cassandra couldn’t make it work. There were the usual — though not as many as other years — battery malfunctions, toys collapsing and a random toy alarm that buzzed in the background — stuff for adults to get a kick out of.

The kids were completely oblivious to the million-plus viewers watching — and that’s a testimony to how well Tubridy relates to them and they gave great performances — six year-old Sean O’Connor in his pinstriped suit made for the cutest mini rocker with his electric guitar and nine-year-old singer/ songwriter Ashley Tubridy sounded like a name to watch.

Now that it’s over, its time to get out the paper and pen and write that letter to Santa.