Beyblades, Micropets and Harry Potter Lego are set to top children's Christmas wish-lists this year but already sales are high.
One of the toys topping the list in the State is Beyblades, a twist on the traditional spinning top. They can be customised, and used to battle other spinning tops.
Micro Pets are interactive one-inch toy pets which respond to their owners' commands.
One of the largest outlets for toys in Ireland, Smyth's Toys Ltd, with 10 stores in the State and three in Northern Ireland, yesterday listed its top 10 toys as Micropets, stilts, Playstation 2, Harry Potter Lego Chamber of Secrets, Beyblades, wrestling figures, Spiderman, VJ Starz Karaoke Music Studio, Rapunzel Barbie, Baby Annabel and dance mats. "We have stocks of them at the moment but sales are already very high," a spokeswoman said.
A spokeswoman for World of Wonder, which has shops in Cork and Mallow, said: "The Beyblades, the spinning tops, are very hard to get already and the Harry Potter Lego is in even shorter supply."
Tesco Stores predict Beyblades will be the big seller, with Rapunzel Barbie, the Karaoke studio and fashion diva dolls.
The popular toys here echo the 10 most popular predicted for the Christmas market by the British Association of Toy Retailers, which lists Baby Annabel and Barbie Rapunzel, in addition to Beyblades and, of course, the Micropets.