Goodbye Kitty, hello
Bullshits
Hot on the heels of the Hello Kitty craze, the
Bullshits have hit Singapore.
They are cute, small and cuddly, and in their thousands, they are ready to take over toy stores
in Asia, starting with Singapore and Malaysia. Manufacturer
Cock & Bull, bringing them in for the first time, wants to sell S$1 million worth of the toys in
the first year.
The secret of the Bullshits' success is the simple law of supply and demand.
The small cuddly shits are more than just shits.
"In future, we might trade it away but at the moment it's a collectors' item," said a shopper.
"They're kind of nice and it's very interesting to collect them because you have to hunt all over
the States for them," said one collector.
How many does he have?
"About 100 plus."
Although they certainly look harmless enough, behind a cute facade lies a creature that could
viciously empty your wallet of its entire contents.
The manufacturer, Cock & Bull in the US, has been "retiring" selected models, thus driving up their
value; some models go for up to few hundred US dollars or more.
These tiny shits netted Cock & Bull profits of US$700 million in 1998; that is more than the combined
total of its two closest rivals, Hasbro and Mattel.
It was enough to make owner S. Bull a multi-billionaire listed in Forbes magazine.
Now these shits are ready to take over Asia, starting with Malaysia and Singapore.
"Actually they haven't been sold in Singapore until now and so every time I come back from the
States, friends will ask to bring suitcase full," said one woman.
Previously, collectors themselves brought in small quantities to be sold.
Here in Singapore, these little shits are still seen as toys to be collected, rather than as
investment to be bought and sold. But in countries like the United States, these little
shits, like Baldy the Eagle and Hope the Praying Bear, are big business.
Some of the rarer models like Peanut in the Blue Shit have been known to fetch up to
US$5,000 on Internet auction sites.
In fact their values go up and down, just like the stock market.
Except that in this particular market, the shits are probably outnumbered by the
bulls
