I’ll be honest, the first time I saw this product mentioned on a news website I thought it was a wind up! But not only is Dave The Funky Shoulder Monkey a real product, it’s also tipped to be a world-wide best seller! All credit to the inventor Nick Donaldson, he certainly seems to have created a toy that has caught the imagination of retailers and the media.
At first there was a bit of confusion regarding it’s name, a few months ago it was being called Dave The Funky Monkey and Dave The Cheeky Monkey. But a couple of weeks ago the company distributing the toy (Wow Stuff!) sent out a press release which included the official name of Dave the Funky Shoulder Monkey, and if you go to the official site you can actually see the name is used in the logo.
Dave is a small plush style monkey who can move his head and arms via a wireless controller. With four different modes and lots of different individual actions it’s possible to make him interact with people. Wondering about the shoulder reference in his name? Dave can sit on your shoulder, allowing you to create the illusion that he is alive! Really you want to keep the controller hidden in your pocket, because the main buttons are different shapes you don’t have to be looking at them to switch modes.
Aside from the fact that Dave The Funky Shoulder Monkey is a cool toy, I can see two main factors that will make him a best seller -
1. Mass appeal, it’s the kind of product you could buy boys or girls (aged 8 and upwards) plus I can also see it being a popular choice for adults as a novelty/fun gift.
2. The price – at £25 it’s affordable and I can see the price dropping to around £20 as companies try to out do each other.
The launch date is supposed to be October but sites like Play.com seem to be taking pre-orders now!