Bakugan Has Nothing To Do With Barack Obama–They Just Sound Alike, Sort Of

I don’t have any stock tips for the market-weary investor, but I do have a toy tip for the shopping-weary parent: Buy Bakugan. Now, if you can. Forget Elmo. This year’s hot holiday toy is a morphing marble trading card game (their explanation, not mine). Any trip down the action-figure aisle at your local Toys R Us or big box store will confirm my statement–the desolate space where Bakugan toys once lived is little more than a ghost town of naked racks and the occasional misplaced Power Ranger.

Like its predecessors Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! (both still going strong), Bakugan is a Japanese import popularized by an animé-style cartoon show. A quick primer: Each player attempts to roll their marble-esque Bakugan onto one of the face-down magnetic cards. If they are successful, the Bakugan springs open to reveal the monster inside. The idea is for each player to land on the same card, after which the card is flipped over to reveal its points value. Each player is awarded or stripped of points based on the type of Bakugan they’ve rolled. The game involves calculation and strategy, with the main objective being to win these “battles” and with them the battle card and the opponent’s Bakugan-both worth points that are added up at the end of the game to determine the winner. For more information, visit the Bakugan “How to Play” site, hire a 10-year-old boy to explain it to you, or get an advanced degree in biophysics and hope it’s enough to understand the complexities of a child’s game not intended for adults to comprehend.

Finding Bakugan may prove more difficult than understanding the game. While there are plush toys, stand-alone action figures, and more, what the kids really want are the Bakugan starter kit and booster packs. The starter kit includes three cards and three Bakugan–the minimum to play the game–and goes for about $12.99. The booster packs cost about $5 each and add another Bakugan and card. (They now also include an “ability card,” which adds another element to play.) Like Pokémon before them, kids want to “catch them all.” And with a dizzying array of choices, that’s a daunting task.

So how to get your hands on a Bakugan? First, if you can’t find a starter pack, know that 3 booster packs are pretty much the same thing, if a few dollars more expensive. (This week, Toys R Us is offering a buy 3, get 1 free deal on booster packs.) Check online at Walmart.com and Toysrus.com on a regular basis–they are usually sold out, but I managed to snag a few starter packs from each site last week. Look for sales in Sunday circulars–then get to the stores early. For now, I’d avoid Amazon, where most products are sold at inflated prices through opportunistic third-party sellers.

And whatever you do, don’t wait till the last minute, when all the little marble monsters will most definitely be (and yes, this is my new favorite pun) Baku-gone.