It is a fidget toy consisting of a brightly coloured silicone tray with pokable bubbles. 

Shalini Daniel’s daughter Avisha Breonna, 10, first saw Pop It on a YouTube video by content creators Vlad and Niki

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It was in 1975 that Pop It was invented by Theo and Ora Coster, Israeli spouses and former classmates of German-Dutch diarist Anne Frank. The inspiration for designing the game came from a dream Ora had when her sister, an art teacher, passed away after a long battle with breast cancer. She woke up and told Theo that she wanted to create a game based on her vision. “Imagine a field of breasts, that you can press from one side, and then press from the other side,” Ora’s sister had said in the dream. 

However, there were no buyers to manufacture the toy because its rubber production was expensive. In 2009, a Montreal-based company acquired the idea and made a different prototype. The firm later partnered with Cianci Inc. and got an exclusive deal with Target in 2019 under the name Pop It.

That same year, the toymakers approached social media influencers, and that’s how the concept gained popularity. An eight-year-old capuchin monkey named Gaitlyn Rae, who has over 7.8 million followers on TikTok, was seen playing with the toy, sparking a trend during the global COVID-19 induced lockdown. Toymakers jumped onto the bandwagon and Pop It was selling fast in several countries.
 
Mumbai-based Vihang Dedhia runs ToyGhar India, a five-year-old toy firm. When he got a whiff of the Pop It trend, he contacted stockists in China. “Last year, around December, when things began to open up, we imported a consignment of Pop It from China. We didn’t see high sales, however, since people chose to stay indoors till things got better,” Dedhia says, adding that things changed drastically two months ago. “In July this year, we sold one lakh pieces of Pop It across India. And by the end of September, we had sold 50 lakh pieces offline and online.”

A Pop It being used as a mould to make chocolates at home

Shalini Daniel, a Mumbai resident who moved to Chennai, believes that the game is a hit because it offers sensory fun. “For younger kids, it keeps their hands engaged. But for slightly older ones, the instructions that come with the game make it more challenging an experience,” says the 35-year-old mum. Her daughters—Avisha Breonna, 10, and Kesha Elina, 3—spend hours popping the fidget toy. “My daughters watch videos of kid influencers on YouTube. One of their favourites is Vlad and Niki, featuring two brothers in Russia. A month ago, Elina watched the brothers playing with Pop It and asked if we could get her the game. I didn’t think the toy would be available in India and ran a Google search. To my surprise, many e-commerce sites were selling it already at dirt cheap prices,” Shalini says.

Bhandup-based Umaima chose to purchase the toy on one of her trips to South Mumbai two weeks ago. “My sons saw the toy first in Vlad and Niki’s videos. When I saw the toy at a local shop, I immediately recognised it and bought a pair for R100 each. Currently, we have three Pop Its and three keychains made of Pop Its. My sons are fascinated by the different shapes and styles. Since they love dinosaurs, we also managed to get one shaped like the reptile.”
 
Santosh Chauhan, who heads the Navi Mumbai-based toy manufacturer Mechdel, says that they have had to decline hundreds of requests from eager parents. “We’ve run out of stock. Our sellers are based in China, and we order in bulk. It was three months ago, when we sold over 3,000 pieces and I knew it was going to be a big trend,” Chauhan says.

Dedhia is now planning on manufacturing the toy in India. “We wanted to gauge the market for a few weeks. Now that we know people are loving the toy, we no 
longer want to import it from China. We have set up a manufacturing team here.”

The craze has even gripped the baking industry, with several chefs making Pop It-style cakes for their young clients. These rainbow-hued cakes are a hit even on social media.

Last week, Umaima and her sons used Pop Its as a mould to make chocolates. “It was a fun time. They [her sons] thoroughly enjoyed baking. Who knew we could use a toy in the kitchen too?” 

Both mothers think the only reason why the toy has become a hit during the pandemic is thanks to remote learning. 

While Shalini thinks that popping makes a child’s mind a lot quieter, adults too are considering it as a replacement for fidget spinner and cube. Borivli-based homemaker and art teacher Jigna Gada says, “I have a very busy schedule. After what’s left of my time in the evening, I sit and pop. It is relaxing and absorbs all the anxiety.”