hot toysCome this holiday season, certain toys will become what are known as hot toys, and will make great gifts for kids - some even for the adults! So what is a hot toy and what makes it such?  Only two factors actually determine if a toy is hot or not, but what brings these factors on can be one of many things.

The two factors are supply and demand. If demand for a specific toy is great, then it is certainly hot, but what makes it really hot is if the demand exceeds the supply.  Remember the Playstation 3 fiasco a few years back? The demand was very much underestimated and people were fighting over the last stocks in the stores and they were fetching exorbitant prices on eBay.

Just imagine the street cred your kids would have had if you had had the foresight to order a PS3 in advance and they found one under their tree on Christmas morning! The same is true of any hot toy that becomes more popular than the stores or manufacturer estimated. When Amazon ran out of Roboraptors, those that had done their homework and purchased stocks when they were available not only contributed to their scarcity but also made a killing by selling them well over the purchase price on sites such as eBay.

How do you tell what toys are going to be hot this year and that will make great gifts?  There are three pointers to this:

a)  Releases of upgrades of toys that had previously been hot or at least in great demand, such as the Playstation 2 to Playstation 3 upgrade.

b)  Intensive advertising on TV and in the press of specific toys, such as the Roboraptor advertising of a few years back - especially if they relate to very popular kids TV programs or movies.

c)  Lists of hot toys all including the same toy in each list.

Each of these is liable to turn ordinary toys into hot toys, and now is the time to buy them. Once you have yours you can sit back and relax as you see them disappearing from the store shelves. The power of children can have parents literally fighting over the last hot toys in stock because not only do they make great gifts, but because it keeps their kids happy and happy kids are quiet kids!

First you should check on what was hot last year and check if there are any Mark 2 releases of these targeted for release toward the end of November to mid December.  You could also try to guess this year's Christmas No 1 single or album and then purchase that as soon as it is released, not when the scramble begins.

Keep a note of the TV advertising during kids' TV. If any particular item seems to be appearing more often than most, or your children appear to be paying particular attention to any specific toy, that should give any observant parent a good idea of what to buy. Most hot toys will have received heavy advertising on kids' TV

Check out our list of top 15 toys.  These are what we consider will be the top 15 selling toys this year, and by a means of a combination of all of these methods you might be able to foretell what the hottest toys for this holiday season will be and then buy them now.

Amazon is often a good guide, as is Toys R Us. Check each of these for what they are promoting. Amazon will tell you how many of each item are in stock, and if you take a note of that and then check it again a few days later you can see what is selling more than others.  That too is a good guide to hot toys.

Once you believe you have identified some hot toys, what should you do next? Buy them: particularly online.  By purchasing hot toys online using PayPal or a credit card you have the security of PayPal or the credit card provider if you are cheated. You have protection in case the toy is a fake or faulty.

Believe it or not, buying online is actually more secure than in a store, because the SSL security used with credit cards these days is very secure, and certainly a lot more secure than in a store where they could copy your card details (it does happen). You also have the security of an online receipt that you will find very difficult to lose because you can not only print it out, but also store it online.

Whatever method you use, however, what's important is that you get your hands on the hot toys early because otherwise your children will feel very disappointed and let down. You don't want that to happen, so check out our list of hot 15 toys and make sure that you give your children some great gifts this Christmas.