Dave the Funky Shoulder Monkey set to be sell-out Christmas toy

Toy shops around the world are going bananas for a cuddly robot monkey invented by a team of boffins in Wolverhampton. Dave the Funky Shoulder Monkey is on track to become the big must-have toy on sale this Christmas, which should mean a multi-million pound seasonal windfall for Richard North and his team of inventors and designers at Wow!Stuff, based on the city’s science park.



They have come up with a string of toy ideas in recent years but Dave could be their biggest seller yet, with company sales set to double to £160 million this year. Mr North said: “This really puts us on the radar for the big stores, both here in the UK and internationally.”

The firm has just had to open up a third factory in China, where the toys are made, to cope with demand for 450,000 of the cute remote-controlled black and white robot, based on a Capuchin monkey. Dave can be clipped to clothing and will laugh, cry, burp, fart, wave and being a monkey, scratch himself.



He is already on the Toys R Us list of predicted top sellers in the UK this Christmas and is also seen on the “most-wanted” list for iconic London toy store Hamleys. Mr North said there was also huge interest from Toys R Us in the USA.