What started as a children’s toy has become one of the hottest accessories for Toronto Blue Jays fans this summer.
The Flaming Dragon Ride-On — a plush dragon mounted on a stick — has emerged as the team’s unofficial good-luck charm after appearing in the Blue Jays’ dugout during a series in San Francisco earlier this month.
The surge in popularity has driven customers to The Rocking Horse toy store in Kingston, where staff say demand for the toy skyrocketed almost overnight.
“We were completely shocked at first,” said Lyn Wattam, a sales assistant at the store. “We’ve always had this dragon around, but then there was a peak of interest just in one evening. We did a little bit more research, but it wasn’t until one local customer came in and told us that it was related to the Blue Jays that we realized this was a big trend that was beginning.”
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The Blue Jays introduced the stuffed dragon into the dugout during a difficult offensive stretch in hopes it might help spark the teams’ bats. Fans quickly embraced the dragon as a symbol of the team.
“I think that it really tapped into something deeper in people, which is just this nostalgia and this desire to be a part of a bigger community that follows the Toronto Blue Jays,” Wattam said. “That’s not normally a community that shows interest in a toy store, but this really brought them in.”
The Rocking Horse says it has become the only online retailer currently selling the dragon, helping fuel demand from customers across the country.
“Over the past few weeks we have been the only store online that has had these available for purchase, which has added a lot to the traction that we’ve been getting,” Wattam said.
The business says it has received online orders from across Canada, from Prince Edward Island to Vancouver Island, prompting a fresh shipment of 124 dragons that arrived Thursday.
“There’s been a lot of traction,” Wattam said. “We’ve seen over a thousand people visit our website because of this dragon, and they span from coast to coast in Canada. We’ve actually sold over a hundred just in online orders alone, so it really has taken hold and created quite a frenzy.”
For $39.99, fans are hoping this little dragon breathes fire into the Blue Jays’ offence.
