Here's what people are saying about Bakugan Battle Brawlers!.  

That's how long it took for the Bakugan battle to begin.   Unfortunately, the plastic wasn't even off the Bakugan game yet. The argument was over who got which color Bakugan sphere.  It was enough anyone familiar with how two pre-teen brothers relatively close in age "interact" could tell just how hot this is going to be.  Bakugan started to get popular when a Cartoon Network started to run a show.  Time magazine and Newsday have already bequeathed that Bakugan is the must-have toy title, as has Toy Wishes magazine, which lists it among its hot dozen for the year.  

The Bakugan game "It's an action-packed game, and one of the coolest collectibles we've seen in a while, combining cards and figures-all with built-in surprises," the spring/summer edition said.  Bakugan Battle Brawlers has the appearance of being high-tech without the hassle of being complicated. Plastic balls known as Bakugan Battle Brawlers are rolled across game cards and open to reveal monsters ready to take one another on when two players land on the same card.

The mythical battling beasts come with names like Wavern, Ravenoid and Gargonoid. Some are animal-like, with others taking humanoid form. Trading cards that help trigger the magnetic latches that open the spheres also help determine the strength and strategy of the brawlers.   Toymaker Spin Master first introduced Bakugan - "baku" means "explode" and "gan" means "sphere" in Japanese - last year, rolling them out in Japan mid-year. Canada was next, and within months weary retailers had to put purchase limits on the product as a way to stem long lines and bidding wars.

Like Pokemon, Bakugan has a "gotta catch 'em all" component that ensures parents will be hearing about (and buying) its different cards and battle brawlers for months to come. Each of the 100 or so Bakugan battle monsters comes with different skills and strengths. Cards, too, can carry special abilities.  Little wonder Spin Master spokesman Dale Gago uses words like "phenomenon" when chatting about his company's product.

"We're literally air-freighting Bakugan stock in as it's selling out so fast," he said. "We're now producing 300,000 per day to meet the demand, and that still isn't enough."  What started as plans to make 22 million brawler spheres this year is now a plan to put 30 million onto shelves of such stores as Toys "R" Us and Target.

Part of that is attributed to the Bakugan television program, which has drawn a strong following among 6- to 11-year-old boys.  "Boys want to throw things, collect things, trade things, battle and, of course, win," Matt Wexler, executive producer of the television show and head of global licensing, said in an e-mail.  Still, with a hundred different spheres and dozens of different cards up for grabs, as well as some of the items already being tagged as "rare," parents who buy in summer's heat could be saving themselves a ginormous holiday headache months from now.