Browsing Terapeak’s Hot Searches list, which ranks the most popular eBay searches over the past little while, you’ll find a lot of familiar suspects in places 1 through 7: wii, ipod, xbox 360, iphone, wii fit, coach, psp… Okay, nothing crazy. So color us surprised to see sitting at number 8:

… Bakugan? For realzies? What the heck is Bakugan?

Naw but seriously, we’ve heard a little bit about this toy-collecting phenomenon: Bakugan is a Japanese anime television series, accompanied by a strategic game involving cards and spring-loaded action figurines. These products are produced by Sega Toys and Spring Master, and according to Terapeak they’re also exceptionally popular on eBay.

Where it gets even more interesting is this recent announcement on KidsTechReview, which outlines a plan for Digital Blue to begin production on a line of Bakugan electronics: digital cameras, alarm clocks, and who knows what else. According to the blog post, the first products will be released this coming spring.

Wait, so if “bakugan” is the 8th-most searched term and “digital camera” is 9th, does that mean these things have a pretty good chance of selling well? Hmm, time will tell. Though we do think this looks pretty rad…

GI Joe figures are a hot product category on eBay, and it’s only going to get hotter as a live action movie based on the popular toy and cartoon series has recently gone into production.

Director Stephen Sommers (the Mummy) is attached to the project and actors Marlon Wayans, Sienna Miller, and Christopher Eccleston have joined the cast.

Nearly 40,000 GI Joe listings ended in the last 30 days on eBay.com, 66% of which ended in sale, and worth over $690,000.
The 3 3/4 inch GI Joe action figure category showed up in this month’s Terapeak Hot Category list, due to a high success rate, and growing demand.
Here’s a trend of that category:

 The listings in this category have enjoyed above a 60% sell-through rate for the last years. This means that 60% of all listings sell, and that’s a steady category!

Hasbro’s other line of toys, Transformers, was also adapted into a film franchise that grossed over 300 million in the US box office. Demand for Transformers toys peaked at the time of the movie’s release last summer, and demand for GI Joe listings will likely follow the same pattern.