Dancing Hamsters

Dancing Hamsters are a series of singing and dancing hamsters made by Gemmy and Funtime Gifts/Funtime Inc. In 2001-2004. Each hamster has a unique name and outfit and sings a famous song in a hamster-like voice (high pitched) while dancing. The first hamster that was made was "Sleepy Simon" in 2001. He sings "Mr. Sandman". Simon, along with several other hamsters released in 2001 were made of rubber. Starting late that year, with the Kung Fu Hamster, they were made of plush. The line was discontinued in 2004-05, but hamsters released for Valentine's Day, Christmas, and Easter could be found in stores until at least 2008.

In 2006, Mini Hamsters were launched. They had the same singing and dancing feature as the originals, but were smaller and cartoony.

In 2012, Gemmy brought back the hamsters. They were larger and more cartoony than the originals, with larger eyes resembling those of the popular plush lines known for their big, sparkly eyes, "Beanie Boos" and "YooHoo and Friends". Several year-round hamsters were sold at Walgreen's, Big Lots, CVS, and Target from 2012-2013. Seasonal hamsters for Valentine's, Easter, and Christmas were also released during these years. No new hamsters were produced after 2013. Several special sets of hamsters were also produced.

Dancing Hamsters were revived again in 2015, this time looking closer to the original 2002 versions. They were sold from 2015-2018

Trivia

Miniature Clip-ons of the Kung Fu Fighting, J-Tee,Jailhouse Rick, Hombre, Wild Willie, Blue, Sexy Rex, Carly and Sugar Ray Clay hamsters were released. Some of them played snippets of their original version's songs, and some played the entire song.
In 2003 - Military Hamsters were released. These hamsters were Sgt. Scruffy, Captain Carl, Sailor Seymour ,and Sgt.Murphy . During the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, the Military Hamsters all had yellow ribbons added to them. This is where the "Support our troops!" meaning comes from in the Gemmy advert for these.
- After the hamster's initial discontinuation, Romancin' Hamsters were released for Valentine's Day 2005. These hamsters, dressed in 50's style outfits, sang love songs while their cheeks lit up and they danced.
An unknown year brought about hamsters dressed as NASCAR drivers who moved steering wheels as they danced. The interesting thing about them is that they danced to songs at a normal pitch!
They released a limited edition hamster named Sam out in 2003.
In 2002, Gemmy released 4 dancing hamsters as characters from the Rocky films. These were Rocky, Training Rocky, Clubber Lang and Apollo Creed. They featured slightly bigger boxes and each came with 3 sayings and 1 song.
In 2009, a Dancing Hamsters album was released, featuring high-pitched covers of songs such as: Thriller, Cha Cha Slide, I'm Yours, Single Ladies, and Love Story.
Legs the Football Crazy Hamster originally came from Manchester, England as said on the back of his box and hence his red/white theme.
The hamsters hit the shelves again in 2016, they were sold at Publix and Spencer's.
Some Frogz and Dancing Hamsters share designs.
In 2003 there was a huge factory error were multiple dancing hamsters sang "We are Family" instead of there normal song for that variant.

List Of Original 2001-2005 Hamsters

Hamster	Song	Year
Sleepy Simon	Mr. Sandman	2001
Birthday Boy	Happy Birthday	2001
Dapper Dan	Puttin On The Ritz	2001
Gigolo Jo	Just a Gigolo	2001
Larry Love	I Think I Love You	2001
Phat Daddy Mac	Rapper's Delight	2001
Wild Critter Cody	Long Tall Texan	2001
Buck And Chuck	Dueling Banjos	2001
Cletis and Claude	Dueling Banjos	2003
Kung Fu	Kung Fu Fighting (Nunchuck)	2001
Kung Fu	Kung Fu Fighting (Mace)	2001
Kung Fu	Kung Fu Fighting (Shield)	2001
Karate	Kung Fu Fighting (Nunchuck)	2001
Karate	Kung Fu Fighting (Mace)	2001
Karate	Kung Fu Fighting (Shield)	2001
Jailhouse Rick	Jailhouse Rock	2001
Wild Willie	Born To Be Wild	2001
30th Birthday	Get This Party Started	2003
40th Birthday	Birthday	2002
40th Birthday	When I’m 64	2007
50th Birthday	Birthday	2002
80’s Drummer	(Song Unknown)	2004
Angel	Let It Snow	2005
Anniversary	Happy Anniversary	2003
Apollo Creed	Gonna Fly Now	2002
Bad Student	Kung Fu Fighting	2004
Barber Ben	Shaving Cream	2002
Beach Bum	Good Vibrations	2003
Betty	I Will Follow Him	2005
Big Man On Campus	School's Out	2003
Birthday Boy II	Happy Birthday	2001
Birthday Boy II	Happy Birthday (Funtime Version)	2001
Birthday Girl	Party All The Time	2003
Birthday Guy	Get This Party Started	2003
Blue	Blue Suede Shoes	2002
Bobby Soxer	Rock Around The Clock	2003
Boots	Don’t Tell My Heart	2003
Buck And Chuck II	Dueling Banjos	2003
Buddy Birthday	Birthday	2002
Buffy	Mickey	2003
Bunny V1	My Little Bunny Loves Easter (Shortnin' Bread Parody)	2005
Bunny V2	Easter's Here	2005
Canadian	O Canada	2003
Captain Carl	Wild Blue Yonder	2003
Carly	She Works Hard For The Money	2002
Celebration	Celebration	2002
Celebration	Celebration (Funtime)	2002
CEO	Love Of Money	2003
Champ	We Are The Champions	2002
Chick	Chicken Dance	2002
Cleo	Walk Like An Egyptian	2002
Clubber Lang	Eye Of The Tiger	2003
Commencement	Shout	2003
Cowboy	Rawhide	2002
Cupid	That’s Amore	2005
Dancer	Jingle Bells	2003
Danny	You Really Got Me	2005
Darrel Waltrip	Born To Be Wild	2003
Devil	Hot Hot Hot (With Heart)	2002
Devil	Hot Hot Hot (No Heart)	2002
Didi	It's In His Kiss	2005
Disco Don	Shake Your Groove Thing	2002
Doc	Bad Case Of Loving You	2002
Dr. Dunk	Basketball Jones	2002
Dr. Love	Bad Case Of Loving You	2003
Dreamer	Dream A Little Dream	2003
Dutchie	Pass The Dutchie	2002
Easter Chick V1	Chicken Dance	2005
Easter Chick V2	You Are My Sunshine	2005
Elf V1	Jingle Bells	2005
Elf V2	First Toy Maker To The King	2005
Fireman	Hot Stuff	2003
Fisherman	Going Fishing	2002
Fly Guy	Hooked On A Feeling	2002
Frog V1	Easter Time (My Boyfriend's Back Parody)	2005
Frog V2	Bringing Home A Baby Bumblebee	2005
Fun Girl	Girls Just Wanna Have Fun	2002
Funkmeister	Give Up The Funk	2002
Grad	Celebration	2003
Graduation	Shout	2002
Grand Master Blaster	Rockefeller Skank	2001
Greaser	Rock Around The Clock	2003
Greg Biffle	I Can’t Drive 55	2003
Greg Brady	Brady Bunch Theme	2003
Grim	Halloween Sayings	2003
Groom	I'm Into Something Good	2003
Guisseppe	Che La Luna	2002
Guy	Ice Ice Baby	2002
Hal	Mr. Roboto	2003
Hamster In A Red Dress	Devil In Disguise	2003
Hamzilla	Hamzilla (Godzilla parody)	2003
Harry	San Francisco	2003
He Devil	Hot Stuff	2003
Hokey Pokey	Hokey Pokey	2003
Hombre	La Cucaracha	2002
Hombre	La Cucaracha (Funtime)	2002
It's A Boy	Let's Hear It For The Boy	2003
It's A Girl	My Girl	2003
J Tee	We Are The Champions	2002
Jacque	Ice Ice Baby	2002
Jamie Mc Murray	Bad To The Bone	2003
Jan Brady	Brady Bunch Theme	2003
Java	Java Jive	2004
Jimbo	Limbo Rock	2003
Karaoke Kim	I Will Survive	2002
Kringle	We Wish You A Merry Christmas	2002
Kurt Busch	Born To Be Wild	2003
Lamb	My Little Bunny Loves Easter (Shortnin' Bread Parody)	2005
Larry Love II	I Think I Love You	2002
Legs	Ole, Ole, Ole	2003
Leprechaun	Come On Eileen	2002
Lil' Hamsta	Dilemma	2003
Leroy Brown	Bad, Bad Leroy Brown	2003
Looby	Looby Loo	2006
Love	L-O-V-E	2002
Love Machine Robot	Love Machine	2003
Love Punch	What Is Love	2002
Louie	Louie, Louie	2003
Lowrider Shyler	Low Rider	2002
Luigi	That's Amore	2002
Luigi	That’s Amore (Spinning Pizza)	2002
Mack	Mack The Knife	2004
Macy	What A Girl Wants	2003
Matt Kenseth	Born To Be Wild	2003
Marcia Brady	It’s A Sunshine Day	2003
Marshall	The Fireman	2003
Marty	Happy Together	2003
Maverick	The Gambler	2003
Mitsu	I Think I’m Turning Japenese	2003
Mona	Respect	2003
Monster V1	Sharp Dressed Man	2003
Monster V2	Monster Mash	2003
Monster V3	Superfreak	2005
Murphy	Wild Rover	2003
Nanako	I Think I’m Turning Japanese	2003
Nigel	I Want You To Want Me	2003
Officer Ron	Bad Boys	2002
Over The Hill	Happy Birthday Geezer	2002
Over The Hill	Streetbeater	2007
Over The Hill	Birthday	2004
Pamela Sunbather	Perfect Day	2003
Party Animal	Get This Party Started	2003
Patient	Feeling Alright	2004
Peter Brady	Time To Change	2003
Phat Daddy Mac II	Rapper’s Delight	2002
Princess	Dancing Queen	2002
Queenie	Dancing Queen	2002
Red	Long Haired Country Boy	2003
Red Baron	Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron	2003
Ritz	Puttin’ On The Ritz	2001
Rock	Old Time Rock n Roll	2001
Rocky	Eye Of The Tiger	2003
Roger	Convoy	2002
Rox	Game Of Love	2003
Rudy	Jingle Bells	2002
Sailor Seymore	Anchors Away	2003
Sam	Tequilla	2003
Sandy	I Know What Boys Like	2005
Sandman	Mr. Sandman	2001
Santa V1	Merry Christmas Everybody	2005
Santa V2	We Wish You a Merry Christmas	2002
Santa V3	We Wish You a Merry Christmas	2003
Sarge	Bad Boys	2002
Sergei	The Hockey Song	2002
Sexy Rex	I'm Too Sexy For My Shirt	2001
Sgt. Murphy	Marine Corps Hymn	2003
Sgt. Scruffy	Caissons Go Rolling Along	2003
Sick In Bed	(Song Unknown)	2004
Slick	Sharp Dressed Man	2002
Smooth	Ladies' Night	2002
Spaz	She Blinded Me With Science	2003
Spooky	Ghostbusters Theme	2002
Stephan	The Hockey Song	2003
Suave	Rico Suave	2004
Sugar	Girls Just Wanna Have Fun	2002
Sugar Ray Clay	Gonna Fly Now	2002
Swinger	It's Not Unusual	2003
Teacher	ABC-123	2004
Teddy Ballgame	Take Me Out To The Ballgame	2002
Tex	Rawhide	2004
The Hamsterette	Chapel Of Love	2003
Toga	Shout	2002
Toy Soldier V1	'Twas the Night Before Christmas	2002
Toy Soldier V2	Jingle Bells	2005
Training Rocky	Gonna Fly Now	2003
Turkey	Somebody's Watching Me	2003
Uncle Sammie	Yankee Doodle Boy (Short Fur)	2001
Uncle Sammie	Yankee Doodle Boy (Long Fur)	2002
Valerie	Fever	2005
Vampire V1	I Want You To Want Me	2005
Vampire V2	Get Down Tonight	2005
Vince	Ain't Too Proud To Beg	2005
Werewolf	Shake Your Groove Thing	2003
Werewolf V2	Clap For the Wolfman	2004
Whitey	Play That Funky Music	2002
Witch V1	Evil Ways	2005
Witch V2	Girls Just Wanna Have Fun	2005
Wolfie	(Song Unknown)	2004
Wild Critter Cody Jr.	I Want To Be A Cowboy	2002
Yankee Doodle	Yankee Doodle Boy	2004
(Name Unknown)	YMCA	2004
(Name Unknown)	Sleigh Ride	2005
Zeke	Gonna Make You Sweat	2002