Why is Poop such a thing in Toyland?

Toilet humor has always been around. The word fart is just funny. As a result many of the dolls we review, and seemingly all of the robots that come to our office, fart. Some are apologetic. Others just go for it.

But this year, it's a whole new level of poop-centric play. Here are two that will be battling it out this year.

First -- take a look at Hasbro's new Don't Step In It.

The game play is to blindfold each player and then they walk on the path and try his or her best not to step into the piles of poop. Hasbro is also the maker of Play Doh -- can't you see a bunch of toy developers sitting around sharing a beer and wondering what to do with all the extra brown?

Not to be outdone, Mattel is introducing Flushin' Frenzy.

Here the game play is to unclog the toilet with the plastic plunger. But wait -- the poop here pops up from the top of the toilet -- and you get points if you catch it. For real. This is the game play.

First, ewww. Second, if you ever hoped that your kids would unplug their own toilet messes -- this is a lot of misinformation. Third, eeeeewwwwww.

Gross toys have come and gone in toyland -- there's always the pitch that kids will love science toys if you tell them that they're making pretend boogers. But this takes it to a whole new level.

Both of these toys follow in the tradition of the huge hit Pie Face. And an industry insider shared that this is the kind of game that the buyers at places like Walmart and Toys R Us want more of. They make great commercials and the shock value is there. And most importantly, they sell.

It's the toy equivalent of "everyone else is doing it." That argument never flew in our family. So even though both games may be on trend, is this really the game play, the memories you want to build with your kids? Can you imagine your kids saying "remember Mom when we used to see who could grab the toy piece of shit first?"