Toy ATM cashes in during '04 holiday season

The Washington Post: "I wish every kid in America could have an ATM," says Michael Searl, the onetime stockbroker who created the Youniverse ATM, a highly evolved piggy bank that receives and dispenses real cash, not that fake play stuff. "Why wouldn't I want every kid to have one?"

Tweens and beyond can insert the supplied ATM card into the silver machine, punch in their PIN, be greeted by name on the electronic display, peer into the pretend security camera and wait for that seminal capitalistic moment -- when crisp bills miraculously appear, ripe for the plucking.

The concept is so seductive that the $24.95 Youniverse ATM is sold out all across the land. About 10,000 flew out of Toys R Us in four days. When the machine made its debut on QVC and the Home Shopping Network, it sold out in three minutes. On eBay, the machine, with its tiny logos mimicking Visa, Mastercard and American Express, is selling for more than $70.

Betsy Taylor, president of the Center for the New American Dream, a group advocating responsible consumption, gets the toy ATM's appeal right away.

"Kids are bombarded with messages that celebrate and glorify money at every turn," whether it's Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous or Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?, she says. "It's all about money."