The recent flooding in Thailand has disrupted more than exports of cars and PCs. It also has knocked out supplies of a popular toy at the height of the holiday season.

Inventories of Magna-Tiles, which are magnetic connector toys, have disappeared, says its manufacturer, Valtech LLC. Flooding in the suburbs of Bangkok, where the Chicago-area company's factory was located, destroyed the machinery that makes the square- and triangle-shaped tiles used to construct rocket ships, roadways and skyscrapers.

That has triggered a run on the toys, which have caught on in schools and with young children, who find that the magnets make the toys easy to assemble. Prices have soared, more than doubling in the past month since the company announced it had run out of product.