"The one drive I saw that was probably the most twisted was a Barbie Doll where you pull the head off to plug it in," King said.

iNorthbrook, Ill.-based Promo LLC. sells thumbs drives that are housed in Swiss Army knives, that come in waterproof, leather and aluminum cases. There's even an iPromo model that embedded with genuine Austrian Swarovski crystal designed to be worn as a necklace.

Thumb drives are priced from low-end 128MB models selling for US$9 all the way up to $200 for an 8GB consumer model. The best sellers, according to vendors, are the 1GB and 2GB models. On average, a 4GB drive will go for about $100 this holiday season.

When it comes to small storage, the flash drive is king. Reseller Memory Suppliers, in Niles, Ill., sells the MIB 64MB iStick, which it claims is the world's smallest USB thumb drive at a wafer-thin 2.8mm (about .011 of an inch) thick.

Memory Suppliers also sells several iterations of the flash memory drive including the Presidio Pen, which incorporates a USB drive with a Pen and MP3 player.