The Kinder Surprise Spectacle of 2016

... Or that is what I thought.

During Easter time my mom tends to treat her grown-up daughters with a 24 pack of Kinder Surprise eggs, and this year was no exception. The tradition started in Easter 2012 when Kinder's Barbapapa figures were all the rage here in Finland. I got extremely lucky and got the whole set of nine from my our 24 pack. Then came the SpongeBob set and our family Kinders contained all figures but one. I even remember feeling quite pleased after getting so many of the Mickey Mouse and friends figures last year even though I wasn't quite impressed by the set itself. So basically, the 24 packs have been really really good. Until now.

Maybe it is because I broke the golden rule of 24 by getting six more girly eggs (it is the first year we have those, who can blame me?) but this heap of chocolate was not liking me and quite frankly I was not liking it back. Liking back the toys, the chocolate is amazing, of course. 

I was especially looking forward to the Disney Princess Palace Pets set (hence the extra eggs) and the new Natoons sets. Here's what happened:

I managed to get ONE princess, ONE pet and one stupid ring. I so so much wanted to get as many of these as possible since the sticker and fabric parts might not be so nice second hand, and the super cute mirrors could be a pain to find. My mega-wants were Cinderella's puppy, Aurora and Aurora's cat so at least I got one of those. I was really surprised to find how huge the princess figures actually are and that made me want the whole set even more. Sob.

Unlike the Palace Pets, Natoons can be found in both pink and regular eggs so the chances should have been pretty good. I thought the new set of big cats was totally neat. The stands looked really nice and there's even a flocked version of the lion and the tiger. Goes without saying I really wanted some.

Well I didn't get some, I got one. (It's the lynx - I had to include the lion I got before in the picture because it was all just too sad and depressing.) At least the lynx is one of my favorites - go arctic animals!

The other brand new set of Natoons was no less exiting. If something comes with baby animals I'm pretty much sold. So did I get lucky?

Not so much. I had my hopes up for a complete family but the other monkey is a duplicate daddy. I am very much a supporter of gay rights so I guess it's not too bad though, haha.

The main, more "collectable"set in the regular eggs this year was about Kung Fu Panda 3. I've seen the first movie and I don't hate it but even so I could't find myself getting excited over the set. So OBVIOUSLY I got quite many. The 12 regular eggs I had contained these four but I have three other ones that I got from pre-Easter eggs. Meh.

The cute animals with rings and the mermaid were positive surprises that I would not have minded getting more of. The girly bug and the flower girl are both alright but not enough for me to want to collect the whole set.

Similarly, these Natoon dogs fall into the category of sorta good but not good enough. The felt eared koala Natoon is a duplicate from a set that was already available last year.

The remaining eleven surprises are surprising only in their lameness. See for yourself:

So all in all these 30 Kinder eggs gave me five figures of interest and three surprise extras. I might try to collect the whole Kung Fu Panda set just for the heck of it since I'm already so close, but even then I probably would just sell it to an actual fan of the movies.

I sincerely hope others had better luck than me this year! I would love to hear if anyone got any gems or even complete sets out of their surprise eggs this Easter and if there is someone else collecting Kinder toys out there. Also, let me know if you agree with my likes and dislikes or do I just fail to see the beauty in some of these, haha!

I promise that the next update will be a little more chipper!

✿ Tuuli

One Hundred and One Collections

Sometimes I feel like the things I collect and the things I would like to collect are two very different affairs. Meaning, of course, that in an ideal universe I would collect so much more. Because time, space and money are limiting factors in one’s life I have to stick to the so called cherries on top in order to avoid hoarding and bankruptcy.

I mentioned in my first blog post that collecting is coded in my DNA and indeed the trait does run in the family. I don’t know if it’s due to growing up surrounded by my dad’s comic books or if it’s actually something magical running in my veins, but since… well, forever, having things to collect, organize and complete have brought me great satisfaction. Even if I’ve only recently gotten into toy figures, during my 25 plus years of being alive I have already had time to collect a number of things. So the question of the day is, what are these cherries o’ mine?

My oldest hobby that counts as a collection is probably BB gun ammo. Yyyeah. So I must have been about seven when I first learned about the ozone layer and obviously got crazy worried that humanity was doomed and my family was certainly going to die if I didn’t do anything to fix the depletion. The clever child that I was, I figured if I picked up all the garbage tainting our suburban neighborhood the problem would be as good as gone. Candy wrappers and plastic bags were quickly taken care of but the teeny weeny BBs took a while – they are plastic so they count as trash amirite? It was the moment when I should have disposed of them when I decided they were too pretty for just that. I’m not seven anymore but what can I say, the habit sticked. The ozone layer has improved since the 90’s and still continues to do so. I’m just saying.

picture from Google

I might have the tendency to pick up trash but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in the non-trashy stuff found outside. Plants are a HUGE interest of mine and it was obvious that I wanted to continue collecting them after the compulsory herbarium I had to (got to) collect in uni. In short I find different plant species (not the endangered ones), identify them, pick them up, press them dry and flat and attach them to a sheet of paper alongside the necessary info that makes them scientific specimens. So far I have collected around 600 different species of plants. I also take tons of pictures outside and sort of view my photos as a collection too. I love collecting bugs on film! Through these collections I get to play my very own treasure hunt (get it? get it?), be outdoorsy and learn A TON. That’s a good hobby if you ask me.

a few shots from last summer

What else. I collect Disney classics and Pixar movies because if you don’t you should. I get into a Disney movie watching mode every couple years and they never get old: collecting justified. I also am a little hoardy when it comes to yarn, because I crochet quite a bit. I might see an amigurumi blog post in the future, hm. Pretty much in some way or another I make most aspects of my life collectable – I sort the anime I watch in my myanimelist-account and have an excel file dedicated to chronologically organizing the Barbie dolls I owned and wanted to own as a kid.

Sometime ago my dad found out that if you buy Kinder (and such) figurines cheap, collect complete sets and find the right buyers you can make some money. A fun pastime and good motivation to be active (he bikes everywhere). So I first got into Kinder’s Natoons-sets and then got the permission to rummage through dad’s finds and keep the ones I like. The current situation is that I have a “priority” list of 41 different sets of toys that I’m collecting plus multiple lists of “possibly interesting sets” and “if I find one I might start collecting these” lists. In addition, I’m up for anything Pokémon, Sanrio or Puppy/Kitty/Teddy in My Pocket if it’s reasonably priced and sized. Lately I’ve been really excited about the zodiac Hello Kitty series found in Dolci Preziosi surprise eggs, Zaini’s Disney Animal Friends surprise egg figures and getting a Bandai Kids figure of all of my favorite Pokémon. I plan on sharing these and many more here on this blog as I go on with the hunt ☺.

I don't yet own any Zizzlingers which is wrong on so many levels!

I also wanted to mention that it’s Easter in a couple of days! I have in total 30 Kinder surprise eggs reserved for the festivities and I very much plan to blog all that.

Stay tuned!

✿ Tuuli

Gotta catch ’em all™

In Finland the easiest second hand Pokémon to encounter (heh) are definitely the Topps candy container figures, most often referred to simply as the European candy figures. If there is a random Pokémon inside a 1€ bag of toys at a thrift store, it is 99.9 % surely one of these guys.

So let’s start things with a little history lesson. Topps started distributing these blindbag… blindbox… blindpokéball figures right when the Pokémon fever was first raging in Europe in 1999. The containers were indeed shaped like pokéballs and included a random figure accompanied with obviously not as interesting assortment of candy. During 2006 a sticker sheet was also added to the jumble. The set of collectable figures changed annually or biannually and usually consisted of six to seven different surprises. During the 13 years of action, Topps released altogether 15 different sets of Pokémon.

picture from http://pkmncollectors.wikia.com/

In 2000, the 9-year-old me lived and breathed Pokémon, which was kind of rebellious of me since the parents of the popular girl of our elementary school class were deeply religious and proclaimed Pokémon as a Satan-worshipping cult. I wasn’t up for being brainwashed and even got my hands on some Topps figurines that still, after all these years reside in my collection. Lately my set of European candies has been expanding and boy oh boy do I want to catch ’em all!

The creme de la creme is naturally the release of 1999/2000, the generation 1 if you will. Three of the set of ten have found their way into my possession, Charmeleon being one of the ones that I’ve owned since childhood and Psyduck and Charizard being later purchases.

From the 2001/2002 release I own only Mantine and Togepi. And the Remoraid attached to Mantine HOW CUTE.

The 2003 Advanced set is completely unrepresented, whereas the Pikachu of the 2004 Advanced-2 set can be found on my shelf. Isn’t it astounding that the first candy Pikachu was introduced in as late as the fourth set (EDIT: the first Pikachu came in the first release, woops)? Pikachu here is accompanied with the 2005 release Lotad, who is also missing all of its set friends.I’m not missing many figures from the first release of 2006. So far I’ve found Poochyena (mint mint mint), Volbeat (missing its antennae, not so mint) and the funky Deoxys. Only Machop, Wobbuffet and Castform are absent.The second release of 2006, the one that introduced stickers, was to promote Diamond and Pearl. Snorunt and Chimecho are the only ones been caught. So far.Buizel, Dialga and Mamoswine here are all from different sets and until the unforeseeable future the only representatives of their sets. Buizel is from the 2007 Diamond and Pearl set and Dialga from the 2008 set. The Mamoswine is from the 2009 ”Pikachu edition”.In addition to these 15 Topps candies, I have found three mystery figures that are also referred to as European candy figures in the depths of the internet, but cannot be found in the Topps candy list (complete list below if anyone is interested). If somebody knows where the heck these Meowth (1999), Prinplup (no year mentioned) and Palkia (2010) came from please let me know. Pretty please.

*EDIT: Apparently the Meowth is a Topps figure from the first release. Seems like the pkmncollectors wiki article on Topps figures is not complete since I found an Italian site with quite a few extra figures. I still have no idea where Prinplup and Palkia came from, though. Anyways, I have now updated the checklist below.

All in all the Topps figures are not as fancy and consistent in quality as for example Tomy figures but somehow they just creep inside my heart. Some of them, like the Snorunt, are purely amazing and could pass for a Tomy anytime whereas others (Psyduck I’m looking at you) are rubbery and a little weird but not at all less loveable. And they are Nintendo licensed so no booties here. Honestly, the one thing that bugs me the most is WHAT GENIUS DECIDED TO PUT THE NINTENDO STAMP UPSIDE DOWN RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF LOTAD'S FOREHEAD??? That aside I think that the encounter rate (sorry too funny) of these is just perfect making the hunt exciting yet satisfying and the number of different figures is neither crazy high nor disappointingly low. Good times.

Topps candy container figures

1999-2000 Release(s): Bulbasaur, Charmeleon, Blastoise, Clefairy, Psyduck, Vulpix, Poliwhirl. Charizard, Mewtwo, Charmander, Squirtle, Pikachu, Meowth, Jigglypuff, Eevee

2001-2002 Release(s): Croconaw, Mantine, Misdreavus, Steelix, Magcargo, Entei, Lugia, Elekid, Phanpy, Delibird, Houndour, Togepi, Slowking. Chicorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile, Igglybuff, Marill, Bellossom, Octillery, Heracross

2003 Release (Advanced): Treecko, Torchic, Mudkip. Latias, Groudon, Kyogre

2004 Release (Advanced-2): Sceptile, Blaziken, Marshtomp, Skitty, Wynaut, Pikachu

2005 Release(s): Taillow, Rayquaza, Lotad, Plusle, Minun, Beautifly

2006 Release 1: Poochyena, Machop, Volbeat, Deoxys, Wobbuffet, Castform

2006 Release 2 (Pre-DP): Snorunt, Glalie, Wurmple, Munchlax, Chimecho, Corphish, Manaphy (limited)

2007 Release (Diamond and Pearl): Weavile, Lucario, Bonsly, Mime Jr., Buizel, Mantyke

2008 Release 1: Dialga, Palkia, Chatot, Turtwig, Chimchar, Piplup

2008 Release 2 (Darkrai Edition): Darkrai, Electivire, Croagunk, Mesprit, Cranidos, Lickylicky

2009 Release 1 (Shaymin Edition): Magmortar, Rhyperior, Azelf, Regigigas, Shaymin, Shaymin sky form (also clear variation, limited), Giratina (origin form)

2009 Release 2 (Pikachu Edition): Pikachu (also clear variation, limited), Abomasnow, Froslass, Mamoswine, Uxie, Hippowdon (male), Heatran

2010 Release 1 (Arceus Edition): Grotle, Monferno, Prinplup, Dialga, Palkia, Gizamimi Pichu, Arceus (limited)
2010 Release 2 (Ho-Oh & Lugia Edition): Ho-Oh, Lugia, Swinub, Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile

2011 Release (Jirachi Edition): Entei, Raikou, Suicune, Feraligatr, Meganium, Typhlosion, Jirachi (limited).

So let me know, is there anyone else collecting these? What do you have and what are the biggest, most tempting wants?

✿Tuuli

First!

I totally digged being a child in the 90's and the urge to collect things is firmly coded in my DNA. Therefore it really isn't that big of a surprise that I recently found myself collecting toys, figurines and such.

I’m not only big on collecting but also on keeping things ORGANIZED, which is probably why I felt the need to start a blog. Some of the motivation might also be related to the fact that sharing your finds is so much fun but posting five toy pictures a day on your personal instagram account probably is not. For other people, that is.

I have found toy blogs addicting, entertaining and inspirational from a readers point of view but haven’t been able to find too many that I like. I figured that a blog of my own could be likeable, if not for anyone else, at least for myself. Hurray!

In summary, here is what I like:

1. Thrifting. I am NOT a big spender. Like, at all. You won’t see me ordering expensive anime figures online or having shopping sprees at anyplace Disney. Both are things that I wouldn’t mind at all if I was a stinking billionaire who actually owns a dishwasher. But honestly, there is nothing quite like the thrill of finding absolute gems for basically nothing, now is there? Hence the name of the blog.
2. Best things in life are cute, Pokémon or preferably both. Sanrio yes, DC not so much!
3. I am Finnish. It counts as a thing that I like BUT it also means that I don’t have access to a number of things that I might possibly enjoy having access to. Tsum Tsums, Shopkins, Disney figural keyrings, Vinylmations, Fashems, Mashems, all that jazz is either nonexistent or heartachingly expensive. Probably a good thing now that I think about it… Anywho the bright side is that I do have access to all the lovely Italian surprise eggs, Kinder and the toys of the unfortunate Finnish children whose mommas don’t understand the value of pointless trinkets!

So yeah, that is pretty much the deal. Let’s see how long I can wait before actually posting about something!

P.S. I am also a biologist so there might potentially be nature-y bits and pieces here and there. I don’t want to limit myself too much.

Welcome!

✿Tuuli