Nuts about Natoons

Holla!

I realize Kinder's Natoons sets have come up in my posts a few times but I have yet to delve into them properly. Natoons have a special place in my collection since getting a moose-Natoon from the arctic animals set in 2012 was probably what got me into toy figurines in the first place.

I've mentioned before that I'm a biology student (on the brink of graduating, I might add!) so when I opened an egg, half certain I was gonna get a puzzle or something just as lame, I was ecstatic to find out Natoons existed! The moose itself was a solid figure and it came with additional information on the species. What else can an emerging biologist wish for?

Natoons is a fairly recent series of Kinder toys. The first sets came out in 2011 and since then, new ones have cropped up frequently. Because I refuse to hoard, I don't go after every single one but rather carefully select the nicest sets - usually the ones that showcase realistic animals. My sources tell that as of now there are 23 different sets of Natoons in total and I collect twelve. Not too terrible.

I planned to advance in chronological order but I noticed I had inadvertently merged two sets in the same photos. Apparently i'm not only a moron but also lazy so we'll just have to go with that.

The very first Natoons were the Animals of Africa. It is a huge set of eleven figures, seven of which I own. They came out in 2011 and belong to Kinder's "DC-series" (a serial number of sorts, nothing to do with superheroes). The ones I have are the elephant (DC 007), rhino (DC 001), buffalo (DC 010), lion (DC 003), crocodile (DC 006), dromedary (DC 011) and chimpanzee (DC 009). The set is missing a hippo (DC 002), leopard (DC 004), gorilla (DC 005) and a gorgeous tortoise (DC 008).

The remaining five in the pictures below are from the Animals Around the World set, from the FT-series released in 2013. These are the platypus (FT 005), tiger (FT 002), black panther (FT 003), ostrich (FT 008) and panda (FT 006). I'm still looking for a kangaroo (FT 001) and a koala (FT 007). You might notice that FT 004 is missing and that is because for some reason Ferrero decided to reuse the crocodile (DC 006) from the African animals in this set. Now back to being chronological.

Another set from year one of Natoons that I'm collecting is the Plush Animals set (DC-release, 2011). These fuzzy cutsie wootsies are all flocked and SUPER ADORABLE. Full set has seven figures and currently I own four: the elephant (DC 018), rhino (DC 024), panda (DC 022) and polar bear (DC 023). Can I just say that the rhino is my favorite Natoon so far and it is so. stinking. cute. that I feel like clawing my eyes out. The hunt is still on for a (lion) cub (DC 019), little monkey (DC 020) and hippo (DC 021).

So far I have completed only one set of Natoons and it is indeed the Arctic Animals set that initiated my Kinder-craze. The set is a part of Kinder's TR-series, came out in 2012 and consists of the following figures: Moose (TR 008), Seal (TR 003), Arctic Fox (TR 004), Polar Bear (TR 005), Otter (TR 006), Wolf (TR 002), Walrus (TR 007) and Penguin (TR 001). As to why there is a Penguin in an arctic animal set - I have no clue. It's cute though!

In 2012 Ferrero had undoubtedly some smart employees making toy decisions, since they came up with the "Young Arctic Animals" set. These little bebes are made of a nice plastic with a rubbery finish and they just scream collect meeeeeeeeeee. It is also pretty peachy that they sticked with the same species as in the "adult line" because now all my little animal babies can have animal mommies, too! I have the polar bear (TR 013), arctic fox (TR 012), otter (TR 014), penguin (TR 009), walrus (TR 015) and seal (TR 011). I'm only missing wolf (TR 013) and moose (TR 016). Somehow I find it comforting that my adult figures are missing their babies and not the other way around since it would be sadder to have offspring without parents than parents without offspring. I really do think about these things, yes.

Because young animals are the bee's knees, I also collect the baby versions of the Animals Around the World set I showed earlier (also from 2013). Again, the young animals are the exact same species as the adults, including the crocodile already familiar from the very first Natoons set. These have not been too easy to encounter and I only have the platypus (FT 013), panda (FT 014) and kangaroo (FT 009). I do not yet own an adult kangaroo and it breaks my heart a little ☹. Sure enough, I am missing the tiger (FT 010), panther (FT 011), crocodile (FT 012), koala (FT 015) and ostrich (FT 016).

2013 did not fall short on the Natoons front since a set of hugging, flocked pet friends, the Plush Pets, was released. Next year the pets were followed by their wild counterparts in the form of Natoons Forest Animals (inspired by Discovery). It is perhaps quite obvious I collect them both. With a passion. I said before that the flocked rhino was my favorite Natoon, but I really can't decide between it and these hugging hamsters (FT 025) from the pet set. The rabbits (FT 024) are also adorable and I cannot wait to get my hands on the missing doggies (FT 022) and kittens (FT 023). From the forest animals I own squirrels (FF 006) and foxes (FF 007) and am missing ducklings (FF 008) and bears (FF 005). 

2014 also introduced felted Natoons with another "Animals Inspired by Discovery" set. The koala (FF 149 [don't ask]) has felt ears, the fox (FF 001) a felt collar, the monkey (FF 004) felt ...hair and the lion (FF 002) a felt mane. I am only missing a parrot (FF 003) also rocking a felt collar.

The next set is from 2015 and was one of my top wants this Easter. I believe the sets name is Dangerous Predators even though I think maybe "big cats" would have suited it better. Anyways, as I stated in my Kinder Surprise Spectacle, I own the lynx (FS 019) and the lion (FS 022) and am very much looking forward to finding the tiger (FS 023), cougar (FS 020) and black panther (FS 021). The lion and the tiger can also be found in a flocked form which is suuper nice!

The remaining set is likewise an old friend from the Easter blog post. Natoons Junglebabies (2015) was an instant hit for me - now I can get the parents AND the babies simultaneously! I really hope it will not be a pain to find the duos intact second hand, since I only managed to get the "lioness with cub" (FS 147) and the "male chimpanzee with young" (FS 151) from my own Easter eggs. I'm still missing the "lion with cub" (FS 146) the "female chimpanzee with young" (FS 150) and all the ring-tailed lemurs (FS 148 and 149).

The 12th set of Natoons I collect is one of which I'm still missing every single figure. It is the Natoons Jurassic Minis set from 2015 with six different dinosaur figures (FS 152, 153, 154, 238, 238 and 240).

Picture from Catawiki

Like I said, I have not taken a liking to every set of Natoons. They really come in all styles and forms and generally I enjoy the simpler sets without a "catch" such as an additional water color pan. Here's a few examples of Natoons that I am not particularly fond of:

Pictures from Catawiki

I think its pretty amazing Kinder has come up with a series of figures that are a 100 % playable, educational and nice to look at. In my opinion, not many sets tick all three boxes. Different sets of Natoons are very combinable and kids and collectors alike can expand their animal collections each year with the new sets. The quality of Natoons figures is generally A-OK, whether we're talking about the hard plastic figures that need a little assembling (e.g. the Animals of Africa) or the rubbery ones that we're seeing more and more often with the new sets (e.g. Junglebabies).

I've noticed there are quite a few species of animals that repeatedly appear in different sets, such as lions, rhinos or elephants, and this could be boring to some. I myself think it is sort of fun to see different representations of the same animals in different sets.

As for my own collection, I don't think it's the biggest or most dashing of Natoons collections, but considering I don't find excitement in buying complete sets off of Ebay and rather enjoy the treasure hunt, I think I'm doing really well!

I'd like to hear your thoughts on Natoons and Kinder Surprise toys in general. Are they worth collecting? Do you have favorites?

✿Tuuli