A huge haul and a little DIY

Hello hello!

Twice a year my city holds a huge "flea market" event where hundreds of people fill up the central market square and sell their excess junk to other people who fill the place up even more. I attend every time I can and I've always had a blast!

This time around, me and my dad were lurking around the stalls even before the event started and managed to go through every single table in around five hours - time well spent! I was avoiding toy hunting for quite a while before the event so I could let myself loose and that is exactly what I did.

I bought way too many things to even consider a thorough episode of thrifted treasures so I decided to briefly show the things I found in a form of a haul. I'm super proud that I manned up and (succesfully!) haggled over most of the things I bought.

If there's something you want to know more about just let me know! Also, sorry about the pictures being a little blue. I couldn't resist taking pictures even though it was already quite late and the lighting was rubbish.

That aside, I totally scored with In My Pockets! I found two new kitties, two new puppies, four Jungle In My Pockets and five vintages! Tilt your computer screen to see the Baby Surprise swans...

I also got quite lucky on the Hello Kitty front. I don't collect PEZ (yyyyeeet) but the bunny on top of Hello Kitty's head is too cute to handle and also how could I not purchase anything My Melody? Right? The funky Kitties are Jakks Pacific, the tiny ones are the Sagittarius and the Libra from the zodiac series I've talked about before and the red one is a VINTAGE Kitty from 1987! I love the old-school look of it and it's awesome to own a perfect-condition Hello Kitty figure that is 4 years older than me. The astronauts are this year's Happy Meal toys from a set of four.

I also found a few new Natoons. The flocked cat and dog are missing their hug-partners, the baby ostrich and the leopard are from older sets and the puma, the gorillas and the dinosaur are from this year's releases.

I also grabbed a few derpy Disney princesses from the gold-dressed Zaini surprise egg line. I love how absolutely stupid these look. I mean, come on Cinderella ఠ‿ఠ.

Last but not least I found Pokémon! I found a dozen Topps candies that I was still missing (well actually 11, The Volbeat is an upgrade since my previous one did not have antennae). I'm most excited for the Bulbasaur, Clefairy, Vulpix and Charmander who are all from the late 90's and in A+ condition.

Not only did I find Topps figures but also Dolci Preziosi surprise egg pencil toppers! Yay it had been so long since the last time I found more of these! The Sceptile is a Tomy Choco Ball figure which is really cool too. If only it wasn't missing its stand, boo.

Definitely one of the coolest finds was this Tomy/Hasbro Deluxe Trainers Ash figure from 1999. It cannot have been played with much since it's in such good shape. The Meowth stamper is also from 1999 and it still works!

Nevertheless, my favorite treasure find of the day was this COMPLETE Zukan piece. Well, if one wants to nitpick, the plastic sticks that hold the figures in place are missing but I replaced them with toothpicks and that's just fine. Anyway, the whole set is in mint condition, it cost me only a few cents and the Spinarak is so cute and tiny that it breaks my heart a little a lot. I love the Zukan sets that come with a "personalized" stand instead of the basic circle and gen 2 Pokémon are very close to my heart so I couldn't have asked for a better find ♥.

But wait, there's more! The bug set wasn't the only Zukan of the day! I also got my hands on these Lotad, Mantine (impossible to photograph!), Noctowl, Seel & Dewgong (from the same set) and Huntail Zukans. I really like how these figures are in scale: I had no idea Noctowl was bigger than Dewgong!

The last figure finds were the plumpy Pikachu ornament, J. Franco & Sons Squirtle, the gorgeous Little Mermaid figure from 1992 and the neat tiger from Moomins.

So there you have it! I think I got very lucky this time around and I can't wait to go browse the market again next fall! Did you have favorites?

On a completely different note, making Barbie clothes from scratch has been on my Bucket list for the longest time. I'm decent at crochet but sewing has always been very difficult for me. Yesterday I finally dared to take on the challenge and made a brand new dress for my beloved Generation Girl Barbie... And I love it! So much so that I had to share it here in ze blog.

It wasn't at all easy, especially because I didn't want to use a ready-made pattern, but I'm really liking the end result! I had to make the corset four times before I got it right (enough) and hand-stitching the whole thing without using glue even to prevent the fabric from fraying but I think it totally payed off (✿◠‿◠). I would love to hear comments or tips on the subject! Is anyone else making or interested in making doll clothes? Maybe I should try to crochet a Barbie sweater or something!

Laters!

✿Tuuli

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

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