Kinder Surprise
Since starting work in a building with it's own shop, I have become addicted to the eggs of numbing inevitability. Not to the point where I ask for them in the third person, but still.

It started innocently enough as a bit of a jape between myself and a co-worker. We bought them, and sure enough got a nasty little toy inside the horrible chocolate. We did this for a couple of days just to see what pitiful, shoddy lumps of plastic were on offer. Then it happened.

The other guy got a miniature helicopter (which can be seen at the bottom of the pic below). It was great. Simple, effective, and it really flew. We played around with it for a bit, and eventually he challenged himself to get it out of the skylight. He did. The fun was over.

I had to have a helicopter of my own. I hadn't had enough fun with it, and he'd lost his. So I bought some more. And more. Even though I got strange looks from the cashier and other customers. And then I got one. So the other guy had to have another one, as we'd discovered they could fly sideways as well. After a while the teeth on the pulley system which allows the spinner to take off wears out. I was desperate for another, and my co-worker was helping, but at a slower rate than I. He wasn't addicted. I was.

And now, even though the helicopters are no longer included as one of the prizes, I keep collecting, on the lookout for the next great lump of plastic. I'm eating endless amounts of shitty chocolate in the vain hope there might one day be something amazing in the little egg. Occasionally, there are some nifty bits, but most of the time it's cack. Stuff you have to build is generally okay, especially if it doesn't fit inside the egg it came in. You might notice there are some strange animals in there. They have interchangeable parts, and you can give a fish horse legs, and a rhino crocodile legs, etc. I keep collecting so I can have complete variation. The main collection at the moment is 'Pirates and Monsters'. I'm two figures away from a complete collection (mental analogy welcome), but I keep getting the same ones again. Still I don't stop. At 55p a throw, the collection now stands at around £40 worth. It's ridiculous. It gains me nothing. The chocolate is crap, and the plastic is poorly painted. Some of it is just useless (flick books, jigsaws, etc). But as this picture shows, I am addicted:



P.S. And this is without going into how to choose the egg from the display, whether to eat or open first, the savouring of unwrapping the foil or the dedication in applying stickers. All have procedures which I must strictly adhere to.
( Awesome Welles petitioning for foetuses to be rebranded 'wombles', Tue 23 Dec 2008, 19:05, 7 replies)

I have been there, my friend
My collection, sadly, was thrown out before it reached the level in your picture there.

But I know the feeling.

Luckily; I liked the chocolate, too.
( Thinker, Tue 23 Dec 2008, 19:36, closed)

I buy them occasionally
and then am usually disappointed so buy a few more, I kind of go through phases of collecting a few and giving up due to their shitness and riciculous price. I've had a couple of great ones though.

My favourite is at the bottom of our stairs on the way out the flat (old Victorian building with handy arch/mini shelf to perch it on)- it's a kung fu monkey that really chops a bit of (plastic) wood in half!
( Jessie © needs pirate name suggestions, Tue 23 Dec 2008, 19:54, closed)

I once got
A really cool windy up thing that rolled (sorry for the technical description). Every other time I got crap metal toys...crap chocolate full of false hopes.
( snee held his breath since, Tue 23 Dec 2008, 21:14, closed)

Wait til easter
They bring out the big guns then. They cost around £5, but you get amazing stuff in them
( fuck shit up the best you never had, Tue 23 Dec 2008, 22:16, closed)

I've often wanted to..
but been put off by the possibility of getting a larger, more elaborate equivalent of the disappointing "collectibles" that do nothing.
( Thinker, Tue 23 Dec 2008, 22:54, closed)

yeah, the big guns...


:D

actually the real contents was a painting set made to look like flowers (most disappointing)
( Haku Orange Whip? Orange Whip? Three Orange Whips., Wed 24 Dec 2008, 9:38, closed)

great stuff
I think my collection of eggs is over 5x what you have pictured there, I've got ones dating back to the 80s, even got some Pink Panther figures

my favourite ones are the friction cars/trucks/bikes with the mini flywheel inside, hate the all-in-one lumps of plastic of some crappy cartoon figure - you don't get to build anything!
and what's with the new design of capsule? it's crap
( Haku Orange Whip? Orange Whip? Three Orange Whips., Wed 24 Dec 2008, 9:34, closed)