Lidl exclusive
£0.29 each although you get 1 free for every £10 you spend right now as a promotional offer.
Review: Lidl seem to have wanted to get their piece of the ‘mystery bag’ toy market. These cost far less than any of their competitors which, on average, cost £2 however they are also far smaller. They are composed of vibrant rubber with a suction cup base which is relatively quite effective as only one of the four I had didn’t have a strong suction. The paint work is on a par with that of the Zomblings series which costs far more. The designs are all based around aquatic creatures although there are one or two absurdly monstrous looking ones. They say these are ‘as seen on TV’… I had never heard of them until the person at the counter gave me them…
The small, bubble gum size, packaging is odd. It is inflated as if there is some sort of gas being produced by the figures and threatening to explode which would worry people upon an initial look at them. It is possible they intentionally cause this to protect the toys without having to spend on further packaging which is economical and environmentally friendly (as long as it’s just Carbon Dioxide or another harmless gas).
All you get in the packet is the figurine itself so you would have to visit the official site or use official merchandising (or look at the above advert in there offers magazine shoved through you post box) if you wanted to know the characters official names.
It is a very cheap range as the ‘mystery bags’ containing one character each are only 20 pence which is reasonable, the ‘collection bag’ is 99p and seems to just be a basic branded pull sting tote bag, the collection box (which I assume contained a few characters) is £1.99 and there is a magazine (A one off activities filled one I assume as there can’t be much life in this series) for £1.49 so on the whole I think that although it’s not fantastic quality it is nonetheless a really nice, affordable, entry into the marketplace. In comparison to the far more expensive ranges which are far more expensive I can excuse the quality as it is actually on a par with many of their competitors.
My only real scruple is the small size of the figures and that the suction cup on one of the ones I got was much weaker than the others so I wonder if this was a one off or if there may be quality assurance issues when manufacturing the figures. For those interested it was the Drup figure which had the issue and for all I know it was the batches of this one character that may not be up to the standard of the rest of the series. I don’t have any use for these myself though… maybe I will take them into work and stick them on my monitor. If you could get your kids interested in these rather than their more expensive competitors then you are lucky although the small size really will make them easy to lose and definitely a choking hazard for little children unfortunately so you will have to supervise them.
I assume the ‘get one free for every £10 you spend’ promotion is temporary in order to promote it to customers and it was a nice little surprise. Of course it is a free 29p toy for every ten pounds you spend. I wouldn’t go in thinking ‘I really want one so I will spend all that money’ but at the same time it was an amusing novelty which saves them on high marketing costs for the range and gives customers a small surprise ‘treat’ at the checkout as a random thank for their custom without having to offer further discounts or irritate people with ‘join our customer loyalty scheme’ requests.
The figurines I got were:
Purple, tear drop shaped, fish: Drup
Giant blue head with sharp teeth: Balloon
Purple one eyed monster: Ollie
Generic orange fish: Goupie
The packing information:
GB-IE-NL
1 Stikeez figure. Approx. 3cm x 1.5cm
100% TPR (I have no idea what this means…)
Produced by Brand Loyalty Special Promotions. BV. Koningsweg 101, 5211 BH S’-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. Made in China.
Warning! Not suitable for children under three years. Choking hazard – small parts. Toy should be used by young children under adult supervision. Please retain this information for later reference.
(This is also on the packaging in French, Spanish and Slovakian surprisingly. I would have expected it in a Scandinavian language, Italian or German before any other language was considered for being put on the packaging.)
Next time a review of Ernest Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea’.
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Rambling At The Bridge Head 