Easter Gifts: Minibrands Books Series Two and Make It Mini Cinnamoroll Stationery Set

Mr. BTEG went out the Saturday before Palm Sunday to get an Easter basket and fillings for our two-year-old great niece. He also picked up a few small Easter gifts for our daughter and me. Mine included two mini balls, one from the Miniverse Books Series 2, and one from the Make It Mini Hello Kitty collection. I was very thankful that all three of the books that I received were ones that I like. I posed the books with mini American Girl Caroline, as I thought she was the closest to a reasonable scale. She was the easiest mini AG to get to, but then I realized it was perfect for her, as Sense and Sensibility would have been published in her childhood. I also got the candlestick, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and a Hardy Boys book.

 

 

You can't tell which member of the Hello Kitty family you get until you open the ball, but Cinnamoroll is one of the ones that I like. This set seems to work well with the 8" Eden Madeline. You get a notebook to put together with included tabs and pages, a pencil case, a pen and ruler in plastic and cardboard packaging, and a cutting mat. The ball it came in can be used for display if you have the ball open. It's also cute with it closed.

These pictures are so poorly lit because I can't get to my photography table very easily right now, so I took them on my new craft table instead. I've mentioned before that Mr. BTEG and I have been rearranging rooms since our youngest daughter moved out. The master bedroom is becoming my computer/doll/photography/sewing/craft/art room. We finally moved our bed to the much smaller bedroom. Now I have to get the big bedroom organized, and move a few things left in the small bedroom to my craft/doll room. Here's a picture of my new computer and craft table set up, with my new doll display bookcases in between.

I hope you had a nice Easter holiday. We spent Palm Sunday with my in-laws, and Easter Sunday our daughter and her boyfriend came over for the day. It was all very enjoyable; I like spending time with family. We found out that we're going to have a new great-niece or -nephew later this year, which is fantastic!

I'm also announcing that I'm thinking about moving this blog to Substack. I won't charge a subscription; I just want to get off of Blogger. There's someone with an actual Blogger account who is spamming my comments every few days, and I can't figure out to block or report this person, nor can I get the attention of anyone at Blogger. I've tried WordPress in the past and it's not easy for me to figure out how everything works. I'll make an announcement here and post a link if I do make the move.

Mini Brands Retro and Little Tykes Minis

I've been overthinking photography ideas for the post that I want to make, featuring Barbie Basics Number 4. Mr. BTEG surprised me yesterday with a couple of the mini item balls, so I'm blogging about these, and then I'll settle down to get some good pictures of Number 4.

First is the Little Tikes toys mini ball. I got the dump truck and the recycling truck, in their own boxes.

I could have sworn that I took a picture of Kelly standing next to Barbie, to show another viewpoint of Kelly's size next to the toys, but I couldn't find it when I uploaded the pictures. I was having a difficult time with these tiny pieces. When the little people go in their seats in the trucks, they don't fit in firmly. They still roll around, so when you have one person in the truck, he can still fall out while you're trying to put his friend in. I gave up and laid most of the people flat.

As you can see, these toys are way too small proportional to Kelly, who can still possibly put things in her mouth and swallow them. They're not made to be necessarily one sixth, so it's not an issue. I do have smaller dolls who will love new toys.

The two balls are supposed to stack together with the shelf pieces provided, to make a display center. I can't get the top shelf into the holes to hold the two balls together. :(

 

Next are the Mini Brands Retro line. By retro, it looks like it means mostly the 70s and 80s. You get five mini pieces. I got some Energizer batteries, a floppy disc, a one-time use camera, a can of motor oil, and a box of candy. It seems the box of candy is an Ultra Rare item, which is too bad, as I would have liked other items from the Ultra Rare group better if I was going to find one. (A floppy disc was an 80s version of a thumb drive, kind of.)

The box of Mike and Ike candy is too big. As I remember, the candies themselves aren't much bigger than jellybeans. That would be a lot of candy! I guess it would look okay on a store shelf or at a movie snack bar. The floppy disk is a bit too large, but not as bad. I actually used these, so I have vague memories of how big they were. This kind was smaller than the ones before it, which actually were kind of floppy and could be ruined if you folded them accidentally, but the one I have would still look okay on a desk in an 80s computer lab. Time for a LAN party! (Now get off my lawn.) Everything else looks close enough to one sixth scale, considering we do have big batteries like these, and the camera fits her face reasonable well, although I didn't get a picture of it. To be honest, I don't know how big a old-school can of oil would be, but it looks okay. It would work on a shelf in a garage.

I know these aren't available everywhere. Anyone else out there who likes to collect these mini brands balls?

I've figured out how I want to photograph Barbie Basics Number 4, but then it occurred to me that since she is petite, I should see how other dolls' clothes fit on her, which will take more time. She's next on my list; however I didn't want to wait too much longer to get a post up. Hope you all in Tornado and Dixie Alley, especially RagingMoon, and all my other readers are faring well.