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Shopkins!  What in the world are Shopkins?  Well…currently, they are the tiny toys that are taking over my house – every shelf, every table, every window sill is filled with rows of Shopkins!  Shopkins are a product from Moose Toys, a toy company run by Manny Stul.  He took ownership of Moose Enterprise in 2000 and has grown the company from 10 people to over 300, taking Moose Toys to be in the top 5 Toy companies in the USA and number 4 in Australia in just 15 years.  Until Shopkins, I had never heard of this toy company!  But I know all about them now.

For those of you who don’t know about this crazy phenomenon, Shopkins are little tiny rubber toys – and I mean tiny – think small Lego pieces.  They come in all forms – they have shoes, chairs, soccer balls, various food items, and much more.  Basically, any item you might actually have in your house, they have as a Shopkins!

This is one happy girl! A new pack of Shopkins!!

This is one happy girl! A new pack of Shopkins!!

But…in my mind, they are better than Legos, because when you step on them, it doesn’t hurt your feet! So when they get left on the floor (like they often do in my house), you are not in danger of severely injuring yourself when you step on them!

As you can see from the pack below, there is a variety of little Shopkins in each pack you buy.  Currently, Morgan’s favorites are the baseball glove (Bailey Baseball Glove) the cupcake (Royal Cupcake), the apple with the worm in it (Apple Blossom), a yellow watering can (Walter Watering Can), and the roller skate (Lola Roller Blade)!

What is the Official Description?

Girls will enter a big world of pint-sized fun with Shopkins™, the new line of super cute, super tiny, grocery-themed collectibles from Moose Toys! Inspired by items from each aisle in the grocery store and housed in adorable shopping bags, each little ‘Shopkin’ will bring non-stop shopping fun to girls this fall.

There are more than 140 different characters to collect and trade, including Rare, Ultra Rare, Special and Limited Edition characters that feature special finishes and are grouped by different sections of the supermarket, from Sweet Treats to Frozen Food to Toiletries. Girls can complete their Shopkins experience with grocery store playsets that connect to create the ultimate Shopkins world! 

I feel like maybe the official description is a bit out of date, because they have now expanded to things that you would not find at a grocery store – such as skates, soccer balls, baseball gloves, and tables & chairs.  And…I’m sure there are some of the kits and categories that boys might like too…

This simple idea is taking over my house, and from what I understand, it is taking over many houses!  There is a great Shopkins Website.  On their site, they have the Shopkins sorted by “seasons”.  You can click on whatever season you are looking for, and they list all the little characters from that season.  And there are many…

How Many Different Seasons Do They Have?

  • Season One came out in major retailers in 2014. This first season of Shopkins contained over 150 characters to collect, all based off of grocery store items! The teams include Fruit & Veg, Bakery, Sweet Treats, and more!
  • Season Two of Shopkins was released in December 2014, and it featured new teams including Baby, Homewares, Cleaning & Laundry and Shoes.
  • Season Three was released in June 2015. The new teams, Stationery, International Food and Hats, were added to Season Three. Season Three also introduced two new ranges of Shopkins; Food Fair and Fashion Spree.
  • Season Four was released in December 2015. This season introduced Petkins which are Shopkins with faces that resemble animals. Other new categories include Party Time, Petshop, Garden, and Accessories.
  • Season Five was released in May 2016. New categories include Charms, Tech, Music and Sport.  Also released in Season Five was the new range, Happy Places.
Here are just a few of Morgan's favorites. At least for today...

Here are just a few of Morgan’s favorites. At least for today…

What Are Shopkins Webisodes?

And guess what…there are also Shopkins Webisodes!  You can log onto their website and watch little short cartoons that feature many of the little characters.  They are really cute!  I’m actually surprised that they have not yet developed a real cartoon that plays on the TV.

You can also print off full coloring pages of the little characters.  I cannot tell you how many of these we have printed off!  And if you want to trade some of your Shopkins with friends, you can check their site for Swap-Kins Parties!  Yes…these are parties where you take your Shopkins and meet other children and make trades.  Sort of like trading baseball cards, I guess.  Never done this, but it sure sounds like fun.

So if you’re wondering what you do with these little things, let me let you in on many of our days here…  Most days, we spend lots of time setting up little “stores” with all of our Shopkins characters, because not only do they sell the little characters, but they also sell playsets which include tables, dressers, displays, etc… for you to set all of your Shopkins on.

What is a Shopkins Shoppie?

We set up our little stores all around the house and assign one of the Shopkins Shoppies to be in charge.  The Shopkins Shoppies are little dolls that come with certain packs, and in Morgan’s mind, they are the ones who are in charge of the stores we set up.  Her favorite Shoppie right now is JessiCake, but there are several to choose from.  And if you’re like us, you need to have more than one of them so Morgan can voice one Shoppie and I can be the voice of the other one.

There are many different kinds of playsets for Shopkins.  This is how we set up all of our little Shopkins stores and houses.  Morgan’s current favorite is the Shopkins Shoe Dazzle Playset.  She likes to set out all of her little Shopkins on the high-heeled Shopkins shoe display shelf.  She also has a little register area where she has one of her Shoppies stand to run the store!

Now that you know a little bit about Shopkins, don’t you agree with me that you wish you had invented this simple toy that brings so much joy to lots of young children??  It’s always these simple little toys and inventions that make me say “Why didn’t I think of that”??

You can find Shopkins story books, sticker/puzzle books, and now they have Shopkins building sets.  Like I said….these crazy little toys are taking over the world.  Well…maybe not the world, but for sure my house.

Shopkins

Check it out – thanks to this information, she now wants all the Limited Edition and Special Edition types of Shopkins!

Thanks to my son, my daughter now knows about the list of available Shopkins (that you can print out from the website), and now she is keeping track of all the Shopkins she has and those that she still needs.  Oh my goodness….  And of course, I’m sure there are many more “seasons” coming out, so I don’t think we’ll ever “catch them all”!  Man…sure wish I worked for one of these toy companies!!

My daughter’s goal is to get all the Shopkins in all the different categories from all of the seasons.  And…they are all rated and categorized, and their rating determines how expensive they are I think.  They have Common $, Rare $$, Ultra Rare $$$, Special Edition $$$$, and Limited Edition Shopkins.  Maybe they’ll be like Beanie Babies – one day in the near future they’ll be worth a fortune.

I sure hope so, because we have spent a small fortune already on these tiny treasures.  At least there should be plenty of things for us to get her for her birthday and Christmas!  Right?  I’m sure there will be some special “seasons” that are out near the holidays.  I can imagine a Christmas Season, a Halloween Season, and maybe a Valentine’s Season?  Am I missing anything?

What Other Shopkins Toys Are Available?

As far as I know, one other Shopkins toy that is taking off are the Shopkins Kinstruction Kits.  Although we have not branched out into these quite yet, they look like Legos to me.  Morgan has expressed interest in the Shopkins Kinstructions Shopville, but once she realized I would not be building it for her, she quickly lost interest.  She has never been into Legos, so I’m going to avoid this as long as I can – I don’t have the patience for Lego type toys either!  But…it does look cool.

The description says this adorable set comes with a buildable Two-Level Supermarket and Includes: 6 Buildable Figures, Deluxe Set and Accessories and also says (or warns you) Approximate assembly time: 45 minutes – 1 hour!  In my mind, if they say it takes 45 minutes to an hour to assemble, I’m thinking that for me it means about a day!

I also have seen many cool activity books and some giant sticker books!  For us, those are perfect for long car rides, so we might just be investing in some of those.  And of course, if a DVD of the little webisode cartoons ever comes available, we will be getting that for sure!

What is Moose Toys?

Because of Shopkins, Moose Toys is now on my radar.  And as I read a bit about this company, on the Moose Toys Website, I learned that Shopkins was named The 2015 Toy of the Year by Go! Games & Toys!  And they have received many other awards as well (see below).  If you have not heard of Moose Toys either, you might know about Qixels, Little Live Pets (we have several birdies chirping in our house), or Beados – those are just a few of the toys I have heard about in our house…  And believe me – Moose Toys list goes on and on!

According to PR Newswire’s site, Moose Toys is a global toy company with offices in the US, UK, Hong Kong, China and the head office based in Melbourne, Australia. This award-winning company is known for designing, developing and distributing toy and lifestyle products across the globe for children of all ages and the young at heart.

Moose has products in all toy categories including collectibles, arts and crafts, activity toys, dolls, novelty items and outdoor products, and has brought joy to kids worldwide with successful products such as Mighty Beanz, Beados, Aqua Sand and The Trash Pack™.

In 2015, Moose expanded several major product lines for boys and girls, including Shopkins™, the hottest girl’s collectible line of grocery and fashion themed characters; Little Live Pets, electronic pets that come to life in the palm of your hand; as well as line extensions for Beados craft activity sets. The company also introduced Qixels, the first “craftstruction” activity that allows kids to create pixelated worlds of monsters, warriors and more.

Moose Toys has scored numerous coveted toy awards from industry experts and major retailers. The Shopkins Scoops Ice Cream Truck was awarded 2016 Girl Toy of the Year by the Toy Industry Association, and the Shopkins Small Mart playset was awarded the 2015 Girls’ Toy of the Year. Shopkins was awarded the 2016 Licensed Character/Toy of the Year by LIMA. 

The Golden Ticket Hunt…

And I think Moose Toys is set – I don’t think that Shopkins will be going away anytime soon.  In an article titled Moose Toys Celebrates Five Seasons of Shopkins™ with First-Ever Shopkins Golden Ticket Hunt, I learned that they will be having a Golden Ticket Hunt (doesn’t it remind you of Willy Wonka’s golden ticket hunt?)!  I’m sure my daughter will be on the lookout for her golden ticket.

The article said there will be five golden tickets randomly hidden inside a Shopkins Season 5 2-pack, 5-pack or 12-pack across the U.S.  The children (or parents) who find one of the five golden tickets will win a trip for two people to the Home of Shopkins in Melbourne, Australia.  The lucky winners will be greeted by their favorite Shopkins characters, and taken to a  private Shopkins Party, where they will get to meet the designers from the world of Shopville.

Can you imagine?  You saw the smile on Morgan’s face when she got a small pack of new Shopkins!  What if we found a golden ticket??  Incredible – I would be Mom of the Year!  At least in her eyes.  Right?  And a trip to Australia?  It makes me want to start searching for that golden ticket right now!

In fact…  Well, I guess I’d better finish this blog post first.  So there you have it.  Shopkins…a very simple idea that has taken over my house.  Like my title says…I sure wish I had invented this toy.  Have fun with your Shopkins, and let me know if you find one of the Golden Tickets!  Until next time…