Sunday randomness: Wal-Mart run

This week has once again brought changes to our workplace hours.  Coworker B is facing possible pacemaker surgery and the library needs to have someone helping Coworker A on Mondays, so Mama and I have agreed to alternate Mondays until Coworker B comes back/retires/gets fired.  So our weekends have again been completely screwed up, but today we found some time between naps and thunderstorms to run some errands.  When one has cats one needs cat food, and today Mama and I were both out, so that warranted a trip to Wal-Mart.  As I always do I swung by the toy section, and I saw arguably the coolest Barbie produced in a long time.  She's...y'all ready for this???  She's a beekeeper!

When's the last time y'all saw Barbie as a beekeeper???  When Mattel said they were going after some of the more unconventional occupations they weren't lying!  This Barbie has everything, too.  She's got the gauntlets and the veil, the hive for the bees, AND some bees.  She's even got a strip of honeycomb and some vials of honey, though the bees look more like bumblebees than honeybees.  I love this, though; these accessories are on par with one of the Lottie dolls that I'll be reviewing soon.  The back of the box even has some information about beekeeping.  I just wish it had a little info on how critical the status of honeybees is right now, and maybe some tips on how to help our bees come back.  I rarely go hippie-level crazy on some sort of environmental cause, but with bees I'll make an exception because they're so important to the existence of humanity (and other animals too, for that matter).  They're also fun to watch, like a great many insects are.

Alrighty, so that's Beekeeper Barbie, who I may or may not add to my collection.  She's got a ton of cool accessories, but the doll herself is very ordinary with platinum hair, blue eyes, and a big, dippy smile.  Now I'm going to take a drastic turn, one that I've never done here on this blog, and look at a stuffed animal.  I grabbed a Pikmi Pop today.

According to the label, Pikmi Pops are scented plush toys that come in these cute lollipop holders.  They have 'em bigger, but I'm hoping that one of these smaller ones might make a good prop for my ball-jointed dolls.  Judging from the size of this package they may be a bit large for that.

Well...maybe not.  A few years ago Mama and I bought a Cthulu Squishable for my sister's birthday, and he was huge, big enough that when I held him in my lap he came up to my chin.  This Pikmi Pop looks like he/she will be of a similar size on Alistair's lap.  LOL, Alistair doesn't look the stuffed animal type with that mohawk, does he?  Well...he's not, but he's politely agreed to do the holding anyway, since Johnny hates having his picture taken and Chloe's too little (both of them are my stuffed animal enthusiasts).

Anyway, Pikmi Pops are created by Moose Toys, the same crew that makes Shopkins, the Grossery Gang, and Zelfs.  I haven't seen Zelfs in forever and I'm beginning to wonder if they are no more?  Tangent aside, these small stuffed animals are concealed in a lollipop-shaped container and apparently are capable of smelling like chocolate, raspberry, blueberry, and bubblegum (ewww, too sweet).  The last time I got a scented toy she smelled like a citronella candle and the smell wore off within a day, so we'll see how this goes.  These open up like Li'l Outrageous Little pods do, with a pull-off plastic strip, and the label also announces that "shimmery sea and fantasy" pops can be found.

Alrighty, off comes the outer label.  The plastic pop has a clear top and a purple lower half, plus that stick.

Even though the toy inside is wrapped, I can already smell something.  It smells vaguely like bubblegum or a pina collada.  The back of the pop is hinged.

Upon opening the pop I get another flashback to the Li'l Outrageous Little reviews with this bag.  There's also a base for the stem of the pop, and a collector's guide.

The stuffed animal feels significantly smaller than the outer pop, so this may turn out to be a better prop for my ball-jointed dolls than I thought.  But before I bust open that bag I'd like to peruse the collector's guide.  When I picked it up this little envelope fell out.

This is what it says inside.  Very cute!

Now...the front of the collector's guide has a list of all potential smells.  Having gotten a whiff of mine already, I suspect it's fruit paradise.

One side of the collector's guide shows what could potentially come in my single-pop container.

The other side shows the creatures available in the two- and four-pop containers, so I'm not going to bother with that.  Some of these are super-cute though; I kind of hope I get that elephant, even though the smell isn't right.

Y'all ready for me to bust this open?

Word of advice to y'all:  opening this baggie requires the use of scissors.  That being said, I got Tazzle the tiger, who is common and smells like fruit paradise.  I had that scent identified pretty quickly! 

Tazzle is a very small beanbag with embroidered patches for facial features.  He has yellow fur and hot pink stripes.

His tail and ears are made of a single layer of fuzzy pink...felt?  It feels a bit like felt, but felt isn't usually this soft.

He also has a cord attached to his back, meaning that he can be attached to a lanyard or a zipper.

He can also double as a purse for one of my girl ball-jointed dolls, if I ever get them completed.  Speaking of ball-jointed dolls, Tazzle makes a VERY nice prop.  He sits quite comfortably in Alistair's hands, and would not be too big of a handful for Chloe either.

Now...now that all of this is unwrapped, time for me to look like a braying jackass.  When I was packing up the paper items to store them, the envelope flipped over and revealed the identity of the toy inside.

Haw-hee-haw-hee-haw.  In truth I think this is a little silly of Moose to put the envelope where it can be accessed, as it gives the surprise away before the bag is opened.  The only reason why my Tazzle's identity wasn't given away is because I was unobservant.  These are cute, though.  I like blind bag toys that can be used as keychains or zipper pulls or props for bigger toys.  These are way better than the Hatchimal figures, which I also considered getting today despite my lukewarm opinions on the figure I got last year.  I like these Pikmi Pops, though.  They're not super-high-quality toys or collector's items of tomorrow, but they would have satisfied my sister and me when we were little and I'm certain they'll satisfy younger children of today too.

Now I'm going to try and find some way of giving Alistair his dignity back.  He doesn't mind posing in ridiculous wigs or with tiny ball-jointed dolls in his lap, but he draws the line at stuffed animals.

Love,
RagingMoon1987