When I was a kid, I was obsessed with vending machines. The big displays outside of the grocery store were the biggest temptation, with so many mini-sized toy and novelty options. There were even a few machines that had a special prize like a watch or a necklace mixed in amongst more ordinary fare. I was rarely given the chance to use a vending machine when I was young, though, and so I overcompensated for this when I became an independent adult. Not only did I get toys from these machines for myself with more frequency than I care to admit, but I always indulged my kids when they asked for the money necessary to get a treat. When we moved to Maine, I even bought my own old-fashioned capsule vending machine and set it up in the basement. I kept my eye out for interesting small toys, and so the machine was always full of new stuff. All of my kids' friends could use the vending machine (once) every time they came over. Younger brothers and sisters would often tag along to pick up their sibling from a play date, clutching their own quarter in their hand and hoping for a turn at the machine. It was a big hit.
Back in February, when I wrote the first part of the L.O.L. Surprise review (the second part will come eventually, promise!), Gabby asked if I'd ever heard of the Capsule Chix. These are small surprise-themed dolls that come in, wait for it, vending machine packaging! How cool is that? It's exactly the kind of thing I would have gone bonkers for when I was young...and, frankly, it's the kind of thing I still go bonkers for now. I found a few sets for about $13 and stored them away for a future review. Then, a month later, Amy asked about the Capsule Chix on one of my Patreon reviews, so I figured it was high time to get the sets I bought out and learn more about these intriguing blind box characters.
Capsule Chix dolls are assembled from several parts (head, hair, torso, legs, and some extra clothing bits like skirts and shoes). Each part is wrapped inside of a vending machine capsule, and then the capsules are packaged into a box that dispenses the capsules one by one. Every set is guaranteed to include the parts you need to make one doll, but the parts in each box are randomly assigned, so you're very unlikely to get a matched set; everything's mixed up. You can either be happy with the mix-and-match doll you receive, or you can buy more of the sets hoping to find the parts you need to build a specific doll.
I knew these dolls and their fancy packaging would involve tons of waste, which is one of my least favorite things in the doll world right now, but I absolutely could not resist the idea of the vending machine box. So here we go!
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| Capsule Chix Giga Glam doll, $12.99. |
