Tea with Lena: Mini Brands Fill the Fridge vs. Miniverse Real Brands

This review might feel a little repetitive with the last one (Miniverse Spaces), but maybe we can think of it as a companion piece or something?  I'm including it because while I was looking at the Spaces sets, Lena got interested...and a little irritated that I hadn't included her.  She doesn't fit into the Spaces or Rolife rooms, obviously, but she likes talking about anything food or kitchen-related, so she felt like I was invading her turf.  Fair enough.

By way of an apology, I offered to let Lena talk about another group of food-themed toys that have been on my radar.  In fact, she gets to talk about two different food-themed toys today: Zuru's Mini Brands Fill the Fridge sets and MGA Entertainment's Miniverse Real Brands.  The two are extremely similar--in name and in concept.  Both brands have surprise balls with brand-name food miniatures inside.  Zuru's Fill the Fridge line also has an actual fridge that Lena will be looking at.

Lena's goal here will be to see which group of surprise ball food items is best at actually filling a fridge!  I've said too much already at this point, so I'll turn things over to Lena:

Lena with Mini Brands Fill the Fridge and Miniverse Real Brands items.

Sunday Surprise: My Mini Baby by Zuru!

I don't collect a lot of baby dolls these days, but when I was younger, realistic babies were the primary focus of my collection.  I loved the glass-eyed, life-sized babies from Götz and Zapf, and even had a few one-of-a-kind clay babies that would startle guests with their realism.  I also love surprise-themed dolls (especially babies!), as many of you probably know from my adventures with things like Sweet e.baby, Cabbage Patch Kids, and Magic Nursery toddlers.

Given my fondness for babies and surprises, when I learned about Zuru's My Mini Baby surprise balls, I knew I would have to review them at some point.  These babies have been incredibly popular since their introduction in 2023, and have been on-and-off hard to find (or simply too expensive) for a lot of the time they've been on the market.  I managed to accumulate several Series 1 balls by waiting and watching for good prices, and when I finally saw the Series 2 balls hit the shelves a few weeks ago, I grabbed a few of those, too, knowing that the time had finally come for my review.

My Mini Baby Series 1 and Series 2 surprise balls by Zuru ($9.99).

Advent Calendar #1: Mini Brands by Zuru

It's December!  So now I can dig in and start this advent calendar feature that I've been dreaming about.  I have about ten calendars that I'd like to open throughout the month, but with the way I ramble on and the number of pictures I insisted on taking, I can't promise that I'll get through all of them before the 31st, let alone the 25th.  But I'm sure going to try!

I stumbled onto this idea when a Patreon friend, Lurkins, linked me to an eBay auction for the Bratz mini calendar.  Lurkins thought that Lena might appreciate the minis for her doll collection, and the price was excellent at around $15.  So, I purchased the Bratz calendar and then got curious and searched around to see what other doll and toy-themed advent calendars I could find.  Turns out, there are a lot!

So this month, I'm going to walk you through as many of the calendars as I can, starting with the Zuru Mini Brands advent from 2024:

Lena with a toy from the Zuru Mini Brands advent calendar.

Sunday Surprise: Mini Fashion and Real Littles!

I was disappointed that I couldn't quite get last week's review done in time for a Sunday Surprise, so I decided to try really hard to get a quick surprise-themed review done for you today!  

My progress was slowed down a little bit this weekend because I finally hit a breaking point with my work space.  I've been writing reviews almost non-stop since October, and I forgot that if I don't take a day or two every now and then to stop and clean up my mess...well, things can get very out-of-control!  On Friday, when fetching the doll for my next review felt like an obstacle course, a death trap, and a game of hide and seek all wrapped into one, I realized that it was time to pause and clean up.  But now my room is beautiful and clean again and it's such an amazing feeling!

As I was tidying and sorting through my stash, I realized that I'd accumulated two different surprise-themed toys that involve purses or bags of some kind: Mini Fashion by Zuru and Real Littles by Moose Toys.  I thought that these two brands might be fun to compare and contrast.  Lina was excited about this idea because she's been pestering me for months to de-box the Mini Fashion sets.  She knows that they contain high-end purses that might be just her size!

Barbie Lina with a Surprise Mini Fashion ball (Zuru, $9.99).