Australian Easter merchandise

[UltraMarginal]

So I was in my local Big W the other night and saw the following:

Digital Counting Money Jar with Milk Chocolate Eggs (http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l541/UltraMarginal/UltraMarginals%20phone%20pics/2012-02-29185025.jpg)
Torch Gift Pack with milk chocolate Eggs ($9.95) (http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l541/UltraMarginal/UltraMarginals%20phone%20pics/2012-02-29185054.jpg)
Milk Chocolate Egg with "fun" Yo-Yo (http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l541/UltraMarginal/UltraMarginals%20phone%20pics/2012-02-29185104.jpg)
Ceramic Mug with Milk chocolate egg. (http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l541/UltraMarginal/UltraMarginals%20phone%20pics/2012-02-29185114.jpg)

Interestingly the chocolate is made in Australia, which implies that they've been packaged here.

I wonder if the chocolate is actually nice...?

[reillyd]

So I was in my local Big W the other night and saw the following:

Digital Counting Money Jar with Milk Chocolate Eggs (http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l541/UltraMarginal/UltraMarginals%20phone%20pics/2012-02-29185025.jpg)
Torch Gift Pack with milk chocolate Eggs ($9.95) (http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l541/UltraMarginal/UltraMarginals%20phone%20pics/2012-02-29185054.jpg)
Milk Chocolate Egg with "fun" Yo-Yo (http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l541/UltraMarginal/UltraMarginals%20phone%20pics/2012-02-29185104.jpg)
Ceramic Mug with Milk chocolate egg. (http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l541/UltraMarginal/UltraMarginals%20phone%20pics/2012-02-29185114.jpg)

Interestingly the chocolate is made in Australia, which implies that they've been packaged here.

I wonder if the chocolate is actually nice...?

There's also a set of ROTF black metal tins of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee at Target, that were also sold last year. I recall the eggs being awful, but the tins handy for storing legeds/legion class toys.

[griffin]

The money counter is new (and rather odd), but the other three have been done before, but with all new artwork now that DotM has been out since the last Easter.
Last year's ones had the Australian chocolate as well.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I spied those tins in Target today. No pricing as of yet though. Chocolate was awful. Ended up giving them to people at work :p;)

Man I wish they would bust out some different (ie NOT movie) artwork on thise mugs, I dig TF mugs, but am getting tired of the ugly movie work. Gimme some G1, BW or even Animated pleeeeease.

[5FDP]

Another year of uninspired and rehashed Transformer merchandise. Give us something new dammit!

[UltraMarginal]

I spied those tins in Target today. No pricing as of yet though. Chocolate was awful. Ended up giving them to people at work :p;)

Man I wish they would bust out some different (ie NOT movie) artwork on thise mugs, I dig TF mugs, but am getting tired of the ugly movie work. Gimme some G1, BW or even Animated pleeeeease.

I totally agree, I don't need any more cups/mugs right now but would love something with TF:PRIME artwork on it.

[jena]

Maybe by Christmas we might have some TF:Prime themed things in stores.

[UltraMarginal]

Maybe by Christmas we might have some TF:Prime themed things in stores.

Probably, it took that long for animated themed products to show up, at least.

[griffin]

These appear to be all of this year's licensed Easter items for Transformers, only at BigW and Target it seems.

At BigW we have 5 items. One which is totally new. The rest are just redecos of previously released items.

Yo-Yo (with big egg) $9
Torch (with small eggs) $10
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/easter12a5.jpg

Metal car (with small eggs) $11
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/easter12a6.jpg

Mug (with big egg) $6
Electronic money counter (with small eggs) $15 (the new item for this year)
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/easter12a93.jpg
.
The money counter has a few bugs to it, as it can read a coin if you struggle to get it in (like the 50cent), and then read it again when you try again. It should have a cancel button to allow you to erase the last coin and retry it, or if it reads one wrong.
It is at least sensitive enough to not register a NZ dollar coin though.
It needs two AA batteries, and without an off switch, I guess it stays on until the batteries run out.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/easter12a94.jpg
(the big egg was very delicious and creamy - the small eggs taste terrible)
.
And over the last three Movies, the Easter/Christmas mugs (have lollies instead of an Egg for christmas) have been progressively shrinking...
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/easter12a95.jpg


At Target we have 3 items. One which is totally new.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/easter12a8.jpg
.
The two metal tins (Optimus was definitely released before, but I don't recall the Bumblebee one - I'm sure I would have bought one if it was).
Has several small eggs - $13
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/easter12a9.jpg
.
The sides, comparing the difference between the TF2 version and the new TF3 version.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/easter12a91.jpg
.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/easter12a92.jpg

And the thing that has no name... $13.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/easter12a7.jpg
.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/easter12a1.jpg
.
Inside is a giant egg on a plastic cup...
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/easter12a2.jpg
.
Inside the chocolate egg are two lollipops, with plastic covers in the shape of Transformers heads - Bumblebee with battlemask & Shockwave (post here if there are others, that are randomly packed into these).
The lollipops have a plastic wrapping to them that tears into tiny strips that sticks fast to the lollipop. I ended up throwing one away because it was too much effort removing all the tiny bits of plastic.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/easter12a3.jpg
'
Leaving a nice foil wrapper behind, to re-wrap presents with.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/easter12a4.jpg

[Doubledealer]

Darnit, was hoping to replace my RotF mug with a Prime one this year. Ah well, maybe next time.

[5FDP]

That Bumblebee tin is definitely new. Might have to pick one of those up; they make a nice storage container for weapons.


And over the last three Movies, the Easter/Christmas mugs (have lollies instead of an Egg for christmas) have been progressively shrinking...


The same can be said for their deluxe toys.

[griffin]

I measured the volume of the three cups...
the first one was exactly 1 3/4 cups
second was exactly 1 1/2 cups
and the third was exactly 1 1/4 cups

A very uniform progression... leaving me thinking that we'll have one of those Barbie-sized tea-cups within a couple years. :p

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I disagree on the Bumblebee tin. I am pretty darn certain I saw a Bumblebee tin last year. But skipped (coz its Bumblebee) and got prime instead.

On a somewhat different note, does anybody else think it strange that easter merch has now become about crappy toys/novelties with eggs instead of just eggs?

It's almost like another blasted Christmas abomination!

[kup]

I bought DOTM jellies and they were horrible.

[Skullcruncher]

That Bumblebee tin is definitely new. Might have to pick one of those up; they make a nice storage container for weapons.


Exactly what I was thinking :D

[UltraMarginal]

On a somewhat different note, does anybody else think it strange that easter merch has now become about crappy toys/novelties with eggs instead of just eggs?

It's almost like another blasted Christmas abomination!

It's been like that for years, Christmas, Easter, Valentines day... even Australia day.:(

[griffin]

I just found out today in this week's Target catalogue, that the Metal Tins (both Optimus & Bumblebee) and that big giant egg wrapped in blue foil, are both on sale for $10 (save $3 each). Catalogue sale ends on the 28th (Wednesday) if anyone was wanting to save a little on some early Easter (TFs) purchases.

(wasn't worth creating a new news topic)

[KalEl]

I just found out today in this week's Target catalogue, that the Metal Tins (both Optimus & Bumblebee) and that big giant egg wrapped in blue foil, are both on sale for $10 (save $3 each). Catalogue sale ends on the 28th (Wednesday) if anyone was wanting to save a little on some early Easter (TFs) purchases.

(wasn't worth creating a new news topic)

might even pick these up now :P tins could be handy on my work desk

[griffin]

Checked some stores today (the post-Easter discount sales) to find some cheap TFs Easter Merchandise... to eat and to enter the competition with.
Looks like the TFs stuff sold well, as I had trouble finding unsold TFs Easter items. There was a fair bit of other licensed items by the same company still available, but the only TFs items I could find was the Yoyo pack and the Giant Egg.

I bought the last two Giant Eggs at Target Carindale. They were both destroyed (as expected from the giant eggs after weeks on the shelves), but since items were already 50% off, they wouldn't discount them any further. So they were each $6.50... compared with $5 for the broken one I bought at a different Target two days earlier. (they only had 2 left there, and one was broken - but since they seemed to have Easter stuff at 30% off that day, they discounted the broken one from its $9.10 price)
In other words, I paid less before Easter than after, when everything was on clearance.

Anyways, the point of all this rambling, is that I now had another 4 Giant Eggs to add to the one I bought in Melbourne last month (featured in the photos above), for the extra competition entries, but to see if there were other lollipop heads included.
Both of the ones bought on Saturday had Bumblebee & Shockwave, so had me thinking that they were a set pair in all.
And today opening up the first of two Giant Eggs, finding Bee and Shockers inside, I expected to find the same in the fifth Egg... but no. Imagine my surprise at seeing a different pair of heads - Optimus and Sentinel.
So now I'm wondering if there were any other pairs, and I was just unlucky to get 4 out of 5 with the same pair in it.

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/easter12a96.jpg

And for those wondering what use can become of these heads... aside from sticking them on a pencil or a small finger as a puppet... Here's a few things Christalcase and I came up with:
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/easter12a97.jpg

I also found out today that this Easter item was actually made in Greece... of all places. The rest of the things were made locally, but these Giant Eggs were made in Greece and then import them as is... to sell here. Weird.