KINDER Surprise Eggs is the story of an ingenious invention which inspired millions of fans for years: In 1974 an Italian pastry cook and businessman - Michele Ferrero - had the idea to pack small toys and hard plastic figures into plastic shells and encase them with black and white chocolate – made to enjoy good children. At that time nobody reckoned that this idea would bear a fervet passion to collect this items, particularly by adults.
As likely as not the first KINDER Surprise collectors had been tender-hearted parents who saved some of these early toys and hard plastic figures from trash and vacuum cleaners, probably sniggered by “serious” e.g. stamp collectors or model railway fans.
Nobody knows when “not-throw-away” became serious collecting. A community of collectors grew due to the well-advised marketing strategy of Ferrero by constant extension of the amount and quality of the contents and creating complete play-worlds and series of thematical matching items. At least it became a serious area of collectibles around the Ferrero KINDER Surprise Eggs when the first price catalogue had been published in 1991. From now on it was possible to complete the collection on the basis of this catalogue.
In Germany Ferrero issues round about 150 new toys every season (from September to May). And of course two or three series of handpainted hard plastic characters which are sometimes special Ferrero characters like e.g. Happy Hippos, Top Ten Teddies or Desktop Gang and sometimes licensed series like e.g. Smurfs or Lord of the Rings. And quite rare but sometimes happend series which are both: special Ferrero characters in licensed outfit like Happy Hippo Star Wars.
However, as the Ferrero slogan for KINDER Surprise Eggs truly says: something to graze – something to surprise – something to play with- not alone the hard plastic figures are worth to be collected. The toys and mountable items will also boost ones heart beat. True to original cars, trains and airplanes, 3D- and jigsaw puzzles, maneuverable animals and people, buttons, savings boxes . . . Quite often is it a miracle how a mounted toy once had been in this midget egg shell.
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