I've Been Kinder Surprised!
I was Kinder Surprised yesterday in that I received a Kinder Surprise parcel I wasn't expecting. This was from my friend Kay in Dunedin, who often sends me unexpected, but certainly not unwelcome, Kinder parcels from time to time. It had three German toys and a number of German papers (mostly duplicates, but some originals, including a couple of papers that I needed for toys that didn't have one.

Kay also wrote me an interesting letter in which she said (among other things) that Anja Engeln, a very nice German lady with whom I did a couple of great trades a couple of years back, had given birth to twins on 21 June! My warmest congratulations to Anja and her husband.

Today I have added the contents of Kay's parcel to the site, along with the Kinder I got today - a duplicate of K01 No. 40. I now have a complete spare set of K01 speedboats, albeit without a couple of variations.

So, you never know just when you might be Kinder Surprised! That's all for now. Hooray! (That's a New Zealand way of saying Goodbye!)

Bonne Fete!
A very happy Bastille Day to any French readers to happen to be reading this.

I received a Kinder parcel in the mail today. It was from that English guy I mentioned a couple of entries or so ago. It contained three Looney Tunes toys from the K03 series - Sylvester with stage light, Taz acting as an usher and Tweety Pie sitting on a pile of film reels. All complete with papers and Magic Kinder slips - very nice indeed. I duly thanked the fellow and added him to the Good Traders List of my site. Everyone I have satisfactory dealings with gets a plug on my Good Traders List unless they specifically ask me not to do this. Anyone who tries to rip me off goes on the Bad Traders List whether they like it or not.

While putting away the papers, a bunch fell out of the bag in which I keep all my papers for cartoon characters. Most annoying, but I made a discovery in the process. Which is that I have two papers for K98 No. 68 (Wile E. Coyote), but none for K98 No. 65 (Daffy Duck)! I thought I had a full set of all the papers. So that's a bit of a drag. But I would not have found this out if it were not for that little accident of the papers falling out of the bag. The spare K98 paper is now up for trade. Hopefully I will be able to swap it for the Daffy Duck paper I need.

Given that it is Bastille Day, a French farewell seems appropriate - au revoir et a bientot!

Jigsaw Puzzle Sold!
The jigsaw puzzle I mentioned in my last blog entry has been sold. A guy in the Netherlands bought it using the "Buy it Now" option.

I had the final Kinder egg from the German 72-pack I bought back in February today. Got "Der Enzian" ("The Gentian") to complete my Flower Power set. A nice way to finish the pack off. I think that the gentian is by far the prettiest of the three flowers in this set. Very nice shape and colour. Incidentally, am I the only person who thinks of the Edelweiss song whenever I see the Flower Power Kinder one? It ends up getting stuck in my head for hours.

Now that I'm finished with the German eggs, it's back to Argentine Kinders only, though naturally I hope I'll be able to swap some of my German spares! Anyway, that's all from a sunny but chilly Wellington! Until next time, may your next surprise be a Kinder Surprise!

eBay Auction
I'm running by first eBay auction for a while. The friend I offered my spare K01 No. 122 jigsaw to was fortunate enough to have it, so I've put it on eBay. Here's the URL for it:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3138469399

You'll also find a direct link to it on the K01 Sale Or Trade page.

Apart from that, I have also added a spare flower and pot plant paint set (K01 No. 3). This is one that doesn't have an Argentine paper.

That's all from a very cold, windy and sometimes wet Wellington! (We're in the middle of winter here!)

Some Toys Added, Some Taken Away
I've added a couple of new toys to the site since I last posted here. One is an Argentine version of K01 No. 17. The wretched thin paper was torn rather badly in two places, but even so, I was quite pleased to get it. The other is a rather cute hedgehog with crossed eyes from the German "Im Land der Regenbogen-Igel" set. This is the variation with purple head.

In addition to adding toys, I've also removed four duplicates that I am going to a trade with a guy in Britain. It's the first time I've traded with this particular chap, but hopefully it will go well.

All for now. Toodle pip!

Marvellous Martians
Although it's four days since I last updated the site, I have only had one new toy to add - Roboter 2 from the "Einsatztruppe Mars" set. That completes my set of three Martian robots, which have been this year's capsule toys (i.e. toys whose capsule forms part of them).

Actually, I did also score a spare of the elusive K01 No. 122, but have offered that to someone, so it's not on the site. However, if that person declines or doesn't get back to me, I might offer it to someone else or even put it on eBay. If I put it on eBay, I'll probably put it on the site as well, with a link to the eBay auction.

That's all for now. Ciao!

Cybertop!
Had a good score from a German Kinder egg today - Cybertop himself, the main "good guy" in the Cybertop series. So was very pleased with that. I now have eight of the 12 Cybertops, and the only ones I need are Cyberluna, Dr Link, Joey Styk and Mr Mouse. So if anyone has these (preferably with German papers), please get in touch!

I've added that to the site. That was the only thing I updated today.

Until next time, remember a Kinder a day helps you work, rest and play! :-)

Woof, Woof
Just one new toy added to the site with the latest update: an Argentine variation of the K01 bulldog on a wheel. It has a sticker for its teeth (the Italian/European version has the teeth painted on). The paper is a generic one for both toys in the set (the other being the pelican on a wheel). Nice to add another Argentine variation to the collection.

I also added a couple of duplicates, but nothing all that exciting.

Moving off topic for a moment: New Zealand has experienced its warmest June on record, with temperatures two or three degrees above average in most places. That includes my home town of Wellington. However, July has started cold (it was only 9 degrees in Welly today) and looks set to get even colder later in the week. So winter is now well and truly here!

Mind you, one advantage of winter is that Kinder chocolate tastes better - it tends to go all soft in the summer heat!

That's all for now. May your next surprise be a Kinder Surprise.

Not Much To Say
Not much to say today, as I'm pretty busy. But I've managed to update the site and have added a couple of duplicates in. Have now got almost a complete spare set of the K01 butterflies with Argentine papers to trade. Am also down to the last five Kinder eggs of my German 72-pack, purchased a few months ago now.

And that's it! May you be Kinder Surprised today.

Playful Panthers
I've added one new toy in my site update today - the Verspielte Pantherfamilie from this year's German series, which I got in a German Kinder Surprise egg today. Verspielt means things like "playful", "frisky" or even "kittenish", so I think a good translation for Verspielte Pantherfamilie is Playful Panther Family. Nice alliteration. It has a good ring to it. Anyway, the toy comprises a mother panther (dark blue or purple) holding a tiny baby (light blue or purple) in her mouth. Very cute.

The paper for this toy has a few interesting tidbits of info about panthers - for instance, did you know that panthers are basically jaguars? But they're called panthers when their fur is black. German Kinder Surprises have some nice animal figurines from time to time, and these usually have papers with interesting info. So if you collect Kinder Surprises in Germany, you can become quite educated!

Non-German Kinder Surprise toys are a lot less educational, because the papers only have pictures and no words (apart from the obligatory safety warnings). Well, the hand-painted figurine papers usually have words, but those for toys in the regular line don't. I think the way that German Kinder Surprise papers are set out, with words as well as pictures, adds to the appeal and collectability of German Kinder Surprise toys.

What do the rest of you think? If anyone reading this has some views about Kinder Surprises, such as whether German, European or Argentine ones are better, or what the best and worst kinds of Kinder toys are, then do post a comment. Don't be shy! The panthers won't bite! ;-)

That's all for today. Until next time, may your next surprise be a Kinder Surprise.