Kinder Surprise Eggs
 

I'd seen these in Europe and could never find them in the US, so I figure most of you haven't seen one.

I love these things.

First, you take the foil wrapping off and eat the chocolate shell.
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Then you open the plastic shell inside to see what you got. It isn't always obvious. They really pack them in tight.

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I spread the stuff out and still don't know what it's going to be. It comes with anti-choking warnings in about two dozen languages.

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It also comes with instructions, which is helpful.


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Look at the size of this toy compared to the plastic shell it came in. These Kinder engineers could work for NASA.

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I should add that after I brought 9 of these back from England in April, I read a story about some guy who had done the same thing with just a couple and he got in serious legal trouble.

Apparently they are considered a choking hazard here because it's a non-food item hidden in food.

Oh wow. So cool!

All we can get is a crappy cracker jack surprise: all they are now are a couple jokes or a tiny sticker.

I remember the first christmas crackers I saw; ex sis in law brought them home from NZ. My now grown nieces and nephews loved them. So did I!

Why can't we have cool stuff?

We've had those over here for years. Probably even since I was kid I think. The boys always liked them, and Max does too. I like them because the actual amount of junk food you're getting is small compared to the rest of it. Much better than getting your child a normal chocolate bar for a treat.

I remember those being trendy with teenagers ... back when I was a teenager.

You poor merkins don't have Kinder Surprises? :(

See there's your problem. You've done so much to prevent natural selection from removing the idiots from your national gene pool ... you get overrun by idiots ... now look at your two main political parties.

Kinder Surprises in the 1990s could have prevented the second Bush presidency, you know. ;)

We had Wonder Balls... but everyone decided to let their kids choke on stuff and then sue... that's why kinder surprises are a no-no

Apparently when they were first released with the toys, they were called "magic balls" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC-79Xxl0fo

:luv:

Hmmph.

My mom made snakes in the basement of our mobile home. So there.

... and furthermore ...

So, it's fine for major burger chains to sell non-food items disguised as food, with all the chronic health risks of this, but raise the risk of some doofus choking on a plastic toy container and OMG that must not be!

America. Where almost anyone can have a gun, but Kinder Surprises are too dangerous!

I don't know what they're called, but a friend of the family brought these chocolate eggs with a toy inside for my nephew from France when he came to visit one time. Sadly, they were confiscated at customs and thrown away. :(

wrong. does not come in pretzel flavor.

:lol: touche'

A couple years ago I ordered 4 dozen from a supplier in Canada and gave them out at work at Christmas. Most everyone seemed to enjoy them although there were a few cases of toy envy, as some of the toys are cooler than others. I'd guess there were at least 10 different toys in the mix, although I didn't see them all opened... the big shots took them back to their offices.
You're right about the ban for choking hazard, but nobody choked on mine... or called the feds. :haha:

That's too funny, Zen. And so, so true.


First, let's kill all the lawyers...

I looked it up. Threatened with a $2,500 fine per egg and detained for a few hours, but then let go with no charges filed.

Kinder Eggs: Some eggs are not at all kind.

It's a kinder, gentler egg.

I LOVE these things! Not the chocolate so much, but the toy. I am almost positive you could take a trip to Canada to buy them.....hmmm, road trip!!

Lawyers, stupid judges, and sue-happy dumbasses.

A basement, in the trailer?

Fucking rich kids.

Yes, my mom was a witch, and made snakes in the basement of the trailer. That's what she told us, and that's what we believed.

It was a question on QI "The most confiscated item intercepted by US customs" or somesuch. Amazed me.

I'd offer to send some, but now I've put that in writing I've lost any chance of pleading Not Guilty.

I'll buy one every now and then for you and take photos. Oh and Bruce is right - the quality of the toys varies enormously. Especially as they often have a collectible set of figures. If you're having one every 10 months or so, you get NO fun out of a little plastic crocodile in a hat or whatever it is. And yet an office college of mine used to buy them off the sandwich trolley almost every day, and she was disappoint too. Again with the crocodile with the fishing pole!

Those are cool, but they smell like burning tires.

Yeah, the chocolate isn't much to write home about. :headshake

This is how they were advertised in the 80s:

Dana - I see the face and I am afraid to click.

You're right bbro.
It's worse when it moves and speaks.

Chocadoobeeee!

Yeah that thing is terrifying... especially since it speaks in tounges.

This years collection of kinder Surprises in Canada (don't know if they vary by country), have the usual bunch of little creatures, some real, some fantasy.
There was an airplane like glatt showed in the OP, some weighted throwing streamers, a couple winged tops, and a red helicopter thingy that spins up and takes off when you pull a toothed strip.

It's quite amazing what they can get in the little plastic "yoke" that's about 1.25" in dia and 1.75" long. Of course the bigger toys require more engineering, and more parts, which make them more expensive, so less of them in the mix.

A company in NJ has come up with a way to make something similar to the Kinder Eggs that will satisfy the feds, but it remains to be seen how good the toys are.

I'd be disappointed if I got a little figurine instead of one of those helicopter things that you get to assemble.

kool

When you unwrap the Kinder Egg, try not to tear the foil... it can be reused. :headbag:

Did anyone ever tell you you're a very naughty boy, Bruce?

surPRISE!!

yay nanny state.... :(

Well there was good reason for the law when it was enacted... in 1938.

First was the idea that they weren't allowed to put anything non-nutritive in food, which is a pretty good idea. No bulking up the food with sawdust and shit.
Secondly the idea of toys embedded in candy is a choking hazard for the under 3 set.

The problem is once the law is passed, nobody wants to make a reasonable judgment on an individual item like the Kinder Eggs.

Might be some campaign contributions by American candy companies too.

What surprises me is that they allow king cake for Mardi Gras. You have a soft tender cake you are supposed to eat, and there is a tiny plastic baby hidden in the cake. That's much more of a real choking hazard than Kinder eggs are.

The rules make no sense. Maybe there's a religious exemption.

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That cake has mould growing on it..!

There are various apochryphal stories about people choking on the silver sixpences hidden in Christmas puddings. Har-har-har not so lucky after all.
I have a spare one if anyone is interested.
A sixpence. And not to choke on of course.
I was going to send it to Bri for Christmas (sjhe got a mini-pudding in her box), but it arrived too late. Actually I think I'll give it with love to my Mum on her birthday. By coincidence it's actually minted in 1946, her birth year.

Well, might as well get it out the way - I also have a Chinese God of Fortune purse (wallet? change purse? Not a bag, something to hold money) and two Chinese coins with holes in them. Can't choke on those. You're not supposed to give an empty purse, or it will stay empty - a purse with coins will attract others. I don't know if that's Irish, East End London or just made up by my family. You can't spend these anyway, they're probably worth about tuppence. That was for her birthday. There's a cat on it.

Sorry. I don't think there's anything else already purchased.

glatt, aren't those King cakes a local item made by bakeries? They aren't imported, nor sold prepackaged in supermarkets across the country, so they wouldn't attract the ire of the feds. They also aren't targeted at children.

Some are sold online from New Orleans and shipped. But you might be right. The feds can only check so much.

I bought Kinder Eggs online. :D

The unkinder egg

is it Kinder, like in Kindergarten, or Kinder, like to be kind?

The former

Thonks

This Viet lady told me the same thing when she added a dollar in the purse she gave me. Hmm...just remembered, my cousin from Vietnam gave me several purses, none had money in it. :eyebrow: I think I will insist on having some money put in any purses given to me in the future. :D

My family (Irish Catholic) does the money in the purse things. Crazynurse's family (more Irish, more Catholic), does a penny and a bit of straw swiped from the church manger at Christmas.

Hey are you related to the wolf that used to post a lot at the cellar, BITD?

No. You must be thinking of my twin sister ... totally not the same person ...

;)

I'm amazed that they let them sell King Cakes for Mardi Gras with a plastic baby baked in.

I know. You'd expect at least a real baby in a King cake, if not an actual king.

Guess that baby flour'd be gluten free, worth a shot.

See post 41

But cheaper if you buy it in bulk on the internet. I know some great dried-baby resources.

A Nawlins-based client of a former employer of mine sent a King cake to our office one Mardi Gras. The plastic baby came separately in a little plastic bag, so I guess the recipient was responsible for putting it the cake and creating the choking hazard...