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Another advantage for Mini Brands, Zahn said, is that they don’t take up a lot of space. “A lot of people are space challenged today,” he said, “They want to collect things – its human nature – but they don’t have anywhere to put them.” Zuru's miniature grocery store items have gone viral on Tik Tok, with videos featuring the toys ... [+] viewed more than 1.6 billion times. Zuru We know the brand’s on fire, but we don’t want to just saturate the market,” she said. “We need to make sure we manage that very fine line around scarcity,” by placing special editions like the Gold Rush in select retailers for very limited time periods, she said. I can’t deny I’m entertained by my miniature groceries. I marvel as I compare the mini Dove to the real one. Yet as children’s toys, they are more concerning and you can’t help wondering where playtime ends and consuming begins. Over Skype, seven-year-old Ava, from the west coast of America, plays with her Mini Brands and Shopkins. Her favourite Mini Brand is Bosco chocolate syrup, because she likes eating it in real life (she doesn’t like the strawberry syrup toy because she doesn’t like strawberry syrup). “I like how the boxes look real,” she says.
The Mini Brands leverage three trends that rival toy companies were already capitalizing on: collectibles, surprise unboxings of small toys, and nostalgia. Giant success: ‘I like how the boxes look real,’ says one young fan. Photograph: Saty + Pratha/The Observer Heavily branded children’s toys aren’t new. In 1994, Mattel released a Barbie McDonald’s Restaurant Set, complete “with talking drive-thru” and miniature menu boards. Around the same time, ride-on toy cars for children became popular, and BMW, Jeep and Mercedes-Benz wasted no time slapping their logos on plastic bonnets. Daniel Cook, a professor of childhood studies at Rutgers University and author of The Commodification of Childhood, says: “Consumerism has been a part of children’s lives for as long as there has been modern consumption,” roughly since the mid-1800s. He references Victorian artist Kate Greenaway’s picture books of the 1880s, which had a tie-in line of clothing for girls produced by Liberty of London. He also points to Campbell’s Soup’s range of dolls, first sold in 1909.The key is constantly refreshing it,” Silver said. “Keeping it fresh to keep the consumer interested.”
Paul Solomon, CEO of Moose Toys, which makes Shopkins Real Littles (tiny versions of real products), says the range was inspired by a desire to make “things that kids can relate to and see in their everyday lives”. With the added advantage that it may well be on their own shopping list in a few years’ time.Zuru’s twist on the food miniatures idea was to make exact replicas of the supermarket brands, down to the nutritional information and the bar codes. Surprise Mini Brands Mini Mart is the ultimate way to store and display your Mini Brands collection, by making your very own little shopping world.
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