The PopCult Toybox

It’s been a while since I’ve written about Zuru Toys’ popular Mini Brands here in the blog, but they continue to be one of the most successful items in the toy department, with a huge and loyal following among kids and adult collectors.

They’ve expanded their line of tiny brand-name replicas of consumer products into nostalgia, with their Retro line, retailer-specific lines for KFC, Disney and Ulta, plus they’ve introduced Mini Brands of books, home furnishings and other themes.  They’ve also released a line of Mini Brand Create sets, that allow kids to make their own clay miniatures of food and other items that can be cured with UV light to hold their shape permanently.

Mini Brands have been a dioramist’s dream. Whether you’re creating dollhouses, gag photos and memes or action-figure photo stories, these have been a godsend.

Cindy Scott uses a lot of Mini Brands items (particularly the Retro line) in her spectacular dioramas.

Their latest expansion is the Fill The Fridge series, which is anchored by a very cool looking tiny refrigerator.  Not only is this real metal fridge, with a terrific  Mid-Century design, a nifty miniature in its own right, but it also serves a function with its interior light, which can be switched to UV so that kids and hobbyists can safely cure their Create minis without risking exposure to the UV light.

In UV mode, the light stays on when the fridge is closed. In regular light mode, it only  lights up when the fridge is opened.

It’s not only a functional tool, but it’s also a great way to display your collection of Mini Brands.

Accompanying this fridge is a new line of Mini Brands called, natually, Fill The Fridge. This line is exclusive devoted to products that you’d keep in the fridge or freezer, and it includes a lot of stuff that hasn’t been seen before in previous Mini Brand assortments, like fresh meat and produce, and those again are going to be welcomed heavily by dioramists and dollhouse curators.

Oh…and people who play with their large-scale GI Joes and Barbies, too.  They’ll eat up this stuff. This fridge will be right at home in any Dream House or Adventure Team Headquarters, and it’s even workable with MEGO sized figures.

It’s a high-quality toy and collectible, with solid construction and a cool retro design. The only drawback is the demand.  Fueled by viral videos, this toy has sold out locally at Walmart and Target, and is gone from Amazon. I was lucky to snag one when I did. It’s expected that these will be back in stock in the coming weeks, but they’re expected to be one of the hottest toys this Christmas.

I’ll comment more in the photos below.

a bigger look at the Fridge, in it’s double-wrapped packaging. Be careful when peeling the printed film off around the handles.

The side panel shows you the features.

The back shows more features and promises an entire collectible mini-kitchen

It’s fairly easy to open, especially for anybody who already collects Mini Brands. Just “unzip” it along the perforations.

Once unrapped, we have an extremely cool retro refrigerator (and I’ve been shopping for a full-sized one lately) in a color that would be right at home on a KitchenAid Mixer…or a Tri-Five Chevy!

Once opened, you get to see that it lights up, and includes a couple of cool Minis (one you create yourself) a magnet and working shelves and drawers.

This is most of what you get inside (I didn’t open the clay for the Jello mold yet).

There are assembly instructions, but it’s so easy you don’t really need them. This took three minutes, tops.

In terms of the scale, with a random 12″ Fighting Yank figure, this is pretty realistically scaled for a 7.7 cubic foot retro fridge.

And it’s a cute accessory for a Barbie-sized fashion doll.

It also works perfectly as a full-sized fridge for MEGO-sized figures, on this case, the Astro Command elder statesman, who thinks Gargon has raided his fridge. You’ll meet Gargon next week.