Rambling! Did Shopkins Start An Epic Minifigure Trend?

Welcome back, everyone, to U&R, and sit back first the first bit of high-octane rambling since the rebranding.  Today I'm tackling and proposing something a bit adjacent, but still semi-related, to keshi minifigures.  It's Walmart, some of the biggest minifigure brands out there, and a demographic you'd wouldn't suspect - roll out!

Since I've been publishing entries to this blog, I've been talking about a resurgence of keshi minifigure production and collecting.  It's what captured my interest from just nostalgia of an old 80's toy line to a present day hobby, if not obsession.  I've used this phrase with, I admit, some ignorance.  I remember classic minifigures from the 80's and 90's, but fell off the wagon of little rubber things, until a few years ago, where I learned that a community had formed to collect, trade, and share info for a number of years prior.  Maybe in that gap, between the 90's and what I presumed to be the resurgence, there was other activity.  If there was, that certainly makes the comeback not that significant, but instead, interesting that it never fully left.  This complete history is something I lack, but maybe should pull together for a future article.

I bring this all up, because although it was a term I had used in the past, correctly or not, about keshi minifigures, it stands in awe of a tidal wave from multiple minifigure toy lines.  It's something I never would have guessed, but very happy and intrigued is happening.

Shopkins has only been around since 2014, but the concept has been in production a lot longer.  Manufacturer, Moose Toys, has built their company on retired successes like Trash Pack and Fistful of Power, but have evolved their brands and toy lines through the years.  We've seen the Trash Pack turn into the Grossery Gang.  We've seen the their homage to Kinnikuman with Mutant Mania come and go.  And we've seen their model of selling blind bags of gross and weird minifigures, re-imaged for girls and those with less interest in the stinkier things in life.  That is Shopkins, and like no other toy line previously produced, Moose Toys struck gold with it.

Shopkins' success could be attributed to many different factors, like those circle graphs that show a perfect storm of sales in the center for these little cookie characters.  Maybe little girls truly enjoy minifigures than boys?  I'm not sure that's completely true, but the Japanese kawaii culture of tiny cute things could have some influence across the pond.  I feel it's themes of cuter and happier food characters and fashion cast a wider net than booger figures do.  A broader appeal creates more sales over a larger crowd of children and parents, and overall, this is only amazing news.  So much so other companies are taking notice and producing their own collectible minifigures, altering the formula slightly to hope for a slight edge over competition.

I've recently visited Walmart and took these two pictures, although I could have taken a few more, just to show off the scale of this avalanche.  Not every display is of a minifigure line, but I only wish keshi had quantities like this on shelves.

Granted, I'll say this - most of these brands don't have me that interested in collecting a master set.  They fall victim to the same song and dance of Moose Toys.  They are slight smaller than the scale I prefer.  They have paint applications, if not absolutely doused in paint.  Some are made of a softer rubber that I'm really not much a fan of, that makes you wonder why I ever liked Trash Pack, but the gross theme was always interesting to me.

Although I may never dive into any of these, I think it's absolutely awesome this generation of young ones are getting into minifigures, even if it's not particularly the 80's stuff that I love.  It gets them into collecting the sets, wondering what else is out there, and possibly searching the history books for the classics.  It's not all spun with this selfish root to keshi either, but interest towards the future, wondering what this new wave of interest will cause in the future-adults looking back to capture their favorite toys they collected as kids.

We speak of Kinkeshi as if it should be on Mount Rushmore.  I feel Shopkins, in time, will receive the same.