With No Future Plans, Moose Toys Cancels Grossery Gang!

When pressed at Toy Fair 2019 in New York, late last February, about why there were no new releases teased for their Grossery Gang franchise this year, representatives had to break the news that there were no future plans for their gross-out food mini-figures.  For those who remember and collected Moose's Trash Pack, this is deja vu.

No toy line lasts forever, or even very long.  Classic Transformers and He-man only saw the majority of a decade before things were scrapped or moved around.  MUSCLE had even less time.  But there is something about this that stings.  I'm not sure if it's the second death of Trash Pack or a climate that should have treated the Gang better.

I spoke not too long ago about how mini-figures, especially those targeted at little girls were making serious bank and taking up whole shopping isles in big box stores.  It was glitter puppies, cutey babies, and pretty princesses galore, with one of the powerhouses being Moose's own Shopkins.  Shopkins, if you didn't know, are Grossery Gang if they took a shower and wore make-up, but Shopkins hit the scene between the death of Trash Pack and before the relaunch and rebranding of Grossery Gang.  Some would even speculate Shopkins roaring success paved the way for their disgusting cousins to come out of retirement, but apparently only for a short time.

Is the fad dying?  I certainly don't have sales figures or a demographic to rely on for information, but things still seem to be going smoothly, with the announcement of their brand name food Shopkins coming out sometime this year.  But I just don't know if little ladies are still into things like these anymore.  Moose Toys certainly has moved a lot of their focus into a different direction.

Oh well, such is life I suppose.  Moose Toys has very rarely hit a bulls-eye with keshi purists, but Trash Pack and Grossery Gang were awesome all the same.  It sucks mini-figures lost just a little shelf space so something else, but who knows what'll take it's place.  Only time will tell!

Grossed Out 8: The Trash That Came Back!

You know what?  Sometimes when things work out for you, you really don't question how.  You just get thrilled and pumped up that certain chains of events happened, regardless of your eternal bad luck.  Such is the way of brand new toy line from Moose Toys, The Grossery Gang!

Does these guys look familiar?  Because they should!  Back from the dead, I would love to welcome the spiritual successor of The Trash Pack back into my life!

A few years ago, Moose Toys made a toy line near and dear to my heart called The Trash Pack.  They were gross little mini-figures portraying all sorts of disgusting things, from rotten foods, germs, bugs, and everything else.  They weren't perfect in the eyes of the keshi elitist side of my reptile brain, but they struck that gross-factor nostalgic itch that also occupied part of my childhood.   Yet, despite my love and a good handful of sets, the series was discontinued.

As the proverbial dumpster lid for The Trash Bag series was being lifted, Moose Toys released a new series called The Shopkins.  They were a cleaner, cuter, re-imagining of the trashies, but unlike the trashies, they were a resounding success.  Everyone went crazy for Shopkins, even despite the fact they were just shopping-themed and left a lot of the wilder themes the trashies explored.

To my knowledge, The Shopkins are still going strong, but their success has reanimated The Trash Pack under a new name and grocery store theme.  We might not be getting the booger-coated seagull anytime soon from The Grossery Gang, but at this point, it's something I am completely fine with.

The Grossery Gang is coming out in all sorts of sets and packages, from slushie drinks to candy bars, potato chip bags, and likely many, many, more.  Hot damn!  If there is a single takeaway about this, is that when it comes to things like this, you really can change the minds of big toy manufacturers with the power of your money.  Even after their demise, if you went out and supported Moose Toys through any of their various mini-figure toy brands, you helped bring the trashies back in the form of The Grossery Gang!

Expect some unboxings and reviews very soon!

Click here to check out Pixel Dan's awesome unboxing!

Toy Haul 05/10/2015 Wal*Mart Edition!

Today's Toy Haul is unfortunately not a interesting mail bag of cool minis, but brought to you by Wal*Mart, low expectations, and an evening of morbid curiosity.

That might actually be the wrong term to use.  I've seen the Wal*Mart exclusive Jurassic World blind bags cycle around the Interwebs, so I sort of knew what I was getting into, but for a mere dollar and so, I figured it was worth the drive over for a good chuckle.

Boy, these dinos are bad, and really, so bad, they are almost bootleg-awesome.  I half expected them to have a 1983 trademark stamped on them, from some reused mold of a random dinosaur set.  Sure, in all actuality, maybe they still are, but at least they had the decency to file off the old date and replace it with this year's.  One thing of a positive note, is that the plastic used is of better quality of what you'd expect from dollar store dinosaurs, so take that for what you may.  Also, they are single-cast, at least these two are.  One solid chunk of utter trash... I mean awesome.

On my way to the checkout, I found this tiny blind bag for Trash Pack.  For another mere handful of pennies, I could get a random trashie and trashie tag, whatever that was.  Inside was a cool little purple sofa character, I don't believe I owned already and a Gutter Grub key-chain tag-thing that ended up being a holofoil chase super rare thing.  Wow, the excitement.

I went to the big blue box, spent three dollars and got four things, I suppose it wasn't as horrible as I make it sound out to be.  Sure, nothing here was that mind-blowing, but I knew that was going to be the case from the start.  Still fun to uncover some Grade F dinos though, so really no complaints.  

Toy Haul 04/02/15 Awesome Forum Member Edition

Here's a little bit larger of a haul for you, and really, for me, it's quite a special one.

The post I wrote about keeping your trading as low risk as possible wasn't inspired from events other than my own, and even ones pretty recently.

It's tough when a sale or a trade bottoms out, and at least how I feel about it, being left hanging about it all is the worst part.  It doesn't get lower than feeling you don't have any power in a situation, not even to find some sort of closure like the post office losing a package and moving on.  Always having to wonder and remain optimistic is torture, at least for me.  Having an ending is important, good or bad, just so it's done.

I had voiced some concern about a recent trade to moderators on a toy forum, and they were completely awesome about.  They were able to provide contact information I didn't have, and were able to help me resolve it pretty quickly.  And to go beyond what I needed a hand with, one of them, free of charge, sent me a care package of Track Pack minifigures from his own collection for the trouble someone else caused.

I have a hunch he'd like to remain anonymous, but hopefully he sees this and knows how awesome of a gesture it was for me and how much it really means.  Yeah, sure, the Trashies are awesome and a lot of them I don't have, but it's far beyond that.  It's not just the little gross toys, it's that someone knew and felt, maybe even related, to my situation and wanted to give me a hand.  It's rare in this world to have someone else's back like that, even if you know the person, let alone strangers over the Internet, but it's awesome to find them when you do.  People like this are rarer and more valuable than the hardest to find chase minifigure, and it's great to know they exist in the keshi community.

Again, thanks man!  I hope you enjoy the care package I sent back!