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!

The Grossery Gang! Crusty Chocolate Bar Review!

Hey guys!  I recently had a weekend out of town and I came across a store selling some brand new Grossery Gang blind bags.  You know me, I couldn't refuse and for the price, I couldn't really leave without a good handful either.

It seems like Moose Toys has all sorts of designs for their packaging.  I looked for the fountain drink cup one, but I was still happy I found the chocolate candy bar one.  And I must say, when it come to theme, these guys are really awesome about that.  They really drive home the gross food thing in every category, but how does the rest stack up?

Under the wrapper is a fun, rather surprisingly heavy-duty plastic capsule resembling the candy bar advertised on the package.  It's certainly a good touch, but I wonder how much of a waste it is.  Of course, as well as being part of the theme, it keeps people from squeezing the packaging and discovering the hard rubber ultra rares, but once the mini-figures are out, what can you really do with it?  Maybe it's a little paint well or something to store some jewelry?  Ultimately, it's a shame a lot of these probably find the bottom of a trash bin, because there is little use for something this small.

Under the plastic chocolate, we get the checklist and two random mini-figures.  Not pictured is the giant checklist showing all 100-120 gang members in this series, and it strikes me just to how daunting it is to collect a set of this stuff.  A nice note from the checklist however is a little mention of Trash Pack on the top exclaiming The Grossery Gang is 'from the world The Trash Pack', and how true that is.

The mini-figures themselves are exactly, one-hundred percent, what anyone familiar with Trash Pack miniatures would expect.  As I really felt, this new toy line is, in all intents and purposes, a relaunch of an old favorite, and this proves it.  Commons are small, soft, and receive some paint applications.  Rarer ones get a harder rubber cast, with flocking, glow in the dark, metallic, or some other extra touch.  You can tell from the image above, in my lot I got a flocked ultra rare of some rank pineapple or something.

If you loved Trash Pack, you'll love these guys.  If you weren't thrilled with them in the past, for one thing or another, they have done almost nothing to change anything.  I, personally, have a soft spot for this stuff, so I might be throwing some more chump change their way, especially if I can find the fountain drink set.

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!

The End of Moose Toys' Mutant Mania?!

With the news of it hitting the clearance racks across Europe, it appears this just might be the very end of the Mutant Mania toyline from Moose Toys.

Long time readers will remember old posts questioning Moose Toys and Mutant Mania for design choices.  For those who may not know, Mutant Mania was a cool new twist on the classic Kinnikuman/ MUSCLE minifigures.  They were made in awesome vibrant colors and had all kinds of crazy and gross-out characters akin to The Trash Pack.  Where it really fell apart, at least for me, was that they were nowhere close to being a single slug minifigure.  In fact, they were three pieces held tightly together with a rubber barbell that ran through the exposed back of the minifigure.  This was the selling point of the toyline.  It made it customizable, as well as playable, that is, if anyone really felt the same.

Mutant Mania's first set sold and created a fan base, however, I can't really say how well or how big, considering the toyline didn't really grow much past that.  I suppose we can all say it wasn't successful enough, whatever the numbers were, as it is only a year later and it seems to be in it's clearance bin death throws.

Let's not forget Moose Toys have been in this situation with a keshi-inspired toyline many times before.  We can remember The Trash Pack as well as Fistful of Power before that, met the same fate, so I wonder if this is it with Moose Toys and minifigures.  The good news is they still have Shopkins and Uggly's Pet Shop still going to this day, but Mutant Mania was aimed directly as the Kinnikuman audience and failed just over a year.  Would they look at their mistakes and take another shot or move away, maybe to return in some time in the distant future?

We can all take a look into our crystal balls and make our guesses, but what's not to say other keshi-inspired toylines will fall with them?  It always seems when you add a new feature or modernize it up a bit, it takes away from the appeal.  When it pulls away from creative character design and sculpting, what product is really for sale?  Keep it simple and beautiful, I say.  Don't cut up the sculpt.  Don't dig out it's back.  Don't make some ridiculous rubber barbell spine that looks out of place, and don't try to sell me on anything but well-crafted keshi minifigures, because I'm not sure it'll be that successful.

Grossed Out 6: The Day The Earth Stood Gross!

It seems like if it's not Wonderfest in Japan, or a marathon in California, it's certainly the Toy Fair in New York City.  I just can't catch a break with all the news, drops, and everything, but I'm not complaining.  It just means it's shaping up to be an awesome 2015 for minifigures.

These guys were announced just recently at the Toy Fair from the awesome guys at Moose Toys.  You know from my past posts, I enjoy Moose's stuff, well, mostly.  I keep them in my radar and always give them a shot.

This go around, they announced they are coming out with a blind bag series called Ugglys Pet Shop.  It's a minifigure version of the hand puppets they released under the same name, but this time seem to be following the Trash Pack model.

I'm a sucker for animals.  I love dogs, cats, birds, everything, so these guys are so ugly they are cute, but what about them as minifigures?  They appear a bit larger than Trash Pack, which isn't completely a deal-breaker, but they are completely covered in paint, which, on top of that, might just keep them on the store shelves for me.

The coolest thing, oddly enough, with these guys is that these minifigures come with little plastic models of poop, and even stranger, rare chase golden poop.  Exactly how rare these poop pieces will be, and if anyone will really be shredding boxes to get them is still up in the air, but it's certainly a cool added bonus in a set I would probably otherwise not get into.  

I'll be honest, there's a lot I like and don't like with these guys, so I imagine I'll grab the ones I like the most in auctions and be done with them, but I suppose we will have to see if that's what will truly happen.