Kinder Surprise Eggs consist of a dual layered chocolate egg, with milk chocolate on the outside, and the inside of the shell made from white chocolate. Â Inside the chocolate shell lies a little plastic container, which when opened contains a build-it-yourself toy.
The eggs are manufactured by Italian company Ferrero (creators of the Ferrero Rocher – thank you ambassador, you’re really spoiling us) and they first appeared in 1972. Â Whilst the chocolate egg part has remained pretty much unchanged since then (personally I don’t find it that tasty) the toys have steadily improved in quality.
I remember as a child the toy was usually a disappointment, being something like a ring or a pencil topper, but some time in the 1980s (I think about the time the TV advert that I talk about later in this post aired) the toys suddenly became more interesting. Â Self assembly toys started to appear, where you clicked little pieces of plastic together to build much larger toys such as cars or people. Â Now they can be quite sophisticated toys with moving parts.
Sometimes the eggs will contain a special range of limited edition toys that are intended to be collected, which has increased the appeal of this confectionary to adult toy collectors. Â Some examples were a range of Smurf figurines, a collection of variously posed crocodiles called Crazy Crocos, and the frankly odd pairing of sharks with the stories of the Arabian Knights to produce the Sharkie Babas.
However, if you want the best quality toys then apparently you should buy your Kinder Surprise in Germany, as the Germans get their own special range of toys.
Whilst writing this post I was surprised to find that the Kinder Surprise Egg is banned from sale in the United States due to the small parts contained within the toy. Â I’m frankly surprised at this, since getting into the plastic container holding the toy parts isn’t always that easy. Â If you want proof, check out this link to a page on the US Consumer Product Safety Commission website. Â It’s dated 2006 but the text makes reference to an earlier influx of Kinder Eggs in 1997 when a country wide recall was issued!
Finally, the real reason for writing this post today is because I came across this old TV advert for Kinder Surprise that I certainly remember from my childhood. Â It’s pretty hard to forget because it features a very disturbing looking Humpty Dumpty type character who looks pretty frightening to begin with, but when it starts talking it becomes even more sinister, manically giggling “yibble shriky” and “chocadooby” and shouting “tooooooy!“. Â I can only imagine someone at the ad agency concerned misread “jolly humpty dumpty character” for “scary egg shaped genetic experiment gone wrong“. Â I guess the UK TV ban on advertising sweets to children is a good thing after all if it stops kids being scared by this unholy freak. Â You have been warned.
Me scrooble now.
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You’d be astonished at what the US bans for sale with toys.
does anybody know the translation from german to english for chocadooby 80 tv ad ?
The English version was just a load of gibberish really, I wonder if the German version made any more sense?
[…] Jahre! Wir erinnern uns … oder vielmehr, wir lassen uns erinnern! Hier eine Filmkritik von “Child of the 1980sâ€: […] I came across this old TV advert for Kinder Surprise that I certainly remember from my […]
I lived in Italy for a few years , and bought a truck load of those eggs.. Years later I still have bags of the toys we collected from them. Sad to know that we can’t get them shipped here in the states. I loved those and the pocket coffees , which I am having a hard time finding. Would love to have some of those right now…
[…] who looks a bit like he could be the offspring of Yoda and that weird Humpty Dumpty thing from the Kinder Egg advert that ran in the eighties. Â He was obviously meant to be the good and kind overseer of the […]
well, i happen to love that wierd humpty creature -and the kinder eggs – . if you love the humpty – dumpty creature , try out the web site ” veryeggie.webs.com ” ,the official fansite for this cute little creature !!!!!!!!!
Takes all sorts I suppose 😉 Best of luck with the website Very Eggie!
Wow….you weren’t wrong about that being a disturbing advert. Glad never saw that as a kid, would have put me off Kinders for life!!