It’s hard to say who I blame more: Disney, for bringing out new product lines every two minutes, or Me, for buying these product lines every three minutes! I thought I was done with buying into the latest trends, but then along came Mini Brands the Disney Store Edition with its adorable collectible figures and I was hooked all over again!

And what makes these figures more adorable than others? The clue is in the word ‘MINI’:

These reproductions of full-size merchandise lines, complete with packaging, range from one inch up to just under three inches in height.

They come in round packaging that resembles a softball. They are made out of 100% recycled plastic and break open like an orange:

Once opened, each ‘slice’ has a plastic film emblazed with the Zuru 5-Surprise logo. Peel this back and reveal the product within:

My first find was Woody from the Toy Story franchise. He just so happens to be one of my favorite Pixar characters, so this was a win right out of the ball!

Each container comes with a checklist sheet:

There are seven Ultra-Rare figures, of which I now have two after buying only four balls. Most of the figures are considered Common and cover characters and props from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars. You can also find some cute display stands, although I don’t know yet how they would fit in a standard ball container. They are called Collector’s Case Exclusive figures.

By now you’ve probably noticed that these are exact replicas of the full-size toys and packaging sitting on toy selves, or on your display shelves, right now! How awesome is that? The level of detail is incredible. If you have a magnifying glass powerful enough, you can even read the microscopic writing on the back of each mini box.

Can you take the figures out of the boxes? Why, yes you can:

Each toy is glued into the package it comes in, so you will have to break this seal to remove it. Doing this might destroy the paper element of the toy. I plan to leave mine as produced. Bullseye was loose when I got him so was perfect for displaying what one of these toys looks like on its own.

Each of the seven Ultra-Rare figures are just copies of the Common figures, but in gold.

Apart from the Disney and Pixar animated classics, there are figures representing the television cartoons of the Disney company. Marvel is also represented:

Note the glue that holds the character to the card in the image, upper right. I also have the Spiderman figure.

And so far I have three Star Wars figures:

Darth Vader is lurking in another ball, biding his time to attack my Alliance of toys!

ZURU Toys is one of the largest toy companies in the world, known for its innovation, creativity and disruption through automation. Whatever that means! Their official website has this to say about the toy lines they offer: “Inspired by kids and imaginative play, ZURU Toys distributes to all major retailers in over 120 countries and has delighted millions of families all over the world with brands such as Bunch O Balloons™, X-Shot™, Rainbocorns™, Robo Alive™, Smashers™, 5 Surprise™ and Pets Alive™ and partnerships with entertainment properties, including Nickelodeon, Disney, Universal Studios and DreamWorks.”

So what do you think of these mini figures? I’m committed to getting quite a few more, although I’m not interested in acquiring a complete collection. There are over 50 figures to collect in each series, and buying five at a time in each ball will add up to mucho $$$ pretty quickly! In Canada, they sell for $12.95 each, per ball. With the four balls I’ve purchased thus far, I have only three doubles. Time to trade!

Not into Disney so much? Zuru also has Toy Mini Brands (featuring vintage and popular games), also Mini Brands (featuring foods and iconic products), and Mini Fashion (featuring accessories).