Individual Eleven – The World's Cyberbrain

I was shopping in Tesco one day, and walked past the “odds and sods” section of the aisle. Generally, this is at the end of every shopping aisle, such as an emergency SD card for those emergency picture taking days. I strolled towards the small chocolate section, and decided to buy a Kinder Egg. I used to get one every other week, but for some reason I stopped. Feeling nostalgic, I picked one up and took it to the checkout.

There’s quite a history behind the humble Kinder Surprise. Looking at the Wiki, it started in 1972 in Italy by the famous Ferrero chocolate company. By the way, I love Ferrero Rocher and I can live on those quite happily. Moving swiftly on before I start salivating, when I was a kid I used to beg my parents to get me one every week. You would have such cool toys inside them, and the chocolate wasn’t half bad either. We used to use the shells as a kind of ping pong ball, although this inevitably led to some eye popping accidents.

Unfortunately, the toys you get nowadays are rather disappointing to say the least. Each Kinder Surprise is around 54p, not exactly cheap considering an entire bar of Cadbury’s Whole Nut was about the same price. Well, it’s always the thought of getting the toy which ropes all the little children into wanting one. Therefore, to see if there has been any improvement I prised mine open with as much dexterity as a crab with arthritis. Luckily, they changed the egg design so it is easier to open.

Lo and behold, it was rubbish. Gone were the days of miniature paint kits with the tiniest brush, or some mechanical toy to show off to your friends, I even got a measuring tape once. Alas, all I got was a piece of rubber to stick at the end of your pencil.

Interestingly, the US has banned the importation of Kinder Eggs, I didn’t know this until I read the Wiki. To think what our cousins are missing! Well, maybe not…

I guess I was feeling random tonight, so I dug out all my Kinder Surprise toys and took a group picture with them. In hindsight, I could have saved enough money to buy a slap up meal at the local fish and chips shop, but instead I spent it on random pieces of plastic. You live and learn I suppose; still it does bring back fond memories of a childhood yesteryear.

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Tags: Ferrero, Kinder Surprise

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 10:58 pm and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.