Sunday Surprise: Twozies and Sonny Angel!

Whew.  I was so emotionally bogged down by that Global Girl review (I dislike writing negative reviews...), I needed to do something fun immediately!  So--I have a quick (Super Bowl) Sunday Surprise post for you!

This post happened out of the blue because of a lucky coincidence.  I've been eyeing the Twozies surprise packs in the store for a while now, even purchasing one on a few different occasions with the idea that I'd add them to a Sunday Surprise post one day.  Then, last week, as I was checking Amazon for the availability of L.O.L Surprise dolls (they're still so hard to find around here!), a new kind of doll popped into my suggestions list: Sonny Angel figures by Dreams Inc.  I'd never seen these little cuties before...and they remind me a lot of the Twozies.

Both Twozies and Sonny Angel dolls are baby-like figures that come wearing animal (or plant) hats...and not much else.  Twozies and Sonny Angel dolls are also both packaged in a blind box so you never know exactly which doll you're going to get.  I thought it would be fun to de-box a few of these little ones and see how similar they actually are:

Sonny Angel (left) and Twozies (right) blind box figures.

First, let's look at the Sonny Angel dolls:

These dolls come in several different themed sets.  The themes are reflected by the type of hat that the doll is wearing.  The themes I've seen include animals, fruits, flowers, vegetables...and even chocolates.  All of the dolls are cute, but I decided to focus on the animal themes.  I chose one figure from the Animal (Version 1) series and another from the Marine series.

These figures cost about $10 on Amazon.  I've never seen them in stores, so I'm not sure if their suggested retail price is lower.

I'll open the Marine doll first:

Sonny Angel figures come in colorful hexagonal boxes that are wrapped in plastic:

Hexagons are awesome.

This box has a large sticker on the outside that warns against giving the plastic wrap to small kids:

It's easier to see the box design without the glare of the plastic wrap:

I like the caption: let's find your favorite marine animal!  It's so happy and optimistic.

The box has a picture of a little doll with a shark hat--this is just a representative sample from the Marine series, not necessarily the doll that will be in the box:

Isn't he ridiculously cute?  Oh, my goodness.  That Kewpie-esque smile is irresistible to me.

One side of the cardboard box has a list of all the possible dolls in the Marine series:

Let's look at all of the pictures up close so that we can choose a favorite:

Of these first four, I like the starfish best.  So funny!

Here are the next four:

This is harder because so many of the animals are wonderfully unusual.  Hm.  I think my favorite has to be the blowfish.

And here are the last four:

Oh, definitely the ray.  That's amazing.  I also like the shark, mostly because of the contrast between the baby's happy smile and the fact that his head is getting gobbled up by a shark.

The shell is a little out of place.  It's like calling the seal character "Fur."  If they'd called that baby "Sea Snail" or "Conch" it would make more sense. 

One side of the hexagon box says "12 Kinds + Secret:"

I'm not sure exactly what this means.  There are 12 varieties shown on the box...so maybe it means that there's a secret 13th variety that would be a complete and total surprise?  That would be amazing, but I'm not sure if it's the correct interpretation.  It might just mean that it's a secret which of the 12 varieties will be in the box.

The other sides of the box have a lot of small-print warnings and copyrights (in several languages):

Dreams Inc. is a Japanese company based in Tokyo.  They have several figurine lines, including something called Amy's Favorite Cat.  I will definitely, absolutely have to check that out.

I opened the bottom of Sonny's box by peeling away the largest flap:

Inside the box, there's a foil bag hiding the figure:

The bag is purple with silver metallic Sonny Angel silhouettes:

I cut open one side of the bag...

I see feet!

When I leaned down a little bit, I also saw a small flash of blue inside the bag:

Blue could mean the whale, the dolphin, or the blowfish (exciting!!).

I pulled the baby slowly out...

It's definitely a blue hat...and also, Sonny has little angel wings on his back!  I didn't expect that since the wings aren't super-visible in any of the box pictures.

Here he is...face down...

It's the dolphin!

Eeek eek eek!

The dolphin hat is so much cuter than it looked in the front-on view.  I love it!

Here's Sonny standing up:

Cuteness overload.

This is a really nice little figure.  The vinyl is heavy and solid, and all of the painted areas are bright and clear with crisp edges.

Sonny is very small--about the same size as a regular Lalaloopsy mini or a Cabbage Patch mini:

Lalaloopsy mini, Sonny Angel figure, Cabbage Patch Babyland mini.

Sonny's head is articulated so he can turn and look all around:

In fact, the head easily pulls all of the way off!

Despite the minimalist features on both the dolphin and the baby, I find both to be very appealing and sweet:

The little angel wings are molded right onto the body--they can not be removed:

Sonny is--obviously--stark naked underneath his hat...and is definitely a boy.

Two slightly strange things that I noticed about Sonny in profile are that he does not have a nose (or not much of one, anyway), and the dolphin's tail is in an odd location: 

The way the dolphin's body is curving, the tail should be under Sonny's chin.  Instead, it's sticking out a little awkwardly in the back.  

Oh, well.  I love this figure anyway and was very eager to see what the next one would look like!

This box is from the Animal Version 1 series:

I found this box's sticker amusing--especially since the figure was sold to me individually:

Let's find our favorite animal!

The animal options in this series are listed on the side of the box:

In the first group of four, I think the bunny stands out because of his tall ears:

The frog makes me giggle, though.

In this next group, I definitely like the elephant best!

And here's the last group:

I like all of them except for the crocodile.  Crocodiles are way too creepy.  The dalmatian seems a little out of place in this group of mostly wild animals...but he's certainly cute.

I opened this box the same way as the last one...

Oooh.  That's a really ugly-colored bag.  It's a puce green:

It has the same metallic design as the other bag:

I cut the bag open and peeked in...

I see a little hand, but no give-away flashes of color this time.

I pulled Sonny slowly out of the bag by his feet...

Which, by the way, are printed with a copyright date (2016):

I see the little wings...and oh!  There's a glimpse of the hat:

It's the little cheetah!

Oh, man.  SO cute:

Look at the detail on the cheetah's face, too--he's really cool:

Unlike the dolphin, this hat is not trying to replicate the entire body of the animal--just the head:

Some of the animal hats don't even have eyes--they just imitate the top of the animal's head.  The tiger is a good example of an eyeless hat:

This Sonny's paint is very well-applied, but there is a faint streak of pale brown down the front of his face.  It's really hard to see this in real life.  Also, the insane cuteness of the face overwhelms any defects:

Here are my two little cherubs together:

Sonny Angel cheetah and dolphin figures.

They don't have exactly the same head mold.  I guess this is obvious because of the animals, but what  I mean is that the face part of the molds have some subtle differences, too.  The biggest difference I can see is that Cheetah's face is narrower.

The two bodies look exactly the same at first glance, but there are some very tiny differences from what I can tell.  For instance, the toes on Dolphin's feet look a little longer (less blunt), and Cheetah's body might be slightly wider overall.  Hard to be sure about this.

The boys can swap heads...

Each figure wearing the other one's head.

But while Dolphin's head fits well onto Cheetah's body, Cheetah's head falls out of Dolphin's body when the figure is tipped upside-down.

The two dolls are from different years (2011 and 2016) so that might explain any small differences.

I adore these little imps, and would love to get another one some day.  I wish they weren't quite so expensive, but I don't regret the purchase at all.

Fortunately, the Twozies are much less expensive ($2.99 per box) and also really easy to find.  Perhaps they'll offer a fun alternative to Sonny Angel?  Let's find out!

Here's a Season 1 Twozies blind box:

These toys are made by Moose--the Australian company that brought us Shopkins.

The Twozies come in pink-rimmed plastic boxes with cardboard lids.  The cartoon of the bunny Twozies on this cardboard lid is a little freaky, though:

That baby has huge blue irises with the pupils somehow pointing downwards?  I hope the dolls are cuter.

Anyway, the idea with this line is that you get a baby and a pet in each box. Sometimes the babies will match their pets (like the pink bunnies on the cover) and sometimes they will not.

The back of the box has a slot with some paper materials slipped inside:

I pulled the papers out to take a look at them:

There's a collector's catalog, some instructions, and a square with bananas on it:

The instructions explain that the box is a shadow box for displaying the Twozies (cool!) and the square with bananas is the backdrop:

The catalog has little cartoons of all of the different Twozies that are available in Season 1:

There are more on the other side, too!

The cover of the catalog also explains how to tell which characters are common and which are rare...and also which are boys and which are girls:

The cartoons in the catalog are much cuter than the picture on the front of the box.

I noticed that there's a Twozies dalmatian--just like with Sonny Angel!

I'm not sure they should have named the baby Spicky.  That borders on an ethnic slur.

Some of the names are really funny, though, like Iggy and Cubert (I love the name Cubert!).  I also like the unique pairing of Ohio and Ozwald...but Olive and Olivia is not as creative:

There's a similar lack of diversity in the naming of the fish characters (how many ways can they work "fin" into a name?):

But oh, my goodness, the name Woolbur makes me laugh!  And Sheena and Baaley are extremely clever, too:

There are a few ultra-rare limited edition Twozies, and of these I like Rupert and Keepa best.  It would be amazing to get them!

Ok, but that's enough chatter about names.  Let's open something! 

The cardboard front pulls out of the plastic box...

...to reveal two yellow plastic bags inside (one larger than the other):

The cardboard panel is really cute--here it is opened up to show all of the little pictures:

The plastic box is very plain:

There are slots to connect this box to other Twozies boxes, and a little peg in the front (on the right side) for helping the figures balance.

The box looks better with the colorful banana backdrop inserted at the back:

Ok, so it took me a while to figure this out, but if you look at the lower right hand corner of the backdrop, you'll see the words "two cheeky" written in blue.

That means that the Twozies baby in my particular box is from the Two Cheeky collection:

Which one do you think it'll be??

I opened the largest yellow bag first, because this is the one that will have the baby inside:

The yellow plastic is quite transparent in some areas, so I tried not to look too closely (I wanted it to be a surprise!):

I cut open the bag and peeked in...

...I see a lot of brown!  Brown could be the raccoon or the hamster.

As I pulled the baby out, though...

...it became clear it was the raccoon!

Oh, wow!  He's a lot cuter than I expected!  I love his startled little face:

This is Dale the raccoon.  He's a boy (his name is written in blue) and he's common (pale pink heart):

If I get Dashie the raccoon pet, I'm going to re-name him Rocket (after Guardians of the Galaxy).  Just saying.

Little Dale falls over really easily:

The raccoon hat has most of its detail in the front:

In the back, there's just the Moose copyright:

Here's a better view of the lettering:

Dale also has little holes on the bottoms of both feet--those fit over the small peg at the front of the shadow box:

Twozies are smaller than Sonny Angel.  They're about the same height as a Lalaloopsy mini or a Cabbage Patch mini when they're sitting down:

Cabbage Patch Babyland mini, Twozies figure, Lalaloopsy mini.

The paint job on this figure is not quite as crisp as what we saw with Sonny Angel, but it's pretty good--especially given the extra-small size:

Here's a close view of the raccoon hat:

And a better view of Dale's face:

I think the raccoon head is especially well done:

I like all of the different colors they've used in this head.

At this point in my inspection of Dale, I finally figured out that his head can spin around!

He has a ball-jointed neck:

Dale looks really cute inside his shadow box.  What a great idea to have the packaging serve this very useful double-purpose!  I love it.

The Moose company does packaging really well.  They made their first-run Shopkins blind bag containers (those little shopping baskets) more appealing than the Shopkins themselves (in my mind, anyway).

Ok, so now it's time to see which pet Dale came with!  Here's the smaller yellow bag:

I cut it open and caught a glimpse of purple!

It's not going to be Rocket the raccoon, clearly, but maybe Jam or Bingo?

Oh wait...

...it's neither of those two!  It's actually a little kitten from the Two Sweet collection:

I like the name Catrick.  That's great.

Mittens the kitten:

Mittens is a girl and she's common.

She has yellow tabby stripes on her head:

And a sweet little face:

I guess the pets don't necessarily come from the same collection as the baby.

Mittens is molded to be laying down, so she doesn't display quite as well as Dale inside the shadow box:

Twozies raccoon (Dale) and kitten (Mittens).

Are you guys ready to see another Twozies pair?  I am!  These are really fun.

I pulled the front off this box first...revealing another Two Cheeky background:

Bananas!

So it'll be another character from the same catalogue page.

Here are the two bags:

I decided to open the small pet bag first this time:

I saw some brown right away--maybe this is Rocket the raccoon!?

Nope.  It's the hamster:

This little guy is all brown with a cream-colored belly and face:

He's Hiccups the hamster--and he's common:

Let's see which baby comes with Hiccups:

When I got this first glimpse, I thought I'd gotten a repeat of Dale:

But it's the hamster baby who matches Hiccups!

I don't know how common it is for the babies to match the pets, but it's pretty fun to have a matching pair.  

And this guy is really great:

Mr. Personality!

His name is Happi (and he's also common):

He's definitely happy.  His smiley face with those side-glanicng eyes is just adorable:

Happi and Dale have the exact same body--right down to the brown diaper:

Twozies racoon (Dale) and hamster (Happi).

I'm glad they have such different expressions.  They make a great pair of twins. 

The hamster hat is nicely-done:

But Happi's left eye has some missing paint:

He also has a paint smudge on his left arm.

I love how Happi and Hiccups pose together.  Happi looks so proud of his friend!

And...introducing my best friend Hiccups!

They fit well inside the shadow box, too:

Twozies hamster set (Hiccups and Happi).

Now that I have two shadow boxes, I can connect them to make a larger display:

The boxes lock together really easily and look great.  This is such a fantastic idea:

Here are my little Twozies twins next to the Sonny Angel boys:

Twozies (left) and Sonny Angel (right) figures.

Each pair of figurines is great.  The Sonny Angel dolls are higher quality (nicer vinyl, better paint detail) but the difference in price balances this discrepancy.  I think each doll delivers a great surprise for the cost. 

I usually only buy one (occasionally two) of any given blind bag toy.  I must have forgotten that I'd purchased a pair of Twozies at some point...because I bought another pair.  However it happened, I managed to unintentionally accumulate four Season 1 Twoozies.  After seeing how great Dale and Happi are, though, I was delighted to discover this mistake!

And of course I had to open the extra dolls immediately.  I have no self control.  Are you up for looking at two more Twozies??  I hope so!

This box variation has a better cover illustration than the last one, I think:

I pulled the cardboard off and saw that this time...

I got a different backdrop!  Nothing against the Two Cheeky collection, but it's fun to get some variety.

This backdrop means that my baby will be from the Two Noisy group:

Let's see what the options are:

Ok, I love Puddles the winking duck baby:

I also like the winking bird doll, Squawky.  It'd be fun to get a winking doll of any kind.

The bird names mystify me, though.  Squawky, Talky and Chatz are all alike in concept...but Cala?  Where does that come from?  I can't figure it out.

I decided to open the pet bag again this time.  I like saving the baby for last:

I cut the bag and immediately saw...

Yellow and black.  It must be...

The bee!

This little one is a bit scruffy, with quite a few paint flecks and smudges:

He has a happy little smile hidden under there, though:

Oh, oops, this is actually a female bee named Potz:

She's a common character.

Potz was eager to see who her companion would be...

I see more yellow--could it be another match?

It is!

It's Hunny, the bee baby:

This baby's body has a different shape from Dale and Happi:

Twozies bee pair: Potz (left) and Hunny (right).

Hunny looks like she's about to bust out a Broadway show tune:

Oh, what a beautiful mornin'...

There's not a lot of detail in the bee hat, and Hunny's all-white smile is a bit cheesy:

Should a baby have that many teeth??

I don't like Hunny quite as much as the Two Cheeky boys, but I enjoy having another body mold.

Hunny's smile and pose also give her an exuberant little diva personality that's hard to resist:

Twozies bee pair: Potz (left) and Hunny (right).

The shadow boxes connect to one another side-to-side or top-to-bottom.  I decided to put Hunny's box on top of Happi's:

Ok, time for the last Twozies box.  I'm going to be so sad when these are gone!  This box has the same cover as Hunny's:

I wonder if all of the Two Noisy characters come in this style of box?  The way both of my Two Cheeky characters came in the box with the pink bunny cover?  We'll see.

I pulled the cardboard cover off..

...and got a glimpse of the backdrop:

It's different!  Yay!

This is the Two Cool design:

That means I'll get one of these cuties:

It would be really fun to get the cheetah character--then I could compare her to my Sonny Angel baby:

My favorites are probably the bears and the octopuses, though:

I'd love to get Ohio:

Or Iggy (and especially Cubert):

Here we go...starting with the pet again:

It's yellow...

Hey--wow!  It's the cheetah!

This is a cute little girl with kinda scary-looking teeth:

Her name is Specs:

The teeth look even larger than they really are because the white paint has bled into the mouth area:

The mouth is also missing a bit of paint.

Specs looks great with my Sonny Angel cheetah!

Feline friends.

Time for the last bag.  Sniff.

I can already see an eye peeking out through the thin plastic, but I can't tell which baby it is yet:

Yellow diapers...could it be..?

Wait, is it a duck??

Quack?

No!  It's the cheetah baby!  Hurrah!  What a great way to end the surprises!

This is a really nice figure, too.  The paint is very bright and clear:

I like how the black spots are visible on the back of the head, too:

Her name is Lippy:

I don't understand what (if any) relevance the name Lippy has to cheetahs.  Does the "L" name mean she's meant to be a leopard?  Lips the leopard?  Her spots are round and symmetrical, though--like cheetah spots:

Cheetah.

Leopard.

She could be either, I suppose, but she's probably supposed to be a leopard.  I'm sticking with cheetah, though, because I think cheetahs are amazing.  Also, I'm sure that the Sonny Angel doll is a cheetah and I like it when things match.

The cheetah's eyes seem a little wonky because of the placement of the reflective dots, but this is not a big deal:

This might be my favorite of all four Twozies figures:

She has the same body as Dale and Happi, though. I like this body, but it'd be fun to get some more body shape variety some day.

Twozies racoon (Dale) and cheetah/leopard (Lippy).

Notice how Lippy and Dale have two different shades of skin.  Lippy's vinyl is more peach-colored and Dale has a yellow tint.  This difference is reflected in the cartoons, too, but I didn't notice it until now:

I'm really curious about all of the different skin tones that are available.

Here's my little quartet of Twozies:

Two yellow and two brown!  How fun!

I'm often struggling to find creative ways to display my smallest dolls and action figures.  The fact that the Twozies come in boxes that double as expandable display cases...well, to me that's ingenious.  Furthermore, the only garbage generated in the de-boxing of the Twozies was the plastic wrap that protected the boxes.  Everything else was recyclable or genuinely useful.

As many times as I've passed the Twozies in the store, I've never stopped to look very closely at them.  Now that I've opened a few, I'd say they're easily one of the best (if not the best) blind box toy that I've encountered.  Definitely worth $3.  I'm so glad I finally learned what the excitement is all about with these little guys.  There are so many adorable and interesting Twozies characters to collect, I sense an impending addiction.

I'm delighted that I stumbled upon the Sonny Angel dolls, too.  I love the name of this line, and I get a kick out of their quirky themes.  I can't look at those cherubic faces (and little naked bodies!) without smiling.  The variety of exotic animal and plant hats in this line is compelling, too.  The temptation is strong to collect a few more dolls in the hopes of getting a ray, a blowfish, or maybe even a pineapple head.  The $10 price tag will make it a little easier to restrain myself with these dolls, though.

This mini collection of hat-wearing babies has brought some much-needed fun and laughter into my weekend.  I hope they bring a bit of joy into your day, too.

Cheetah characters by Twozies and Sonny Angel.