A Sunday Surprise Assortment!

I've been in a kind of blog limbo for the last week or so, a lot because I'm waiting on a few finishing touches for Lena's house.  She and Ian have already moved back in, but I want everything to be just right before I show it to all of you.  It should be done by the end of this week!  I was also doing a bit of traveling to see my family, which was wonderful.  We got to celebrate the married kids and enjoy upstate New York in spring.  If it weren't for ticks and poison ivy, upstate New York would be perfect at this time of year.

Anyway, I wanted a casual review to fill the space, and decided to do a Sunday Surprise!  It's been a while since I've done that.  At one point, maybe a year ago, I hoarded a lot of surprise-themed toys with the intent of being more regular with my Sunday Surprise posts.  I've obviously made no progress with that goal, so I decided to gather up a bunch of those toys and look at them all at once.  Which means I have a grab bag of surprises for you today!

From back left: Monster High Potions, Disney Tower Surprise, OG Surprise Lunch Bag, and Pea Pod Babies.

Before I dig into the surprise toys that I have planned for this review, I want to mention something that I noticed literally today while I was out at Target.

I saw a display for MGA's Make it Mini Real Babies.  They looked almost the same as the Make it Mini Baby Food sets that I reviewed in October, so I almost walked right on by:

Those accessories are different, though.

When I looked more closely at the display, I realized that some of the babies have their eyes open!  Whoa!

The sets are called Real Baby now, too.  Mad props to MGA for waking these mini silicone babies up--or at least some of them.  It's about time.  

I prefer the Zuru My Mini Babies in general, because their quality is higher and they're more realistic.  There have also been several cute My Mini Baby releases in the past few months.  But I've pretty much lost interest.  Zuru missed their chance to have the first awake babies, and it was a pretty big miss, if you ask me.

Anyway, I bought a single solitary Real Baby ball and will open it up over on Patreon as soon as I'm done with this review.  I really, really hope that it's one of the awake babies!

Fingers crossed...

Of the toys that I'm going to be looking at in this review, the one that I knew the least about was the Pea Pod Babies.  I found them on a random hunt for surprise toys and thought that the pea pod gimmick was cute:

Pea Pod Babies, $12.99.

Each set has a flexible (silicone?) pea pod with three surprise balls inside:

The only clues I had about the contents of the pod or the appearance of the babies was what I could see on the tags:

They look big-headed and mischievous!

The larger tag opens to reveal drawings of all the possible babies, and a photograph of one example:

The example is pretty cute, I think, and I love the little orange toy giraffe!

It seems like with the three included balls, one will have a baby inside, and the other two will have clothing and accessories:

The variety of babies looks fun, too, and I appreciate that they all have names.  I want the one named Chuckle.  Or maybe it's Chuckie?  I like Chuckle better.  There are even some rare characters, and a super-rare set of twins (who don't have names).

The back of the tag has information from two different companies: Premium Toys and Thin Air Brands:

I've heard of Premium Toys in the sixth scale action figure world, but I'm not sure if this is the same thing.  

Thin Air has a lot of offerings, including a range of Dr. Stem educational science toys:

I want this microscope set!

Their only dolls, from what I can see, are the Pea Pod Babies.  So they're all-in on this strange babies-born-from-peas notion.

It's interesting to me that some of the promotional photos have a lineup of the characters similar to what's on my tag, but half of the babies are photographs and the other half are drawings:

Where's Chuckle??

We can get a better idea of what the dolls look like from those photos though.  Some of them are quite cute.  But Lisa looks angry.

The advertising also makes it seem like each pod has three babies, which is counter to what the tag suggests:

Confusing advertising.

The smaller tag on my pod confirms the presence of only one baby:

Everyone knows a pea pod contains only one baby.  Duh.

And the opposite side has some very simple instructions for how to extract the pea surprise balls from the pod:

Let's pop open this pea pod and see what we get!

It looks like it's wearing underwear.

One side of the pod is covered with shrink wrap plastic, and this is to cover a small opening:

As underwear should do.

The plastic pea ball can be extracted from the pod in a way that gets uncomfortably close to resembling human birth:

Another educational science toy in disguise?

The ball has its own shrink wrap, with a cute printed design on it:

The neat thing about having the linear three ball arrangement is that it dictates which surprise is found first.  If it were me designing this, I'd make the baby come out last.  

We'll see if that's what Thin Air decided to do!

The first ball didn't have the baby, which is good, but it's hard to tell what it is!

Oh, I see.  It's a crumpled vinyl hat.  There's also a collector's sheet and a small yellow rattle:

It's actually a birth certificate, not a collector's sheet!

I hope the baby's name is Chuckle.

I tried to straighten the hat but it's fairly stiff and the bent areas don't want to relax.

Let's see what's in the next pea!

Push, pea pod, push!

This one is wrapped exactly the same as the first:

It was covered with a fine white power, though, which you can see clumped around the molded Premium Toys copyright:

I'm guessing that the power is to keep the silicone pea pod from getting too sticky?  I hope it's not corn starch, which can attract bugs over time.

Inside this ball I found the actual collector's sheet and some smaller items:

The collector's sheet shows all of the possible babies and all of the possible accessories:

The babies are all photographed for this sheet, which is nice.  And I was glad to see Chuckle back in the mix:

We missed you, Chuckle.

Here are the items that I got:

It looks like a purple outfit, some booties, a bottle, a pacifier, and a clip.  The clip fits onto one end of the silicone pod:

So you could tote this pea pod and its contents around with you if you wanted.  The pod actually makes a unique (and waterproof) little pouch, so toting it around could be amusing.

Okay, the big moment has arrived!  The doll was saved for last (good move) and we finally get to see one of these babies in person!

This ball was also coated in power:

I opened it up, and...

Wow.

For some reason this was not at all what I was expecting.  

The head is massive.  And kind-of mushroom shaped:

It's funny how you can see pictures of things and their actual appearance is still a big surprise.

The baby's head was totally squished down over its body.  But there was a paper bib describing how I should squeeze the head several times to allow it to "fully form:"

That's not a part of regular childbirth.

I squeezed the head several times, which did nothing.  So I held the head under a warm hair dryer for a minute or two, while squeezing, and that did the trick:

A fully formed head.

This baby is so weird-looking.

She has creepy yellow eyes with no sclera, blotchy cheeks, and a hole drilled smack in the middle of a smiling molded mouth.

And her head collapsed again after about two minutes:

This particular baby's name is Rosie, and she came with a little card describing her personality:

It says: Rosie mostly keeps to herself until she knows you.  Be ready once she does because she is the happiest bundle of joy you'll ever meet!  She loves to finger paint and carry her Bunny Rabbit toy everywhere she goes.

If you ask me, Rosie seems a bit young to be finger painting, or keeping to herself for that matter.  Like she can't even sit up on her own.  And she didn't come with her beloved bunny rabbit toy, which is now making me nervous.

I was only able to get Rosie to sit up by sticking her bottom to the floor with putty.  We can get a slightly better look at her this way:

She has a hollow vinyl head and a shiny plastic body with a white painted diaper.  She has joints at the shoulders and hips, so her tiny little nubbin limbs dangle and spin around freely.  They do not hold a pose.

Here she is in profile:

I got Rosie dressed in her outfit, which was reasonably easy to get on, but those booties kept falling off and the hat is still warped:

I added the pacifier, too:

It matches her eyes.

The romper looks cute, but it completely restricts Rosie's movement.  It also looks bad from the back, with a lot of gaping seams:

Rosie is able to hold her yellow rattle, but the effort of jamming it into her fist caused her shoes to fly off

I want my bunny!

She's a very difficult little doll (to play with).

This brand clearly took some inspiration from the L.O.L. Surprise dolls (as did most modern surprise toys).  Here's Rosie next to one of my L.O.L. girls for a size (and quality) comparison:

Pea Pod Baby (left) and L.O.L. Surprise doll (right).

Looking at the promotional photos, I imagined the Pea Pod Babies being much smaller--more the size of a Baby Born surprise baby.  I think they'd have been cuter in that scale.  As it is, the heads are really big and startling, and the body and clothing are difficult to manage.  They feel like cheap capsule machine toys.

Still, I opened another pea pod to see if a different baby might leave me with a different impression:

Oooh!  You're upside down!

This guy came with a bottle, a romper, a hat, a rattle, booties, a clip, and two pacifiers:

Still no giraffe.  In fact, these accessories are almost exactly the same as Rosie's.  The only differences are the colors of each item and the style of the hat.

The second baby's name is Joey, and this is his character sheet:

It says: Joey loves to take things apart!  He is a curious little baby, full of adventure and questions about the world!  His favorite things to do are look at picture books and nap with his teddy.

I think these descriptions are really cute and detailed.  But they're more suited to toddlers than babies...and Joey didn't come with his beloved teddy!

I think Joey is significantly cuter than Rosie.  His eyes are expressive, with a normal iris color and sclera:

In my mind he's always saying "Oooh!"

The color of his plastic body doesn't match his head very well, though, and he also can't sit up on his own without the help of putty.

And his head deflates like a balloon:

Ooooooh...

If I use the pacifier on Joey, the opposite thing happens.  

I have to squeeze the head really hard to get the pacifier in, and then the pacifier blocks the release of air, so the head stays smooshed:

The it gradually re-inflates over time:

Poor Joey.

I got Joey dressed up in his romper and purple bowler hat, but it was really hard to get everything to stay in place.  Either Joey was tipping over, his hat was popping off, or the booties were rolling away:

OOOOH!

Adding in the other accessories made him even harder to manage!

Mmph...

I struggled for several minutes to get a decent portrait of Joey...

And with the help of some putty and some patience, I finally got this:

I don't know.  There's not much to recommend here.  I think that the pea pod design of the sets is clever and fun, and I suppose that the pods offer a unique way to store these babies and their accessories.  But the babies and accessories are not very appealing to look at, and are difficult to play with.  Both Rosie and Joey came with deformed heads that I was unable to resuscitate for more than a minute or two.  Neither can sit or stand on their own, so they just flop around with freely spinning limbs.  The rompers restrict the limb movement and look bad in back, and both the hats and the booties fall off too easily.  I think the pacifiers are cute, and I like that the babies can hold their rattles, but Rosie is still screaming for her bunny and Joey wants his teddy.

Eager for a change of pace, I turned my attention to the Monster High Potions set.  At least with the Monster High brand, I can expect a certain level of quality.

The first Potions set that I bought is from 2025.  It's in the shape of a crystal ball and comes shrink-wrapped in decorated plastic:

Monster High Potions set, $10.89.

There are six possible characters in this collection, and they're all pictured clearly on the plastic:

From left: Frankie, Heath, and Catty.

From left: Clawdeen, Lagoona, and Draculaura.

There have been other versions of this type of toy over the years, too, with some different characters.  For example, the one currently available at Target has Draculaura in common with my set, but all of the other ghouls are different:

Clockwise, from upper left: Draculaura, Twyla, Cleo, Deuce, Jinafire, and Abbey.

Underneath the shrink wrap, I found the crystal ball and an instruction sheet:

From what I gather, the reveal here is a bit like with the Magic Mixies Pixlings, where water has to be added to create some kind of an effect.

The crystal ball itself is attractive, with an elaborately molded base and sparkly, purple-colored ball:

On the opposite side, there's a dial that can be turned into three different positions, each marked with a Roman numeral:

Fascinating.

Here's a better look at that section:

The instructions say to to remove the top part of the crystal ball, pour water into the hole, and then shake 13 times:

I did all of that, with a bit of protection between the ball and my backdrop!

What's happening here is that the color from the sides of the ball is mixing with the water.

Next, I was supposed to turn the dial into the second position:

As soon as I moved the dial, all of the (now purple) water drained into the base and the doll was revealed.  And it happened really fast.  I had zero chance to snap a picture!  Well, I snapped this out-of-focus picture just as the last little bits of water were draining out:

It's Draculaura!  And I managed to focus on this picture:

Draculaura looks nice inside the crystal ball, but I wish that the reveal had been slower:

The last part of the instructions says to turn the dial to the third position, which will release Draculaura from her enclosure:

This worked, and the top part of the crystal ball came right off:

Draculaura was anchored inside with the help of a molded plastic shell:

Here she is!

This is a nice figure--nicer than I expected, to be honest.  There's a lot of molded detail that looks good.  I especially like the drips and heart-shaped curls in Draculaura's hair:

These figures, sometimes called Little Frights, are about three inches tall.  They can fit right into the palm of a hand:

Draculaura's face paint is pretty good, especially considering her size.  She even has heart-shaped reflective dots in her eyes and tiny fangs sticking out of her mouth!

Impressive.

There's only a single point of articulation, at the neck, and this movement is restricted by Draculaura's hair.  Still, she can look from side to side to inspect the purple potion bottle that she's holding:

The little stopper from the top of the crystal ball doubles as a decoration for her dress:

That's slightly awkward, but okay.

My one issue with Draculaura is that the little plastic stand that she came with worked for a few minutes, but then stopped working.  Now the connection is too loose and she tips over all of the time:

What's in that potion bottle?

There's a different style of Potions toys out there, too, so I wanted to look at an example of that:

This set is from 2024, so actually older than the first one that I showed you.  I believe it was in the last wave of toys before the style changed to the crystal balls.

The containers here are shaped like potion bottles, with an elaborate pink Skullette bottle stopper and a matching bottom that looks like it can snap off:

The possible characters in this wave are Draculaura (again), Frankie, Venus, Cleo, Lagoona, and Clawd:

I really wanted Venus, because she's fast becoming my favorite Monster High character.

The bottle doesn't give away too many clues about what the reveal will be like.  There's no dial to turn or anything like that.  There is a green color covering the sides of the bottle, hiding what's inside, so it'll probably dissolve into water at some point, like it did with the crystal ball:

The directions say to remove the bottle cap and open it up to find some little charms.  The charms go into the bottle, along with some water, and then I'm supposed to put the cap back on and shake.  13 times, of course:

I did as I was told and took the top off of the bottle:

Inside the Skullette, I found a black bag!

And inside the bag, I found three charms.  And these charms give away the surprise:

Looks like Lagoona to me!

I popped the charms into the bottle, filled the bottle with water, and shook it 13 times:

The contents of the bottle are still hidden by the green color, but the green looks different now--like green water.

The next step is very basic: pour the water out of the bottle and see the doll!

The charms spill out with the rest of the water, which feels like a silly gimmick.  Why put them into the bottle in the first place?   They ruin the surprise, and then they get wet.

I poured out the green water and found, as I suspected, Lagoona:

Lagoona can be removed from the bottle by snapping off that pink base:

They're teasing me by using Venus as the example.

If you wanted to bypass the messy green water altogether, you could simply snap the doll out of the bottle without doing any of the other steps.  I'm kinda wishing I'd done that, especially since my favorite jeans are now covered in green water.

Anyway, here's Lagoona:

  

I don't like Lagoona as much as Draculaura.  Specifically, I don't like the water pouring out of her eyes or her purple lips.  But her rainbow eyeshadow is cool:

And she can wear the little charms on the side of her dress just like Draculaura.

These Potions sets are fun.  The packaging is wasteful, as with so many of these fancy reveal toys, but both the bottle and the crystal ball could be kept and used to display the dolls.  I like the crystal ball design best, especially for display purposes.  That reveal experience was more fun, too.  You could probably replicate the reveal to some degree, as well, especially if you can find an opaque water coloring substance.

The dolls themselves are a nice collectible size, and they have a lot of molded and painted detail.  It would be fun to amass a small collection of these mini ghouls, and I can also see them as being fun portable toys for imaginative play.  While the reveal activities were amusing to some degree, they were messy and short-lived.  I'd prefer the chance to select which characters I wanted and purchase them for a lower price.  The $5 range feels right for these minis.

Here are the two ghouls together, back when Draculaura's stand was still working:

For the next surprise, I'm going to switch gears completely!  I noticed the Our Generation Surprise Lunch Bags way back in December, when I was writing my Our Generation advent calendar review.  I purchased one of those sets at that time, but have never gotten around to opening it:

Our Generation Surprise Lunch Bag, $10.99.

I remember these being $9.99 in person at Target back in December, but they're showing up for $10.99 online now.  So I'm not sure if the price has changed or if there was always a price difference between in-person and online.

Anyway, the sets are packed in nice little cardboard boxes that advertise six surprises and a "stylish lunch bag:"

Historically, from way back when I first started blogging, Our Generation has offered cute little lunch box sets.  I've always admired these, and they've often been super-popular and hard to find.

Fairly recently, my Target had a good selection of $8 lunch sets that were not surprise-themed, like this one, called Let's Do Lunch:

I'm not sure if Battat has discontinued those sets in favor of the surprise boxes?  That would be a bit of a shame, as much fun as the surprise element can be.

But I like the surprise lunch boxes because not only is the design of the lunch box a mystery, the food itself is different with each set too.

So, what are we waiting for?  Let's see what's inside the box I chose:

I see a lot of pink!

Ooh!  It's a fairly traditional lunchbox shape, with a sparkly rainbow and heart design on the front!

There's also a collector's sheet, and unfortunately this gives away all of the rest of the surprises.  So scroll quickly past if you don't want to know what's for lunch yet!

At the top of the sheet it also says that you can find a special surprise in some of the boxes:

The special surprise is a small plastic container with a fork and spoon set.  It would be so fun to get that!

All of the lunchbox designs are quite cute.  I didn't have an obvious favorite that I was hoping for, so I was content with this:

It makes me think of unicorns.

It's plain pink on the back:

And it opens with a sturdy zipper:

Random thought: I wonder if Battat has to be careful when they put a star on the bag's zipper like this?  I mean, you can't copyright a star, surely, but it definitely signals American Girl.

Even when the bag is unzipped, the contents remain a surprise because they're all sealed inside a paper bag!

I opened one end of the bag and peeked inside...

The first thing that came out was a cup of something that's a shocking pink color:

What is that??

It looks like radioactive slime, but it's probably meant to be strawberry milk.

These grapes look more wholesome:

They have a molded and painted stem on one side, and a dense cluster of grapes on the other side:

The next thing to come out of the bag was pretty big!

Two things came out together, actually.  There's a plastic container and a sticker that says "you mac me smile" with a happy little macaroni guy:

And the plastic container has some realistic-looking congealed mac and cheese!

Or is it a brain?

It's not especially appetizing, but I have to admit that this is exactly what boxed mac and cheese tends to look like.

And somehow now I'm hungry. Too much time with Monster High?

The only item inside the bag that isn't food-related is this heart-shaped clip: 

This can be used to clip the lunchbox to a backpack or something like that:

The last two items to spill out of the bag were a spork type utensil and a small roll:

The spork has a dangerous design.  Like, you could totally poke your eye out with the fork while using the spoon.

Keep the cork on the fork, Ruprecht.

Sorry.  My brain works in strange ways.

Here's all of the food-related stuff that I found in the lunch bag!

It all fits back nicely into the bag:

That drink's gonna spill, though.

My wonderful Our Generation girl, Aubrie, was excited to try out the lunch bag!

The bag is big for her, but she can still carry it in one hand.

And it certainly fits a lot of food:

Ooh, yummy!  This looks good.

Actually, this doesn't look good.  Are you trying to poison me?

You don't have to drink that, Aubrie.  Try some of the other things!

Sure.  Like I can try to poke my eye out with this spork.

I'll go get a cork.

I love Our Generation.  They really know how to deliver a delightful product for a good price.  I think these little lunch sets are perfect. They offer a fun surprise experience in packaging that isn't wasteful, and the resulting toy has real staying power.  What child wouldn't want a lunch box for their 18-inch doll?  The risk of repeats is real, as with any toy of this kind, but I don't see much need to buy more than one.  

If I were going to Target with a small child, and wanted to offer them a treat to take home, this would be my pick.  It has both short term and long term value, and the price is right.  I can even see it appealing to kids who have no interest in dolls, as a fun miniature.  I wish the boxes were slightly less expensive, but they're basically the same price as every other surprise toy in this review, and they have more to offer.

The last surprise that I have in store for you today is a Disney Princess Tower Surprise set!  One of you recommended these toys to me ages ago, and I'm embarrassed to say that I can't remember who!  You probably remember who you are though, and I want to thank you.

The idea with these toys is that there's a mystery Princess inside a small plastic castle:

Disney Princess Tower Surprise set, $9.99.

I like the idea of the packaging doubling as a play space, so I was excited about these.

I bought my set more than a year ago, but it seems to still be readily available at Target for the same $9.99 price.

The castle that I bought, which is from 2024, has one of six possible Princesses inside:

Belle, Ariel, Jasmine, Aurora, Cinderella, or Mulan.

Any guesses about which one I want the most?

The promotional photo for this wave shows all of the Princesses in doll form:

Cinderella has a little bird!

There's a second wave as well, and this one includes some of the villains:

That Rapunzel is really cute.

The shrink wrap packaging boasts five surprises inside:

The surprises are the castle, the doll, and three accessories.  But I'm not sure what exactly about the castle is a surprise?  We can already see that it's yellow and pink.

I took off the shrink wrap to reveal the entire castle, and also a collector's sheet:

The castle is pretty, with ornate molded decorations all around, and a pink window on one side.

The collector's sheet shows all of the sets that we saw in the promotional photo earlier, and also some bigger sets for Moana, Jasmine, and Belle:

It also looks like some of the castles can stack on top of one another to make a bigger structure!  That's a fun idea.  I'm skeptical about how sturdy it would be, though.

The back of the collector's sheet showcases a whole line of Frozen toys that look fun:

Here's a clearer photo of the smaller sets:

This is a good collection for me because I'd be equally happy with any one of those dolls!

But let's see if I got Cinderella in my yellow and pink castle.

Two sections at the front of the castle hinge open to reveal the interior...and a mysterious purple bag!

Who could it be?

Behind the bag, there's a printed scene on the back wall:

Oh.  It's Chip with some tea treats.  So this is a Beauty and the Beast set:

I'm happy about that, don't get me wrong.  I love Belle and Chip.  But the surprise is already ruined!

In fact, the surprise was ruined before I even opened the shrink wrap.  I just didn't realize it.  I've since learned that the color of each castle determines the Princess inside.

If we go back and look at the promotional photo:

You can see that each Princess has a unique castle.  So if I want Cinderella, I'll have to go to the store and find a blue castle with a light pink roof.

This is nice, in a way, because repeats can be avoided.  Also, a parent could steer their child to a particular Princess while keeping the secret safe.  But the actual number of surprise in this set is zero.

The back side of the castle has another Beauty and the Beast scene:

This time, Cogsworth and Lumiere are waving from the balcony of the library:

These colorful scenes are made out of cardboard, and can be removed from the plastic castle:

The fact that the panel is made out of cardboard cheapens the set slightly.  If that cardboard gets ruined, you've got a big extra window that maybe you didn't want.  On the other hand, the removable panel offers an interesting opportunity for customization.  Kids could design their own decorative inserts and make the castle less Beauty and the Beast specific.

The purple "surprise" bag has three compartments:

The first compartment had Mrs. Potts and a random cup that isn't Chip:

Is that Chip's father?

The second compartment had a table and chair:

Lumiere's parents??

Both of these are flimsy and a little crooked.

So here's the little scene that I have all ready for Belle's big entrance!

Meet the parents.

And here's Belle herself:

She's cute, with molded hair, and an outfit that's molded on top with a fabric skirt below.

Her hair is worn mostly down, with a partial bun at the top:

Her face has decent screening for such a small figure, with no obvious defects, and she's easily recognizable as Belle:

She doesn't have quite the same level of detail as the Potions Monster High figures, but is still impressive.

Belle is four inches tall, so much smaller than a standard Barbie like Petra:

Tower Surprise Bell with a standard Barbie doll.

She's similar in size to dolls like the larger Polly Pockets:

Tower Surprise Belle (left) and 4-inch Polly Pocket (right).

This means that she's compatible with the Rolife Super Creator sets, which is always a huge plus in my book.

For more context, Belle is about an inch taller than the Monster High figures:

Tower Surprise Belle with Potions Monster High figures.

They're close enough in scale that they could all be used in the same game, if you ask me.

Belle's fabric skirt is removable, with an elastic waistband that makes it easy to get on and off:

Underneath the skirt, Belle's molded bodice merges into painted yellow underwear, so it looks like she's wearing a fancy leotard:

There's a molded ridge on the waist to keep the skirt from riding up.

Belle's vinyl body has five points of articulation (neck, shoulders, hips).  She can turn her head from side to side:

And her shoulders have simple rotational joints that allow her arms to spin around:

Her hips are rotating hinges, so the legs can hinge apart into nice side-to-side splits:

And she can do passable front-to-back splits, too:

Her unarticulated knees make it awkward for her to sit in the chair, though:

And I'm a little worried that Mrs. Potts and her companion are going to slide off the edge of the crooked table...but it's a cute little set-up for the most part:

And everything fits into the castle, although there's not much room to play or reorganize the furniture:

I think Belle is a cute doll with lots of play potential.  I especially like her level of articulation, well-painted face, and convenient size.  I also think that the castle makes an attractive package, and enhances the unboxing experience of this set.  The castle even has some long-term use as a backdrop for play; I can imagine some cute games where kids set up a whole neighborhood of mini castles.  But overall, I think the castle is probably a waste of plastic and money.  Pretty as it is, there's not much room to do anything with the interior.  And the accessories feel like throwaways to me...with the possible exception of Mrs. Potts.

For my money, I'd rather buy a set like this:

These dolls are variants of the ones in the Tower Surprise sets, and all five of them cost about $24.  They even come with pets!  To get five dolls with the Tower Surprise sets, you'd have to spend twice as much.  And you wouldn't get as many pets.

To sum it up, I'm happy to have Belle, but she'll probably take Mrs. Potts and go live in a Rolife room with an eclectic assortment of roommates.

Bottom line?  I'm racing to get this review finished while it's still Sunday, so I'd better keep this short and sweet!  I've already summarized my thoughts about each type of surprise toy, so all that's left to do here is the inevitable comparison.  These toys all cost roughly there same, in the $10 range.  So which ones give you the most for your money?

Well, my least favorite is obvious. The Pea Pod Babies, while innovative in their presentation, are highly disappointing toys.  The dolls themselves come out of the pea capsules with deformed, collapsing heads, and it's difficult to remedy that situation.  In addition, the bodies can't balance or hold any poses, and the clothing just makes everything harder to manage.  The babies might have been good for a giggle...or a chuckle, but I don't think they're particularly appealing.  Worse, I found it extremely difficult to play with these dolls, which is not a great thing to say about any kind of toy.  The best thing about each set, and the only thing I'm likely to keep, is the silicone pea pod.

It's hard to choose between the Tower Princess set and the Monster High Potions.  The dolls in each of these are great.  The size and detail in the Monster High figures makes them well-suited to collecting and display.  They could be fun for play, too, although their articulation is limited and all of their clothing and accessories are molded.  Tower Surprise Belle is excellent for play, with five joints and a changeable skirt.  Both brands have well-painted features and are appealing to look at.  Both of these sets also have excessive packaging that's designed around a surprise reveal.  The Monster High sets have a more interesting reveal gimmick, particularly the crystal balls with their elaborate draining mechanism.  The Tower Surprise set has the more useful package, though, with a cute castle that can be used for long-term play or display.  In terms of the surprise element itself, I like the Monster High sets better.  They deliver an actual surprise, rather than the Tower Princess sets which telegraph their contents with the color scheme.  So...yeah.  It's pretty much a tie.  I slightly prefer Belle to the Monster High figures, but I like the surprise elements of the Monster High sets better.

My favorite surprise toy is the lunch bag from Our Generation.  Not only does it deliver a fun surprise experience in the short term, but it does so without a ridiculous amount of wasteful plastic packaging.  Furthermore, the resulting toy, which is a lunch box with a full meal inside, makes a wonderful long-term addition to an 18-inch doll collection.  A lunch box is conducive to so many different situations and games.  You could play imaginary school with it, or pack it so that your doll has something to eat when she goes on a real-life adventure with you.  You could transfer the food elements to a larger kitchen scene, or even use the lunch bag as a purse or carry-all.  It's an all-around versatile and good-looking toy...except for the pink milk and spork.  Be careful with those.

Anyway, my time is up.  Let me know which surprise toys you liked best, or if you can think of any other surprise-themed things for me to gather for the next round!