Tea with Lena: A Comparison Review of the Mini Brands and Miniverse Record Players

I've been putting the last few finishing touches on Lena's (and Ian's) house this week, and one of the final decisions that we have to make is whether or not we can fit a record player into the space!  I didn't really have this in my original plans, but then I realized that not only has Zuru come out with a Mini Brands record player and accompanying surprise balls, but MGA has followed suit and done the same exact thing with their Miniverse line.  Sounds familiar.  

However, I think the release date of these two products was exactly the same, so it's not clear what (if any) copycatting was going on.  The companies are very competitive these days, with a lot of parallel products.  I wonder if there are spies or something who try to figure out what the other company is doing all of the time?  Maybe that's too dramatic.  I tend to act as though I'm living in a movie.

Anyway, today Lena's going to help me explore both record player options and see if she'd like to try and fit one (or both?) of them into her home:

Lena with a Zuru Mini Brands Vinyl surprise ball, $9.99.

Tea with Lena: Mini Brands Fill the Fridge vs. Miniverse Real Brands

This review might feel a little repetitive with the last one (Miniverse Spaces), but maybe we can think of it as a companion piece or something?  I'm including it because while I was looking at the Spaces sets, Lena got interested...and a little irritated that I hadn't included her.  She doesn't fit into the Spaces or Rolife rooms, obviously, but she likes talking about anything food or kitchen-related, so she felt like I was invading her turf.  Fair enough.

By way of an apology, I offered to let Lena talk about another group of food-themed toys that have been on my radar.  In fact, she gets to talk about two different food-themed toys today: Zuru's Mini Brands Fill the Fridge sets and MGA Entertainment's Miniverse Real Brands.  The two are extremely similar--in name and in concept.  Both brands have surprise balls with brand-name food miniatures inside.  Zuru's Fill the Fridge line also has an actual fridge that Lena will be looking at.

Lena's goal here will be to see which group of surprise ball food items is best at actually filling a fridge!  I've said too much already at this point, so I'll turn things over to Lena:

Lena with Mini Brands Fill the Fridge and Miniverse Real Brands items.

Advent Calendar #1: Mini Brands by Zuru

It's December!  So now I can dig in and start this advent calendar feature that I've been dreaming about.  I have about ten calendars that I'd like to open throughout the month, but with the way I ramble on and the number of pictures I insisted on taking, I can't promise that I'll get through all of them before the 31st, let alone the 25th.  But I'm sure going to try!

I stumbled onto this idea when a Patreon friend, Lurkins, linked me to an eBay auction for the Bratz mini calendar.  Lurkins thought that Lena might appreciate the minis for her doll collection, and the price was excellent at around $15.  So, I purchased the Bratz calendar and then got curious and searched around to see what other doll and toy-themed advent calendars I could find.  Turns out, there are a lot!

So this month, I'm going to walk you through as many of the calendars as I can, starting with the Zuru Mini Brands advent from 2024:

Lena with a toy from the Zuru Mini Brands advent calendar.