REVIEW: Sugar Surprise

I remember seeing Sugar Surprise in all the new Target listings we got a few weeks ago. I forgot about them until they turned up on IG and I thought the opening process looked kinda fun. 

So off to Target after work and I brought home two. 

These run $14.99 each, so they're pretty expensive, but I do think they're worth it for kids. I'll explain why as we go. 

So the plastic wrapper comes off and then you remove the clear plastic lid. 

The swirl part at the top is separate (and can actually act as a wild skirt for the dolls, as I saw them suggesting in the instructions). 

The bottom part of the cup is a drawer. 

The swirl contains three pouches and the instructions. 

Inside the pouches are a skirt, a pet mold, and a digging tool. 

The digging tool has a spiked end that was separate and you have to attach it yourself. I'm assuming it's for digging the sandy stuff out of crevices or doing artwork on it. 

The drawer contains a single pouch, which has all this stuff in it. 

Inside are a comb, a sheet of stickers, shoes, a cupcake purse, a swirl mold, and a headband. 

So then you pop the flat lid off and start digging. I dug until I revealed the doll's hair color, then swung open the cup and the doll on her stand slipped out of the plastic tube that's buried in the sandy stuff. 

I had fun doing the digging and separating the three colors of sand. I put some of the pink into the pet mold. I did try molding a little pet and it came out nicely. 

The sandy stuff feels really cool. I'm not familiar with the recent slime trends, so I don't have anything to compare it to. I like the fluffy stuff the Itty Bitty Prettys came with and I like this stuff, too. Not sticky or messy at all. Some small bits came off, but were easily picked up. 

Sadly, there is one really big missed opportunity here. 

There is absolutely no information on the characters. No checklist. Not even a little sticker with a name on it or something.

I do know that this girl is Pixie and she loves to bake. They've posted three of the six girls to their IG so far. 

 

The blue one is a beachy theme. 

Same shaped accessories except for the skirt and shoes. 

This time I left the sand in its layers, because I like the colors. I do scoop some yellow out to put in the pet mold. 

I have no idea what this girl's name is, but she is SASSY. I didn't realize it until after I'd taken the pics, but she has sass finger and attitude. I really love her. 

So are these worth $14.99? I say yes, especially if it's going to a kid or just someone who really likes to play with molding stuff like this. There are lots of different ways to incorporate the sand into play. I would have adored these if I was little again. You have the "experience" of the reveal, as Moose would say, but in this case, you can keep on playing with the experience over and over again, whereas theirs is one and done. 

One of the two big cons for me is the lack of care put into the characters. Give us a checklist so we know their names! It's so unusual that they didn't. The second con is the totally blind aspect. I hoped for codes. They have numbers on the bottom, but they're all the same. I looked at five of them and there were no differences that I could find. So nothing is known. My guess is that each doll is always in the same color, so 2 for pink, 2 for blue, 2 for green. Assuming you can get all six in one case, that would be your best bet if you want them all. Like if I wanted the other doll in the pink cup, I'd be in trouble because that one was sold. So I'd have to wait for a new case and risk opening a second Pixie. I'm tempted to go back for the other three cups, but I can't afford to drop another $45 on these right now. At least I'll be safe getting the green ones down the line, as I didn't buy that color. I'm pretty sure the redhead, Pepper, is in a green cup, though the video I watched was deceptive and showed her incorrectly in pink, which is why I picked that! 

Anyway, yes, I like these. I think they'd be really fun for kids, though for adults, they're a little more frustrating because it's not going to be easy to find them all.

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.