WHEN SALE: BUY THE THING

In many aspects of life, no one could accuse me of being an optimist, but with this blog content, I try to stay upbeat. This isn't really meant to be a serious, critical review space. If I don't like something, I won't buy it and I probably won't bother writing about it. However, even though I quite like the toy I'm writing about today, this post isn't wholly positive because I've got a bit of buyer's remorse going on here. You see, I bought 7 Zelfs last week. I feel now that this was probably too many Zelfs.

I have been watching Zelfs with some interest for a while.  They are bright and extremely similar to Trolls. I had wondered about their chances of success from the time I first heard about them because I was given a mini one for free with a Toys R Us order back in the fall, and that seemed like a bad omen.  A few months ago, when I wasn't really buying anything other than Calico Critters and LEGO, there was a buy one get one free on Zelfs at Toys R Us, which, by the way, is the only physical US store that officially carries them. I had the 2 I liked best in my hands (Garny & Snap Jack), but, horror of horrors, I put them back. In my experience, this is almost always a mistake (see: The Great Dog Saga). Since then, I hadn't found both of the Zelfs I wanted in the same store.  Actually, I hadn't seen one of them again at all.  Not a good sign for these critters, it seemed.

What could have been: Just the 2 of them, hanging out, eating plastic snacks...

This month, I noticed their display being invaded by another Moose brand toy, the Shopkins, at one store. At another, all the remaining Zelfs had actually been shuffled off to another aisle.  Being the perceptive collector I am, I decided it was time to buy one (since all of the remaining figures were one I had wanted) before they all disappeared.  

A bit of digging seems to indicate that these toys are on the way out.  At least, out of Toys R Us. Not wanting my lone Zelf to go friendless, I set out the next day to see if the last store in the area had any of the others I wanted. Somehow, I ended up with 5 more. AND THEN I bought the only reasonably priced Snap Jack I could find on Ebay because disappearing stock makes me panic! I have managed to stop there for now, knowing that I already have too many. (Where will they live? Will they eat all the Calico Critters' food? How will I put them all through college?)

Instead, I have to use something as a riser just to
 get them all in the picture!

The moral of the story is to buy the thing when the thing is on sale so that you don't buy 7 of the thing later for no good reason.