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Tales from storage: The Squinkies squad

Monday, May 5, 2025 at 2:01 pm Comments (2)

If I hadn’t sold or gifted away most of them you could probably expect this column to be nothing but dodgy toys and action figures picked up from resale outlets like TK Maxx, Pound Stretcher, and wherever else used to be in the vicinity of Abbeycentre. I was certain I’d chucked these things years ago!

ah, Pound Stretcher, we hardly knew ye
actually we knew you extremely well, like your glut of merch for Spider Riders and The Golden Compass, but those foibles seem charming in hindsight
absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that
especially when this entire strip is just a dirty big void now

So, Squinkies. I haven’t a ballsy what they are. They’re soft, slightly malleable inch-tall figurines that exist to be stored in little ball capsules, it seems? And then you can stow them inside a stubby plastic vehicle? At least, that’s what I’ve picked up from the two sets I had in my possession.
I was fully expecting these things to be extremely short-lived and long gone by now, and although their website is still in business (albeit extremely downsized from its previous iterations), I’m having a hard time finding evidence new ones are being sold, or that Blip Toys is still in operation. Their YouTube channel hasn’t updated since before the pandemic, which isn’t a good sign.
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Filed under Basic bloggin' Tagged tales from storage, toys

ONM Remembered – #463

Saturday, February 18, 2017 at 11:00 am Comments Off on ONM Remembered – #463

“Look out for these cool Frogger chain games from Tiger. They’re fast, furious ‘n’ fun.”

from Official Nintendo Magazine issue 85 (October 1999)
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Filed under ONM Remembered Tagged onm, toys

ONM Remembered – Pack-In Week, day 6

Friday, January 27, 2017 at 11:00 am Comments Off on ONM Remembered – Pack-In Week, day 6

“Biokinton is an enemy who throws flying chickens at Mario while floating around inside a cloud. Nobody knows what Biokinton looks like behind his cloud, not even Biokinton’s mum.”

from The Complete Mario Encyclopedia (pack-in with Official Nintendo Magazine issue 07, September 2006)

One of the later pack-ins, coming out after ONM had their big mid-2000s shake-up under new management, this was a more appropriate gift for the new millennium: a delightful little encyclopaedia to the Mario universe! Let’s face it, once the internet picked up groundswell there wasn’t much magazines could include on the cheap that seemed worth a damn; it was demo discs or bust.
Still, this is nicely bound and well printed and it’s just like The Mushroom Kingdom’s Mariopedia) except more tightly edited and not horribly unfinished. It’s a breezier read than trying to digest the Mario Wiki, and it has an entry for bloody Biokinton. They should win an award for that inclusion.

Filed under ONM Remembered Tagged mario, onm, pack-in, toys

ONM Remembered – #397

Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 11:00 am Comments Off on ONM Remembered – #397

“This jolly green giant makes the Terminator look like a pussy cat!”

from Official Nintendo Magazine issue 65 (February 1998)
(big ups to oldgamemags.com for the scans!)
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Filed under ONM Remembered Tagged onm, toys

ONM Remembered – #346

Tuesday, May 3, 2016 at 11:00 am Comments Off on ONM Remembered – #346

“Poo is huge in Japan.”

from Official Nintendo Magazine issue 64 (January 1998)
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Filed under ONM Remembered Tagged feature, onm, toys

ONM Remembered – #344

Saturday, October 31, 2015 at 11:00 am Comments (1)

“One day we’ll set up a proper little village and take pictures of it. Unless you write in threatening to kill us if you do.”

from Official Nintendo Magazine issue 137 (February 2004)
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Filed under ONM Remembered Tagged onm, toys

ONM Remembered – #288

Tuesday, June 16, 2015 at 11:00 am Comments Off on ONM Remembered – #288

“Try to remember that the baggage limit is something stupid like 25kg so you won’t be able to take away any cute Japanese shop assistants in videogame outfits.”

from Official Nintendo Magazine issue 07 (September 2006)
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