The Kinder Surprise Experiment

Location: Toronto, Ontario

Every Kinder Surprise Egg (KSE) includes the same amount of chocolate, packaging material and paper inserts - instructions. But! not all contain the same toy. Not all of them contain whatsoever.

This KSE offered something that certainly is useful in a minimalistic fashion, but is un-fun in a maximistic fashion. But, let us not jump to conclusions, and allow me not to be unseemingly bias.

Point by point this KSE is analyzed, and the final mark tallied only after usefulness, design, toyfulness are considered.

I) Design
a) The colours. Certainly, they are nice - silverish gray for the bottom part of the dolphin, and azure blue for the top part. Of course the tongue is red, and the eyes are black - just like the real dolphins are. (5/10)
b) Pieces. Only three exist. Very, very small amount. Yes, they connect almost perfectly (one connection is not a smooth line), but they do not offer much joy in the assembly process due to its simplicity. Additionally, the head piece has a hole on top (reminiscent of the real dolphins I guess, which simply looks unnatural due to its large surface area. (4/10)
c) Cuteness. Sure, it is there - but is that enough!?; I mean - all dolphins are cute. 10/10 (by default)
d) Quality Plastic out of which this dolphin is made seems very cheap. It is not offering a vision of grandeur, although it should because after all this product is envisioned as a desk piece. Mark: 6/10
e) Series.
There are other 2 that pose as pencil holders - a crab and a awan (why exclude other animals, or is that only water involved creatures have the ability to hold pencils). There are several levels of dicontent with the series. Two are theoretical: What happened with 4-piece series which used to be somewhat a standard in the good old times? Additionally, looking over the No's - it is noticed that Swan is#1, Crab is #2 and this Dolphin #29. Certainly alarming, as this can mean only one of two things: KSE creators are running out of ideas so that after a wile they decided to add one more toy to this series, or people were thrilled with the pencil-holder idea that one more piece had to be brought to light to satisfy the demand. Also - but not theoretically: Who wants to have 3 pencil holders. Isn't one enough, and with 3 of them, nicely placed on the desk a lot of space is occupied. (3/10)
Mark for this section: 28/50 = 5.6/10

II) Usefulness It certainly is there. This dolphin is actually a pencil (and potentially a pen) stand. According to the drawing/instructions, one is to place it on the desk and to use dolphin's mouth and its tail fin as grooves for the pencil. Definitely a practical and compact offering. Mark for this section: 9/10

III) Toyfulness Not much of it. This toy is not a toy, but a schoolastic element(pencil holder), and as such does not posses any fun for kids ages 3 and above. Contrary to the official set-up I did try to use this dolphin as a toy: I put it in the water only to have it sink due to the hole on head. This is not quite the parallel to the reality (dolphins do not sink), as it can be confirmed in The Guide to Life, the Universe and Everything
Mark for this section: 1/10

FINAL MARK 5.6/10 + 9/10 + 1/10 = 15.6/30 = 5.2
Note: this high score may be misleading as the usefulness of the non-fun kind helped the overall average.