Sunday, September 24, 2006
Investigative Report No.2 - Choosing different Sameness
A country is a large space. The world is even bigger.
So, moving from one city to another, from one country to another will always give different experiences, different offers (which are circularly connected with the former). But, since we are all humans what will be encountered is essentially a slight variation of the original; recycling of the idea. And because the ideas are usually copyrighted - some modification is made and thus a new product is yielded.
The same applies to KSEs.
Originally, and still at least theoretically, idea of having a toy inside a capsule surrounded by wonderful chocolate egg of the edible kind is simply marvelous. Now, having established through documented decades of positive (read: profitable) experience that KSE factory underwent, other - "renegade" - factories appeared.
Indeed, if the idea works, why not (re)produce it locally!?
e.g. Turkish-produced Balaban
These have been encountered in Montreal, and if there they must be elsewhere. But, that is not the point. The mere existence of the regular chocolate egg with yellow capsule with incisions on top of each end is. The toy from a randomly chosen egg was quite decent - a formula car containing 11 pieces - far better than anything seen lately amongst KSE ideas. Although the pieces' grooves and bolts were a bit hard to combine, once finalized (and instruction was somewhat a necessary guide!) the toy was bigger than the capsule, considering its length. And it was playable; i.e., the idea of a vehicle was exactly that - only on the mini, toy scale.
Furthermore - if licensing with one element (toy/character/image) is out of reach - another and others will be not. Or vice versa - it is actually possible that the company owning specific line of images cannot induce KSE to support it, whereas another will gladly do it.
e.g. Italian Zaini
Produced in the neighborhood of KSE, this type of chocolate egg with a surprise toy inside the capsule consists of the following:
- chocolate egg which is 1/2 totally white and 1/2 regular chocolate
- the capsule is KSE standard size, but one half is green and the other white
- the toy is not of the building kind; it is a part of the collection*
* this time it was one of the Winnie the Pooh (series of 10) characters, but further research showed that other WD lines are existent
It is hard to infer from a single example of each of the alternate chocolate surprise eggs if they are better or worse, or far from either, than the original KSEs. One can only note that idea of collecting is definitely out there (Zaini) and that idea of a toy inside a capsule inside a chocolate is still functional.
How will the alternate companies fare against KSE and how will KSE fare in general remains to be seen. Only certainty is that the offerings are increasing, albeit their similarity.
D, the E
NOTE: pictures relating to above-mentioned examples are in process/ update coming soon
So, moving from one city to another, from one country to another will always give different experiences, different offers (which are circularly connected with the former). But, since we are all humans what will be encountered is essentially a slight variation of the original; recycling of the idea. And because the ideas are usually copyrighted - some modification is made and thus a new product is yielded.
The same applies to KSEs.
Originally, and still at least theoretically, idea of having a toy inside a capsule surrounded by wonderful chocolate egg of the edible kind is simply marvelous. Now, having established through documented decades of positive (read: profitable) experience that KSE factory underwent, other - "renegade" - factories appeared.
Indeed, if the idea works, why not (re)produce it locally!?
e.g. Turkish-produced Balaban
These have been encountered in Montreal, and if there they must be elsewhere. But, that is not the point. The mere existence of the regular chocolate egg with yellow capsule with incisions on top of each end is. The toy from a randomly chosen egg was quite decent - a formula car containing 11 pieces - far better than anything seen lately amongst KSE ideas. Although the pieces' grooves and bolts were a bit hard to combine, once finalized (and instruction was somewhat a necessary guide!) the toy was bigger than the capsule, considering its length. And it was playable; i.e., the idea of a vehicle was exactly that - only on the mini, toy scale.
Furthermore - if licensing with one element (toy/character/image) is out of reach - another and others will be not. Or vice versa - it is actually possible that the company owning specific line of images cannot induce KSE to support it, whereas another will gladly do it.
e.g. Italian Zaini
Produced in the neighborhood of KSE, this type of chocolate egg with a surprise toy inside the capsule consists of the following:
- chocolate egg which is 1/2 totally white and 1/2 regular chocolate
- the capsule is KSE standard size, but one half is green and the other white
- the toy is not of the building kind; it is a part of the collection*
* this time it was one of the Winnie the Pooh (series of 10) characters, but further research showed that other WD lines are existent
It is hard to infer from a single example of each of the alternate chocolate surprise eggs if they are better or worse, or far from either, than the original KSEs. One can only note that idea of collecting is definitely out there (Zaini) and that idea of a toy inside a capsule inside a chocolate is still functional.
How will the alternate companies fare against KSE and how will KSE fare in general remains to be seen. Only certainty is that the offerings are increasing, albeit their similarity.
D, the E
NOTE: pictures relating to above-mentioned examples are in process/ update coming soon
