These are a real oddity, marked-up to Hexbug, but not taking Hexbug's as motive power, or for added play-value, so I can only guess, they were another 'line' in the Hexbug 'range', designed to tie-in with the declared STEM aims of Innovation First International for their Hexbug branding?
Remaindered or 'on clearance' at TKMaxx
last Christmas (2022/3), these were back in TKMaxx again this Christmas , just gone,
with different packaging (I didn't make another purchase), suggesting they had been tried again
somewhere, or more stock had been found/located in the intervening
12-months, I don't know?
What I do know, is I can illustrate/testify to several reasons why they might have failed, and this is very-much in the we-buy-this-shit-so-you-don't-have-to department, rather than any advertisement to rush out and find some?
Immediate problems are presented by the ripped elastic band, fashioned as a chain and padlock, the padlock is both non-functional and depicted as open! The container is modelled to represent a North American dumpster, although such flat-top designs are getting as common as the roll-lid ones over here now . . . we will go to our extinction homogeneously!
One of the models had two accessory bags for small parts, joined with hairs of extruded plastic, from some production problem, and with several smaller pieces loose in the box?
A [sealed, so no replacing the-] battery-operated light unit was included with one, which was not part of the model, not found on the instruction, but clearly a 'spare' for use in the line? While fit was poor on a fair number of the component's link-portions, and the two very small pieces above (one from each of the two I purchased) were so badly manufactured (you can see the rough finish of the orange 'flower' clearly) they wouldn't locate in the designated position.
However, with perseverance I did manage to produce the two, almost to the instructions, without breaking anything, although a couple of pieces did get damaged/bent in the task, and wouldn't survive too many more constructions/dismantling?
Any interactivity/swapability between the two was limited, due to the various joins/ball-sockets/studs being different diameters/dimensions, and/or, therefore, location specific. As you can see, I got (blind boxes) a Dino-bot and a Seal/Sea Lion-bot!
Final criticism - I would say the colour-palate was/is pretty uninspiring, without being actually stressed/weathered to represent junk?
So, one can see that this line seems to have been half-thought, half-executed and then neither properly supported, nor improved? Glaring errors like poor fit, were never corrected, and the fact that toys dated 2020, were remaindered so soon, is not a mystery.
What is a mystery (to me) is why were these 'Series 2', was a 'Series 1' better? And was it a 'Series 3' which I didn't even look-at properly, a few weeks ago, which was being cleared a year later, and which are probably still in some TKMaxx's, if you want to try them for yourselves - I really wouldn't recommend it?
And, if the four or five-quid I paid in TKMaxx,
was a clearance price, they were surely overpriced for
blind-box/capsule novelties in the first place? I am reminded of the -
much better executed - Horrible History figures and their short
life, the powers that be (the board, the PR Company/ies, the marketer/s), don't care if they are stuffing landfill with
this shite, so long as they sell enough 'units' first.
I love the space station, before I've even had a proper looks at it, and the insects look very good, and fun, but this is unadulterated, ephemeral, opportunistic shite, and would disappoint, from a Christmas stocking, damaging the brand, no wonder they sold their toy division to Spin Master!
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