Driven Pocket Series (Series 1) - Blind Boxes

I'm not familiar with the Driven brand or the company behind them, Battat. These small plastic "garages" can be found on the die-cast vehicle aisle at your local Target store and retail for just $1.99. I first noticed these during the Christmas shopping season and I was intrigued. I picked up three, one gray and two orange packages.

Like a lot of little boys growing up, I had a love for Tonka trucks and construction equipment. That later transitioned to Hot Wheels and Matchbox and then to Micro Machines. These seemed to be right up my alley and were worth at least checking out.

I knew there would be a small vehicle inside the plastic garage, but I didn't realize it would come with 3 pieces of road. These can be connected to one another as well as to the garage itself. Personally I love this little touch as I can see that aiding to the play pattern for kids. Heck, even this 40 year old guy was excited to connect all the pieces from all 3 packages together.

These vehicles are small, measuring around 1 to 1 1/2 inches long. They are all plastic, but surprisingly feature more molded detail and paint apps than you'd think a $2 blind packaged toy may have. One of my daughters took to this school bus upon first opening the gray package.

The two orange garages both yielded a yellow and black steam roller. Thankfully the included road pieces were slightly different than from before.

Not as cool as the school bus in my opinion, this little construction vehicle rolled around just fine.

Another nice undocumented feature is that the garages can snap together. On each side is either a 'u' shaped clip or a small peg.

I'm assuming these have sold well as return trips to Target I haven't seen these anymore. In their place is a Tonka branded product that appears to be similar. I know a Series 2 of Driven Pocket Series was released, but I've never seen them in person. They are available for sale on Target's website however.

Rabbids Invasion Series 2 Blind Bag

Over the weekend my wife and I hit the local outlet mall for her to do a little shopping of her own. I looked around for some shorts, but wasn't able to find anything I wanted. So as not to rush her, I left and walked around until I came across a little toy/gift shop. I've been to this store before around the holidays, but I thought it was one of those seasonal type stores. None the less, here it was. At the back of the store was a fairly large clearance area and while there wasn't much that caught my eye, I did find 3 blind bags of Rabbids Invasion mini figures.

Being a video game collector, I was familiar with the Rabbids, but have never really played many games with them in it. That was until I purchased Mario + Rabbids for Christmas this past year. I've laughed out loud so many times at the Rabbid dressed up as Peach...it's mannerisms are hilarious. This lead to these little blind bags being an easy purchase. I believe they originally retailed for $4-5 each, but I got them for about $1.75 each. 

I can't say I really recall seeing these at retail before. The date on the bag is from 2014 and I was surprised to see that McFarlane Toys made them. The 3 bags I purchased were all from Series 2 which contains 7 different Rabbids, one of them being a mystery figure. The figures themselves are about 1 inch tall with the ears making them a smidge taller. They aren't articulated in any way, but the paint apps are applied well. Each figure comes with a small round blue figure stand. Each figure has a small hole in the bottom of one foot, allowing it to peg onto the stand giving it extra stability.

I was hoping for this one, Blondie, as it reminds me of the goofy one dressed up as Peach in the Mario + Rabbids game. So goofy this one.

This is Bill E. Rock, a goofy Elvis impersonator. At first I thought he just had a wig on like Blondie, but my 6 year old daughter recognized it as an octopus on this head...and she's right! If you look closely you can see the little suction cups molded into the plastic.

The last figure I opened was Professor Marker. I love the little black marker he's holding in his hand and all of the scribble on his face. 

The likeness of these figures matches their craziness that is brought to life in various video games. These are some of the best blind bag toys I've opened in quite some time. I hate that I missed out on these until now, however I'm glad to add these 3 to my video game shelves.