Dave's Transformers Artifact Rant - Easter 2008 TF Easter Egg Decorating Kit TF Treat Containers Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/Easter08 If I get more Easter merchandise, I'll update this file. I've seen and passed on one style of Easter basket, which was just a sort of purse shaped like an Autobot symbol. I've also heard of "grass" for baskets made of shredded paper with TF logos on it, but won't be buying that. CAPSULES Easter Egg Decorating Kit: A grab-bag of stickers and things, and you can even decorate eggs if you want. Mildly recommended. $2.99 at Target. Treat Containers: Nice little snap-closed containers in the shape of Autobot symbols. Recommended. $1.99 at Target. RANTS Easter Egg Decorating Kit: Made by Dudley's, not the big guys at Paas, so you might have trouble finding it. This contains a bunch of things: - 8x12 inch poster using upper body shots of Prime and Megatron from the usual art list, against the Earth-from-space image used in early movie posters. - Sticker sheet. These are simple paper stickers, so don't put them on the egg when it's wet, and expect wrinkling due to curvature. Teeny little character art pieces, a bunch of Sector 7 logos and signs, three "Transformers" logos, one Autobot symbol and no Decepticon symbols. - Egg holders. Ratchet, Jazz, Frenzy and Blackout standup things that form loops that you set eggs in. Also usable on their own as targets for shooting your Battle Rig Nerf gun at. - "Transforming" stickers. The same sort of lenticular motion gimmick used on some of the Valentine's Day card-lets, featuring Ratchet and Blackout. They transform images as you tip them. - Dye pellets and egg holder wire thingy. If you want to, you know, dye some eggs. I have no plans along those lines, but I never liked hard boiled eggs. Also, the box turns into a drying rack, and the circles you punch out of the box have holes in the center so you can make toothpick tops. No dedicated images for these "tops" though. For three bucks, it's not too bad. It's kinda a sampler of paper goods, and might make a nice basket-stuffer for a kid even without doing the eggs. Just give 'em the poster, stickers and standups. Treat Containers: When I was a kid, you hid eggs, or you hid entire baskets of candy. Some time since then, someone had the idea of using plastic eggs to hide stuff in egg-hideable places without having to worry about eggs being missed and resulting in nasty smells a month later. In the past couple of years, they've evern abandoned adherence to the egg shape (I've seen sports ball shapes, dino heads, little stubby rockets, etc). These are boxes 1.75" (4.5cm) deep with the front in the shape of an Autobot symbol. Notably, despite the movie-style packaging, this is a pre-movie Autobot symbol with the 6-sided non-squinty eyes. The symbol is 2.25" (5.5cm) tall and equally wide, with the front face in slight relief. They're made of dark blue plastic with silver paint on the symbol. The movie logo is printed in light gray and blue on the back. Three of these boxes are on a plastic tray inside a plastic bag. There's this warning on the card top: "DECORATION ONLY. NOT A TOY. WASH THOROUGHLY BEFORE USE." Inside each is the warning that they're not dishwasher safe, hope you read both warnings before tossing 'em in the dishwasher. ;) The boxes split halfway in the depth direction (so the front comes up). They snap together well enough to hold against casual handling, but not in an airproof or waterproof seal (in fact, they have little airholes). It can't hold large candy, but it can hold a reasonable number of Cyber Planet Keys. However, the fact that the lid is half the box means you can't fill it all the way up with little things like jelly beans unless you put 'em in a baggie first. It's also too small to hold a Legends toy, although most Mini-Cons could be crammed inside. Still, as a novelty container, it's worth grabbing a set. Dave Van Domelen, thinks Hasbro should release the Stampy mold as an Easter Bunny.