The plastic problem with those Coles supermarket toys

If you’re planning on throwing your kid’s Coles mini-toys in your yellow-topped bin once the craze is over, think again.

While the packaging they come in is recyclable, the Little Shop toys themselves are not.

“While the mini collectables and accessories are not made from recyclable materials, our customers and enjoying and keeping them for the future which means they aren’t heading to landfill,” a Coles spokesman said.

“Customers are able to recycle the wrappers at their nearest store through our in-store REDCycle program.”

The toys have been a hot topic with some consumers, as the plastic toys were brought in around the same time as Coles removed single-use plastic bags from its checkouts.

The supermarket chain then changed tack, announcing it would offer free reusable plastic bags indefinitely, before again changing its mind and ending the free bag offer on August 29.

The spokesman said the idea behind the toys was they were kept and collected rather than thrown out.

“We are already finding Little Shop is popular with many of our customers of all ages and customers have said they are excited about being able to collect tiny versions of the products they buy every week,” he said.

The spokesman added that Coles customers have the option of not accepting a toy – one is offered for every $30 spent – at the checkout.

There is an online market for the toys, as people look to buy the missing ones to complete the set.

Online site eBay has thousands of listings for people looking to sell the toys.

Some of the more extreme prices include a $7000 asking price for a complete set, or $2500 for the miniature version of toilet cleaner or $500 for a tiny jar of Nutella.

There are some more reasonable prices too – like 50 cents for the box of tea or dog food collectable.

Ranveer Singh and Manushi Chhillar come together to promote e-commerce fashion brand, Club Factory

Publicis Beehive, the full-service ad agency from Publicis Worldwide has won the creative mandate of popular Chinese e-commerce fashion brand, Club Factory. As its creative partner, Publicis Beehive will play an integral role in launching the brand in India. To further the cause of the brand in India, Club Factory recently announced Bollywood’s leading star and youth icon Ranveer Singh and Miss World Manushi Chhillar as brand ambassadors. The two together star in a high decibel brand campaign that has been executed and conceptualised by Publicis Beehive. The film portrays the broad range of products available on the platform and how users can own these trendy & factory priced brands at just the click of a button.

Watch the spot:

A popular online shopping brand across the world, Club Factory has a strong presence in South Asia, Europe, the United States, the Middle East and other regions. What makes Club Factory unique is that it allows users to shop through millions of products that are trendy and fashionable and available at unbeaten prices.

Commenting on the partnership and the launch of the brand in India, Aviva Wu, Marketing Director, Club Factory said: “Club Factory has managed to carve a unique niche in the hearts of the consumers across various markets that we operate in. India is no exception with consumers, especially the youth, having taken a liking to the brand in a very short span of time. We have ambitious plans for the market and are glad Publicis Beehive is our creative partner.”

On winning the mandate, Paritosh Srivastava, COO – Publicis Beehive said: “The Indian online retail market is at an interesting juncture right now with a plethora of brands vying for some share of the customer’s attention and also his wallet. Though a late entrant, Club Factory is already a well-known brand and our task was to make it a popular & regular online partner of its patrons and keep them coming back for more. With the inaugural launch communication already out, we are confident of achieving that.”

Sharing her views on the film, Shyamashree D’Mello, ECD & Head of Creative Services, Publicis Beehive said: “It was great fun working on the Club Factory launch campaign, as it challenges the notion of fashion being the fiefdom of expensive brands. The bonus was getting the energy of Ranveer Singh and the elegance of Manushi Chillar, paired together for the first time ever, to do that. The light-hearted reverse snobbery they bring to the fore, really hits home as it’s all about being trendy and original in style choices, but paying a fair price for it. Fashion pundits be damned!”

The film has been launched on various digital platforms and has been receiving some rave reviews from the viewers. It has already surpassed 24million views on Youtube since it went live a few days ago. The campaign has also been launched across various platforms including television, digital, outdoor, print etc.

Campaign credits:

Client: Club Factory
Client Team: Aviva Wu
Agency: Publicis Beehive
MD & CCO: Bobby Pawar
MD: Srija Chatterjee
COO: Paritosh Srivastava
Creative Team: Shyamashree D’Mello, Avinash Parab, Savita Nair, Nikhil Warrier, Harish Iyengar, Shreyas Shetty
Account Management: Smita Das, Khushbu Hisaria
Account Planning: Binita Tripathy
Production House: Prodigious
Production Team: Vandana Watsa, Anup Das, Andalib Patel, Sajid Shaikh
Director: Karan Kapadia

Resource: https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/

This disturbing theory will change the way you watch Toy Story forever

Toy story might be the most iconic and memorable animated movies of all times, but a child’s theory might just destroy all your happy memories of the film.

Baron Stigmund took to Twitter to share what his daughter had blurted out while watching the Pixar classic - and some people found it very troubling.

Baron Stigmund wrote, "My daughter just ruined Toy Story for everyone. She said if one of the toys died, Andy wouldn't know and he'd carry on playing with its corpse."

The brutal tweet left people horrified and freaking out.

While one user said: "Totally didn't just ruin my childhood or anything,” another replied, “Well that's just scarred me for life.”

Toy Story has been the subject of a number of bizarre fan theories over the years.

Fans have speculated that the heartbreaking scene where Jessie is ditched by her owner is actually Andy's mother.

There's also the theory that Andy's parents are mid-divorce and that's why his appearances are kept to a minimum in the film.

A Tiny Version Of This Physics Toy Is Revealing Quantum Secrets

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — A simple toy is helping scientists understand new details of a mysterious quantum process.

The rhythmic click-clacking of the metal balls in Newton’s cradle has long entertained physics students. Now, scientists have re-created the toy on an atomic scale, using it to probe how quantum systems reach a balanced state known as thermal equilibrium.

Leave a mug of hot coffee on the counter, and it will gradually cool until it reaches thermal equilibrium, matching the temperature of the room. That process, called thermalization, is well understood on the scale of coffee cups. But at the quantum level, thermalization becomes murky.

“This is an area of physics that we fundamentally don’t understand,” says physicist Benjamin Lev of Stanford University, who presented the work June 26 at the Quantum Thermodynamics meeting at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. That lack of understanding of such a basic process means that “it behooves us scientists to investigate,” Lev says. So he and colleagues studied how introducing chaos into a quantum Newton’s cradle paves the way for thermalization.

Newton’s cradle consists of suspended metal spheres dangling in a row. Pull back one ball on the end and let it fall back to hit its neighbor, and a ball on the other end pops out before swinging back and repeating the process. This regularly repeating motion continues until friction slows the balls’ swing.

The quantum version replaces those spheres with a row of chilled, laser-trapped atoms. Lev and colleagues created an array of about 700 such quantum Newton’s cradles, each composed of around 50 atoms of the element dysprosium, and kicked them into motion with a laser.

For the quantum Newton’s cradle to thermalize, all the atoms must be moving randomly — akin to the jiggling molecules in a cup of coffee — instead of in a regular back-and-forth pattern. To achieve that randomness, Lev and colleagues took advantage of the fact that dysprosium atoms are magnetic. In addition to colliding with one another, the atoms tugged on one another magnetically. That additional interaction introduced chaos that scrambled the atoms’ motions (SN Online: 9/16/13).

By changing the orientation of the atoms’ magnetic poles, Lev and colleagues tuned the strength of the magnetic interactions and studied how the system approached equilibrium. At first, the atoms rapidly progressed toward thermal equilibrium, then switched to a slower advance, Lev and colleagues report in a paper published May 2 in Physical Review X.

The result could be important for designing ultrasmall devices (SN: 3/19/16, p. 18) and quantum computers, which could perform efficient calculations using quantum mechanics (SN: 7/8/17, p. 28). “If you want to have a quantum computer, it will be very far off equilibrium,” says physicist Jörg Schmiedmayer of Technische Universität Wien in Austria, who was not involved with the research. That’s because, in equilibrium, information is lost thanks to the scrambling of particles’ properties.

So understanding how quantum systems reach equilibrium is a rapidly developing topic of study. “In 20 years … we will have this completely different understanding of the thermodynamics of quantum systems,” Schmiedmayer says.

FUNKO ADDS IRON SPIDER AND MORE AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR TOYS

Much like Thanos‘ singular drive to get all of the Infinity Stones to complete his little pet project, we know there are many of you who will not feel complete until you own the entire line of Avengers: Infinity War toys from Funko. Well, just when you thought your collection might be done, the venerable toy company has announced several new additions to their existing Infinity War releases via their official blog.

Warning: a few of these figures can be considered spoilers for the movie, so if you haven’t seen it yet, you best get on that before you check out the pictures.

First off, there’s a new two-pack in the Vynl line, which features the Mad Titan Thanos himself, complete with a fully stoned Infinity Gauntlet, together with the kid who threw webbing in his face, Peter Parker, in his Tony Stark created Iron Spider armor. For the classic Pop! vinyls line, we have a bearded and rugged Captain America in a new pose (a Walmart exclusive), the Iron Spider (a Target exclusive), and the “Stonekeeper,” who we of course know better as Cap’s World War II menace Red Skull, who is a Funko shop exclusive. And the Hulk busting out of his Hulkbuster armor figure is available only at GameStop; it’s a six inch super sized figure. Hey wait…that never happened in the movie!

You can check out images of all the new Avengers: Infinity War Funko products in our gallery below. Each of these new toys should be hitting shelves sometime early this summer.

Which of these toys from the Infinity War line is your must have item? Be sure to let us know in the comments.

Toys for Bob created a special tool called Spyroscope to help develop Spyro Reignited Trilogy

Now that the Spyro Reignited Trilogy has been announced, fans will no doubt want to know more. Lucky for them we have some very cool Spyro Reignited Trilogy details to share.

Toys for Bob is handling development duties on Spyro Reignited Trilogy. Design Director Toby Schadt has revealed a tool the team used to try and make the remaster feel as close as possible to the original.

Spyro Reignited Trilogy Details

Spyroscope is a tool developed in-house at Toys for Bob. Its function is to scan the code and assets of the original game and convert the data into a usable form.

Toys for Bob’s programmers and designers can then use the information obtained to recreate those original games as closely as possible. Schadt describes the Spyroscope as a way for the development team to “magically slurp” information from the originals. He adds;

The Spyroscope is obviously an incredibly ingenious piece of technology that when used with other tools allows Toys for Bob to be very faithful to those old PSX games.

This is something that fans will definitely want when it comes to Spyro Reignited Trilogy details.

From the looks of things, Toys for Bob has done a wonderful job of updating the classics and making sure they remain faithful.

We’ll find out how good a job on September 21.

Buy Your Son Girls’ Toys If You Truly Believe In Equality

“Boyz like to play rough. They climb in trees and play in the dirt. Boyz love finding trouble!” This is an actual quote written on a tag attached to one of my 18-month-old’s shirts. The funny thing is, the shirt is a really dapper little button-down and looks like something he would maybe wear to church — it’s not really a rolling-in-the-mud kind of shirt. Regardless of what the shirt itself looks like, this tag makes my skin crawl. Children start to get messages about gender norms from birth. From the toys we buy them, to the clothes we dress them in, they start to get a sense of what they are “supposed” to do as a boy or girl from the moment they are born. That's why I think it's not enough to be "neutral" about your choices: I think you need to buy your son some girls' toys.

A BBC experiment dressed a female toddler in boyish clothes and a male toddler in girly clothes, and filmed volunteers interacting with them. The strangers gave the babies toys based on their perceived gender. The baby perceived to be a girl was given a doll while the "boy" was given toys related to spatial intelligence like a shape sorter, and wrangled onto the ride-on toys by a volunteer.

I come across this issue all the time when buying toys for my son. I was looking for a toy vacuum once and — rather unlike the range on offer at P.C. Richardson — the overwhelming majority were pink. When I shop for clothes, all of the t-shirts available for boys say things like “mischief maker,” “high energy,” and “mess maker” (I cannot pretend to be innocent here, those are all shirts I have bought myself). But when I take a step back, it’s easy to see that by and large girls are encouraged to nurture and be fancy, and boys are encouraged to be wild, mischievous and get their hands dirty.

These stereotypes have implications that run much deeper than the toy aisle at Target. What happens to the little boy that doesn’t like to dig in the dirt and play rough but, rather, wants to play with dolls and carry a purse? What about the little girl who wants to play with trucks? By creating toys and clothing marketed toward gender stereotypes, we are sending children the message that anything that does not fit inside these two categories is wrong.

On a recent trip to Target, my son came across a pink baby-doll stroller and almost flung his body out of the shopping cart trying to reach for it. He wanted to push around that stroller so badly. I bought it for him and when we got home, we put his doll inside and took it for a walk. As silly as it sounds, I know that some people would take issue with me letting my son play with a pink doll stroller, or with dolls in general. Adults love to project our own insecurities and biases onto our children — we do this all the time whether or not we are even aware of it. Is it wrong to encourage a boy to be nurturing and gentle? Wouldn’t I want my son to grow up to be a loving and warm father?

“Boyz play rough.”

I don’t want my son to play rough. Granted, children play with their whole bodies and sometimes wrestling and rolling around with each other on the floor is part of that, but why the word rough? I want my son to play fair. I want my son to play inclusively, letting everyone join in the game and have a turn. I also don’t really want him to “love finding trouble” either. I want him to love finding joy and beauty in everything he sees. I want him to love himself and be secure in who he is. I want him to love with his whole heart. Climbing trees and digging in the dirt are fine — as long as he knows those are not the only things boys are supposed to like.

The way I see it, so many of the issues we are facing today can be traced back to the way we encourage boys to be rough and at the same time teach girls to be meek people-pleasers. In light of the #MeToo movement and the way gender stereotypes are portrayed everywhere from our toy stores to our media, and even in our White House, we need to be even more mindful about how we are raising our sons. And it starts before they are even born, with "guns or glitter" sex reveal cakes and the like.

We need to teach our children that they can be whatever they want to be, and whoever they want to be. And we're doing a pretty good job of teaching girls that they can be whomever they like, can dress however they like, but the double standard remains: boys don't dress in girls' clothes, don't play with girls' toys.

So yes, I bought my son a pink stroller and some mermaid bibs that he was pointing to (he calls mermaids MEEMEES, it's adorable) and I am not saying that this is the answer to the world’s problems — but if we encourage every child to play with all the toys, and not just the ones we think they’re supposed to play with, I think it's a step in the right direction.

Toy Fair Is Flush With Poo-inspired Games And Trinkets

There’s plenty of potty humor in kids’ books and movies. Now, it seems that toymakers have also gone to the toilet for their latest creations.

Mattel, a company best known for its Barbie dolls, is set to release a game called Flushin’ Frenzy that sends a brown plastic poop flying into the air.

Rival Hasbro, whose water-squirting game Toilet Trouble was a hit last year, stuck with the potty humor this year and released Don’t Step in It, a game in which players are blindfolded and have to avoid stepping in poop that’s molded out of a claylike substance.

Toy analysts and experts say the potty-related toys are hitting stores because of the popularity of the poop emoji, which has also made it more acceptable for parents to buy poop toys for their kids. At this week’s New York Toy Fair, the industry’s biggest gathering of the year, toymakers showed off poo-shaped action figures, squishy toys and other creatures from the toilet.

“Yeah, poop is a theme,” says Juli Lennett, the toy analyst at market research company the NPD Group. “Kids think it’s funny.”

Sticky the Poo, a squishy likeness with eyes, clings to walls and ceilings when thrown. The company behind it, Hog Wild, also sells a rainbow version called Sticky Unicorn Poo. Its Sticky the Plunger is sold separately.

There’s poo for collectors, too. Flush Force, by toymaker Spin Master, sells 150 nickel-size mutant critters that kids can collect. Poopeez, meanwhile, makes tiny, squishy collectibles with character names such as Pooji, Skid Mark and Dumpling.

Poopeez are aimed at boys age 7 and older, says Ashley Mady, who created Poopeez and works for toy company Basic Fun. But she thinks the appeal will spread.

“We really believe poop is for everyone,” she says.

Toy Donations Bring Out The Kid In Animals At Memphis Zoo

The doorway was a little small, but that didn't stop Mwelu from squeezing his way inside for a quick look.

Mwelu, a Western Lowland Gorilla, and his three female companions weren't sure what to make of the new addition to their habitat at the Memphis Zoo, but simian body language seemed to indicate they were impressed.

"It's not about just giving toys to the animals," noted curator Courtney Janney. "It's about changing up their environment. That's not just physical stimulation; it's mental stimulation as well."

Thanks to Janney and plenty of Facebook friends, the zoo's animal population has lots to stimulate them these days.

Janney came up with the idea of collecting children's toys, those the kids had outgrown or in which they had lost interest, and giving them to her animal family.

"I'm part of a Facebook group where I donate or sell my kids' stuff," said Janney, a mother of two. "It's always been in the back of my mind that if I asked for donations to the zoo, people might donate."

And donate they did -- the fort that enthralls the four gorillas; several plastic cars, just the right size for the Sulawesi Crested Black Macaques to sit in or (more likely) tip over; slides, basketball hoops, sand tables and water tables.

"It was amazing to me because people could have very easily looked to sell them," Janney said. "But I posted a picture of a monkey with one of those Cozy Coupe cars, and people just went nuts over it."


It really is a win-win, Janney noted. The donations keep discarded toys out of the landfill, while providing the stimulation animals need. Making sure they get it is part of the zoo's accreditation process.

Jennifer Brown is a regular zoo patron who saw Janney's Facebook appeal for toys. She sent a stock photo of the fort she was willing to donate.

"One of our favorite family outings is the Memphis Zoo," Brown, a mother of three, said in a video Facebook produced for its Community Voices feature. "She (Janney) said, 'You've made every monkey's Christmas dream come true.'

"I chuckle because I think, 'that was in our back yard. Now, primates are playing on our castle.'"

Janney said "it speaks volumes" that the community has been so supportive of the zoo through the toy donations.

"They just donated without hesitation," Janney said. "They were showing it to their kids, and the kids were totally willing to donate too."

There are certain donations that cannot be accepted -- no sharp edges, no metal toys, no toys with lots of parts since some of the animals, Janney notes, are very adept at taking toys apart.

"But," Janney added, "if anyone wants to donate, I'm willing to talk to them about pretty much anything. Some of our animals like to destroy the toys, so we're always looking for donations."

Young Girl Distributes Toys to Marathon Runners in Virginia Beach to Raise Awareness for IBS

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – A 12-year-old girl has been handing out stuffed Poo-nicorn toys to runners to help raise awareness for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), which she suffers from.

Anastacia Wartmann also has arthritis, and has handed out toys at the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington D.C. and the Wicked 10k in Virginia Beach recently.

According to Swerver PR, the toys that Wartmann has been handing out are a mixture between a poo emoji and rainbow unicorn.

Wartmann gave her first Poonicorn Droplings to an Angle Runner in September when she raced in the Camp Lejune Marine Corps 1/2 in North Carolina.

“I can be sad about it or I can just be happy. Poonicorns help me do that,” said Wartmann about how handing out these toys, which she believes, makes her feel better about what she goes through with her illnesses.

Her goal is to make runners smile when they see the notes she has attached to the droplings toy. Even though she has arthritis, and it is hard for her to write them, Wartmann write original inspirational and motivational notes for each of the runners who receives a droplings toy.

The 7th graders from Great Neck Middle School is active in Girl Scouts and is also involved with Ainsley’s Angels, where in the last year, she has raced in Triathlons, 5k, 8k, 10k and 1/2 and full marathons as part of representing the organization.