Meeting Tiana Toys and Me at the Hatchimals Colleggtibles Launch

The Early May Bank holiday Monday was the UK launch date for Hatchimals CollEGGtibles. So as any normal person would do I thought it would be a great chance to drive 4 hours to Tamworth and get some CollEGGtibles. As much as Imogen and Abigail hate long car journeys this one was slightly more exciting for them. Not only was the Hatchimals Colleggtibles being Launched, but there was a Meet and Greet with Tiana from Toys and Me.

Smyth Toy Superstore, Tamworth

We’d set off from Newcastle on this crazy expedition at 8am. With an expected journey of 3 and a half hours, I felt tired before I started. There’s something strange about any journey over 2 hours that seems to zap all energy!

The Smyths Toy Superstore in Tamworth had just recently opened on the Ventura Retail Park on the Easter weekend. So it had that lovely new store smell (really? Is that a thing?). The store is split over two floors. As we had arrives three hours before the official start time of the Tiana Toys and Me Meet and Greet we sloped off around the store to find out where everything was. After a tour of the ground floor, we quickly found that the Hatchimal launch was going to be upstairs. We were also first there!

Hatchimals CollEGGtibles

Hatchimals Colleggtibles are blind bag toys which contain a small collectible Hatchimal.

There are 72 to collect in Season 1, which are split into smaller families from different “Hang Outs”. Hangouts being Ocean, Forest, Garden, Giggle Grove, Polar Paradise etc. Each one is around the size of the tip of my thumb and as you can see from the photo above are brightly coloured and pretty cute.

As a blind bag item, they are priced at the usual £2.99 mark for one. The multiple egg packs are better value with 2 eggs being £4.99 and 4 eggs (plus a bonus Hatchimal) being £9.99. As we were the first at the event the girls pawed over the displays, desperate to get them all. Showing some restraint we decided on one pack of four eggs each.

The bonus Hatchimal CollEGGtible is visible through the packaging and is shell-less. Which added another 20 minutes to the browsing through the displays. Should we get the purple Zebra? or the Pig Pig? What about the Cute pink lamb?

Tiana – Toys and Me – Meet and Greet

The Tiana, Toys and Me Meet and Greet was scheduled to start at 2:30pm. To make sure we were near the front of the queue we started to queue at 1:00pm. Even this early we were the third in the line.

To meet and greet Tiana (Toys and Me) and receive a Hatchimal Colleggtible you needed to have a pre arranged ticket. We had arranged ours the week before. As we stood there waiting I started to chatting to a father from Hull. He’d travelled over to Tamworth and only found out during the journey that you needed tickets. Luckily for him, someone had a spare one and gave it to his daughter.

The closer it came to 2:30pm the more the crowd swelled upstairs at Smyths Toy Superstore. It bizarrely reminded me of the Take That hysteria all those years ago. Youtubers have become the new reality celebrity and this gives us all some hope! I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would be genuinely excited for my kids to see an internet creator that eats Gummy sweets and opens up toys.

I won’t play her down as I know how hard it can be to keep creating content and it isn’t everyone that manages to create a loyal audience. Tiana’s Toys and Me Channel has just passed the 5 Million subscriber mark and the hoopers have been part of that!

We waited our turn to sit next to Tiana and get a photograph. We were total amateurs in this game. The girl behind us had an item to sign. Other kids had made T-shirts and cakes. Some brought Tiana Gifts. We brought a picnic and ate it in the car, before taking a couple of photos and moving on.

As we left the queue we were handed a Colleggtible collection poster and 2 Hatchimal CollEGGtibles. Our 4 hour adventure was over after 2 minutes behind the desk…. or was it.

Jordan Toys and Me

Imogen spotted Jordan moving down the queue so we quickly moved into position.
“Jordan, can we have a quick photo?”
He was very friendly and posed for our photo, I think Abigail was very excited about this one.

Next up we spotted Tiana’s Dad heading back towards the back of the store, possibly for a break or to finish the meet and greet. Not wanting to miss the chance of a further photo we leaped into action.

CLICK!

We left Smyths with Photos, CollEGGtibles and memories. As we walked out the door, Imogen said: “This was the best day ever!”. The things I do for extra Dad points.