Day 5, and today's gift from my "Key Chains Advent Calendar" opening is...
...a snowman, with a cute hat. For some reason, the design of the hat, plus the red and yellow (almost-but-not-quite Gryffindor house colors) color scheme, makes me think of the handknits made by Mrs. Molly Weasley in the Harry Potter series.
Signed, Treesa
Day 4 of the "Key Chains Advent Calendar" opening, and the keychain for today is...
...an avocado. Avocados may not be festive per say, but their signature green color can often be associated with the holiday season. Avocados were also a full-blown, social media food trend, tied to millennials and hipsters. Granted, the avocado's cultural significance peaked in the 2010s, while this calendar is dated 2021. Still, at least the Chinese manufacturer made the attempt to cater to their overseas customer base.
Signed, Treesa
It's Day 3 of my "Key Chains Advent Calendar" opening, and today we have...
Welcome to Day 2 of my "Key Chains Advent Calendar" opening. Behind today's door we have...
Santa Claus himself, definitely more festive than yesterday's keychain (spoiler). Construction-wise, this Santa also features more colors than what I got yesterday, and is therefore made up of a lot more separate, small sections. The joins between these sections are very visible at points. For example, there is a deep gap between Santa's nose and his beard, and his ankle connections seem particularly flimsy. If I were to actually use this keychain as a keychain, I'd be very concerned about it falling to pieces over time. So it's a good thing that this Santa will be getting packed away with my collection.
However, with its obviously festive look this keychain could also work well as a Christmas tree ornament. I like to encourage people to use their spare keychains to decorate their Christmas trees, since not everyone knows a keychain collector that they can pass on their unused keychains to.
Signed, Treesa
When I had my in person meet-up with Heathersmoo back in July, she gifted me with a "Key Chains Advent Calendar", from China (according to the box).
Her thinking was that I could show off what was inside here on the blog over the holiday season. Here's what the calendar layout looks like under the box flap.
In popular culture, witches often get lumped into the same 'paranormal' category as vampires, werewolves, and other, frequently sinister mythological beings. Although Wicca and various 'modern-day pagan' groups have, in more recent years, made efforts to combat the age-old stereotype of equating witchcraft with devil-worship.
The seven book Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, set primarily at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is statistically the best-selling book series in history. Add to this a blockbuster film franchise based on the books, as well as "The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter" at Universal Orlando theme park, and it could be argued that Rowling's characters rank among some of the most famous magic practitioners in fiction, right up there with Gandalf from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth or even Shakespeare's 'Three Witches'.
With Halloween fast approaching, I thought that now would be a good time to show off some Harry Potter themed keychains. I already shared a couple of 'wizarding' keychains in my "Buy What You Like" post, under the header "Pop Culture Touchstones". Also, in another previous post, I wrote about a blind bag Ron Weasley wand keychain made by Paladone Products Ltd. that I found at Dollar Tree. In that post, I mentioned how another company had released several blind box wand keychains made from metal, rather than plastic. I also hinted that I would be sharing more information in a successive post. Unfortunately, that follow-up got buried in my list of future post ideas, where I eventually forgot about it. I will attempt to make amends to my readers here, and I apologize for keeping you waiting.
This "Wingardium Leviosa" keychain is also from the same line. I actually bought this one in its original blind box, at an actual retail store. I more often buy 'blind' items used rather than at retail, so that they're pre-opened and I know exactly what I'm getting. However, this was on clearance at the time.
The Triwizard Cup keychain pictured above is from a similar collectible keychain series by Monogram International Inc., the "Harry Potter Collectors Keyring: Series 1" line. This keychain would've been a blind bag item originally. However, I bought mine secondhand.
This Hogwarts crest, labeled as a "Harry Potter Soft Touch Keyring" on the tag, is another Monogram International Inc. product. However, this item wasn't blind-packed.
Speaking of crests, here's the official emblem of Hogwarts' Hufflepuff house. Each Hogwarts house features a different animal on its crest, with Hufflepuff represented by an animal that some refer to as 'the badger of mediocrity'. However, judging by the number of times that I've walked into a Build A Bear Workshop store and found all of the Hufflepuff merchandise sold out, while merchandise for every other Hogwarts house was still in stock, I think a lot of Harry Potter fans must have a soft spot for this particular house. And in my mind, this actually makes a lot of sense. While many of us may aspire to be Gryffindors or Ravenclaws or even Slytherins, I think that deep down, most of us identify more with Hufflepuffs. Incidentally, this Hufflepuff house keychain was put out by ATA-BOY Inc.
This Lego keychain also features the Hufflepuff house emblem.
(Picking up where Part 1 left off)
Anyone who follows Heather regularly on Livejournal knows that she loves My Little Pony. In her efforts to get a complete set of G5 My Little Pony blind bag clips, Heather bought up the remaining stock from a bookstore she shops at, figuring that she could give away any duplicates to her friends. She wrote on Livejournal that she did manage to get all 11 clips in the series. The duplicate pony that she gave me for my keychain collection is named Zipp Storm. I've got to say, I really like her hairstyle/mane situation for some reason.
Next, we have this surprise pet blind box, which I still need to look at in depth. I was planning to write a full review and upload it as a separate post. But I've fallen way behind on my posting, as you can obviously tell.
The last gift that Heather brought along on the lengthy drive from Florida was this keychain advent calendar. I didn't even know that such a thing existed. Heather also bought one for herself, with her idea being that the both of us could open our individual calendars over the holiday season and then show off what we got.
The location chosen for our meet-up was the thrift store near my neighborhood. Heather has heard me mention this store a lot in blog posts and emails. I gave her a few pointers for shopping at this particular store, such as which departments to check for keychains and where that day's special offers would be posted. Unfortunately, Heather visited me on a Tuesday, which is one of the worst days for shopping at this store location.
Every day, one color tag is supposed to be 50% off and a different color tag is 1/3 off. The colors are rotated twice a week on Sundays and Thursdays, with the 1/3 off color going 50% off and a new color going 1/3 off. This helps to clear out older stock and make room for 'new' items. However, due to space limitations at this location, the tag color that goes from 1/3 off to 50% off on Sunday will only be available for purchase at 50% off on that day. Any remaining items with that tag color after the store closes on Sunday night get pulled from the racks first thing Monday morning, presumably to make room for fresh stock. I've seen store employees doing this.
There is another location of this store chain that I shop less frequently, because it's further away, that does seem to leave stuff on the racks for the duration of the discount period. However, that location is much larger, inside of a former Babies 'R' Us. I've gotten the general impression that pulling discounted items off the racks early must be a management decision, rather than a corporate policy. Regardless, I shared what I knew about the situation with Heather as we were shopping. And like me, Heather found the store's 'policy' frustrating.
I did manage to snag a decent 'grab bag' of keychains at the thrift store that day, although not at 50% off, obviously. Still, the price wasn't too bad. And I just couldn't pass up on Alice Snuffleupagus, Snuffy's little sister from Sesame Street, even though the clip needs to be replaced. Also, the Disney Goofy flashlight and the Marvel Comics Spider-Man clip that came in the bag are pretty fun too.
Speaking of Sesame Street, it so happened that Heather's friend/driver for the trip, Josh, works for the corporate parent company that operates SeaWorld and a variety of other theme parks, including Sesame Place. As an employee, Josh can bring a select number of guests into any company owned park with him for free. Since it was within a reasonable driving distance, Heather and Josh suggested that we all go to Sesame Place. Heather had actually brought this up as a possibility via email before leaving Florida, so I knew ahead of time that it might be happening.
I hadn't been to Sesame Place since I was in the Girl Scouts. But I was pretty sure that, unlike the Disney parks, Sesame Place as a whole was primarily aimed at young children, rather than people of all ages. Still, if Josh and Heather could get me in for free, then why not have a look around? Besides, as long as we got to check out the gift shop for keychains and any other fun Muppet goodies, I'd probably be happy regardless.
All in all, Sesame Place was a pleasant way to kill some time. The park itself had some nice themeing, as far as the buildings and the 'set-dressing' went. Heather and I even took a spin on the merry go round. And Heather and Josh let me hit up every gift shop in the park before we left, searching for unique Muppet items. Josh even let both Heather and I use his corporate discount to each pick up a souvenir keychain for our collections.
I'd like to send a big thank you to Heather, and Josh, for making time to come and see me in their already packed trip schedule. The fact that Heather made visiting me one of her priorities, and the fact that Josh was willing to spend time hanging out with me when he didn't even know me, really means a lot. And I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to get this write-up posted. One of these days, I have got to get myself a decent camera that works well, but that isn't too complicated for me to use. Auto focus just isn't doing it for me.
But at least Heather got the thank you card with keychain that I sent to her.
Signed, Treesa
P.S. Heather also promised to pick me up a keychain from the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant on her way home. But I'll save that package for another post.
