Awhile back I found a vintage stamp still in the bag with this little booklet from All Night Media and thought I'd share my favorite bits. I don't think they exist as a company anymore (?) since all that comes up are second hand listings and I won't ask AI. A peek into a different time 🥲 I'm old and this was printed before I was born lol
I wanted a neater way to store my stickers that wasn't just loose in a box so I've been hunting for A5 binders for a long time, but not really finding what I want. I ended up getting these at different times just to try them out and they're kind of sticking, lol.
The A5 for photocards was just the perfect size for a lot of my vinyl stickers, but didn't hold a lot of the long sticker sheets; the bigger Topps binder with these 3 pocket sheets ended up fitting them perfectly, although it's MASSIVE so there's a lot of wasted space, and the top pocket tends to dump out loose stickers. The Pokemon cards one is a little limited since it doesn't have replaceable sheets but I might use it as travel storage eventually.
Just wanted to share for anyone struggling with storage, seeing them all laid out and being able to flip through is really worth it!
I find the release of these two sets absolutely fascinating, so I thought it would be fun to compare them and write out my thoughts. I don't know if anyone else would like reading this but I figured I'd share anyway!
Obviously it looks like one just copied the other, but I also had a casual theory that maybe a manufacturer approached them both simultaneously with some technology for cheap, and that would mean some parts would end up being similar. However, almost every single facet of the toys is different, presumably to separate their products; releasing them at the same time and with similar color schemes, they must know there will be some confusion. I'm really curious who copied who in this scenario because it's an... interesting marketing strategy. It comes off a bit desperate for sales.
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The players:
The two players are pretty different shapes and sizes; the Mini Brands is more 70s and simpler and the Miniverse is more 80s and a bit more detailed. MB is more satisfying to turn on and off IMO, but I like the look of the MV one better.
Both have a switch and a motor that rotates the record and a moving arm. Miniverse's records start playing with the arm rotated but Mini Brands requires you to click the arm down. Both machines make a fairly loud grinding noise but Miniverse tries to cover it with an an artificial record noise which plays the whole time it's on. Mini Brands recharges with a cable while Miniverse runs on a battery.
Neither uses "real" record technology as neither has a needle nor touches the record at all; it's almost certainly some kind of chip reader. I'm curious if the songs are stored on the chip in the record or if they're stored on the machine and the record just unlocks it, but I don't know a lot about this technology. Like an Amiibo NFC chip? If that's the case then maybe it's possible to write "fake" chips like Amiibo. Idk, I'm just curious about it!
The sleeves:
The MB sleeves are more realistic; they're thin and more of a correct shape. They also come with a paper sleeve which MV does not. MV sleeves are thicker and have squared edges.
The records:
MB records are also more of an authentic shape, as they are thinner. MV are thicker with rounded edges. There is a little bump on the MB ones on the back which I assume is the chip, so maybe they're a little too thin even though they look better as miniatures.
Because they are different shapes, and the holes are actually slightly different, they are not really compatible with each others' players.
The music selection:
MV boasts 50 songs but does not have that many available according to the sheet; MB has a much bigger catalogue that's ostensibly available now. Honestly I feel that MV is misrepresenting their product here but that's my opinion. I will say that overall I liked the music I got from MV more then the MB music; I didn't get any songs I liked from the two balls I opened. However, I like Apt and was happy it came with the machine.
A lot of this music isn't my genre so I'm not super into most of the catalogue in either collection. I don't intend to chase the few songs I like from MB.
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There is no "Make it" part to these Miniverse so I'm not terribly interested in collecting more, but the players are cute and useful if you like miniature scenes. They are closer to 1/6 or Barbie scale if you are curious!
If I just use a few more sheets they will almost fit in their drawer 😅😅😅
If you missed out on any stamps from SFSF in March, I saw a lot of them at Maido SJ this week! They had a lot of these Tokyo Seihan sets and tons of Sanby collab stuff. I regretted not getting this Yumi Kitagishi date stamp and the Shin Godzilla set at the show so I got them, plus they were a little cheaper :) Hard to pass on all the other stuff they had, there was so much!