Is That a Box in Your Pocket, or ...?

In honour of Discovery Channel's "Shark Week" (hey, if Peter Stone can do it, then so can I) I want to take a brief look at one of Breyer's latest acquisitions: the Pocket Box series.

To date, Breyer has issued a Pocket Box Aquarium, a Pocket Box of Animals, a Pocket Box of Dogs, and a Pocket Box of Cats.

The boxes themselves are incredibly cute.  As a child I'm sure I would have coveted the entire collection, just for the fun of having all those boxes.  Also, the animals that you find in them are comparable to the sort of Farm Set and Zoo Set animals I played with as a child (in other words, not particularly accurate animal replicas).

Ironically, the various Aquarium critters (including a couple of sharks -- thus the tie-in with "Shark Week") may be the best modeled of the bunch.  I say this is ironic because it seems to me that of all the boxes on offer, the Aquarium has the least attraction for model horse collectors.  The Cats and Dogs can be used in stable and farmyard scenes, and the Animals series includes one horse-shaped object (HSO) and a zebra.  But what can a model horse fancier do with fish?

That being said, there is one "horsey" item in the Aquarium set -- the seahorse.  It's actually a nicely sculpted little creature, although wildly out-of-scale with any other horse-shaped object in Breyer's catalogue.

My Pocket Box seahorse

I'm not quite sure what possessed Breyer/Reeves acquire the Pocket Box license.  They are, as I have said, attractive little toys, but the Mini Whinnies that Breyer acquired previously are a much better match in the tiny toy area for their market.

Also, I understand that the Pocket Boxes are actually Italian in origin, and if you check out the parent company Suk you will see that among other things they also offer a Horses and Pony Pocket Box, which Breyer has not apparently yet acquired.  Perhaps they will in the future?  If they're going to continue to expand the Pocket Box line, I certainly hope so.

The Horses and Pony Pocket Boxes seem to include both real and fantasy horses -- hitting both of Breyer's target markets -- and although it's hard to tell, they seem to include better sculpts than the Animals' HSO.

My Pocket Box kitty with cat bed

I like to have a sample of most Breyer offerings in my collection, so I have one each of the Aquarium, Dog, and Cat Pocket Boxes.  I've steered clear of the Animals so far as they seem to have the worst sculpts of the lot, but I probably would not have added any at all if I hadn't first received them in a couple of the Grab Bags I've purchased from Breyer.  However, I haven't had any problems at all passing along the extras I've received -- they are very cute toys and quite easy to forward to a critter-loving kid.  So I don't mind at all that the Pocket Box critters have intruded into my life; as far as I can see, it's win-win all the way around.

And that's better than a swim with a shark any day of the week!