I'm Back! With Free Toys and More about Ken

   I know it's been a while, but I'm still here. Ken is improving all the time. He has therapy twice a week, with two or three different therapy sessions each time. He has physical therapy, which works on  his walking and stair climbing, occupational therapy, which works on  his arm and hand, and speech therapy, which, in spite of the name, works on all kinds of things, including cognitive, vision, swallowing, etc. Ken's swallowing is fine now, but his vision is not good. (He lost his peripheral vision in his left eye, and his general vision is blurry.) He also still has some brain fog. So we've been pretty busy between therapy and doctor appointments. He also does therapy things at home. I've also been having to figure out what food I can make for a guy with diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.         

 Anyway, we are still living with nothing but a mini fridge, and a tiny one at that. Our regular fridge stopped working when we had the fire. The electricity surge must have blown it.) Even as mini fridges go this thing is tiny. So I've been having to go to the store frequently, since I can't buy much at a time. I usually try to check out the toy aisles when I go, so I have accumulated several Mini Brands display boxes recently. 

  I've been getting them since the beginning, but they are getting harder to get. The stores seem to think they refill the display boxes when they get more stock, which is wrong. The stuff comes in a new display box each time. It's a shame to think a lot of the displays get thrown out, with the sample toys attached. What a waste. A lot of people have caught on though, and either take the empty display boxes, or just plain rip the samples off the boxes and take them. I haven't done that. I only take empty boxes. Mind you, I am not above cramming the two or three balls that are left in a box into the next box, or leaving a single ball on the shelf. The other reason they are getting harder to get is, the practice of putting sample toys on the display boxes seems to be on the way out. There don't seem to be nearly as many boxes with sample toys on them any more.

  Here are some of the display box samples I've gotten over the last year or so.

  I got three on this day. My favourite was the esspresso maker.

There was also this plant one.

And this one makes a mini aquarium.

  Another time I got this LOL Surprise display. This is after I already ripped it off the box...at home.

  It's quite a free haul, considering that it includes two complete sets.

  In fact, I ended up with two of these. I usually don't take sets if I already have them, and leave them for someone else. I figure there are kids who could use a free toy. 

  And later I got this one. It contains squishy hairdos you can mold. I think it didn't have the squishy stuff though. 

  I also got this one. I seem to have hit on a LOL streak.

  These were in the last couple of months, so these are still available at the stores.

   The bottles that would normally contain the resin to do the 'make' part are empty. That's okay. I can handle that for free stuff.

 This Harry Potter set is pretty great stuff. It's one of my favourites of the ones I've gotten. Lots of little potion bottles and cauldrons.

    Yesterday I got the best haul yet, I think. These are some great sets, and there were multiple sets on the one box!

Min Brand Create Garden.

Mini Verse Hello Kitty waffles. 

Tiny individual strawberry slices and blueberries!

Mini Verse Make It party sets! There was so much fun stuff in this display! 

Three sets! 

  Now, be forewarned. Some of this stuff is hard to get off the packaging. They have it glued on there pretty well. But with a little work you can get it loose. The cake that came off the cake stand was stuck down with some really sticky greasy glue. But it washed off with warm water and dish soap. Some of the other stuff has thick glue you'll have to peel off.

The cake came unstuck from the cake stand. And look. This is more than one full set, because there are two cakes and decorating bits.

  I still haven't freed all the Harry Potter stuff from the packaging. I think it's going to be a little time consuming to not break anything, and I don't have much free time these days.

      And don't forget, Micro Toybox also has samples on their display boxes. These were clearanced for  $3.49 at our local Meijer.

  So get out there and get yourself,(or someone else) some free stuff the stores are going to throw away otherwise, while you still can.

  I don't know when I'll get a chance to post again, but I'm still trying to keep my hand in.