For the past nine years, the PiercingMetal outlet has been one of the attending press at the wonderful event that is the creation by our friends over at The Toy Insider. It’s called the “Sweet Suite” and it is an absolute blast that brings in dozens of toy manufacturers and their representatives along with media and those who are considered to be influencers in the industry. It’s at the “Sweet Suite” where we all get to see and learn more about the latest and greatest offerings, get to try them out and if we’re lucky maybe even take a sample or two home with us. Down below you’ll find my spiffy badge to let people know who their interacting with and I should let you know that in addition to things here on PiercingMetal, you will also find a lot of coolness over on “The Chronicles of Piercing Ken”. I’ve broken this post into two main companies that speak to our specific demographic with Playmates Toys and Pokémon. Let’s begin.
The folks from Playmates Toys really brought a lot to this year’s “Sweet Suite” with pretty much something for everyone. The first display was their “Stuntman Stu” stuff and what this crash and bang up product reminds me of is the old Evel Knievel toys that that I had growing up. They were so much fun but I don’t have them anymore to share historical background with you. Everything from this line looks like a lot of fun but I would advise that most of the launching be done in the backyard.
Playmates Toys is known for a wide-array of products for the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” license that they have held for many, many years. I’ve been a fan for at least that long and still have the original four TMNT action figures in a box somewhere. They’re opened of course as this was before the heyday of everyone speculating about them.
This “Pet Turtle Playset” is a lot of fun and opens up into a massive battle arena for your action figures to duke it out in. Offhand I could not tell if the figures could be transported in this creation but maybe one or two will fit.
Moving along from the TMNT we find their “Miraculous Ladybug” fashion dolls and blind box collectibles. While her adventures are not my own thing, I do love that the younger generation is being inspired by a very positive superhero as that let’s them get prepared for the stuff that I’ve been reading and watching for many years.
This anniversary edition is really a beautiful doll, and a high recommendation for collectors of such things.
You can find one of these incredible miniatures inside one of these blind packaged pods. Truth be told I never liked the blind packaging things and preferred to know what I was getting in advance. Then the comic book store guys told me that nowadays the kids are trading with each other for the ones they need. That is pretty cool for me. Onward we go.
A healthy piece of the Playmates Toys display was devoted to their license of the “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers” and while I’ve always appreciated the idea of this franchise I was never one of the collectors that adopted the mythology. Sure I love a lot of Japanese creations like the Gundam, the Shogun Warriors and the mighty Godzilla, but these creations I left for the other fans to rally behind. They brought along a slew of action figures and accessories and even some of the items that will help you if you are a cosplayer that wishes to suit up.
The giant robot fan in me loved this Megazord.
A relatively new license for Playmates Toys comes with their Winx Club and this is a franchise that I am completely in the dark about but always happy to share images and light opinion.
Playmates brought out six of their beautiful fashion dolls to the show and if you’re already collecting their “Miraculous Ladybug” stuff you can definitely introduce the Winx Club to the mix for some amazing team-ups.
Wrapping up this part of the post I wish Playmates Toys the very best with this license. I will admit that I was sad to find no Godzilla stuff with them today but with the eventually coming “Godzilla X Kong: Supernova” film we will get our fill in due time. Now its onto what I observed at the Pokémon station.
Pokémon brought along a number of super cute plushies of their characters and to slightly modify their catch-phrase you gotta collect ’em all. Especially if you love plushies.
There was even a couple of cool knapsacks for those in school or just a diehard Pokémon fan to stockpile books or other assorted things in.
They were also displaying a nice variety of the trading cards that are collectible in their own right and often secured by battling other collectors. I think I’d need to have doubles before I battled with anything but that is just me. Do you collect Pokémon cards?
In the Pokémon booth there was a fun height comparison for everyone to participate in. Sadly, at 5’5″ I am NOT as tall as Mega Venusaur but I still got their prize package for joining in on the fun. You’ll be able to see what I secured in my unboxing/unbagging video that will be premiering on the Piercing Ken YouTube Channel in the coming days.
In addition to the cool premium giveaway, everyone could take one of these cute Pikachu designs to wear like a crown. I didn’t wear this of course and realized it might have made for a fun photo had I realized that when doing this. Oh well, there will be other chances I am sure.
I’ll wrap up this part of the PiercingMetal coverage of the Toy Insider’s “Sweet Suite” for 2025 right here but don’t you worry as I’ve another special feature from the event that falls right into the general vibe that our readers will most probably enjoy. While you wait for that one, you can click through on some of the websites that are linked below and also double check that you are following along with PiercingMetal on our Social Media Platforms via our Official Linktree. Oh yeah and in another shameless plug to keep you here just a little bit longer. Back in March, I posted the Playmates Toys booth overview from this years Toy Fair and if you want to see everything that we saw back then you can click HERE.
Official: https://playmatestoys.com/
Official: https://www.pokemon.com/us
Official: https://www.thetoyinsider.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetoyinsider
