This afternoon, I took my daughter, Maddie, and my niece, Ally, to a Shopkins’ swapping event at our local Toys ‘R Us. It was called Shopkins Swap-kins. If you’re unfamiliar with Shopkins, they’re little shopping-themed toys that kids can collect. Go on YouTube and you’ll find tons of videos about them. I know my daughter has.
I’m not even sure how we found out about Shopkins Swap-kins. Somehow my daughter knew about it. Since my niece also collects Shopkins, we invited her to go with us.
We’ve only been to one other themed event at a Toys ‘R Us (it was LEGO-related) so I didn’t know what to expect with this one. When we got to the store, they had three tables set up where the girls could trade their Shopkins. In the middle, they had a table with some stuff they were selling along with some free posters and party hats.
They had two different tables where the girls could put out all their Shopkins and swap. It was kind of funny watching the girls move back and forth between the two tables. They were like little Shopkin-trading mobs.
It was kind of fun watching my daughter and niece interact with the other little girls. What was really cool about it is watching all the little girls swapping their toys. They didn’t worry about how much a particular Shopkin toy was worth. Instead, they traded for what they liked.
Some girls only brought their duplicates to trade while others brought their whole collections.
Maddie keeps her Shopkins in a little box. Other girls brought their collections in ziplock bags, storage containers and other Shopkins-themed carrying cases.
It was sweet to watch the little girls pick out the Shopkins they liked with no ulterior motives.
The only thing I was mainly watching for was any parents that might know which ones were valuable and try to get their kids to make trades. Fortunately, most of the parents stood back watching but occasionally stepped in to help their kids get up the courage to interact with others.
My daughter traded for at least 30 new Shopkins and was so proud of her new acquisitions. She even gave some of her Shopkins to my niece so she would have more to trade.
Maddie and Ally swapping Shopkins
After about an hour or so, I let them look at the new Shopkins toys. Since Toys ‘R Us was running a 50% buy one get one free promotion, I decided to give my daughter and niece $10 each to pick out something. They both decided on a Shopkins doll (imagine that).
At checkout, they each got a free Shopkins toy (for spending at least $15) and a free Happy Places toy.
The poster they gave out was pretty cool. On the back side of the poster, they listed all of the different sets you could collect.
Here’s what Toys ‘R Us gave away to kids visiting today’s event. You had to spend $15 to get the birthday cake toy but Happy Places was free. You still had to go through checkout to get them.
Overall, it was a great activity to do on a Saturday afternoon and I didn’t really have to break the bank to do it. I enjoyed getting to hang out with my daughter and niece without any of the boys around.
I’ll be watching for more events like this in the future.
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