Hiding behind a book on your desk, holding a pencil, or even taking a nap on your favorite shelf. Smiski are curious little creatures that love hiding in small spaces…and glow in the dark. For my object of choice, I wanted to discuss a consumer good where I really didn’t know what I was buying.

Smiskis are part of a series of small green plastic figurines. Ranging in different types and sizes, each is unique and filled with its own personality. In a “Blind Box” with foil wrapping, you may ask yourself, “What is a Blind Box?” A Blind Box is a type of packaging that keeps its contents hidden. Depending on the brand, there is no way to tell what is contained in the boxes. Some, like this toy, are also wrapped in foil, which deepens the mystery of the toy. The only way to find out what you want is to buy! (kidrobot.com 2024).

Additionally, blind boxes like Smiskis have different odds of finding figures. Each option for a figure is always displayed on the outside of its boxes; some display the odds, while others don’t. Chase figures or “secret” figures are items that have the lowest odds of being found within a set number of boxes. However, this set doesn’t include one.

The series I bought from was the Smiski Living series, which features a few of our beloved friends sleeping, lifting, or even playing the flute. Out of the six possible options, when I received my package, I was granted the figurine “Smiski Hiding.” This figure stands at about 2.75 inches tall and about 1.5 inches wide (measuring with its arms). It has its arms outstretched with a space big enough to hold the average pen, pencil, or hiding spot.

Smiski, depending on where you live, is relatively hard to find in stores. Smiski was originally a Japanese goods store established in 1996. Over time, and with the major popularity of their objects, they opened a business in America and Korea. According to their website, employees get 8 hours of work Mon-Fri, with a 1-hour break, along with benefits such as transportation, salary, and social insurance. Through my research, the exact labor cost per Smiski and the production information produced by Dreams Inc. is not publicly available due to company confidentiality. However, we can speculate on likely stages of production such as mold creation, casting, hand painting, assembly, and quality control. While I was unable to find information on specific labor, I was able to find some information regarding the production of objects through the Dreams INC wholesale website. This is where my trial ended.

Where I’m from, not many places sell them, and I’ve really wanted one. Amazon, the great big website itself, offered me the opportunity to purchase one! While there are many storefronts on Amazon when searching for this specific series, the only available one was from a seller on Amazon named “Japan Mart JP.” According to their storefront, they sell various toys and games. However, under Detailed Seller Information, it states that the “Business Name: Masumi Yoshikawa” and “Business Address: 8-15 Kaminagaya 6-chome Kounan-ku, Yokohama-shi Kanagawa-ken 2330012 JP.” (Amazon 2024). Moreover, looking for this information online yielded not much more info—which often seems to be a recurring case in most Amazon storefronts.

However, within these interactions and my research, another question was considered. Thinking about these mass-produced objects led to the thought process of toy production in China, especially the idea of the blind box within marketing. China’s blind box industry has successfully entered the peak of development and consumerism over the past four years. This can be highly attributed to younger generations and social media trends; for example, a mega trend and hype surrounding “Sonny Angels,” which became one of the largest blind box products of the year and caused major hype around the product through TikTok and other social media platforms. Buying and sharing blind boxes has become a new consumer trend, a trend that targets a young consumer market.

Taking a look at a report by Yuqing Yang called “Analysis on the Marketing Strategy of Blind Box,” Yang takes an approach to further explore the level of marketing and strategy of the blind box movement. They briefly discuss the overarching consequences for consumers but also the benefits for the companies themselves, even in China. Yang makes a point at the beginning of their work that I found interesting: “This trend of toys targets the young consumer market, stimulating consumers to buy and rebuy. Blind boxes’ unknowability can pique customers’ curiosity, increase their readiness to buy, better activate the market for consumer goods, and boost their potential for consumption.” (Yang, 2023).

The marketing/culture that surrounds blind boxes offers this type of relationship between online and offline stimulation for younger audiences. Blind boxes, while the plastic within is not very useful, foster an environment for young people to consume and to be noticed within a collectors’ community. The excitement of buying a box, the tension of opening the box to see if you get the one you wished for, and the reaction afterward fuel stimulation among friends and collectors. Such marketing pushes you to buy more and more, a gambling dilemma, to get the one you really want or the entire set.

Taking these products into account adds a new layer to how these products are created and consumed. I am a victim of it, buying my own fair share of Smiski’s. This leads to my next section: the journey of my Smiski itself.

Ordered on May 22, 2024, I received my new little friend on May 31, 2024. Due to its later shipping and the location of the seller, I can only assume my new object traveled from overseas. Opening the white bubbled package, I found my new Smiski friend packaging to be covered in dents, tape, and overall unkemptness. This box certainly had a journey. Partly crushed, the box had an extra-large barcode sticker and two smaller pieces of blue tape on its sides. From this, I could determine that perhaps this box was damaged before it was even shipped. The blue tape seemed to be holding the top and bottom together. The bottom piece was completely dented in… the more I looked, the more I feared I was scammed. The possibility of this item being opened and then shipped was real. However, this was not the case; my figure and the products inside were all there, nothing missing.

So I began to think about this assignment…how did my box end up like this? Where was it sitting in Japan before an American bought it? A warehouse? I’ll never know. But I can take into consideration what the dents and damage look like, and how it traveled over 6,000 miles to get into my possession. Did the plane ride have a lot of turbulence? Is the seller too rough? Were the millions of potholes scattered around Troy, NY too much for the little package!? I’d like to think so. Maybe all along that’s why my new friend is hiding…they’ve seen so much of the world.

Works used:

Amazon.Com. Spend Less. Smile More., https://www.amazon.com/sp?ie=UTF8&isAmazonFulfilled=1&marketplaceSeller=1&orderID=114-5662527-3777048&seller=A3O3JJL0KSN0KD. Accessed 5 Oct. 2024

Inc., Dreams. “コーポレートサイト.” 株式会社 ドリームズ Dreams Inc., http://www.dreams6.com/. Accessed 5 Oct. 2024.

Inc., Dreams. “店頭販促に！オリジナルプリントが可能な『デザインモニター』.” 株式会社 ドリームズ Dreams Inc., http://www.dreams6.com/oem/. Accessed 5 Oct. 2024.

Kidrobot. “What Is a Blind Box?” Kidrobot, http://www.kidrobot.com/pages/wtf#:~:text=A%20Blind%20Box%20is%20a,knows%20which%20toy%20is%20inside. Accessed 5 Oct. 2024.

“Living.” 【OFFICIAL SITE】SMISKI, smiski.com/e/products/living/. Accessed 5 Oct. 2024.

Yang, Yuqing. (2023). Analysis on the Marketing Strategy of Blind Box. Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences. 27. 26-30. 10.54254/2754-1169/27/20231206.