My Monchhichi Collection and...a Competition!

If you grew up in the 80's like me you may remember there were these really cute little monkey toys.

Back then everyone in England called them Chicaboos, but almost everywhere else in the world they were known as Monchhichi. (It's a bit like Marathon's and Snickers - no idea why we always have different names for things here!)

My collection of Monchhichi's 

When I was three years old I got my first Monchhichi as a present and it fast became one of my favourite toys. I called him Chicaboo! The reason my parents (I think it was my parents, but it could have been my nan) got him for me was because I was a thumb sucker and he was just like me. He sucked his thumb too! I took him everywhere with me... and there's photographic evidence of that fact :-)

Me, my Nan and Chicaboo

When my sister Anna was 10 years old she asked me if she could take Chicaboo to school on the last day of term (do you remember how you would always be allowed to take in a toy or game from home to play with?) I said she could take him, but she had to take good care of him!

That evening she came back and his head had been ripped off by one of her friends! I am not sure what exactly happened but I was really upset! Some friends! Even though I was 13 at the time this was my favourite toy and I was a bit devastated by his decapitation! 

In my twenties I saw my Chicaboo online and had to buy him! This is when I discovered that there were many of them now listed on ebay, and most of them were listed as Monchhichis. I bought a few, and then a few more, and it wasn't long before I'd grown a nice little collection!

I didn't know much about the history of my Chicaboo and how Monchhichis came to be until recently; The original Monchhichi character was born in 1974 in Japan from the imagination of Mr K. Sekiguchi. The Monchhichi name comes from the French word "mon petit" which means, "My small cute thing" and the hint of "mon" from the English word for monkey and the "chhichi" comes from the sound of a baby sucking a pacifier (dummy) like "chu-chu" in Japanese.

Monchhichi has won fans of all ages from all over the world and has sold more than 70 million toys and accessories since he first came into being.

I was really surprised and excited when I saw a collection of  Monchhichis in a shop a few years ago here in the UK that I decided to add to my little collection. Of the new ones, I particularly love the girl with the baby, and of course my keyring girl.

Newer Monchhichis. 

This year Bandai has been appointed the distributor of Monchhichis in the UK and they have introduced a beautiful new collection, including this gorgeous sailor boy (below) who they kindly sent to me to add to my own personal collection.

I absolutely love him! He is so cute! I especially love his little hat and stripy sailor shirt!

Sailor boy

If you're thinking like me, "These Monchhichi are so cute and adorable and I must get some!" then you're in luck because Monchhichis are available NOW to buy in online shops, including Argos, The Entertainer and Harrods (but I wouldn't be surprised if they pop up everywhere soon). 

For more information and to keep up to date on the new collection, join the Monchhichi Official UK Facebook page. 

*** COMPETITION ***

Bandai have kindly given me some Monchhichis to give away to one of my lucky blog readers. The winner will get to choose one classic Monchhichi (20cm) and a classic keyring of their choice, as pictured below.

To enter the competition and win your own classic Monchhichi and keyring, simply complete as many of the steps as you wish on the Rafflecopter form below.

A winner will be chosen at random at the end of the competition.

Open to UK residents only. 

Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Feel free to comment and let me know if you had a Monchhichi of your own, or if you're new to these cute creatures!

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Our Bloggerversary

Wow I can't believe that our blog turned one on the 1st of May. I have very much enjoyed my first year of blogging. Thanks to my fiancé Neil for helping me along the way too. I had hoped to do more blog posts but due to my fatigue I am limited to the amount I can post sometimes, but I do my best. I would like to thank all my readers who continue to visit and read my posts and leave lovely comments. Also thanks to the companies that I have worked with in the past year doing reviews of their great products. 

My birthday many years ago. Yummy cake!

I thought it would be a good idea to re-share some of my favourite posts from the year gone by in a little round up here.  

Firstly I started my blog by introducing myself and my family. 

I was planning on my blog mostly being about my favourite hobby - entering competitions. It's funny how it changed into being a blog about other things instead but one of my first blog posts was Tips On Starting Comping. I hope this has helped others into entering competitions as it is a fun hobby. I also try to post up a few posts about my recent wins. I was doing this weekly but then decided to change it to every so often as some months I win less. It all depends on how much time I have to spend on actually entering the competitions. 

Shortly after I started my blog I became aware of Mental Health Awareness Week so I thought it would be a perfect time to write what has turned out to be the most difficult post I have ever written about my battle with depression. I also wrote another piece when I heard the sad news that Robin Williams had passed away. You would think people with so much in life; fame and fortune would be so happy but depression really can hit anyone. You can read my post here. 

As a child I was a huge fan of Phillip Schofield. At the age of 8 I told my mum I wanted to marry him. Skip on to my 20s and I set up the Phillip Schofield Fans website so I met up with Phillip many times. During this time I joined twitter and that's how I met my fiancé Neil. I wrote a post about how we met thanks to him titled Beyond The Broom Cupboard.  In September last year Neil and I went to visit Phillip in London to thank him and I wrote another post about our visit here. 

Continuing on the theme I am a huge fan of Jules Hudson from Escape To the Country and I run his fan Facebook group and twitter so I decided to write a post about him entitled The Amazingly Talented Jules Hudson.  I also managed to meet up with him in July at Ludlow Dog Day which was great fun and then later in the year when we had our very first Jules Hudson Fans meet up in London which was amazing. It was so lovely to meet the other fans and see Jules again. 

In my late teens I was a huge fan of Boyzone, in particular Stephen Gately so in March on what would have been Stephen's birthday I decided to write a post with my favourite memories of Boyzone. 

Last year I really got into the whole loom bands craze. I did a post showing off the bracelets I had made and then another post about the little loom charms I made too.

I had some great holidays and days out during the last year including Geocaching in Midsomer Norton, my weekend break in London and more recently our holiday at Haven Weymouth Bay and a post about Bowleaze Cove and Weymouth. I also did a post about my favourite places to walk our dog Shortie in and around Kidderminster. 

And then we did some reviews of some great products too so it's been a really great year. We have also held some great competitions too which I love doing. We still have a competition currently open to win the board game Wordsearch Junior and we will be launching another competition later in the week which I am really excited about. 

Thanks everyone for reading and following our blog. Please if you like our blog feel free to contact us via twitter or our Facebook page (links at the bottom of the post). We love hearing from our readers and we do try to get back to you as and when we have time. 

Our best wishes to you all - Ellen, Neil, Shortie (the dog) and Tigger and Harvey (the cats). 

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