Kinder Surprise Natoons Toys Supporting Australian Wildlife Society

Update: this article now includes checklists and pictures for both the first set of Natoons Australia received in 2019 or 2020, as well as the 2021 Natoons South American Adventure series.

I haven’t collected Kinder Surprise toys since the 1990s, but today at the checkout at Aldi (in Melbourne Australia) I noticed the box for Natoons by Kinder Surprise, cute little endangered animal toys, which reminded me of Yowie toys from the 90s. Better yet, it advertised that proceeds from these went to the Australian Wildlife Society.

You can identify this particular Kinder Surprise series by the “Natoons” logo at the top of the front side of the egg.

Kinder and The Australian Wildlife Society are donating to the Ceder Creek Wombat Rescue to help bushfire affected animals. This seemed like a great time to try a Kinder Surprise and see how they compare to the ones I had in my childhood.

This is effectively my version of a Kinder Surprise “unboxing” video for YouTube but in article format. The first things I noticed was that the wrappers are now 2 separate pieces of foil. They used to be a singular square sheet when I was a kid. I think this foil is now also thicker.

The chocolate egg itself appears to be a harder, waxier type of chocolate than the type typically used with Kinder chocolate. I assume they’ve tweaked the recipe for the Kinder Surprise eggs to prevent them from melting so easily.

The toy capsule has also changed since I was a kid, with a hinged lid. This would be to prevent choking. I used to love playing with these in my mouth when I was a kid, so I can see why this was necessary.

Here are the toys I unboxed, chameleon, kangaroo and joey, monkey and crocodile.

Instructions for the above toys. It’s good to see that Kinder Surprise toys still need to be assembled. There’s also a QR code for the free Magic Kinder App.

The other side has a little poster for each animal. It shows the other similar toys in the set where every 3 figures seem to share characteristics. Eg. Two of the toys I got today can be hung by their tail. Then there are ones with action features like snapping crocodile jaws and the marsupial ones come with removable babies in their pouches.

Kinder Surprise Natoons Checklist 2020

This set, released in Australia contains 26 toys, some of which are the same animal but with different playability features, such as two different chameleons, two different monkeys etc.

Numbats

Ostrich

Panda

Pangolin

Sea Turtle Tarsier

Tawny Frogmouth

Wombats

Caracal

Chameleon

Cockatoo

Cockatoos

Crocodile

Dolphin

Dolphin Family

Frill Neck Lizard

Frogs

Hanging Monkeys

Hanging Pangolin

Kangaroo and Joey

Koala

Koala FamilyMonkey

Monkey Family

Mice

Chameleon

Natoons South American Adventure Checklist

In 2021, Australia received another set of Natoons, this time Natoons South American Adventure. There are 21 toys in this collection including a few different variations of the same species.

The website mentions how at risk each species is, I assume this was also done in the previous series but I cannot access that information anymore. I am unclear if this relates to the rarity of the toy, but that would make a cool way to collect. No animals in this series of Natoons appears to be extinct in the wild, which is good I suppose!

Armadillo – Vulnerable

Blue Macaw – Critically Endangered

Golden Frog – Critically Endangered

Green Basilisk – Least Concern

Jaguar – Endangered

Otters – Endangered

Owl – Least Concern

Porcupine – Vulnerable

Puma – Vulnerable

Red-Eyed Tree Frog – Least Concern

Sloth – Vulnerable

 

Spectacled Bear – Vulnerable

Tamarin Family – Endangered

Tamarin – Endangered

Tapir – Vulnerable

Tortoise – Endangered

Toucan – Endangered

Toucan – Endangered

Toucan – Endangered

Whale – Endangered

Yellow Macaw