Continent Boxes: Additions

I have so many additions to my continent boxes that I decided to do a separate post on them instead of adding to my original Continent Boxes post.

We recently took a family trip out West, with stops in several states, so I picked up several fun things along the way to put in my North America box.

I have postcards for Arizona, New Mexico, a chili con carne recipe, Indian symbols, Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, Route 66, Mesa Verde, Navajo art, and a map of New Mexico.  I also have a small Talavera pottery sun (handmade in Mexico), an arrowhead, a beaded bracelet thing, a Southwestern scene on woven cloth (made in India, actually, but I’m still putting it in my North America box), and an ocarina (an instrument) handmade in Peru (I will put that in my South America box).  I had fun collecting these little souvenirs.

I also put in an Amazon order last week and got some cool things for my boxes.  I’ve ordered Safari Toob and Wild Republic sets before (penguins and Australian animals), and I really do like them.  The figures are nice quality, and I will probably buy more.  However, I do have a few gripes about these particular sets (although I’m still happy I bought them).  But first, let me show you which ones I bought.

The Wild Republic set (pictured on the left of the above photo) is Asian Mountain animals.

The Toob set in the middle of the above photo contains rainforest animals.

The final Toob set is called “Around the World” and contains famous landmark figures.  I first saw this set on someone else’s blog about their continent boxes. 

Okay, here are my gripes.  On the Wild Republic set (Asian mountain animals), I didn’t feel it contained enough variety for the price I paid.  It came with 10 pieces including: ibex, snow leopard, snow leopard cub, giant panda, panda cub, Himalayan black bear, red panda, Siberian tiger, Siberian tiger cub, and a white explorer.  While the animals are very nice, I could have done with different animals in place of the cubs.  Also, I would have preferred either a native Asian explorer or no human at all in the set.  I do really like the container these came in, though!  It’s a softer plastic, more spacious, and has a nice zipper.

On the Toob sets, I like the variety of figures.  The rainforest set comes with 12 different pieces, which is nice.  That set includes: caiman, iguana, macaw, anteater, toco toucan, emerald tree boa, jaguar, poison dart frog, red-eyed tree frog, tapir, spider monkey, and another white man (which I don’t really care for…it just doesn’t seem to fit).  Luckily, all but 3 of the animals can go in my South America box, which is what I wanted them for.  Two are Central America (which I’ll include in my North America box), and one is Asia.

I love the Toob set of landmark figures.  It comes with 10 figures including: Leaning Tower of Pisa, Big Ben, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Eiffel Tower, Arch of Triumph, Temple of the Inscriptions (Mayan), Pyramids of Giza, and Parthenon.  My only gripe about this set is the container—it’s way to tight, and these pieces are very hard to get in and out.  Luckily, I’ll be putting them in my continent box loose (and discard the container).  Also, I do wish they’d come up with a second set of landmarks; I can think of a lot more I’d like (such as the Colosseum, Neuschwanstein, Stonehenge, Great Wall of China, Sydney Opera House, St. Basil’s Cathedral).

I’ve also been going through boxes in our storage shed, partly because we just had a yard sale and partly to see if there is anything I want to take back to England with me this time.  Anyway, I ran across my old postcard collection.  Here are some I found (and I will put them in my continent boxes when I get back to England).

Foreign postcards:  Israel, Canada (British Columbia, Quebec), France, Morocco, and Singapore.

State map cards:  I really want a whole collection of these, one for each state.  Yeah, that would be pretty cool.

Postcards from Western USA:  Utah, Kansas (flag and sunflowers), Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico.

Postcards from Eastern USA:  Florida (heron and Miami Beach, Tennessee, Iowa, New York (Niagara Falls and NYC), Missouri, Minnesota, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Virginia (Mount Vernon, Monticello), and Washington D.C.

In case some of you missed the post, I have a give-away going on right now.  The items I’m giving away are from England and would be great in a Europe box if you’re doing continent boxes; otherwise, they can be used during a study of England or just to put in your house as interesting souvenirs.  If you’re interested, go to my Pay-it-Forward Giveaway blog post to enter!

I’m linking this post to “History and Geography” at All Things Beautiful.