Shopkins is a girl’s toyline by Moose Toys, the creators of The Trash Pack. Like The Trash Pack, they are blind-bagged characters of various creatures, only, in this case, cute groceries and other shopping materials, with the two series also sharing a universe (although this has only been touched on by supplemental commercials).
Shopkins takes place in Shopsville, a little outlet mall area where the Shopkins hang out and have adventures with each other.
Series 4 of the series introduced Petkins, which are Shopkins that have animal-like features over human ones. Around the same time, the spin-off of Shoppies were introduced, fashion dolls that have Shopkin-based accessories.
An Animated Adaptation exists in the form of web cartoons, as well as three OVAs focused on the Shoppies.
Shopkins provides examples of:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Many of the Shopkins have alliterative names, such as Cheeky Chocolate or Suzie Sundae.
- All There in the Manual: Various supplemental collector books give various personality additions to Shopkins, such as who their best friends are and what their favorite hobbies are.
- Ambiguous Gender: Practically all of the Shopkins have eyelashes, so it's often hard to tell who's a girl and who's a boy without names or bios...but even some of the bios are screwed up so much that it's hard to tell which is which, often calling Shopkins by various pronouns depending on the bio. Toasty Pop, Sneaky Wedge, and Poppy Corn have bio mix-ups the most, leaving their official genders entirely in the dark, and Toasty's voice is deep enough to sound like either a boy or a girl.
- Animate Inanimate Object: All of the non-food Shopkins.
- Anthropomorphic Food: The majority of the Shopkins, as they started out as grocery store products.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: The Shoppies can be considered this, being representations of specific items and themes, such as cake or ballet.
- Babysitting Episode: "Pop goes the Babysitter", where Toasty Pop has to take care of Dum Mee Mee.
- Balloonacy: June Balloon, being a living balloon herself.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Yolanda Yo-Yo, who tries to demolish Apple Blossom's mayoral campaign for her own to succeed...so she can pass a law that forces everyone to look and act like her...but then it turns out she's doing it out of full self-consciousness about herself as she feels too different compared to everyone else. Unfortunately, even after revealing this, this doesn't stop her from sabotaging the works of others thanks to her feeling left out of their activities.
- Brick Break: Cheeky Chocolate attempts this in "Chop Chop" with popsicle sticks…but only succeeds in swelling up her hand.
- Canon Welding: The series shares a universe with The Trash Pack through sharing a universe with The Grossery Gang.
- Carnivore Confusion: Kooky Cookie's order of a strawberry gelato in "Shopkins World Fair (Part 3)" manages to unnerve both Strawberry Kiss and Gino Gelati.
- Cartoon Cheese: Chee Zee is a wedge of one. He also comes in a blue variant. The franchise would later avert this with the more realistic-looking Parmesan Pete.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Kooky Cookie is often in her own little world…but she ends up the one with flying colors by doing her own thing a majority of the time.
- Collectible Card Game: The Shopkins Collector Cards reuses the static art of characters, while also including special cards such as pop-up cards and coloring cards.
- Distaff Counterpart: Of The Trash Pack.
- Edible Theme Naming: The majority of the food-based Shopkins are pun names of the food they’re based on.
- Eye Glasses: Any of the Shopkins that wear glasses have black bead pupils over the iris-based eyes the others have, leaving them using their frames like so.
- Eyes Always Shut: Many of the Shopkins have their designs with their eyes always closed.
- Flowers of Nature: Both Apple Blossom and Strawberry Kiss sport ones on their heads, though being an apple and a strawberry respectively, they’re naturally grown. Strawberry Kiss’s even resembles a flower crown!
- Four-Fingered Hands: All of the Shoppies have four fingers. As well, Rub-a-Glove, a cleaning glove-based Shopkin, only has four digits on her glove top.
- French Cuisine Is Haughty: As a reference to this, Slick Breadstick is stereotypically French and fails at being a lady charmer.
- Gamer Chick: Connie Console and Gabby Gamer, they're both living video game controllers!
- Head Pet: In a sense, Apple Blossom’s worm, she emotes and moves on her own accord, and lives inside Apple Blossom through a hole in her.
- Human-Focused Adaptation: The
Direct to Video movies have the Shoppies as the main characters, with only a few Shopkins in supporting roles. - Identical Stranger: In the episode "Kooky Monroe and the Shopkin Shadow!", the old celebrity Kooky Monroe shares a striking resemblance to Kooky Cookie. Cheeky Chocolate and Lippy Lips can’t pinpoint the similarity, however.
- Impossibly Delicious Food: Peppa-Mint's gelato cart that she accidentally purchases has gelato that's so delicious, that even disgusting combinations (such as ones containing dog treats, smelly socks, and radioactive elements) are considered amazing.
- Instant Ice: Just Add Cold!: "Frozen Climbers" has this befall Strawberry Kiss in the frozen isle.
- Italians Talk with Hands: Gino Gelati, being an Italian Tour team Shopkin, accentuates his speech with hand gestures, turning his nub-like hands into simply-defined fingers to emphasize them.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. There are two wafer stick shopkins named Wanda Wafer. One from Season 3 who resembles a KitKat, and the other from Season 6 that resembles a dry cookie wafer. Also, there are two Ice(-)Cream Dreams, with one from Season 1 in a tub and one from Season 2 in a cone, and there are two Dolly Donuts, with one from season 4 who is a plain donut with some icing on top and one from season 5 who is a plain donut and a Petkin.
- Onion Tears: Boo-Hoo Onion, who cries from herself.
- Palette Swap: Nearly every character has their figure in a minimum of two colors to collect, with some having extra ones in exclusive packages.
- Pepper Sneeze: Peppe Pepper, being a living pepper shaker. He also provides the page image.
- The Prankster: Cheeky Chocolate, she’s not above messing with her friends, even her bio calls her one!
- Projectile Toast: Toasty Pop's toast has a tendency to launch out when shocked.
- Punny Name: If it’s not alliterative or descriptive, it’s often this, such as Chloe Flower the cauliflower or Melonie Pips the watermelon slice.
- Shared Universe: With The Grossery Gang and The Trash Pack.
- Sphere Eyes: Both the Shopkins and the Shoppies use the disconnected version. Unlike many versions of this eye style, they have eyelashes by default, along with large highlighted pupils and additional irises.
- Spin-Off Babies: The Kindi Kids line features the Shoppies characters as toddlers.
- Strawberry Shorthand: Represented through Strawberry Kiss.
- Talking Poo: Yes, even in a franchise like this, it exists. In this case, it's a tiny swirl of pink or purple poop with a dog snout in the Happy Places Petkin blind bags.
- Themed Stock Board Game: Shopkins has received a licensed version of Monopoly Junior. It uses four figures from the toyline in place of the standard pieces.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Toasty Pop (if you see them as female) and Cheeky Chocolate are on the highest tomboy side, with Lippy Lips and Suzie Sundae on the highest girly girl side, making them both contrasts to each other and to the other middle-tier Shopkin girls.
- Tropey, Come Home: Apple Blossom’s pet dog Milk Bud running off in the forest leads to a five-episode arc to finding him.
- Unconventional Smoothie: Cheeky Chocolate's "Cheeky Charge Up" energy smoothies are made with milk, spinach, kale, and the tears of all the competitors that she has beaten over the years.
- Valley Girl: Suzie Sundae in the cartoons.
- Worm in an Apple: Apple Blossom, one of the original characters, is a green apple with a pink worm named Wormy sticking out of her left side. In the fiction, the two are portrayed as The Dividual and only rarely, such as in "Look Within", is there need for them to interact with each other. Apple Blossom's signature dance is stated to be The Worm.
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