box: 100 packets (6 stickers + 1 card per packet) 0,70€ each
Welcome back Cucciolotti! The news is not always positive, in the case of the annual album by Pizzardi Editore the pleasant news is that, in terms of spending for us (small and large) collectors, nothing has changed. Despite the complicated period, applause to the publisher who met the finances of the families and kept the offer unchanged. Same price as the packets, always 6 stickers plus a card inside them, same format, same total number to complete the collection.
Rightly so, the €0.70 price makes a great impression both on the album and on the packet box, it seems to us to be the lowest on the market. On the contrary, the quality remains among the best, both on the paper front of the album (the hardcover, practically free, is a delight), and on the variety and work of graphics and contents of the album. Certainly Mr. Pizzardi put himself on the line, rather than playing defense he aimed to go on offense, in the hope that the public, the families, will be able to appreciate the effort, because it certainly was. Let’s hope the response is positive and widespread, this collection deserves it!
The other always pleasant aspect of the Cucciolotti is that, unlike the cost of the packets, especially in recent years the contents are not a mere repetition of previous years. Not an easy or obvious detail, considering that it is mainly an album about animals and the species, unfortunately, are decreasing over the years, not the other way around. As happened with others, curiosity grips us and with the Cucciolotti we leaf through all the pages avidly before starting this review, aware, we are sure, that certainly and while paying attention, many aspects of the album will need further viewings to be discovered and appreciated. That’s what stickers are for!
What is the big difference between an album of illustrations and one of stickers? The first is already complete, the second loses much of its charm and potential, without sticking the stickers. Without our little paper friends, it’s impossible to fully enjoy what the rather imaginative creators at Pizzardi have been able to give us in the new edition that hits the newsstands.
Flipping through the pages, the collection gives a feeling of continuity, as if it were a long and unique adventure, there are interiors dedicated to the various continents and their inhabitants, animals and humans. It actually remains an important part but still only one aspect of this very rich album. The whole is a successful mix of printed illustrations, didactic texts and other more impromptu ones, such as the interludes of the comic strips of our big noses.
The Cucciolotti albums have never risked being static and cold, in 2023 they are even less so. Several pages are “challenging”, there are questions to answer, curiosities to discover, animals and puppy friends to collect. The dynamic sense is also given by the stickers themselves, many shaped and naturally an explosion of colors. If we go back to the initial discussion on the cost of the packets, it is an aspect to take into account and which we will reiterate again. Same price and same quality and variety of stickers, including special, transparent, metallic, shiny, etc. The stickers in all their glory.
The didactic and encyclopedic setting of the album cannot fail to take into account the animals that “are no longer among us”. It is an important aspect, we also hope parents can devote some time to explaining to children. If Mammoths and Dinosaurs are distant ancestors, it is much more impressive to think of types of elephants or tigers that are at risk of extinction. They too, one day, damn close, could only find space in stickers and school books.
Bees are important protagonists of life on our planet. Well done Cucciolotti to always dedicate a page to them, the stickers are nice, the texts are necessary to understand the serious risk we are running. This double aspect, which you also often see in the creation of our solidarity stickers, is a trademark of the album: learning while having fun but also trying to change things, knowing and understanding the uniqueness of many living beings, also necessary for our future, not just theirs.
The pages that deserve a specific comment are too many for this review, but not for the completeness of the album. We chose “The History” because it deals with a delicate but fundamental theme: if on the one hand each of us is unique and alone, we are all children of “Mama Africa”, therefore we are not all the same but we are all equal. Perhaps in the future Cucciolotti could devote even more space to evolution, however well present in this 2023 edition, this page talks about men, in others about the evolution of animals.
Amici Cucciolotti has done a lot over the years to support non-profit organizations involved in the protection of the environment and the animal world. Indeed, as the years go by, not only do the projects increase, but also the space within the album. An original and significant way to introduce the world around us and those who work to make it a better place. How to help them? By following the advice for good habits both at home and away, 10 brilliant stickers remind us. Also by purchasing the Cucciolotti packets. Living on a peninsula, we are well aware of the importance of water and the sea, a suggestion for Pizzardi? Dedicate a year entirely or almost entirely to the underwater world, perhaps through a long adventure of our Nasoni for the seas and large rivers.
Dog or cat? Could we have been missing from the Cucciolotti album? They are friends of many of us, they have dedicated entire albums to them over the years. We like it better when they are involved with all other living beings, but a special dedicated part fits all right. Indeed, the advice you find written in the album can be very useful for understanding the behavior of our puppies.
Our friends but also heroes. Sometimes there are animals that also play an important role in saving people and other animals in emergency situations. Well done Cucciolotti to remember it. There is little room for imagination here, they are true stories, sometimes incredible but always real.
The 2022 cards had been a big step forward compared to past years. Those of this year continue the initiative and indeed we can define them as an expansion. In fact, the game explained at the bottom of the album is suitable for both 2023 and 2022 cards. This therefore allows you to have 144 cards to have fun! Not only that, for families who do not intend to buy more than a certain number of packets, they can also use last year’s ones to make a single deck, full-bodied enough for the playful aspect.
We have already mentioned the stickers, once again parents will tremble at the fear of finding these small paper objects scattered on the furniture or on the fridge at home. Naturally better not, but many stickers have a social purpose and a message that can also become a small gift to a friend or sometimes even to an “enemy”. Cucciolotti stickers are always something special, we can’t imagine having them different from how they are. With the “easy peel” method they are also easier to remove from the tissue and to attach. Details? True, but you know that we are crazy about details!
The central insert is also appreciable where the internal part remains “defensive” to reinforce the pins and not risk the dramatic detachment of the pages. Actually with the Cucciolotti albums we don’t seem to have ever noticed this problem, but they were keen to do it, the “save album” is also patented. Well, we can trust those Pizzardi big noses!
One last consideration: last year we wrote that a perfect album could also have fewer stickers, perhaps around 400. Looking back, it should be borne in mind that the Cucciolotti album is not a seasonal product; usually a sticker collection stays on newsstands for 3-5 months. The Pizzardi album remains available 10-11 months. It is therefore logical that it has a suitable number of stickers which, if desired, can be searched for throughout the year.
box: 100 packets (6 stickers + 1 card per packet) 0,70€ each
“Welcome back Cucciolotti!”, A nice Christmas present. We hope it is a good omen for a finally peaceful new year, we all really need it so much. Someone would like two Cucciolotti a year. Perhaps an exciting idea, but not very practicable. Leafing through the album we can only renew the beautiful sensations and the incredible work behind it, you can understand why it takes a long time to think, conceive and realize it. Better one a year and well done, perhaps with several new features, this year is not lacking.
The total number of stickers is downsized as it did last year, from 512 we went to 476 including extras. Right number, indeed it could still go down to around 450 so as to make the collection easier to complete. The quality would not be damaged, the album setting could allow you to “delete” some pages without the general substance being affected. It is also a choice in line with the times we live in, with fewer opportunities to swap the stickers.
At this point, buying a whole box, we think that we could really complete the album. Not only that, with 600 stickers (6 per packet) you would still have over 100 stickers to swap or stick on diaries and notebooks. After all, this has always been a winning aspect of the Cucciolotti collection, many stickers are effective even beyond the album itself, for their images, phrases, mottos. In practice, even if you complete the album more easily, you will have a thousand other reasons to continue playing with the Cucciolotti.
The 2022 album seems to us more like a container of many stories, didactics and good intentions, more than a product structured by chapters, especially in the second part. Not being a Marvel comic it doesn’t need to follow the “continuity”, indeed this aspect makes it more interesting, because you don’t know exactly what you might find on the next page. In the first part, however, we have many pages dedicated to specific areas of the world and its inhabitants, of earth, sky or water. We have chosen to publish the page with the large image of a Gorilla, an animal in danger of extinction. To think that one day children can no longer see a living one, but only in photos, should make us think and a lot ..
The text is an integral and fundamental part of the Cucciolotti, it is not only didactic but an attempt, successful for us, to make children interact with the world and the beings that populate it. The choice to always set the story as a journey of the Nasons is effective, also because we can all take part in it, just work with imagination and dreams, qualities of which all children are healthy carriers, fortunately. By doing so, alongside the didactic notions, you can have fun with the many games and quizzes that the album offers. We adults should try too, to find out how little we really know about nature and its splendid protagonists.
Of course, there is also plenty of room for adventure, comics and the fantastic. As aficionados of comics we have chosen this page dedicated to superhero Nasons, that “magnificent 7” is also a tribute to a milestone in western cinema, of which we are equally lovers. What can I say, thank you!
We wrote that the album is a container of good intentions and important messages. Often the mistake is made of considering the Cucciolotti collection linked “only” to the protection of animals and the great work in support of ENPA. In fact, taking advantage of the fundamental playful concept of stickers, Pizzardi also uses the album to give space to equally important issues, such as the fight against bullying and racism. Because we are all the same, a concept so simple that children understand it well, much better than us adults, too involved and influenced by taboos, preconceptions and often unfounded fears.
Another necessary aspect is the culture of environmental protection, of our seas, our trees, our friendly bees, etc. Cucciolotti dedicates several pages to this commitment which has a solution only if it is daily; even through the stickers, these little paper friends of ours, children can learn how to live more in peace with what surrounds us.
The most significant novelty are certainly the cards. Goodbye little talkers! It was about time, sorry but we think so. We do not know how much children liked to find these small paper objects to deliver messages, but there are certainly many more children attracted to card games, just note not only how many products are on the newsstands, but how many other sticker albums are there. they made a fundamental aspect.
The 72 cards 2022 are graphically far from the past, they are very close to traditional trading cards. It is not just a matter of images but of the information we find on the sticker. The first 51 feature our animal friends, complete with different levels of strength, energy and value points. From 52 to 60 here are the Super Nasoni, from 61 to 65 the dangers and the last ones the specials, especially the 72. To find out more it is useful to complete the pages of the album with stickers from 451 to 458, because in the end stickers and cards are a whole, you cannot collect stickers without taking care of the cards and vice versa.
The stickers are always the added value of this collection, they are so varied that it is useless to point out, as others do, the special ones, they all are, in some way. Although the price of the packets has increased (from 0.60 to 0.70), the offer always remains among the cheapest in the panorama of stickers, taking into account, as just written, that the stickers are well-finished and with many different characteristics, a choice that certainly involves a higher cost in producing them.
Also noteworthy is the promotion on albums, last year, although low, they had a cost, now no longer. For both the normal album and the hardcover album, the expense is that of the packets it contains. Unfortunately, in terms of paper quality, the hardcover album is not valid. Unfortunately, the hated folds are present exponentially, a problem that we now find in many products from many publishers. However, it must be said that in the case of Pizzardi, they can be forgiven, given that the album is distributed practically free of charge.
Not all albums are meant to be completed. This is the case with Rewild, a nice novelty from Panini. Of course, we are collectors and therefore we cannot help but imagine lining up all the cards from 1 to 468, but the spirit with which the product is born is to teach, through play. Of course, finding the most powerful cards definitely helps you win!
To better understand both the formula of the game and the setting of the cards, the excellent guide attached is very useful. The explanation of the cards goes hand in hand with that on animals and their risk of extinction. The score of the cards is inversely proportional to this scientific data. Panini is keen to emphasize the origin of the data from which it collected the information to create the game and the cards, it is good and very useful.
To be able to play you need both the basic and bonus cards, the advice is to buy in addition to the starter pack one of the different Starter Decks that contain 40 cards. 320 cards are the basic, 60 are bonus, the remaining 20 are “scratch & sniff” (scratch and smell the farm animals), 48 cards with embossed parts and 20 sticker cards.
The sticker cards have a sticker above without a real use, they are simply beautiful to stick where you want, proposing pairs of the same special and under the sticker we find the card with the puppy, including the special BIG 8, unbeatable in the game . To the 468 cards must be added the two limited ones, Super Bonus and Jolly Fluo, to find them you need to buy the Collectors Box.
The presence of three different game boards is also excellent (two are found in the starter pack). Who knows, if the collection is successful, no more will be added later. If the planks are three, different speech for the settings, 8 different habitats, where the various animal species are divided. Also for this reason the guide is very useful, a very valid notional part, to read! The texts and captions are made for an audience of very young people, but the theme is so universal that even the older ones will appreciate it.
In recent years we have sometimes reported that in the Panini collections on animals, if the didactic part was very well done, little was granted to the solidarity part. In practice, unlike other publishers, no space was given to Italian or international companies that were at the forefront of protecting the environment and its inhabitants. This time, however, the collection is connected to the Parco Natura Viva and to the projects of the Arca Foundation, for the protection and enhancement of biodiversity by supporting activities in various parts of the world.
Excellent that no product related to the collection has plastic parts, only paper, packets and starter packs included. This is the reason for the lack of the binder, inevitably (at least for now) in plastic. However, you can always buy a Calciatori Adrenalyn starter pack, if you really can’t do without it.
Significant data for collectors who want to find all the cards. As written at the beginning, it is not essential for others. Let’s give this interesting and well-made product a chance, who knows it may not continue over time with updates and new cards.
(EN)
I LOVE THE ANIMALS (Gamma 3000 Italy)
EDICOLA NEWS: THE REVIEWS nr. 172
stickers: 60 (1-60) starter pack: album + complete stickers set € 4.99
A new album from Gamma 3000 after the one released in November 2020 (https://figurineforever.com/en/2020/11/02/i-love-the-animals-gamma-3000-italy/), probably had its success as the publisher is back with a new collection, dedicated to farm animals. An opportune choice, given the limited type of stickers, to thematize it more specifically with respect to the entire animal world which is truly immense. Solution that also give chances to subsequent albums.
The format album plus complete set of stickers for less than € 5.00 is a great opportunity to bring even the little ones closer to the magical world of stickers, learn characteristics and curiosities of the animal world while having fun. The quality of the paper is not optimal but given the final price, in this case, it can be safely accepted.
Each farm animal is present with a dedicated chapter, the captions are useful for understanding, essential but necessary above all for an audience of very young kids, even the graphics pursue this target. Rabbits, cows, sheep, horses, pigs, chickens, birds and even dogs and cats. Very nice the final page with typical animals but from other farms around the world such as Alpaca, Lama, Reindeer and Yak.
Curious detail, the total of the stickers is actually 64, because four are double. Minimal album like the previous one, a good starting point for newcomers to the world of stickers.
Welcome back Cucciolotti! Some might answer that Pizzardi only makes one album a year, but he does it well! In this period where other publishers are disappointing on various fronts, this Cucciolotti 2021 is a panacea to hope that next year will be spectacular.
We honestly don’t have the historical knowledge of the Cucciolotti to make comparisons with 15 years of editions, but we can point out many positive aspects. Already from the starter packs the sensations are good, the paperback album of good quality (how nice to review a sticker album without creases), the hardcover is no longer soft and in our opinion it is an improvement, hardcover for only 3 euro with two packets. Here this is one of the cases where “only” is not a mocking term.
The packets still at 0.60 with 6 stickers + 1 card. Within the album, the publisher is keen to specify that with a box of 100, it cannot guarantee the complete set, but it is certain that there will be very few stickers to complete the album. The right reward for aficionados who buy a whole box should be an unwritten rule.
Contemporaneity is important, today the album is out on shops and online we find the site completely updated with even the possibility of ordering the missing stickers right away. It is true that we do not find speculators here (those who continually buy the same sticker .. like Zaniolo / Calciatori) but it is excellent that one can buy multiple copies of the same issue.
In addition to all this, the fundamental contribution that Pizzardi, year after year, has given to the associations for animals and to the protection of the environment, thanks to the sale of the stickers. “The stickers that make the difference”, we say it too, but in the case of Cucciolotti it is truly incredible (donated over 5.5 million euros!).
What has been written so far would already be worth buying, in reality the interior removes any doubt. If our animal friends and the Nasoni people are always the same, so are the various pages. Impossible to list them all, from the new journey of megadirectress Westie to Nasopoli that she introduces to the album. We do not believe an album can be defined more interactive than Amici Cucciolotti, each page must be read and reread because you always discover different details. It is equally important that parents can linger with their children in reading and not just attach the stickers, captions and comics to tell us about our world and the varied animal and plant kingdoms that populate it. The many pages on “extraordinary trees” are beautiful. Ergo, it’s not just us humans!
Not only respect for nature, the album is full of good messages and that strong dose of positivity that this year, even more than usual, is needed. Honorable mention for the page “the energy of Italy”, we do not know if it is an absolute novelty but a little bit of national pride is always good for us.
We have said some interesting pages on the big trees in the world, very beautiful also those of the looks, special stickers to put on the faces of the various animals. The more didactic themes are also interesting to help learn a few words of English, help memory and much more.
Final part of the album that will surely delight many fans of the fantasy world with dragons, magical creatures and the mythological puzzle. The 72 cards with the best of the most popular images from previous years are dedicated to this theme.
The stickers are always varied, special, colorful. Usable in the album but several doubles also elsewhere. Over the years Pizzardi has increasingly limited the extra stickers to numbering or to the album itself, a popular choice, this year we find 8 adhesive patches, on the back it is specified to first ask permission from the parent, who knows if someone over the years has written to the publisher complaining about what the children were up to with the doubles .. No notion about the presence of big stickers (Figurone), as far as we are concerned we will not miss them.
Thanks Pizzardi for this great end of year!
(EN)
PREDATORS OF THE EARTH (Sbabam Italy)
EDICOLA NEWS: THE REVIEWS nr. 155 stickers: 200 (1-200) + stick & stack starter pack: album + 2 packets + toy € 4.99 packets: € 0.80 (5 stickers)
Intriguing the choice of this album, Sbabam is a leader in products for newsstands when it comes to small toys, models and surprise bags. Among these, the Kreaturex toys which has seen a myriad of outputs including marine animals, dinosaurs and much more. The success was so significant that the publisher decided to make an album out of it.
The album is dedicated to the predators of the earth, yesterday and today. Compared to the other collections of stickers on animals that we find on shops here our friends are all represented with illustrations, at least in the packets that we have opened there are no photographs.
The chapters of the album are divided into settings: forest, jungle, prehistory, ice, savannah, dinosaurs and skies. The abysses are missing. The captions are essential, lots of information on animals that are didactic but also and above all curiosity.
The album is completed by the double central poster for the stick&stack stickers.
In the 200 stickers we find many shaped, the total number is actually higher as the stick & stacks are not counted, we will investigate how many there are and update the review.
Nice album, useful to promote the cause of our beloved stickers.
Too bad that Sbabam is also affected by the poor quality of the album paper, after Panini and Diramix they too fall into this mistake.
(EN)
I LOVE THE ANIMALS (Gamma 3000 Italy)
EDICOLA NEWS: THE REVIEWS nr. 156 stickers: 60 (1-60) “Starter” pack: album + all stickers € 4.99
Important premise: we like doubles! The stickers have their importance in many aspects, including cultural and didactic ones. One aspect that made them immortal is the possibility of swapping them, of looking for the missing ones, of discovering the images by opening the packets.
On the other hand it is not always possible, even we as Figurine Forever are working on an album in favor of the Centro Tutela Fauna and it will be on sale in 2021 with the entire set of stickers already (first time we talk about it, a juicy preview for those who read this our review).
The editor presents this collection of just 60 stickers on the animal world, all of which are in the album, ready to be attached. The animals are divided by natural environment where they live, each one has a small caption that tells us about its way of life and its characteristics.
Of course 60 stickers are very few for a significant collection on the animal world, let’s say this is “the best of”. Minimal album, useful as a gift to the little ones as a first approach to the world of stickers and of course to that of animals.
Always remind children of the importance of swapping stickers, of sharing this passion with others, the mix between the need to complete their own collection but also to help others do it.
After a few years of pause, Panini tries to regain the stickers market on the animal world. Better still, perhaps Panini tries to start again with real educational albums, like the good old days. Unlikely they will follow “flags of the world” or “the great characters of history”, but it is still a good sign.
At the beginning of the album they are keen to emphasize that the product created “should not be understood as an expert source on the subject”, certainly personnel able to tell the animal world in scientific terms were involved, or someone really working in Modena with the passion for nature! Applause for the first part of the album which immediately reach the main point: the risk of extinction that many species suffer from human actions. Learning from mistakes will perhaps help the new generations to live differently.
Many captions, necessary for the attachment of the stickers to correspond to a moment of reflection and “study”. Each single page presents many stickers with photographs of the various animals, at the bottom the most interactive parts with small shaped figures to learn while having fun.
The following pages are lighter, the animals become the protagonists of games and phrases. Subsequently all the various species, interesting that Panini starts with insects and molluscs, leaving in the pages much further on the album the favorite animals of children such as felines, cetaceans, etc.
The invitation is to enjoy all the pages of the album, they are really fun and always with an eye to sending the right message, because we are facing a very dark period for Nature and we cannot wait any longer.
At the center of the album are the special pages with unfortunately extinct (or almost extinct) animals and the Top 21 of animals in danger, there are some species that really are in everyone’s imagination.
The album closes with a little gem, the 12 Simple & Madama stickers, where our comics couple tells us the secrets of animals. These stickers, numbered A1-A12, are inside some Special Packet inserted in the weekly comic Topolino (for 3 weeks) and in the magazines Animali and Simple&Madama (12 stickers all together) . The purchase of an extra item is an increasingly used technique, at least this time, no cards and packets at a human price.
Two final considerations: the quality of the album paper continues to be bad after what we saw with the latest Marvel 80th; the second aspect is more delicate, if it is true that Panini is a multinational and certainly does not have the beneficial purposes at the center of its interests, for this really well-made album, it would have been interesting to involve and support one of the many companies committed to safeguarding the planet (WWF, Greenpeace, Mare Vivo, just to name a few).
A missed opportunity to give strength to facts and not just to words, however well written.
comment: the Amici Cucciolotti collection is a story in itself, every year it reappears and every year is a success.
It should be underlined by Pizzardi Editore to always make it very rich and connected to initiatives in favor of our animals thanks to the synergy with ENPA, but also for the protection of the sea and for children hospitalized in hospitals.
Three good, very good reasons, to buy albums and packets, regardless.
The album is always super colorful and fun, about 600 stickers to complete it. It is interesting that Pizzardi page by page also indicates which stickers should be attached, although they are numbered. A little help to not get lost in the search for the number.
Of course, children have to become noses too, like the comic friends who accompany the album pages.
Special stickers, shaped, glitter, transparent, there are so many particular stickers that it would be almost easier to tell the classics, you do it first!
As a comic book lover, the stories in the album are much appreciated, with Westie, godmother of the Cucciolotti, who lives many adventures thanks to the Nose-Machine.
It would not seem but it is also and above all an educational album that allows the game to get to know curiosities and details of the animals and the places where they live.
The album, both paperback and soft version is another trademark and synonym of quality.
In addition to the 496 stickers that are needed to complete the album, have the usual extras:
.72 little “parlottini”, present in each packet, very nice idea to communicate with friends through stickers
. 12 “doppioloni”
. 8 ministickers with letters, numbers and symbols
That’s all? No, because there are 12 giant stickers! To have them all you can simply buy the complete special box and in addition to finding them all you have a nice number of stickers to complete the album. Don’t forget the maxi poster of the magic mirrors where to stick the 12 giant stickers.
If we add that the cost of the packet is lower than other products (0.60 for 7 stickers) and that the purpose is social, we find no reason not to run to the newsstands
comment: another album about Dinosaurs, which never goes out of fashion and are always very fascinating for children and also for adults. The product of Gamma 3000 is very nice and well made, the 205 stickers are all shaped and find space in the album in the various pages where our great friends are divided by type.
In fact, we have carnivores, herbivores, larger and heavier ones, those with affinity for birds, armored animals, those with bony heads, long necks, feathered ones, those with horns and scales, bipeds and quadrupeds, in a succession of pages where you can discover unknown dinosaurs.
The album has a lot of the charm of the retro, which is not a criticism, it recalls certain albums made in the 70s, without too many frills, 205 shaped and funny stickers animated without glitter, special or other modernity. The exact number of the stickers is unclear, as several are with two stickers to attach, so in reality that 205 drops significantly.
In short, an easy album to complete! Attention to the numbering, in the double stickers we do not find two consecutive images, so if it is easy to complete it is not so, in the case, request the missing stickers.
We find 6 models of 3D Dinosaurs, found in special packets for € 2.50. They are small but well made.
Dinosaurs are always dinosaurs, they like and will always like them. By the way, if you come to Bologna, go and visit the Dinosaurs park, it’s worth it! www.dinosauricarneossa.it/sanlazzaro
