THE JOY OF (TINY) COOKING
A parents’ guide to Miniverse Make It Mini Food
I arranged my French toast slices on a platter, drizzling them generously with maple syrup and topping them with banana slices and perfectly plump blueberries.
I sat back and admired my handiwork. It’s beautiful, tiny and definitely not edible.
That’s the first thing you need to know about Miniverse Make It Mini Food: no matter how delicious-looking it is, none of it can be eaten.
Launched in December 2022 by MGA Entertainment, the company behind Bratz, L.O.L. Surprise and Rainbow High, Miniverse Make It Mini Food is a line of mystery boxes (balls, actually) that contain little ingredients and kitchen tools that you can use for creating teeny, tiny food.
That’s the thing that sets them apart from other miniature blind box food collectibles like Real Littles and Zuru Mini Brands—you don’t just open and collect, you get to have DIY fun.
You might have seen videos of these toys on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram—they’ve been a viral success.
Each ball gives you everything you need for a specific dish.
There’s the slightly cheaper cafe edition, which features snacks and drinks like donuts, churros, cereal, hot dogs, nachos, alphabet soup, lemonade, boba and soda, while the diner edition features more complicated menu items like pizza, ramen, cakes and pies. Each edition has had two series releases so far, all of which are readily available at toy stores and toy departments in the country—I bought mine from Toys R Us and Rustan’s.
Playing with resin
Resin comes as an ingredient in each ball, also in cute packaging (usually as a sauce, syrup, glaze or drink), so you can let your creation set after you’re done “cooking.” You can do this by exposing it to sunlight for about 10 minutes or, if you’re a vampire like me who likes playing at night, you can just use a UV flashlight.
Because of the resin (which should be kept away from the eyes and which should never be ingested) and because of how small the pieces are, this toy is not recommended for very young children. When MGA Entertainment first announced the launch, it was meant for fans of miniatures who are 13 and older, but all the packaging now reads “8+.”
Eight-year-olds would definitely love playing with these (I would have lost my mind over these as a kid)—they’d be a great way to tear them away from their gadget screens. But parental supervision is a must. And I promise you—you’ll have as much fun playing with these as your kids (maybe even more).
Inside each ball comes a “Read Me First!” set of reminders and instructions: an adult must
be present when playing with resin; cover the play area to prevent resin damage; keep wipes and rubbing alcohol within reach to clean up messes, etc.
The resin containers from Series 1 usually had a foil seal that was difficult to remove (even for adults) but they’ve done away with that for Series 2. In the new series, you can just unscrew the caps and start drizzling or pouring.
Just like with L.O.L. Surprise, unboxing Miniverse Make It Mini is a big part of the fun. Each ingredient inside the ball is individually wrapped in little bags (so glad they made the switch from plastic to paper for Series 2) that you can cut to look like mini shopping bags that dolls can use.
Unwrap each ingredient with your kids and ooh and aah (or squeal, like I do) over how cute they are. I love the hyper-realistic detail: the varying shades of the blueberries, the texture of the scoops of ice cream, the wafer sticks, the little ravioli, the tiny strawberries, the basil leaves, the bottle of grated Parmesan cheese that actually works!
You wouldn’t know what recipe you’d be working on until you unwrap all the ingredients and consult the collector’s guide. I was hoping to get the nachos and popcorn but I opened two balls from the Cafe Edition Series 2 and got the creamsicle float and chocolate-dipped strawberries. Because they’re mystery boxes, there’s also a risk of getting doubles (although it hasn’t happened to me yet).
Doubles
I wouldn’t mind getting doubles though because some of the ingredients are so cute I actually want to keep some as is, without setting them with resin, so I could add them to my collection of miniatures.
The other nice thing about Make It Mini Food is that even if you get a repeat, you can get creative with the ingredients and even combine them with leftovers from your other recipes to come up with an entirely new dish.
MGA Entertainment encourages this, actually. They like seeing people make the dishes look like their own—the Miniverse social media accounts have been highlighting unique customer creations. The idea is to think of the resin as a glue that will hold your dish together.
But if you really don’t want to keep your double, you can trade with other parents who got a repeat too—maybe form a Make It Mini club among your friends or find people to trade with online (there are Make It Mini groups on Facebook—someone should really set up one for people who collect and play in the Philippines).
Some recipes are more challenging than others which is also why adult supervision is a must. Even I felt like I needed adult supervision sometimes, especially when I struggled with glazing the birthday cake and when I flooded the ravioli with too much sauce.
Miniverse Make It Mini isn’t cheap (P649 for each Cafe Edition ball whether Series 1 or 2; P699 for the Diner Edition Series 1 and P749 for the newly released Series 2) but to me, they’re worth it. They’re great fun. And they’re a cool bonding experience with your kids.
If you find yourself enjoying these toys way too much, embrace it. Trust me, there are plenty of adults who buy these for themselves.
The ball doubles as a display case but many people choose to turn theirs into ref magnets— they’re a nice way to showcase what you have created.
Last month, MGA released a Miniverse Make It Mini Kitchen in the United States. It’s super cute, with a cartoonish 2D-looking design, with shelves, drawers, a fridge, and an oven with UV light. It also comes with mystery ingredients. I’m hoping Ban Kee Trading Inc., the importer of Miniverse in the Philippines, would bring it in as well. But in the meantime, I’ve been using my kitchen and dining table from the Japanese brand Re-Ment for all my Make It Mini cooking.
The Miniverse Make It Mini universe is expanding beyond food as well—the first Make It Mini Lifestyle series is out. These mystery balls let you work on aquariums, candles and little plants.
I can’t wait to see what the Miniverse cooks up next.