Recently my son became obsessed with PJ Masks Mash’ems after he found some videos on YouTube while using my phone. At first I wasn’t sure what “Mashem” was so had to do a little searching and then ended up finding some after digging through the aisles at Wal-Mart.
I soon realized that you couldn’t tell exactly what Mashem you were buying, so you had to simply buy them and hope you got the specific one your child wanted. Many times this technique results in having 3 or 4 of the same Mashem, and also results in you having less money in your bank account.
How can you figure out what Mashem you are buying BEFORE you buy one? This is the question I had after getting the same “Catboy” PJ Masks Mashems about 3 times. I thought back to a few years ago when they were selling Thomas the Train MINIs in blind bags. Some clever people discovered each train had a unique code on the packaging. You could look this code up with your smart phone while at the store and figure out what train you were getting.
Could this same technique work with the Mashems?
I checked out the labels of a few Mashems I purchased, looked around online and unfortunately there were no unique codes found on the packaging, so this system would not work.
“There must be another way…” I thought.
How to Find Out What Mashem You Are Getting Before You Buy
Then, on another trip to Wal-Mart I studied the Mashem’s container a little closer and found the solution! The plastic Mashems container has 4 small holes on the top and bottom, likely to help with ventilation. The hole are partially blocked, but some are bigger than others. Basically all you need to do is shine a strong light in the hole and if you can get the right angle, it should be able to reveal the main color of the Mashem that is in the container!
You will need a smart phone with either a built in flashlight or app that can turn your phone into a flashlight. By now, most phones have this feature.
Turn your flashlight app on and hold it on the bottom of the container, shining in one of the holes. You will be looking in one of the holes on the opposite side to try to determine the dominant color. Some Mashems are easier to figure out than others. With the PJ Masks Mashems the colors are:
PJ Masks Mashems Colors
The following example provides the color that should appear when you shine a light into the hole of a Mashems container.
Catboy – Blue (Catboy has a pink/tan chin so this may help when trying to determine if it is Catboy or Night Ninja. Catboy/Night Ninja were the hardest to tell apart).
Night Ninja – Blue. Night Ninja is mostly blue and has more light blue markings on the mask and chin- so keep and eye out for that difference.
Gekko- Green. Gekko is easy to tell. Green means you got Gekko.
Owlette – Red. Just like Gekko, really easy to tell.
Romeo – Black hair is the dominant color. Romeo does have a white streak in hair and looks a little bit like Luna Girl, but with Luna Girl it is fairly obvious as she shows up white – especially with the light shining in.
Luna Girl – White. Pretty obvious, but look closely to make sure it isn’t Romeo. Luna Girl’s white hair glows pretty well with the LED light from your phone shining in.
So anyway, after you try this technique and practice a few times you will get the hang of it and understand the system. 🙂
It’s not 100% fullproof but let’s just call it 99% for now.
Right now there are some 20 different brands of Mashems including – PJ Masks, Peppa Pig, Batman, Cars 3, Disney Pixar, Finding Dory, Flappybird, Ghostbusters, Guardians of the Galaxy, Justice League, Marvel Avengers, Pac-Man, Paw Patrol, Spider-Man, Spongebob Square Pants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Thomas and Friends, Transformers, Star Wars, Power Rangers and more.
I hope this post has helped you find the exact Mashem you your your kids have been trying to find…without having to buy too many duplicates.
Oh yes, one other note – this is a great way to buy and resell on eBay if you want to sell Mashems in mint condition and be able to guarantee what is inside. Good luck and have fun!