My Thoughts On The MAMBI 2018 Planner New Releases

I am sure if you are a Happy Planner lover you know that this week is ‘Reveal Week’. The Mambi team has been showing their new 2018 planners.

They showed off the new release by store first Michaels (which was break down of part one and two), then Staples, Hobby Lobby, and Joann stores, on their YouTube Channel.

I have watched all of the release videos (linked above) and thought I would share my opinions on them and which planners are on my radar for 2018.

Firstly if you are new to the Happy Planner world you may have just purchased a 18 month planner when they were released about six months ago and you are wondering why they are releasing new planners already. Well, welcome to the world of Me and My Big Ideas where every six months they release new planners. They release 12 months in the fall for the next year, and then release 18 months half way through the year. Even though a lot of planner companies do this, it still makes no sense to me. I am a big believe in 12 month planners. And after purchasing my first Happy Planner that was 18 months (not realizing it at the time) I have finally got myself back on the 12 month ones, although with some wasted pages. I now ignore the 18 month releases because I know there will always be a pretty planner in the releases that make me want to jump ship and go to a new planner.

Anyhow back to the topic on these 12 month releases.

Lets start with Michaels they have two different release date. One was suppose to be later this month (but the planners are online and I have seen people have them already) and the other is October 28th. (Below are some of the planners already up on the Michaels website –> here) Watch out they are named differently on the website then they are in the videos from The Happy Planner.

Why? Why couldn’t they all release at the same time? My theory is it’s Mambi trying to get you to buy twice, go to look at the first releases and purchase and then go and look at the second and make a purchase again. OR it is Michaels trying to get us in the store twice. What makes me believe this even more is they release different sizes of the same planner on different dates. I can get Sugar & Spice Classic in the first release but have to wait till the second if I want the mini. I can buy the mini budget planner in the first release but have to wait for the second release to get the classic size. These Mambi and Micahels people are smart and know how to make the money!

Not only do they get you to go twice into Michaels but they release different planners into each store. If I want the recipe Planner I have to go to Joann’s or Hobby Lobby (neither of them we have in Canada) or I can get the typical dated mini fitness planner in Michaels but if I want undated I have to go to other shops.

Staples Release Date is September 26

Hobby Lobby- Throughout the month of September.

Joann- Mid to Late October

I am not a Happy Planner expert– like I said I skip the 18 Month releases so maybe what I think is new isn’t. So please correct me in the comments if I get something incorrect.

Undated Fitness Planner– this is the first time I recall seeing an undated Fitness Planner sold alone. I know you can get the boxed kit and that is undated, but I haven’t seen an undated on it’s own. But the only shop in Canada that sells the Happy Planners is Michaels and like I said above they don’t seem to be getting the undated. The top two photos are of the undated which is the same one that comes in the box set. The bottom is the new one that is not undated.

 

New Designs (Kind Of)– There are some cool new designs that I haven’t seen before. The hand drawn art in the Sugar & Spice planner. But I also saw a lot of repetitive stuff they have done over and over again and a lot of the designs didn’t scream new to me. But the new ones are definitely so pretty that it makes you want to buy them all.

Budget Planner- They have come out with a classic and mini budget planner. Until now I believe they just had the budget extension pack. Now my first impression (although they didn’t flip through the entire planner) was that is looked like a regular horizontal planner with one budget page at the beginning. They also a savings tracker but it is on a monthly divider.  But it is one that I am interested in flipping through.

 

 

Recipe Planner- They have a new front cover for this, but it was difficult to see what the inside looked like because when they flipped through they showed more of the dividers then they did of the planners.

 

Colour Discs– I know they have had coloured discs in the past but there seemed to be a lot more colours then last year. Black, Pink, Rose Gold, Yellow, Navy, Blue, Red, and I sure there were more.

 

Currently Pages– I was happy to see that some of these were changed up a bit and didn’t look as focused on the currently part, however I wasn’t as happy as I would be if they were completely gone lol and replaced with something that you could use in your own way- blank or even a note sheet–and leave the currently page for their Memory Keeper Planners they now have out.

Many of the designs were re-used, especially when it came to the neutral planners. I have the neutral planner for 2017 and I love being able to add stickers without having the coloured weekends or lots of colours around the page, but one of the neutral planners is the exact same as my current planner just with a different cover. I also noticed this to be true with a few of the planners.

No Vertical Mini- People seem to be asking for these all the time, and we know that they can make them–fitness planner is vertical–but another release and no vertical.

I didn’t see any new hourly planners either. With as many planners as Mambi is about to release you think they would have at least released one hourly option.

 

• I was super overwhelmed watching all the videos. There are almost too many choices and because I like a cover from this one, but the interior of that one, and the layout of this one. I am left wishing that with as many combos as they come up with they need to start a build your own planner option.
• If they can have this many good cover options- why can’t they put them in their package of three covers–those packages have pretty boring covers in them
• Also when are they going to start selling those pretty colour discs separately? I would love the purple ones.
• The neutral planners were all pretty boring– and repetitive of the last year’s planner
• Bring a undated fitness planner to Michaels please. please.
• I don’t understand why the mini, classic, and large all have different covers for the same planner. They correspond but again, it makes it hard if you love the cover of one but the size of the other
• The seasonal planner is cool–but it is an American seasonal planner–Fourth of July–Thanksgiving in November– but it is an American company
• I am really going to have to look through the planners in store, because on the video they focused more on the dividers then the functional part of the planner. I want to see a closer look at the side bars in the monthly and weekly, it looks like they have headers in them. Also the currently pages are different in many of the planners. I wish the videos would have focused more on this stuff. But they have a TON of releases so they videos would have been super long.

Below are the planners I am going to specifically look at when I go into Michaels although I am sure I will look at them all. I want to wait to look at all of them before I make my decision.

The Budget Planner- as I mentioned above I really want to start using a budget planner, but if the budget planner only has one sheet per month that is really budget related, then I probably won’t get it. The mini budget is coming out first, and that is the one I am more interested in, so I will probably check that out soon.

 

Soft Geos- This purple one is soooo pretty. I love the purple discs. I also like that the weekly layout is pretty neutral (it doesn’t have coloured weekends) so it is easier to us stickers without worrying about matching. (The eyelash one is the mini version)

 

Sugar & Spice– I love this cover but it has coloured headers so I know it won’t be for me,  but I want to see it in person to convince myself. I love the navy discs.

 

Blush Crush– If I wasn’t so into making sure things match, this would be my planner. I love the water colour days of the week. But I am not a fan of the cover, this is why it would be amazing to build your own.

Indigo Hues– This is another favourite of mine. I love the blue and copper together. It looks like it is going to be a gorgeous planner throughout.

The planner I think will be my 2018 planner is….

Boho Deep Tones

It has the blues that I love from the Indigo Hues but deeper. The maroons and other deep tone colours are gorgeous. It has the colour faded in the monthly calendar which I can forgive because it doesn’t have them in the weekly. I have to look at it to really see what colours are on the months that I decorate more seasonal- like October and December–but I think this is going to be my planner.

 

So those are my thoughts on the new Mambi releases, but I would love to hear yours. I would definitely also take a look at the new recipe planner if it became available at Michaels. Let me know down below if you have checked out the new releases, your thoughts on them, and what Happy planner(s) you’ll be using in 2018.

Also Mambi is doing a livestream tomorrow Friday September 22 at 12pm PST for a Q&A and have surprise. Comment below what product you think they might be adding.

*I have a new post up with my thoughts on the Planner Girl Planners that Mambi will be releasing October 12th. Check it out here.