NEWS: Li'l Shoppies...Yeah, there's another one.

Yep, I missed this one yesterday. Not sure if it's because she wasn't there or if it's just because she looks a lot like the apple girl if you're looking fast!

So many. Sigh!

REVIEW: Monster High Party Ghouls Abbey

I've been in love with this Abbey since her promo pics came out on Amazon. I'm always a sucker for her with dark makeup.

Or really, any dolls with dark makeup. But Abbey looks especially good in it!

Party Ghouls is a new release. I think so far people have only found them at Walmart. Annoyingly, the Walmarts I go to more often have none, so I trekked out to the one I very, very rarely go to and I got lucky. (They also had Music Class, but their Cleo had the worst eyes I've seen in forever, which sucks because I need to buy her for a friend. I caved and bought one on ebay a few days ago, so I'll be reviewing her later in the week probably.)

Sadly, they only had Abbey. Both Rochelle and Venus were missing. I don't plan on buying Venus, because I just got Electrified and I'm not a big Venus fan, but I really want Rochelle.

Abbey though is my fave, so I'm happy anyway!

Party Ghouls is a $15ish basic line with a minor gimmick. The line comes with several plastic pieces that you can stick in holes on the doll's accessories.

Abbey comes with five ice flowers, one larger ice crystal design, and one bug. Not sure what the bug has to do with anything, but oh, well. There are little faces sculpted in the flowers and on the bigger piece. I didn't see one on the bug, but I didn't look that hard. (It's hard for me to see tiny things with my contacts in.)

There are holes in Abbey's hat, on her boots, and on the shoulder piece/bandolier/belt she wears.

I had a lot of trouble getting the big piece to fit anywhere, but I finally crammed it into her hat. The flowers I had no trouble with. I put one on the Shiver-themed purse and one on her belt. All purple. I stuck the pink ones and the bug into my MH jewelry box.

Y'know, I kinda want Venus just because I could give her the bug piece, but no. I don't need to spend another fifteen bucks.

Abbey's makeup is perfection. Dark gray eyeshadow and a medium blue-gray lipstick. I think she's right behind I Heart Fashion when it comes to best makeup.

Here you can see the bandolier without the black fur. The fur actually is not attached to the dress by anything more than one of those tiny plastic tabs they use on clothes a lot. I'm thrilled because I far prefer the dress without the fur.

Abbey's got blue and purple streaks in her hair and no ice tinsel. She's got a little short ponytail over the rest of her loose hair.

Here she is without the bandolier on. And with one of the flowers in her hat. I originally had it there after struggling with the bigger piece and failing. But after I shot this, I tried again and got the big piece to finally fit.

The dress is plain purple on the back, although the black hem goes all the way around the skirt.

Overall, I really love this Abbey. I'm very pleased to see her get another doll after the Dance one, which I liked mostly because it was Abbey, who's been a fave of mine since she debuted. I mean, really, she looked a lot like the one that came with Heath hair-wise and her outfit wasn't that great, but I liked seeing her on the new body. Party Ghouls Abbey though is a strong addition to my Abbey collection!

Now to track Rochelle down...

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Shoppies Lippy Lulu

I totally owe you guys a Shibajuku Wave 2 Koe review and I have one of their outfit packs to do, too, but I just got these two things tonight and I'm excited, so I opened them instead.

I'm a minor Shoppies collector. I don't collect Shopkins anymore. I had a very brief run. Although I'll be all over it if they show up in Happy Meal blind bags again. Those were addicting. But anyway, what I mean is that I don't need every Shoppie doll or even one of each character. I buy who I like.

When I found Riana Radio and Kristina Apples from the Happy Places Li'l Shoppie line, I got back into Li'ls just long enough to realize that Lippy Lulu was nowhere to be found. She was the only other one I wanted from the first batch, so I figured I should track her down. I finally found her in Booksamillion and I really like her.

So imagine my surprise in Walmart tonight when I looked up at the top shelf and saw this set!

At first, I actually thought it was the donut girl, because she has the pink hair that kinda frames her face, too. They had two sets and both were shoved at the very back of the top shelf, so when I was able to haul them forward, I saw that this wasn't the donut girl but Lulu!

I had no idea there was a Lulu doll coming out. I thought we'd be finally getting Kirstea and Pirouetta and were otherwise caught up. I was so wrong. (See my previous post on the absolute deluge of new Shoppies items both popping up now and upcoming.)

I am not a playset collector, but this doll was a must have for me. She's only the second Shoppie to be not pale or slightly tanner than pale. (Okay, I don't own Pineapple Lily, but she doesn't look very dark to me, which is why I said that.) Kirstea is the most beautiful doll in the line and I think Lulu is a close second. (My fave is still Sara Sushi, but Kirstea and Lulu are second and third. And fave doesn't always mean prettiest!)

Lulu comes with a lot of stuff for only $19.88! That's really cheap considering these dolls in single packs are almost $15. She's got her VIP card, her stand, her golden brush, two Shopkins (a makeup bag and an eyeshadow case), four smaller lipstick Shopkins, a display in the shape of a lipstick, a chair, and the vanity, which has slots for all four lipsticks and the brush. The little white door also opens for storage.

Seriously, that's a lot for $19.88!

The doll is absolutely beautiful. I love her color scheme. Pink and gold aren't uncommon in playline, but Lulu's shades work really well together. I love her darker pink metallic lipstick, too. Her hair is really awesome. I love the high ponytail braid and the face-framing bangs. Her shoes are glam, while also being very subdued for the Shoppies line, so I like that, too.

Lulu definitely has me very excited to add some more Shoppies to my collection and soon!

If you collect these dolls, which ones do you like best? Which ones of the newbies are you most excited to get?

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

NEWS: Shoppies and Li'l Shoppies

Okay, this post is going to be on big image dump! Bear with me. Lots of pics with just a few words off to the side of each.

So I thought I was doing pretty well with the Shoppies and Li'l Shoppies new stuff, but man, was I wrong!

I still haven't seen either Kirstea or Pirouetta in stores, but I was surprised by a new set I hadn't even heard of at Walmart tonight. I got this Lippy Lulu playset pictured on the left here. I'll be doing a review for it later, but when I looked her up, I saw all these other new ones! I figured I'd organize them all here because I had no clue any of these were coming out.

So I'm going to do a bit of a blend of Shoppies and Li'l Shoppies, since we've got a lot of characters that are actually getting both a big and little doll this time.

This bigger set for the Li'l Shoppies has what I think is the first Peppamint figure.

Also, who's the angel-winged figure on the package? I don't remember that one, but then my memory for these little ones isn't the best.

 











Here's one of the new single-packed Li'ls. Candy Sweets is cute, but she won't be joining my collection. She has no bigger doll coming out now.

Tippy Teapot is adorable as a Li'l, but gorgeous as a big doll. I don't have a photo, but if you look in the completed listings on ebay for Tippy's Tea Party, you'll see her. She's gonna look great with Kirstea!

Cocolette is awesome! I'll definitely be looking for her. All of these little ones are available right now, though I don't think they're on any big store websites yet.

I'm always a fan of brown with pink. I don't know why. I just am!

And even better, Cocolette is getting a big Shoppie! I really want to add her to my collection!

Another newbie is Daisy Petals, who I also adore. I'm a fan of flower themes and she's just darling with her long blonde ringlets, although they don't show as much with the little figure. Heh.

They're on the pretty doll! She's rather normal-looking for Shoppies, which more often than not have unnaturally-colored hair, but I love her anyway.

Polli Polish is the last of the new Li'l Shoppies that I found, although it's possible I missed some.

She's all right. I saw the awesome doll before the figure and the figure just pales in comparison.

See what I mean? Her hair is pretty amazing!

As you can see from the three doll promos, the dolls have a new style of stand which holds not only them but their Shopkins as well. Being that I collect the dolls and rarely display the Shopkins, these are going to take up more room than I'd like, but I'll figure it out.

Cocolette, Polli and Daisy all seem to be out in the UK right now, but I don't think the US yet.

And this is Lucy Smoothie. She's previously had a Li'l Shoppie, but not one I've wanted.

Lucy looks like a regular release, but does not appear to be out with the other three.

As if all that isn't enough, there's also a new side line called Join the Party. Rosie Bloom is one of the characters featured. She's got a Li'l Shoppie that just came out a month or so ago.

Rosie is one of my current Li'l wants, so her doll is an absolute must have.

Again, I love flower themes and I love her colors.

Rainbow Kate makes a reappearance. She's cute, but I prefer the original.

Tiara Sparkles goes from Li'l form into big form with this pretty doll. I like her, but I'm not sure enough to buy.

Bridie is the only Join the Party character that we haven't met before. She's pretty. Kinda got a Jem thing going on.

But...

WHO IS SHE MARRYING?

Ha. There are no boys in Shoppietopia or whatever the name of their place is. Maybe she's just playing dress-up...

Pineapple Lily is making a non-playset appearance, which is nice, though I think this doll is a much weaker design. I may have to shell out for the playset. Argh.

She's still cute, but not as cute to me.

This crazy girl is Pretti Pressie. She's got a cute little bow made of her hair, but she's not really for me.

Lily and Pretti have not been found in stores yet, but the first four have been found in the US. And possibly the Tippy set, too, since it was on ebay!

Anyway, that is a ridiculous number of dolls and Li'ls and I am going to be broke getting all the ones I want. The new Li'ls should be out now and people are finding Join the Party in the US right now. As of now, I only want a few of those, but I may cave when I see them in person! I know I don't need that Rainbow Kate, but Bridie and Tiara...maybe...

I'll have Lulu's review up later!

PHOTO CREDITS: None of these are mine. The majority of the doll images are promos I found via Google. The Li'l Shoppie images come from Amazon. (More promos.) And the boxed Rosie Bloom I found via Google. She looks like another promo shot. (If not and it's yours, please let me know.)

GIVEAWAY: Animators Collection Plush Lilo

I have an extra Lilo, so I thought I'd do a little giveaway!

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment and say who your three favorite Disney characters are.

At the end of a few days, I'll draw a name and that person will be sent this brand new Animators Collection plush Lilo doll!

REVIEW: DC Superhero Girls Plush

Man, it's hard to review plush dolls. Like what do I say about them? They're little and cute. Heh.

We first saw Wondy at SDCC and then the line-up was spotted on Entertainment Earth in the form of rather weird line drawings. They're also quite overpriced there at $19.99 each.

Anyway, we're getting plush of Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Harley Quinn, Katana and Bumblebee.

I was pleasantly surprised a few days ago to learn that the first three (take a guess which three) were already in stock on Toywiz.com.

I bought the trio for $12.99 apiece minus a 5% off coupon and plus shipping. Not too bad though. I'm guessing they'll be about $9.99 in stores, but I can't say for sure.

The plush are about nine inches tall and made from a variety of materials. While they don't have a cheap feel to them, they're not on the quality level of, say, a Disney Store soft doll.

This is the thing that irritates me about Mattel's plush efforts. They're a big name company with a lot of money at their disposal, yet the one thing they never get right is plush dolls. And they're not that hard! The Monster High ones were the weird flat ragdolls originally and then the cuter, but still kinda odd-looking more recent line. Ever After High never got plush. Now DCSG gets them, but for some reason, they left the noses off everyone. Why? It just doesn't seem to really fit with DCSG's look.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I think they're super cute, but look at the soft dolls the Disney Store makes. How hard is it to make a nice plush doll in a nice dress? I would have dropped a lot of money to buy Monster High, Ever After High and DCSG characters made with that level of quality and design.

They're sort of standing up for a size comparison.

I dunno. I just have a hard time as a plushie collector seeing the fairly weak efforts this big company puts forth instead of the quality plush we all know they could give us.

But these are still cute and I'll buy them all.

I would like to know what their current dislike of Poison Ivy is though. She was left out of the minis and she's left out of the plush line. I saw a photo of upcoming DCSG Mash'ems/Fash'ems and she's left out of that, too. Where is Poison Ivy, Mattel? At least she's in the Funko Rock Candy line.

So yeah. Plush are cute. I hope the other three come out soon. But I still think they could be done better.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: DC Superhero Girls Basic Harley Quinn

The initial basic DC Superhero Girls line consisted of Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Batgirl (the clear Big Three of the line). These dolls are essentially large action figures. They lack the articulation of the signature dolls, but can certainly hold up to some heavy play and adventures.

A Walmart exclusive 4-pack containing the first three dolls plus Bumblebee came out a few weeks ago and from what I've seen, did not sell well.

Recently, a Target.com listing for the same Bumblebee from the 4-pack has appeared. She is not available to purchase yet, but she will be coming.

Then reports came in of people finding a Harley basic! Harley is not one of the big three characters, despite being hugely popular, so this is only her second action doll. We've got so many different Wonder Woman, Batgirl and Supergirl dolls and figures that this Harley is a breath of fresh air.

Harley is dressed, so to speak, in an outfit of contrasting red and black sections that is semi-reminiscent of her original costume. She has a lot of blue additions though, unlike the original. This Harley has blue gloves, blue boots and a short blue cape. She has molded diamonds down the sides of her legs.

Harley's mask is secured in the same way as the signature doll's. Her hair has the same streaks, although the hair on my basic doll is done in much bouncier curls than the signature doll's pigtails.

I don't buy a lot of basic dolls or ones that are similar to dolls I already own, especially ones from a line like this that take up a lot of space. But I wanted to support Harley, being a fan of the original version from the cartoon. She's the character I have the most nostalgic attachment to, although Wonder Woman is a close second. I also like anytime they put her in outfits that bear even a slight resemblance to her original costume.

So do I recommend the basic Harley? Not necessarily. I think if you need a Harley doll, you should buy the signature, especially if you want to keep your collection small. But if you are a more hardcore collector of the line, you might want to pick her up to show Mattel that characters other than the Big Three do sell. Then maybe we'll get these basic dolls for other characters, as well as more dolls of other characters in general. She's also a nice addition for any Harley fan.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Regal Academy Joy and Astoria

Regal Academy is a cartoon series done by the same people that produced Winx Club. It debuted last spring in Europe and on Nickelodeon here in the US in August. 

Honestly, I've only watched two episodes. I like it. It's goofy fun. But I can't speak much about the characters or plot yet, because I've barely scratched the surface, so if I get anything wrong, let me know. 

The series is basically Winx meets Ever After High. The main character Rose gets a key that takes her into FairyTale Land, where she learns she's the granddaughter of Cinderella. So unlike EAH, these aren't the sons and daughters, but a step more removed. Rose begins to attend Regal Academy, a school for these fairy tale descendants. Each character has a specific type of magic that they wield using a magic wand.

I had seen stuff about this series, but kept writing it off until I stumbled across the Joy doll on ebay from an Italian seller I've bought from many times. She was so cute with her short, mint green hair and big eyes that I had to have her. I watched a couple eps of the show and decided to purchase Astoria, the granddaughter of Rapunzel, along with her. I wavered between her and Rose for a bit, but ultimately, Astoria won out. (I did just buy Rose tonight though! I'll do a separate review for her once she arrives.)

These dolls are extremely cute and it's nice to see Giochi finally get into the world of articulated bodies. They did a pretty good job. I wish we'd seen these on some of the Winx dolls! 

Joy has short hair that's got what I refer to as "the goth bangs." They come to a point in the middle of her forehead. She also has an angled cut, so her hair is similar to Mal's from Descendants, but the longer pieces are shorter than Mal's. 

Her hair is pretty sparsely-rooted. It does cover her head, but there's not much to work with there.

Joy has big olive green eyes and wears hot pink lipstick. 

Her layered tops are actually only one piece, but I don't really mind. They still look good. She's got a purple crop top with a crowned frog on it (she's got some extremely froggy habits in the show) worn over a green striped longer shirt that tucks under her skirt and there's a short vest over the top. All that is one piece. Then her skirt goes on over her long striped leggings. She has one striped arm warmer, which I had trouble getting off until I realized her arms come apart at the elbows! I didn't expect that from Giochi, so good job on them. 

The body is quite nice. I particularly like the hand shape and the range of motion is decent. 

One thing that I don't care for is the reuse of items from different lines. 

Each of the girls in this signature "Real Friends" line comes with a pair of high heels as well as the shoes they wear in the box. I recognized these heels right away as being from the old Hi-Glamm line. As soon as I undressed Joy, I saw that she wasn't on anything like the Hi-Glamm body so how did the shoes work? 

The answer is they don't. The shoes fit onto Joy's feet fine, but to have both heel and toe flat on the ground like a person would actually stand, Joy has to have her knee bent. And it's a pretty drastic bend, as you can see from this photo. My Hi-Glamm Kit is there to show how these should actually be worn. 

Thankfully, the shoes the girls come wearing are super cute, so I wouldn't even want to use these heels anyway. 

One more thing before we get into clothing exchanges. Look at this expression. Ha! I l love Joy. I love her bangs, but I also kinda wish they were shorter so these brows could be seen. 

So these girls have a thicker body, which means the usual question of MH/EAH is a no. The shoes wouldn't work either, even though Joy's got some big feet, because the angle is all wrong. 

I grabbed the doll nearest to me and put her clothes on Joy. 

That's the dress from Project MC2's basic Ember doll. I even got the shoes on there, but not every pair of shoes will work. Neither of my Adrienne's shoes worked on her, so they have to be more closed in. The dress fits great though. 

I know Descendants are also similar in size, so I grabbed Jewelbilee Mal and gave Joy a dragon dress.

The dress works perfectly, though she has to bend her knees a little to wear the shoes. Not as much as with her own purple heels though!

I'm not a big redresser anymore, especially when the stock outfits are so cute, but it's nice to know these girls do have some options. 

Time for Astoria to take over for a bit. I was a little hesitant to pick the Rapunzel girl for my second doll, because Giochi long hair is not the best. I have the Winx mermaids with their insanely long hair and it frizzes very easily. Astoria's feels nicer though and since it's nicely tied at the end with a ribbon, I'm not going to take that out and brush it. No tempting frizz fate! She is just as sparsely-rooted as Joy, so that's just something to expect from this line. Don't buy them with the intention of restyling their hair, because if you change its position, the scalp may show through. 

Astoria has a different expression than Joy, which suits her quite well. I can't wait to see Rose's eyebrows. She's such a goofy character that I hope she looks at least a little bit funny.

Astoria's eyes are turquoise and her lips are a darker pink than Joy's. 

She wears a top that's also meant to look layered, but it works a little better than Joy's because it's not a vest. Vests that open in the back and aren't real vests throw me off a bit, even though one-piece tops really don't bother me much. The top is actually three different materials, too. The sleeves are different from the rest of the yellow. 

There's Astoria's nice, long hair. She can turn her hair into vines in the show, which is really neat. Kinda wish there was a vine in there somewhere! 

And finally, here's a shot of the girls' kinda useless pair of heels and their brushes. 

Remember I said mentioned the reuse of items from other lines? Well, Hi-Glamm was Giochi's own line, but those brushes are from Hasbro's My Little Pony line from the early 2000s! They were useless on ponies, so they're really gonna be useless on dolls.

Despite the show being on in the US, right now we don't have these dolls. I'm not sure if we're going to be getting any products for the line at all. So the only way to get these is by importing. They cost me more than your average playline doll, obviously, but I think they were worth it. 

I'll be back with more Regal Academy in a couple weeks when Rose arrives. In the meantime, I'm going to watch more episodes of the show! 

Did I mention the Snow White descendant is a boy? That's pretty neat. 

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine!