REVIEW: Shibajuku Girls Shiba-cutie Yoko

I've honestly not been into the Shibajuku Girls recently and I was not impressed with the first batch of Shiba-cuties. Just as the regular dolls are certainly heavily inspired by Pullips, these clearly are inspired by Little Pullips.

The initial group of mini dolls had one each for Shizuka (blonde), Koe (also blonde), Suki (pink hair), Namika (brunette), Yoko (half lavender, half mint), and Miki (white with black streaks).

I almost bought Namika, but her outfit seemed pretty cheap. Then I almost bought Yoko, but didn't. I don't remember noticing Miki. I'm a sucker for white hair, so I think I would have bought her if I'd noticed her then, so somehow she escaped me.

Both sets of dolls are on the back of the box.

Top row: 2nd Shizuka, 1st Miki, 2nd Koe, 1st Yoko

2nd row: 1st Koe, 1st Namika, 1st Shizuka, 1st Suki

3rd row: 2nd Miki, 2nd Yoko, 2nd Namika, 2nd Suki

The hair colors got better with the 2nd series. Koe's blonde again and Suki kept her pink, so that's dull, but Miki got coral hair, Yoko half white and half black, Namika blue, and Shizuka has mint, pink, yellow and blonde, I think.

Being a sucker for black and white, I decided to finally give one of these a shot and bought 2nd edition Yoko. 

She was $9.99 on Amazon and arrived today. 

The size is decent on these and the quality is a bit better than I expected. Her hair is pretty nice. The outfit's on the cheap side, but definitely better than others in the line. 

Yoko is articulated at the neck, shoulders and hips, but also at the knees. Every doll in this line has lower legs molded in a specific color to represent socks with shoes. 

All the dolls have pigtails on the back of the box, but it was easy to brush Yoko's hair out of them. 

She has glitter makeup and actual eyelashes.

While obviously not the quality level of the big dolls, the Shiba-cuties actually are not half bad. I have to admit, I'm impressed. I don't plan on buying a lot of them, but I'll pick up the white-haired Miki and maybe a couple others, too. 

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Regal Academy LingLing Iron Fan

I learned about the LingLing doll from a friend, who then hooked me up with an Italian website where I could actually buy her. Definitely using that site again in the future if I want any Italian dolls. It was easy and she got here fast, even though I'm not too big on DHL, but everything worked out perfectly.

LingLing was added to the Giochi Preziosi Regal Academy line recently. I honestly have not seen any of her episodes yet. I have vowed to catch up on at least 2 shows while on vacation and Regal Academy is one I'm planning on tackling.

From what I've read, LingLing is a warrior character, who's a bit socially inept.

In true Rainbow fashion, the Asian character has blue hair. LingLing shares the same dark yet bright blue as Winx Club's Musa.

I love the Giochi Regal Academy dolls. They've got great articulation and the hands are cute. The worst thing is that due to how they're packaged, they don't stand very well. Their lower legs tend to get warped, so they have to stand with their ankles crossed.

LingLing has really nice hair. It's soft and silky, which I know I say a lot about good doll hair!

I love the color, too. I always loved it on Musa, although I do wish they'd never lengthened her hair.

LingLing's eyes are a yellowish olive green like Joy's.

She wears a dress with a pink top, black waistband and light blue skirt. That's all one piece and it's worn over a separate pair of pink pants.

The clothing quality is decent. The materials used are a bit basic, but not bad.

LingLing's shoes are the same mold as Astoria's, only they're pale pink and black.

I love the faces on these girls. They're very simple, but beautiful.

I think Joy is still my favorite of the dolls, but LingLing is a close second. They look cute standing together and I've added both to my coffee table display of favorite dolls. Joy, Astoria and Rose had been there for quite awhile, but were replaced a few months ago.

If you want LingLing, I believe this is the only way to get her. When I spoke with the employee at Alpha, she told me they had no plans to make LingLing. I haven't seen either of the boy sets available anywhere yet either, so I'm hoping we still get those, but as for LingLing, at the moment, she's Giochi only.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

NEWS: Enchantimals

Thanks to this fabulous website, we have some new Enchantimals to look at! Pics aren't great, but they're better than nothing.

http://www.familienshopping24.de/

I'll start with the ones we've seen already.

PREENA PENGUIN:

SANCHA SQUIRREL:

Now we know her name.

STARLING STARFISH AND CAMEO CRAB:

Okay, I still prefer my name of Crabigail and I'll probably call her that, but Cameo is pretty, too.

COLOR CHANGE SEA GIRLS:

Jellyfish. AWESOME. Clown fish. Cute. Dolphin. Pretty. Their hair color changes.

SAFFI SWAN:

The tiger and wolf don't have names yet that I know of.

My favorite, of course, is Cameo Crab, but the tiger and jellyfish are right behind!

REVIEW: Gorjuss Ladybird Doll

I got a little sidetracked with bears and haven't bought a Gorjuss in awhile, but I finally ordered Ladybird last week. She's actually the one I'd wanted before Ruby, but Ruby was a great price and in stock at the time, whereas I had to wait for Ladybird to come back in. 

I got her from Amazon UK, as usual, and they shipped via UPS I-Parcel to USPS this time and it was faster than the previous DHL to USPS service.

Ladybird has got lovely dark brown wavy hair held back with a black ribbon headband that sports a large plum bow with white polka dots.

Her dress is a shiny, rich magenta over the same polka-dotted plum material as her bow. Her collar and a bow at the waist are also that material. The short sleeves are edged in tiny black hearts and a single black heart button is on her chest. 

Under the dress is a black mesh petticoat, which helps the skirt of the dress stand out a bit more, as the petticoat is pretty stiff. 

She also has magenta panties that match her dress material, black and white-striped knee socks, and pink mary janes a few shades lighter than her dress. 

I think her shoes should have been a bit darker. That's the only thing I can say bad about her. 

Her little bag is a soft, faux suede and has two ladybugs on it. It opens at the top and she holds it by a thin plastic band like the other Gorjuss dolls with smaller bags have. 

If you choose to adopt Ladybird, you can expect some staining. Mine has a black stain at her waist from the petticoat and a pink one from the panties. There are also stains on her shoulders from the dress armholes. 

I wish staining was something that could be stopped, but unfortunately, that hasn't been mastered yet. I'm used to it from Pullips and Tonner dolls. The more expensive dolls are definitely more prone to it! But I don't buy Gorjuss dolls to redress, so no one's ever going to see her stains as I don't plan on ever taking off her outfit. 

So in short, yet another lovely Gorjuss doll. That makes five in my collection now. Just three to go! I hope to get Pretend Friend (yellow dress) next, then On Top of the World (green dress). There's a new one in orange, but she doesn't seem readily available yet. I hope Amazon UK gets her in. And once I've gotten all those, well, I'm thinking about White Rabbit, too. I may as well get them all!

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Descendants 2 Royal Fashions Mal

I've been waiting ages to see if this doll was ever going to come out. She's been on Target's website for quite some time. I stopped checking her listing weeks ago, so I'm not sure when she first became available, but my store got 4 in and I picked her up a couple nights ago. 

I like this version of blonde Mal better than the one with switcheroo blonde to purple hair, but...that's not really saying much, because I hate the other doll. 

This doll is a Target exclusive. Obviously from the sticker on her box. And she costs $24.99. 

And she's not worth it. 

Now I thought Descendants went consistently up in quality. The other Descendants 2 dolls are pretty great overall, especially the Cotillion Mal and Uma. But one thing that changed instantly after the first set of dolls from the first movie is the hair quality. Evie in particular had some truly nasty hair in that first set. I'd thought we'd seen the last of it.

I was wrong. 

This Mal has that terrible dry nylon hair back again. I didn't take a photo of her back, but you can see even from the front that the purple part hangs longer. I guess that's meant to resemble the purple tips she should have had, but it does not work and instead just looks cheap. 

So her hair both feels and looks bad. 

The makeup is fine and the white dress is nice. The earrings, necklace and particularly the flower bracelet are very nice pieces. Amusing, because I think that's Audrey's signature bracelet and I know those are her shoes. So Mal really looks Auradoned out. 

The blue outfit is nice and Ally models it well. My problem with it is that for $24.99, that skirt shouldn't be held together with only one tiny piece of velcro. It's another thing that looks cheap about this set. 

Those are Ally's shoes, too. I didn't put the gold ones that actually came with Mal (see boxed photo) on her, because I knew the blue would look better. 

I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I just couldn't get excited about this once I opened the package and felt Mal's hair and saw how the skirt was a glorified beach wrap. 

I recommend skipping it unless you are a die-hard Descendants fan who really, really wants these specific pieces for some reason. I would never have bought it if I knew about her hair.

PHOTO CREDITS: Sadly, mine.

NEWS: DC Superhero Girls

A giant 36" My Size Supergirl is showing up on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/DC-Super-Hero-Girls-Supergirl/dp/B01NAIAR6B/

So biiiiiiiiiiiiiig.

NEWS: Enchantimals

Finally, a pic of these that I can post because it's a stock image!

Peeki Parrot

As yet unnamed squirrel

Hixby Hedgehog

Cherish Cheetah

The squirrel is really pretty. Hixby might be my fave though. His pet has TINY GLASSES. I mean, you kinda have me at glasses anyway, but tiny pet glasses? EXTRA sold.

SOURCE:
http://shop.rodeschini.it/acquista-articolo-on-line/33923/giocattoli/bambole-e-accessori/bambole-e-accessori-bambola/enchantimals-bambola-amico-tv?scroll=584

NEWS: Enchantimals

Toys R Us Canada added short videos of new Enchantimals products to their Youtube channel. The videos are just a compilation of promo photos from what I can tell, but we get to see some great new characters.

PEEKI PARROT:

Anyone following Enchantimals news closely has seen Peeki already. She, Hixby Hedgehog and Cherish Cheetah were found in a random NYC store. Peeki is one of the new single-packed characters.

PREENA PENGUIN:

The ice cream truck with Preena Penguin and Jayla.

STARLING STARFISH:

Starling is one of the newbies. She's a bit lackluster, but dang, that starfish is ADORABLE.

EKATERINA ELEPHANT:

Love this girl and the elephant pet. Her giant ears. Hee!

ZELENA ZEBRA:

Hands down my fave of the new releases. I mean, obviously.

I wonder when we'll be seeing these in stores. I'm thinking before the holidays for sure.

NEWS: DC Superhero Girls

Ladies and gents, big news tonight! We are FINALLY getting a 12" Hawkgirl action doll!

https://www.amazon.com/DC-Super-Hero-Girls-Hawkgirl/dp/B073W3DMRY

Aside from Beast Boy, Hawkgirl was the only character in action figure form that did not have a matching 12" doll. She was the main character rumored to be this past July's SDCC doll, although we ended up getting Cheetah instead.

Well, now here she is!

Credit for the find goes to darth-alinart on Tumblr, absolute master of finding new items.

I'm not sure when we'll be seeing her. Cheetah is getting a signature release, too, and an action figure, but neither of those have surfaced on Amazon that I know of.

Walmart does have the doll though:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/DC-Super-Hero-Girls-Cheetah-Fashion-Doll/750123656

Not in stock, of course, or that would have been way bigger news.

It is possible Hawkgirl could be the new Amazon exclusive, like the signature Katana they did earlier this year.

I adore the doll's face and hair. She's stunning!

Although I can see some complaints already about her torso being yellow plastic. They've never done this before on a regular-line DCSG doll, so I'm thinking the giant wings have something to do with it. Perhaps it's a design issue or as simple as cost-cutting. She does have giant plastic wings, a mask, a belt and a harness, plus boots and gauntlets. That's a lot of molded plastic pieces for one doll.

I do hope her wings are stable. My biggest complaint about the Monster High Garden Ghouls dolls is that their wings come off at the drop of a hat. Hawkgirl needs more stability than that.

I'm absolutely thrilled to see a new doll for this line. The only prospects we've had so far are signature Cheetah and her figure and the semi-lackluster Masquerade line. I hope we get an action figure Frost, too. She's the only one with a doll and no figure, aside from Blackfire, who I don't count as part of the regular line.

SO EXCITED.

PHOTO CREDITS: Amazon

REVIEW: DC Superhero Girls 18" Harley Quinn

Harley was supposed to arrive last week, but just vanished for several days with no tracking update. I was all set to call TRU's customer service when I got home from work today, but this morning, she arrived at the post office.

Weird, but then, it is FedEx "Smart"post. Sigh.

Harley is my first look at the DCSG 18" doll line. My Walmart has the toddlers and so does Walgreens of all places. And Ross actually. I almost gave in and got Wondy and Batgirl for $14.99 but showed some resolve for once and left them there. But TRU has neither toddlers nor their own exclusive of the 18" dolls.

So yeah, the box is huge.

Okay, for all of you that own or have at least seen the other 4 dolls, are they all this great or does Harley just blow them out of the water? Because she is AMAZING. She might actually be my favorite DCSG doll to date.

I should mention that Jakks Pacific did these dolls, not Mattel, although of course the designs are Mattel.

Anyway, back to Harley.

The most obvious awesome thing about her is that she FINALLY has the right hair. The bangs aren't the exact shape of the animated character's but they're close enough to make me happy.

The sticking point for most people on the original Harley doll is that her legs are red and black plastic.

Well, the sticking point for me is that she lacks bangs. I actually prefer the 6" figure because she at least looks like the character design.

And now, so does this doll.

Her hair is super soft and silky. I love that it curls nicely and doesn't lay lank like my original doll's.

She actually looks even cuter with the mask off, but I'm leaving mine on, because it's Harley. For now anyway!

This doll is just so adorable. I love her. She's my favorite Harley thing in my little collection.

Her outfit is well-made and all individual pieces.

My only real complaint is about the sleeves. I hate sleeves like that by velcro, because I almost always snag them, even when I'm trying to be careful.

Also, be prepared to wear black glitter. She sheds.

The back of the shirt is white. Nitpickers and naysayers will probably have something to say about that, but then again, don't they always?

The belt is sewn to the front of the shorts, but that's easily removable. I left mine sewn for the time being.

Her mask actually has normal straps, not like a pair of glasses. It also is held on by clear plastic bands, so I'm leaving it like that.

Her body looks good and is nicely articulated at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees and mid-torso. She's a kind of odd combination of lightweight and sturdy. She doesn't weigh a ton like some of my Tonner dolls, but she still feels sturdy regardless.

Her shirt is held in place by a clear plastic band, so it's like a bodysuit, but not. I adjusted the placement when I redressed her, because mine was crooked, as you can see in the pics up there.

Everything was easy to take off and put back on, except for the velcro meets fragile sleeves thing I mentioned before.

Her mallet fits in her hand perfect, unlike the rather awkward mallet from the original doll.

Overall, this doll blows the original away, poor thing. You can see the difference here.

I mean, yeah, she's a $35 doll vs. a $20 doll, but still. I will never understand why they left the bangs off the first one. It's such a simple thing and it would have made her so much better.

As if it wasn't already obvious, I completely adore this doll. So are the other four worth getting? They're not exactly cheap and I can't pick them out in person, so I want to know if they're worth the risk of ordering online.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Shoppies World Vacation Rosa Piñata

Rosa was the only one I was really excited for from the Americas wave and I ordered her on ToysRUs.com.

She arrived today packaged in a large bubble envelope. You know, I expect that kind of nonsense from Amazon, but this is a first for TRU. Not good, guys. Thankfully, the doll was fine.

Rosa is stunning! I absolutely adore her. My only complaint is that I wish she was as dark as her art. She has the lovely skintone I refer to as the "Nevra," which is a fave of mine, but the art is sooooooo pretty.

See? Super pretty.

It's actually the first box art I've clipped in awhile.


Rosa is traveling in Mexico, but also seems to be Mexican herself, so I assume she's just checking out a different city.

Let's move on from me babbling and look at the doll.

I can see myself gushing over this one for quite awhile!

I have two different groups of favorite Shoppies. The first group are my favorites and the second group are the ones I think are the prettiest, but may not necessarily be as favorite as others, even ones they're prettier than. If that makes sense.

My favorite Shoppies right now are both Sara Sushis and Marsha Mello.

The ones I think are the prettiest are Kirstea, Macy Macaron and Lippy Lulu.

Rosa Piñata is in both groups. I think she's the prettiest of them all. Even prettier than Kirstea, who's held that title since her release. But she also takes the #4 spot on my favorites list, right behind Marsha.

Rosa is a delightful color bomb. She has lovely purple and blue hair, both shades I love, and an outfit in white, red, yellow, blue and orange. I love her bold colors! Her makeup is gorgeous and she has pretty lipstick, too.

Everything about her is just wonderful.

Her hair is in silky fabulous ringlets. Shoppies is really the one line that consistently nails ringlets.

Rosa's got the heaviest headband of any of my girls, so she's a little top heavy. I've got Spaghetti Sue behind her with her hand up, so she's helping support her!

Not the best pic, but her shoes have tiny
piñata heels! SO CUTE.

And here's all her stuff: suitcase, passport, art tag and Shopkins. The Shopkins are a cupcake and a piece of candy.

I absolutely love this girl. I've got mixed feelings about this year's Shoppies overall (too much pink), but they've had a few that just really knocked it out of the park. For Europe, it was Macy, although Sue is no slouch. For Asia, it was Sara and now for the Americas, it's Rosa.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

MONTH IN REVIEW: September 2017

I started out September with a new Gorjuss doll: Toadstools. She was my first import purchase from Amazon UK but not my last.

I got into Pikmi Pops early in the month and still pick them up on occasion. I need the guinea pig and caterpillar!

Then after a couple misfires, my giant Descendants 2 Mal arrived. I reviewed her here, so no photo.

I had bought Elephant at Kohl's in August and got Piggie in early September. I wanted Knuffle Bunny, too, and he'd been sold out, but when I went in for Piggie, he was there.

A little odd-looking, but I like him.

The rest of my GlitterShine dragons made it here on the 4th. I always meant to share them here, but they ended up in my Flickr instead. I've been really lazy this month with reviews and I'm not even sure why. A lot of other stuff going on, I guess.

There's Sea Sparkle, the mermaid dragon. How many mermaid dragon toys exist? Probably not many.

After Target failing, I ordered Pharrah and the single-pack Sandy off ebay. Now of course, both are in my store as well as the Cleo family pack, but I have no regrets.

Walmart is the only store in the area with the other family sets, so I finally got the Wolfs. I love Barker! They really nailed the boys. Lux and Barker are my two favorite family members, although Fangelica is cute, too.

Toys R Us got in the LOL little sisters wave 2, so I started buying them. I'm still picking them up randomly.

Then I bought a really cute, eco-friendly doll from Magic Cabin.

Her name is Iris. I definitely plan on getting the other two girls from this line eventually. Their faces are just darling.

I got into the Glimmies and bought more than I expected once I realized how well they lit up a room. I was ready for any power outages from hurricanes, but thankfully, we had none.

Although with Nate heading sorta this way and almost two months left of hurricane season, they may be needed yet!

I also got into Ty briefly, because Halloween is my love.

I bought Merlin the black dragon at Walgreens, then went back for Seeker, the little orange reaper. I've had Treats, the one in black, for awhile. Cinder was a surprise find at JoAnn's.

Then I got my Regal Academy package, which you guys saw the reviews for.

One of the only things I let myself order during the Irma scare was four of the Care Bears surprise plush from Hollar. I did quite well, getting my favorite (Tenderheart) and my fourth and fifth faves (Friend and Wish). I need to order more eventually, as I'd love Grumpy and Good Luck.

Miss Midnight became my first Wave 2 LOL big sister, because my Target continually did not get them in. I decided to get Midnight and Miss Punk, my two faves, from Facebook collector groups and then wait on the others.

Then came Nanea, Gorjuss Ruby and the Spirit Riding Free dolls, all of which I've reviewed.

The Enchantimals plush line came out, though my TRU doesn't have them yet. I was naughty and overpaid for Scarla on ebay.

She's adorable! I want the other three a lot, but I'm trying not to overpay these days.

On the 26th, the first ever US QVC Charlie Bears show aired. I made my purchases and the first arrived the day before my birthday.

McKinley the polar bear is the American exclusive of 1500 pieces. He sold out quickly and I've seen some not so nice behavior involving envious international collectors on the Facebook groups.

Kerri the panda also arrived that day, then the waiting began for Kiri the cheetah cub.

I'm including her here, even though she didn't arrive until October, because she was purchased in September.

It's going to be Charlie Bears time here for awhile. I have two pre-orders coming to my stockist in a couple days, plus another new arrival that should have been here today and better be here tomorrow! She's an older bear I picked up from ebay. But I've got my eyes on more bears than dolls right now, although I do have two doll reviews upcoming.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.