REVIEW: Enchantimals Hixby Hedgehog and Peeki Parrot

I got these two from a friend, which I'm thankful for, because Hixby sold out at my TRU.

Hixby Hedgehog is the first male Enchantimal! And he's got adorable red glasses.

I mean, honestly, he's kind of what if Dexter Charming was a hedgehog person, but that works in his favor.

Hixby's entire outfit is molded/painted on, except his vest. Probably a wise decision, because I think it looks better that way.

My favorite thing about Hixby is not him, it's his pet. A freakin' hedgehog with tiny glasses. Come on! You gotta love it.

Peeki is prettier than I gave her credit for. I wasn't initially very interested in her, but she fits in very nicely with the peacock and flamingo girls. 

Her little capelet thingy is cute, too. 

And the parrot is also cute, although we do not speak his name here. It's a horrible name. 

My Peeki's eyes seem a little sad and I think it's because Mattel chose a terrible name for her pet. So I'm renaming him Beaky, because Peeki and Beaky, why not?

Once I get more funds, I'll probably pick up Sandella and Preena's playsets, so more Enchantimals to come. Eventually!

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Equestria Girls Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy and Applejack

If you had told me a month ago that Equestria Girls would be making me this excited, I would have laughed.

Well-played, Hasbro. Well-played.

I got lucky and stumbled upon the other 3 current EqG new releases on a day when the dolls are all only $7.49 on ToysRUs.com! I price-matched and brought these three home for $24 and some change.

The box backs have different photos than Sunset's, which is cool. I didn't expect that.

I opened Applejack first, so let's look at her.

Applejack's blonde hair is pulled into a side ponytail that includes the little braided bit, too. I don't really care for this, as it's not her animated hairstyle, so I played around with it.

Her outfit is a white t-shirt with green and white-striped sleeves and a metallic apple on the front. She pairs it with a dark denim skirt with a cute ruffle at the bottom and printed stitching details, a red rubber belt, and brown cowboy boots with a lot of details.

I do think she should have skipped the belt and come with her hat!

I pulled her hair loose and brushed it. It's not quite the same nice, silky quality as Sunset Shimmer's. A bit more dry, especially at the ends. But it's far from horrible.

The one front piece is in a little twist.

I think she looks cute with her hair down. For some reason, she gives me 80s girl series vibes. Think BSC Dawn and the Wakefield twins. I dunno. I'm odd.

The style I ended up with for her mimics her animated hairstyle. It's a ponytail, but tied off very low.

Applejack wears light pink eyeshadow and has the same sass brows as Sunset. Her lipstick is also pink, but a few shades darker. She has a smattering of freckles across her face.

I really love this Applejack doll. AJ's not one of my favorite characters, but I think this doll captures her very well and makes her very appealing.

Fluttershy is kind of a sleeper character for me. She's like Flora from Winx Club. I didn't care for her at first, but over time, she grew to be a favorite. Fluttershy's currently my 3rd favorite on the show, after Twilight and Rarity, who are always tied. Not including Sunset though. She'd knock Fluttershy down to 4th.

Anyway, the Fluttershy doll is gorgeous! Her yellow skin is decidedly pastel, but still bright and matches perfect with her pink hair.

Her eyeshadow blends from yellow to pink and she wears pink lipstick.

I wanted her hair loose, since that's the way the character wears it. As with Sunset, I left the one little lock tied down.

And as with Applejack, the hair quality isn't quite as good as Sunset's. Hers is a little dry at the ends, too. Sunset doesn't have that. I'll be curious to see how the quality is on Rarity and Pinkie, who have curlier, bouncier hair more like Sunset's.

Fluttershy wears a printed dress in a soft greenish-blue shade mixed with white. The straps on the dress are light pink and so is the detailing at the hem. Three pink glitter butterflies are on the right side of the skirt. She wears a pink rubber belt, too.

Fluttershy's shoes are a bit wild. They're basically gladiator sandals made from transparent pink rubber with glitter in it. There are bows at the top of the "laces" and butterflies on the front. The strange thing about them is that they're not wedges, like I expected. They have a very short heel and are meant to be flats, but due to the perma-heel doll feet, she looks fairly unusual perched forever on her toes.

I adore the Fluttershy doll. She's got a little goddess vibe going on with the flowy dress and hair and the sandals. Love it!

Twilight was my original favorite and still is one of my top two. She's one of the dolls I was most looking forward to getting and she doesn't disappoint.

Twilight has purpley-pink skin in a lightish shade. I think she could have been a bit darker, but Applejack seems a bit light, too, so it's not just Twilight.

Her hair is mostly a lovely navy blue blended with black, but it has one streak of purple and one streak of darker pink running through it, including the bangs.

Twilight has pale blue eyeshadow and her lipstick is a similar dark pink to her hair streak and bow.

She wears cute black plastic glasses.

Twilight's dress has a lighter blue sleeveless top with purple zigzag stripes and a white collar made from a vinyl material. The pink plastic bow is like a necklace and slides on under the collar. Her skirt is a stiffer, shinier material that flares out nicely. It's dark purple with her cutie mark print.

Twilight's shoes are wedge loafers over molded socks.

And look, even $9.99 dolls can have prints that run all the way around the dress!

Crazy, right?

Poor Twilight has the worst hair quality of the four dolls I have. It's dry all the way through. Still not horrid though and a million times better than the terrible hair on some of the early Descendants dolls.

I'll try to report back on how these three new girls look once they've had some salon time. I'm planning on bringing all four Equestria Girls with me on vacation this weekend, so I don't want to spend time on their hair now when they'll be travelling in a box not too long from now!

Overall, my love for this line continues. I think the faces are beautiful and capture the characters very well. The quality level for $9.99 (or $7.49 on sale!!!) is really mind-blowing compared to what other companies are doing for the same prices right now.

I'm crossing my fingers that the remaining three will be in TRU on Friday before I go! I'd love to take the whole gang with me, although they're not even on TRU.com yet, so we'll see.

Oh, and I totally forgot. I thought these would have case assortments, but my mom (who's the one that saw and bought them) said there were two cases worth of Twilight (so 12) and one case of each of the others (6 each). It appears they are cased individually by character!

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Equestria Girls Classic Style Sunset Shimmer

In September, we first saw the photo of the new Equestria Girls dolls.

To be completely honest, I wasn't wowed. I thought it odd that they decided to bring the doll line back with less articulation. Not all the original line was articulated, but to compete with some of the still-popular-even-though-they're-dying brands, you might want to consider articulation.

Granted, the clothing looked nice and I liked the sass face on some of the girls (Sunset Shimmer, Rainbow Dash, Applejack). Their faces actually portray their characters better than the first line did. Fluttershy looks gentle, Pinkie's got her grin, etc.

Back of the box. Not that interesting.

As time passed and new doll drought went on, I found myself getting more excited for these girls. I sold off almost all of my original Equestria Girls, planning on getting these and starting fresh. (I think I only kept Zecora, the Dazzlings, Roseluck, Sugarcoat and Indigo Zap.) From the fully plastic figure line, I only kept Sunset Shimmer and Adagio Dazzle (one of the Dazzlings, who I adore).

On November 22nd, someone found Sunset Shimmer in Toys R Us. The next day, she appeared for order on the website. I ordered one and totally overspent on shipping to get her here before I leave for vacation.

Today, Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy and Applejack joined Sunset on TRU.com, but it's too late for me to order more. I did notice while on the site that it now said my store had Sunset. So what did I do? You know what I did.

Yep, despite having her arriving on Tuesday, I ran over there and bought one so I could review her tonight! They only had her, but they got her in pretty fast, so I'm hoping they'll have the other 3 by the end of the week. I can't really afford all 6 of the others right now, so I don't mind waiting for the other case to come in. But I'd love Twilight to join Sunset and go on vacation with me. Maybe Fluttershy and AJ, too.

There were, I believe, six Sunsets hanging from a peg in the MLP section. She is in her own case. The first group case assortment is likely the other three I mentioned: Twilight, Fluttershy and Applejack. Then the second group assortment would be Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.

The price for these girls? Well, that's a HUGE selling point for me. It's only $9.99! The same price as a LOL Surprise ball for an articulated, fully fabric-clothed, rooted-hair doll.

It's an excellent price. I'm so pleased. It's also rather surprising, because this is Hasbro, the makers of the $14.99 basic Descendants, which don't even have the elbow articulation.

Sunset's hair is really silky and nice. No crappy nylon here. It's better than the hair on the older Equestria Girls I still have. There's a braid down the right side and I left the shorter bangs on the left tied down. I don't want them to block her expression, which is awesome. I adore a good sass face.

She has light pink fading to darker pink eyeshadow and a melony pink lipstick that almost matches her skirt.

Sunset's orange T-shirt has her cutie mark on it in glitter. The shirt is slightly off the shoulder. It is sewn to a black, faux leather vest. It's all one piece, but it's a very nicely-detailed piece. The skirt is dark pink and has that strap inside to keep it in place. Her black rubber belt is separate and she has three black rubber bracelets, too. And her boots have a lot of great spikes and details, like flames molded on the heels.

Now bear in mind, this outfit comes on a $9.99 doll. It is multiple pieces, not a single dress with print only on the front. There are actual multiple accessories, too!

The new dolls tower over the old ones. TRU's website describes them as 11 inches, which is probably right if you count the ears.

Sunset does have limited articulation. She's got the standard points: neck, shoulders and hips, plus the elbows. Her arm range is decent, but she can't put her hand on her hip. How I've got it here to the right is as close as she gets. Her leg range is quite limited though. She can only move her legs forward and out to the sides. The molding of the butt is so that they can't go back. It's an odd decision, but eh, $9.99. I still can't complain.

Body-wise, she's way thicker than an MH or EAH doll. She doesn't have the curves of the Descendants, though she does have the wider shoulders and upper body like them. She just doesn't nip in so much at the waist and her boobs are smaller.

I'm not sure if we'll see more articulated versions of these girls or not. This first line is called "Classic Style," so I'm certain we'll get more in new outfits, but I could also see a deluxe line with increased articulation.

Sunset's arms did not pop out for redressing, but it wasn't difficult, even with her separate fingers.

So what can she wear?

Ally's dress works pretty well on her, though the top is a bit loose. A lot of Descendants pieces would likely work.

Back to School Holly's dress surprisingly fit quite well! It is a little bit looser on top than some EAH pieces though, so EAH and MH would be on a piece by piece basis.

Despite the longer legs and more muscular bodies, DC Superhero Girls Starfire's Masquerade dress looks really awesome on Sunset! The top is a little loose, but not bad at all. I don't think a lot of DCSG stuff would work, but some pieces would.

So what about shoes?

I grabbed the right foot on all these, before realized that was stupid, so yeah, she's got two right shoes on here. But it still shows the point well enough!

Here on the left are shoes from the original Equestria Girls line. They actually had wider feet than these new versions, despite being a lot shorter.

Anything open-toed will be loose, but Sugarcoat boot fits pretty well on Sunset.

Descendants is the same: boots are a yes, shoes not so much. They're a bit too wide.

Monster High and Ever After High are both a good fit.

Holly had better watch it, because Sunset loves these boots!

So those are all the pics I took. If there's something else you want to see, please let me know.

I think these dolls are surprisingly awesome. Like I said before, I was not initially wowed, but they did grow on me, because I think they capture the animation quite well. They're more attractive than the original line, face-wise. Add to that good hair and nicely-detailed outfit pieces,  plus a fabulousy low price and I am impressed!

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: FlipZee Trolls Winter Wonder doll

I saw the FlipZee Girls once at the farther Walmart and managed to resist, but when I saw this cute troll face staring at me in my local Walmart, I struggled. I love troll stuff and her Twyla-esque color scheme appealed to me a lot. So I took her to the price scanner.

Ten bucks?! Sold.

Being an 80s kid, Popples were one of my things growing up. I only had two small ones (Pretty Bit and Potato Chip) and one Pocket Popple (Party), but I loved them and played with my friends' collections, too.

FlipZees are a little like Popples, only instead of tucking into a pouch, they go from baby, as seen in the photo on the right here, to a "big girl."

The baby's hat flip out to become the troll's hair and the body (which does have two arms and tiny purple feet) flips put to become the big girl's longer arms and legs.

The materials are pretty nice. The bigger doll's arms and legs are stuffed quite thinly and they're made of the same sleeker material as the doll's face, but they can't be too pudgy or they wouldn't fit inside the pouch.

I wouldn't buy a ton of these and certainly not at the regular price of almost $20, but I might get one of the non-troll girls eventually so Winter Wonder here has a friend. It's a cute concept and pretty well-executed.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Barbie Fashionistas Glam Boho #85

I've been wanting this girl for ages, but after my debacle with pre-ordering from Mattel Shop, I refused to get her from there.

I kept checking the stores, but nowhere around me carries these ones with the extra clothes. My mom asked me a few days ago what she looked like and when I went to find a real photo of a boxed one on ebay, I turned up a Target listing for her! I bought two to help ensure I'd get one with a good face. Both of them were fine, but I liked one a smidge better than the other.

This one in the box here is the one I did not open.

And here's my girl that I did open!

I'm so pleased with her. I honestly think she's my favorite out of all the Fashionistas they've done yet.

The only complaint about the doll herself that I can come up with is that her skintone is a bit orange and her head looks a little more orangey than the rest of her. But she's so cute, I don't even care.

Her curls were a little dry from box hair, but I just finger-combed them and they're awesome. I love the little braids surrounding her face.

Also super love the freckles! Freckles on darker-skinned dolls are always fab.

For once, she got some good outfits. The Fashionista outfits are so often hideous. But she did well enough that I actually struggled deciding what she should wear. I have her in the yellow dress for now, but that romper is likely coming back out soon. I hate rompers, too, because adults aren't toddlers, so that just shows how much I like the cut and print of the piece.

Oh, for the fabric picky, the yellow lace is only on the front of the dress. The back is solid yellow fabric. The sleeves are all lace though.

I do wish she came with a second pair of shoes. The white heels look nice with the yellow dress, but the romper needs black. I would have rather had a pair of black shoes than the boring purse. I mean, it's an okay purse, but I have so many purses and the majority are better than that.

Definitely one of the best Fashionistas ever, I think. She might be the only one to ever hang out on my coffee table, which is the place for the most special dolls!

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Enchantimals Sancha Squirrel

I picked up Sancha on Amazon after realizing that she probably wasn't going to be in the same case as Cherish, Peeki and Hixby. I figured the higher $11.63 price was going to be worth it to have her and not wonder when and where she was going to show up.

Sancha is kind of like Karina Koala. When you think of a koala, you think gray. Yet Karina's very light gray skin is overshadowed by her giant pink pigtails. When you think of a squirrel, I bet most of you think of a gray squirrel. Well, Sancha is not gray. So once again we've got a gray animal that Mattel for some reason decided to make another color.

Karina got saddled with the neon pink hair, which don't get me wrong, I actually love on her, but still. And now Sancha's repping red squirrels instead of gray. Why you scared of gray, Mattel? Animals are gray. At least the elephant girl is gray, albeit like Karina with very bright-colored distracting hair. But the dolphin is blue!

Anyway.

Sancha's pretty spot on for a red squirrel, except for the pink and purple hair, of course.

Her coppery skin is gorgeous and her little friend Stumper is perfect with the white chest. I only wish they'd gone all out on the ears and given them both the long ear tufts.

Like Karina, Sancha's odd-colored hair actually works on her. She uses the same pretty shade of purple as Danessa Deer, along with an underlayer of pink.

Her bright pink shoes are a nice shade, too, and the detailing on her outfit is pretty.

There's her hair from the back. I honestly thought she was pink-haired when we first saw her promo pic. I didn't notice the little bit of lavender on the top of her head. Then when the Amazon listing came out, there are angles where you can see the purple better.

Stumper. He's adorable.

I like Sancha a lot. I love copper tones, so I was always going to like that part of her, but it works surprisingly well with the pastels.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Enchantimals Cherish Cheetah

The newest trio of Mattel's Enchantimals singles are starting to show up in Toys R Us stores and on their website for $8.99, as well as the playset for Preena Penguin for $24.99. Amazon has the trio and Preena, plus Sandella Seahorse's playset and the fourth basic character, Sancha Squirrel. Unfortunately, Amazon's got some higher prices. The singles are an odd cost of $11.63 apiece when they're in stock (which only Sancha is as I'm writing this), while the playsets are a much better $25.99.

I decided to wait on better prices for the singles when they first came out, alongside all the EAH and DCSG releases not long ago. I did buy Sancha though, because her not being included with the TRU.com releases made me think she might be harder to find in stores. A friend picked me up Hixby Hedgehog and Peeki Parrot, so I'll have those reviews coming up, and that told me they were starting to show in TRU.

My mom popped in there tonight after work and they had Peeki, who I didn't need, and Cherish Cheetah, who I did need. So here she is, the last purchased and the first reviewed.

I love cheetahs thanks to Cheetara from the 80s Thundercats cartoon. Cherish...doesn't look like a cheetah. They're decidedly not orange and their spots are black and solid, not brown and more open like Cherish's.

Where the orange and brown for her comes from, I do not know at all. They got the facial markings right on her pet friend, but not on her. And the pet has leopard spots, not cheetah.

So yeah, they're kind of a mess.

If you remove the cheetah aspect though, she's a very pretty doll. I really love her color scheme with the oranges and browns and pops of pink on the outfit.

I guess I'm going to need a rule for Enchantimals that says "Don't expect them all to look even remotely like the animals they're named after."

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: DC Superhero Girls Masquerade Harley Quinn and Starfire

All righty, saved the best for last.

While I didn't like the Masquerade Wonder Woman SDCC reveal, I was fond of Starfire and I LOVED Harley.

I opened Harley and Starfire today and they've almost convinced me to get Wondy just to complete the set. They're that good.

Harley obviously was made for this line.

I don't mind the molded red and black legs, because I never do. The dress is a nice mix of materials and I love the plastic jester collar. Even if you clip the plastic band holding it on in the box, it stays in place nicely.

Her hair is up in its usual two pigtails, but there are short bits of hair, where her color streaks are, that curl forward to resemble buns.

They are not buns.

It's just like Cleo's hair wasn't a true updo. This is apparently a new Mattel trick and we're probably going to see it more.

Harley can hold her mask easily in her hands. It was a bit of a pain to get this shot, but it did work eventually.

I wish the mask had some painted detail like Starfire, but Harley's got painted shoes and Starfire doesn't. Although Starfire does have painted gauntlets and a belt, so yeah, paint on Harley's pieces would have been nice, too.

Underneath the collar are blue straps holding up the dress. I think it's a nice pop of blue, even if it is mostly hidden.

Her shoes are pretty cute!

I think this is my fave Harley Mattel's done yet for the line, although the 18" Jakks one is likely to be my forever fave.

I was not initially thrilled to see Starfire in this line. She has a sig doll, which repeats itself in a pack with her sister, plus an Intergalactic Games doll and now this? (Plus an upcoming basic.) She's got more dolls than some of the main cast.

However, as usual, Starfire won me over with her beauty.

She's easily the prettiest Starfire doll yet.

Her outfit is gorgeous. It's a simple dress, but the colors and material choices make it really lovely.

The necklace is cute, though I'm tired of the gauntlets and belt.

The dress, necklace, purse and shoes make up for the reuse though, I think.

Her hair is in a simple twist with one loose curl on the opposite side. Very pretty!

Have I mentioned I love these colors? I just love the mix of them.

 

Unlike Harley though, Starfire struggles with her mask. Her doll has a flat left hand, so she can't hold the mask properly. I had to stick it on her right hand and then balance it to pull off this shot, which isn't the best. 

But hey, the mask is really super cool. 

Awesome purple flame shoes are awesome. 

So yeah, big fan of these two dolls. These are my faves that I bought from my six. But I kinda knew they would be! I just wish we had some other characters here. Harley deserves to be here and Starfire is so gorgeous that she earns her spot, but Wondy? No. Bumblebee and Katana should have been in this line. 

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.