REVIEW: Shibajuku Girls Wave 3 Koe

This doll, man.

I got Yoko from Wave 3 at the end of DECEMBER. It is now MAY.

This lovely lavender-haired Koe never showed up in my area. I never saw her on Amazon or ebay, so I finally got lucky enough that a friend found her for me, and she arrived today. The only ones my Targets ever got were 3 of the mint-haired Yoko and 1 of the blonde sporty Miki. Shibajuku Girls has never had good distribution.

Koe is quite a strong addition to the Shibajuku line. I tweaked a lot about the Wave 1 dolls and made some adjustments to Wave 2, but Wave 3's been pretty spot-on, at least with the 2 that I like.

Koe's hair is good quality and a blend of lavender and white. Part of it is up in adorable little buns.

Her white shirt has a kitty on it, as well as cute pink paws prints on the collar. I like how it's not just a plain t-shirt, but one with a collar and 3/4 sleeves. That goes nicely with the cartoon kitty picture.

Her skirt is a simple lavender affair and her white socks have the pink paw prints like the collar. Her sneakers are a nice lavender.

I think this is easily the best Koe of the three released, although I do like both the Wave 1 blonde and the Wave 2 blue-haired version. There's just something about this one that's super cute.

I don't care for any of her barrettes, but honestly, they'd take away from those adorable buns, whether it's the point of the line or no.

Koe is annoyingly hard to find or at least she was for me, so grab her if you see her!

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

(P)REVIEW: Shoppies Summer Peaches

My second Season 10 Shoppie from ebay arrived today. Lolita Pops and Pommie both sold quickly after I bought Jascenta, but poor Summer Peaches went unsold. When she was relisted, I had made some sales and had some more spare fun money, so I made an offer and got her for a cheaper price. I think she's super cute, so thanks to all those people who passed her over!

Summer is shown here with her Shopkin, Sweetie le Peach. That's the best photo I could get of her. My camera was just refusing to focus on something so tiny tonight.

Summer has wavy peach hair that's pretty nice. It's better than a lot of the other Shoppies', but not as nice as Jascenta's. (To be fair to Summer, most Shoppies don't have hair as nice as Jascenta's!)

Her entire look is in shades of peach, mint green and white. She has cute tiny peaches in her eyes and a peach on each cheek.

Her little skirt is quite poofy. Her left arm is actually keeping it held down.

I love the details on her leggings, bracelet and shoes.

Here's Summer with Jascenta. Summer is my darkest-skinned Shoppie. I love her skintone with her color scheme.

I'm definitely looking forward to this season hitting stores. I really want Pommie now! (And Lolita, although much less than Pommie. She's my least fave of the four.)

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

(P)REVIEW: Shoppies Jascenta

I got this Jascenta from an ebay seller who had all four of the Season 10 girls shown at Toy Fair. Apparently, she got her from a friend overseas, so I'm thinking factory rejects like what shows up on Taobao. None of the four were boxed, though a backcard was pictured with them. I'm not sure if the final versions will have the combs shown with the Toy Fair ones or not, but this one does not. (Which makes sense considering its possible origin.)

Jascenta is my favorite Li'l Shoppie, so when I saw she was getting a full-sized doll, I was thrilled. I'm even more thrilled to have her in hand, because she is GORGEOUS.

I'm calling this a preview instead of a review, since this is not definitely the final product.

Jascenta's pale blue hair is finely textured, which was a very pleasant surprise. I love how it feels and it swoops out from her head so perfectly. Obviously, the doll with rooted hair was not going to have hair anything like the Li'l version but this is a nice alternative. Part of it is pulled up in a little loop, reminiscent of the Li'l Shoppie's.

Jascenta's top is blue with pink and pearly blue accents. She's got a perfume bottle on the front and a giant pink bow around her neck like a choker. I love the bow touch. It's quite elegant. Her short skirt has a perfume bottle print.

Her legs are pale pink and have molded swirls and sparkles on them. Her shoes are transparent pale blue with perfume bottle heels.

Jascenta's headband is a giant pink bow with a blue perfume bottle in the middle. I'm leaving it strapped down for now. I plan on buying another Jascenta when she hits stores, so I'll probably undo that one's headband.

Everything on her face is blue. Blue eyes and eyebrows. Blue lips. Blue eyeshadow. Blue sparkles by her eyes.

Jascenta comes with a stand and this cute little perfume bottle Shopkin. According to the back of the box, this is Peyton Perfume.

Jascenta is definitely my new favorite Shoppie! There's just something about her, the same as with her Li'l version.

I've got Summer Peaches coming, so stay tuned for a preview of her in a couple days.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Incredibles 2 Violet Doll

I ordered the new Incredibles 2 Violet doll on Amazon and she arrived today.

I haven't seen this movie in eons, but I remember loving Violet. Except for her taste in clothes at the end. Heh. I did have her original doll from the Disney Store, but this new one is far prettier.

Violet is quite poseable, as she should be.

She comes with a one-piece superhero costume, a pair of ankle boots and her mask.

The costume is really well-made. It's a bit tight to take on and off, but she's not exactly a good redressing doll anyway, because her hands are black.

The hands do pop off at the wrists, if you want to redress her. It would be impossible to get those sleeves off them otherwise.

She has cute little high-heel feet that remind me of the deluxe Disney Fairies, also by Jakks, and I tried one of those shoes on her. It did fit, but not perfectly.

She wears short ankle boots to mimic the look of her actual thigh-high boots.

Her mask has a slightly sticky surface on the back. It clung to her face pretty well the first few times I had it on, but if you don't get it on just right, it falls off. It's also already losing its stickiness. So maybe decide if you want yours to wear hers or not, because there won't be much switching back and forth before it becomes useless.

On the plus side, she's far cuter without the mask. This type of eyes that Jakks loves works really well for Violet, because she's all big round head and big round eyes.

She's so much cuter than the old doll!

Her hair is very nice and soft.

I definitely recommend Violet to fans of the movie and her character. Even if you just like a more unusual-looking doll, she's good for that. She's just not good for redressing, unless you always put her in long sleeves.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: DC Superhero Girls Signature Cheetah

Wow. I honestly don't think I've ever seen two such different representations of the same character in the same line unless they were aiming for that.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The signature version of Cheetah, last year's SDCC exclusive new character, has finally hit US stores after being international for awhile. In theory anyway. I know someone found her in Target one time, but she's nowhere within a couple hundred miles of me. So I was thrilled when I checked my Amazon listings and saw her not only on sale via Prime, but for only $15.99! Some crazy 3rd party seller had her below retail. Who am I to pass on such a deal? I bought two. This quickly became known and she sold out repeatedly, only to go up every time they listed more. (Seriously, I saw her at $15.99, $19.99, $24.99 and finally $29.99. She is now totally sold out from that seller.)

I got my dolls today and I had to choose between one that had missing paint on the whites of her eyes AND a placed-too-high left eye and this one in the box here, which has gouges down her face. You can't see them in the photos, except hints of them in the facial close-up shot, but they're there. She's my battle-damaged Cheetah, because I was not sending them both back. No way. Thankfully, the paint is fine.

I honestly cannot get over how different she is.

Signature Cheetah is close to Wonder Woman in skintone.

SDCC Cheetah? Yeah, she's more like Starfire.

The funny thing, if you can call it that, is that neither really looks like the show. She's clearly darker than Wondy there, but she's not orange either. Although if Wondy's doll was as pale as she is in the show, then sig Cheetah would be pretty spot on.

So yes, here they are. Sig and SDCC. I vaguely remember people complaining about them doing a regular release of the SDCC doll again. Well, all that was for nothing, because no one in their right mind is going to confuse these two.

Let's look at the outfit. Same basic idea, but sig Cheetah has a plastic belt, while SDCC's is part of her outfit. SDCC has orange stripes alongside her pink stripes.

Animation accuracy points go to SDCC Cheetah, because she does have the orange on the show and the pink is actually the waistband of her pants (it has a little orange tie on it in the cartoon) so the lower placement resembles that outfit more. Although it should be 2-piece and neither of them did that.

From the back, sig Cheetah is totally pink, while SDCC Cheetah now looks more like a top and pants.

SDCC wins the accuracy points again, because Cheetah's pants in the show are black with the stripes down the side.

I honestly don't mind either version though. If they're not going to do a 2-piece outfit, then either of these is fine with me. Sig Cheetah's looks more like a proper 1-piece while SDCC's is just mimicking the 2-piece it should be.

From the side. I forgot to do a full side-shot, but it's apparent from this one alone how different their leg spots are.

Both have their hair pulled back on one side.

Speaking of hair, Sig Cheetah's is far shorter than SDCC's.

Although neither of them has hair as long as it should be.

Sig's shoes are more orange. SDCC's have the white, which is show accurate.

I hate this shoe mold, because it's lumpy, unattractive and they don't even stand well.

The sig jacket on the left is actually far more show accurate. She doesn't have black sleeves. The SDCC jacket is made better and has the thicker orange cuffs and waist though. Meld the two and you've got it right.

Facially, I like both these girls. The sig looks more in tune with the show and the other dolls, while the cartoony SDCC is just plain cute.

She does have a torso joint, if anyone was wondering.

So there you have it. Sig Cheetah and SDCC Cheetah, two incredibly different versions of the same character within one doll line. I honestly prefer the signature doll and her less orange skintone and forward-looking eyes. She's prettier to me, even though the SDCC one has more show accurate elements. I could outfit swap them, but I'm not going to.

So now we've gotten Hawkgirl and Cheetah. (With Cheetah and Beast Boy coming in the action figure line, too.) I wonder if there will be another new character for this year or if that's it? I also wonder if we'll get an SDCC doll. Hmm!

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

RANKING: Li'l Shoppies

I decided to tackle a ranking project, as I love to do these to wind down before bed. I realize it's almost 3am and I'm just getting started, but hey, I'm a night owl. I got some new Li'l Shoppies tonight, so they're the subject of this ranking. I am not including the ponies. They're too hard to compare to the dolls.

In last place: Cocolette.

Cocolette's doll is gorgeous, but the same color scheme did not work for her smaller version. It's not obvious in the photo, but her hair is molded to appear like it's dripping. The dress, the bow, the shoes, it was okay there, but her hair? No. On top of that, she has an open mouth that does not photograph well. Poor thing.

I just bought Marsha Mello tonight and I stood there, wondering if I should get her. I'm realizing I should have left her for someone else. I adore her doll, but again, she just did not translate to small very well.

I do like her color scheme and her face is cute, although her mouth isn't well-painted. But everything else...meh.

Kristina Apples. I was happy for a red-haired girl when she came out, but she's oddly somber and not nearly as cute as Chelsea Cheeseburger, who shares the same color scheme.

She's not bad, she's just not great either.

Kiki Creme.

Really cute with the cookies for hair buns and the tongue sticking out, but her colors are kind of all over the place. The top of her dress is shapeless pink while the bottom is a cookie, then come bright leggings and pink shoes? Odd.

Points for the tongue though.

Ballinda and Skatlyn.

I couldn't separate these two, because I really can't pick between them. Ballinda's hair is great. I love the color and style, but Skatlyn's shoelace shorter hair is also great. I prefer Skatlyn's outfit, except for Ballinda's one drooping sock, which is awesome. So my sporty girls are tied.

Chelsea Cheeseburger.

Another victim of the open mouth like Cocolette. It's just not working. I do love the sailor burger theme though and I'm always here for red, and those two reasons are what moved her above the sports girls.

Kirstea was one of the first two Li'l Shoppies I bought, along with Spaghetti Sue. (Sara Sushi wasn't on the shelf.)

While I loved Kirstea at the time, it's her full-size doll that's especially stunning and compared to her and some of the other Li'ls, Li'l Kirstea looks a bit sloppy. Her face and hair are very cute, but all the brown mess on her detracts from her cuteness.

Daisy Petals.

I initially had her much higher, but I often change rankings as I review the photos and do the write-ups. Daisy's another open-mouth tragedy. I really think she'd be much higher up if she had a closed mouth. Her dress and shoes are gorgeous. I love the full-sized Daisy much more than her smaller version. I do love the flower ones though.

Tippy Teapot is another that fell a few places. She's not a bad doll by far and better-detailed than her sister Kirstea, but the competition is getting stiffer.

Excellent color scheme though.

Sunny Meadows.

She and Tippy flipflopped a few times. I ended up putting Sunny higher because I love her hair a lot, and her dress, shoes and the little pink ribbon/bracelets around her wrist.

Fria Froyo.

I was certain she was going to be much lower, but as I held her next to other dolls when making the initial ranking, she kept climbing higher, and just now in the photo review, she climbed several spots.

Fria's advantage for me is her matte lavender hair. The side curls are so cute and I love her outfit. If she didn't have the brightly-colored mess of a headband and she had some more color on her shoes instead, she would have been way higher.

Coco Cookie's brown theme is likely boring to a lot of people. but I like it. I get sick of pink and purple and blue and pastels. I know she's got pink, but I also love pink with brown so that negates it. And her pink eyes rock.

Coco's a good example of how a lot of the newer dolls could use more detail. She's got plenty of it!

Rosie Bloom has the rare distinction of actually being as cute as her larger doll and the bonus of being better-dressed.

She's my favorite of the flower girls. I love her color scheme.

Spaghetti Sue and her spaghetti hair were an early favorite for me. She was the one I wanted most, along with Sarah. Everything about Sue is great from her color scheme to her outfit design to her bright green eyes.

Cici Science was a must have, because I love girls doing science. The lab coat and glasses really sell her, but her whole design is great.

I love full-size Macy Macaron and I love little Macy, too. About equally, which is unusual. Little Macy's hairstyle is my favorite thing about her. Just don't think macarons are macaroons. I hate that.

Okay, this was a hard one. I almost put Pia tied with Macy, because I love them both a lot, but I gave Pia a few extra points for her bright colors and her actually pulling off the open mouth. Her shoes are terrible though.

My Bridie's eyes are a bit off, but I love her a lot anyway. She's an unexpected one, because I'm not into brides or pink or white. However, that particular shade of creamy light pink is one of my favorite toy colors. That and how cute she is on her pony are why she made it so high.

I just got Coralee tonight and she blows her big doll out of the water. Har har. Her hairstyle is just awesome, as is her entire design.

Queenie Hearts' mismatched colors work for her, unlike for Kiki Creme. Her hair is a gorgeous shade and I love her outfit with its reds, white and bronze. Her lime green eyes are what make her really pop though. 

Hollie Wood has one of the best outfits in the line. I love the
elegant colors and just absolutely everything about her.

She should have gotten the USA doll for the world travel full-size line.

Crystal Snow is GORGEOUS. It's only because competition is really tight that she's placing fourth. I love that they made a winter doll using purple and white instead of the more often seen blue. I also love these new petkins that are things for the girls to stand on, like these skis and Coralee's surfboard.

I eagerly await a full-size Milly doll that tries to pull off this hair. She has the second greatest hair in the line. Her color scheme is nice and I love her rosy cheeks.

Sara! I love Sara Sushi. She was my first big favorite in the line, although it was Peppa Mint that finally got me to buy a Shoppies doll. I adore her outfit, her color scheme and her sweet face framed by that darling hairstyle.

Sara and Milly have stood on my coffee table in a place of honor since I got both of them.

Only one topped them.

Number one: JASCENTA.

Jascenta's hair is the only style better than Milly's. I'm so thrilled she's getting a full-sized doll! Her hairstyle, pearly-detailing, unique outfit and color scheme make her my favorite. She's the one who gets to ride Cutiecorn, after all.