REVIEW: Ruby Red Fashion Friends Bella (blue-eyed exclusive)

This is definitely an unexpected review! I pre-ordered this exclusive doll and I'm pretty sure her original release date was late April. So naturally, she had to come in early during this time of earning less money. But I had enough in my last paycheck to pay her off and get her home. I'm glad I did, because I don't see her available on the website anymore.

This doll is an exclusive to Happily Ever After. She's a limited edition of 75 pieces. She's the same doll as the regular Dream Big Bella, except she has gorgeous blue-green eyes.

So pretty!

She wear a jean vest, a white tank top, a skirt and a pair of leggings. She does have panties underneath the leggings. I particularly love her shoes!

My initial plan was to get Sara, the blonde, before this pre-order came in, but it looks like Sara will be last.

Here's a look at the tank top.

And the super cute shoes.

Her pretty hair.

And here she is with Hanna!

Bella has a more tan skintone that's less luminescent.

You can certainly tell they're the same mold, but they still look like different girls.

I'm glad to have her home!

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

OVERVIEW: Hot Locks

I meant to take more pictures of my collection of this small line, but I never did. So this old photo of Nahla in the package is the only one I have of one of my girls boxed.

Hot Locks were a small line made by Wow Wee/Think Wow and released in spring 2010. I'm not sure they got a wide release. I was able to pinpoint their release time frame by 3 blog entries/giveaways done by your typical mom and kid type of blog.

The dolls were offered both in basic and deluxe forms and, according to one blog, were $7.99 and $12.99.

The basic dolls, like Nahla here, came with 3 barrettes and a comb, while the deluxe had a larger hair tool plus a comb, 4 small barrettes, 1 larger barrette with hair extension, and 6 fabric hair ties.

I posted Nahla in my Flickr in December 2016. I got her on ebay, along with Kai, and for the longest time, these were the only two dolls I owned from this line.

Nahla is decidedly the easiest one to find. If you look online, you can probably find her. I'm guessing it's because she's the only one without the 14" of hair the other dolls boast on their packaging.

I think the giant blonde afro is a great design, but in a line whose point seems to be hair length, it maybe wasn't the best choice.

The dolls have a lot of sculpted details in the molded parts of their hair and on their outfits.

Nahla has two different boot decorations.

Flower on one, ribbons on the other.

These girls are jointed in the usual places: neck, shoulders and hips. Their waists almost appear jointed, but that's just an indented space for the rubber skirt to fit into.

Here's her backcard, which I kept!

One of my favorite little details about this line is that the girls are described both with their positive traits but also at least one flaw.

I like that Nahla is the shy, intelligent one, but apparently also an actress. And her flaw is forgetfulness.

Here's Nahla with Skylar from the Hairdorables line for a size comparison. They're a little shorter than Hairdorables with much smaller heads.

Moving across the back of the package, the next basic doll is Harlow Spoole. Their last names aren't listed on the packaging, but some of the old sales listings I found included them. Except for Nahla's. She's the only basic I couldn't find a last name for.

I don't have Harlow sadly, so this is my only pic of her.

Next up is Ami Jones, who's my favorite. I love her color combination!

I was lucky to find Ami, Ryann and Iris from a seller on ebay a few months ago. All were boxed, but I didn't take any photos of them. I did keep some of the backcard for each though.

Ami is an odd combination of pink super girly and sporty.

Love the sculpted detail in her hair.

This is the portion of her backcard that I kept. The bottom was the same on all the dolls, so I just clipped the top for her.

Ami is kind-hearted, determined and loves sports. Her flaws are my favorites of all the ones I've seen: "slightly suspicious of people" and "easily bored." Ha! Love it.

The final basic doll pictured on the package is Lily Presbee.

I really want this one! Hopefully someday I can find her.

And then we've got the anomaly that is Iris. Iris is the fifth basic doll, who was never shown on any packaging that I've seen so far. Not even her own!

I can't find any mention of her online either.

The best I can find is this promo image of packaging mockups that was used on a New Zealand giveaway page.

Nahla is not there and Iris is in her place, so perhaps in some locations, she was offered instead of Nahla.

I love the molded detailing on her. The butterflies are really cute.

I think she's the least attractive of the dolls though from the standpoint of head shape. Her molded hair just makes her head look really blocky. Ami pulls it off without that effect, but Iris doesn't quite.

I like her different footwear.

I have no idea how I got her to free stand on a single foot, considering how oversized her head is and how long her hair is!

Iris's main quality is that she's high-spirited. I find it amusing that she's "athletically-gifted." I wonder if that means Ami isn't, even though she's the one that loves sports.

Iris's flaws are that she's gullible and slightly clumsy. Wonder how that clumsiness combines with athletically-gifted.

Moving on to the deluxe dolls, we have Kai. I bought her from ebay UK and she arrived back in January 2017. Back then, she was the only doll available other than Nahla and then I saw no others until a few months ago.

I love Kai's boots!

She is super cute. Excellent color scheme. I want Lily so they can hang out together.

I bought Kai open, so I don't have her backcard, but the seller I bought the others from does have her, too, so she: cares passionately about the environment, loves recycling and being green, loves helping save the town's wetlands, and isn't afraid of holding frogs and lizards. Wow. We get it. She's environmental. Her flaw? She can be bossy and loud.

Next on the box is Sydney. I don't own her, so here's a teeny tiny photo of her I found online.

Then comes Ryann. I do have her! I really love her neon red, black and white color scheme. And the panda theme.

I love Ryann. She's my second fave after Ami. Kai would be tied with her, but I think there's still the excitement of finally having more of these after so long, so I'm favoring the newbies. Except poor Iris. Heh.

Here's her backcard. She's all over the place. A techie artist who loves Asian fashion. I love her flaw of being "a bit of a loner."

The final deluxe doll is Morgan.

I found this image on Pinterest. I guess this was the Curl and Style Salon. I can't find any other info about it, so I don't know if it was ever released or not. I hope so because I'd love to find it someday! That doll is adorable.

So that was Hot Locks. If you have any info or photos of dolls I didn't mention here, please comment!

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine. Promo images from Google searches. Others as noted.

MONTH IN REVIEW: March 2020

I've decided to go ahead with this month's Month in Review post, because my buying has basically stopped. As many of you probably know, I'm in the service industry. I've worked in kitchens on and off since I was 14. The virus has hit my industry hard. I'm lucky to still be going to work a couple mornings a week, as our restaurant is open for to-go business, but the cut in pay isn't pretty and the unemployment my state has set up for those of us with cut hours is likely going to take a while to start being paid out. So my buying is basically non-existent right now. I'm trying to honor as many of my pre-orders as I can, but likely some will have to be cut.

So I figured I'd round up this month's purchases and show them off, because I won't be showing much until who knows when. I might do some older overview-type posts, but those aren't easy for me either, because most of my doll collection is still packed up. One good thing though: I've ordered the last two bookcases I need to build for my toy room and I'll be working on finally getting that set up during my downtime. Maybe it will all be on display again by...mid-April? The shelves should be built and my book collection organized by the end of the week, but the dolls are going to take quite some time.

Anyway, it's...surprise surprise...mostly bears this month.

That bright orange hunk of fur up there is named Satsuma. He's an older bear that's been on my want list for ages and I finally got one! He's a big chunky boy with long fur and I just adore that color. Orange is actually probably my favorite color after black. (Yes, yes, make your Halloween jokes.)

This is another older bear. Her name is Asia. I got her on ebay from a fellow collector that I've bought from numerous times.

She's a gorgeous, simple panda.

On March 7th, I was lucky enough to attend two large gatherings, unknowingly the last of the foreseeable future.

In the morning, they had one of the annual doll shows. I brought a good chunk of money, but honestly didn't expect to spend much.

Boy, was I wrong.

I got this adorable needle-felted baby. She's maybe 5" tall? Probably more like 4.5". I thought she was the cutest little thing. It should be pretty obvious that I'm not really into baby-type dolls, but she won me over at first glance.

Also needle-felted is this freakin' ridiculously cute hedgehog. My mom fell in love with him and ended up buying him for herself.

The seller with the hedgehog also had a lot of her own work for sale. This blue bear was the first one I saw and I was smitten with him right away, although the decision to pick just one was very hard!

The hedgehog is not her work, but he is, and someday I hope to buy more of her pieces!

Mom got him for me as a super early birthday present.

My most exciting find though. Oh, my dolly gods, was I ever happy.

Angel Cake was actually the first thing I found and purchased. The lady had a bunch of SSC and she's the last common one I needed. She wasn't visible right away, but then I realized some of the doll boxes were being used as kind of a base, and there she was!

I bought the needle-felted baby next and then turned toward the biggest seller in the room, who had so much great stuff.

I'd seen some Jem already. A seller by the entrance had BaNee for $55 and the Only the Beginning outfit that I didn't see a price on, but I don't need it anyway. I wouldn't have minded an upgrade BaNee, but eh, not for $55.

The first thing to catch my eye on this new table was Ashley. I didn't need her though. Then I saw Clash. And Glitter 'n' Gold Jem. I could tell Rio was behind Jem, but behind him was...one...more...box.

I knew from the shape that I was dealing with  a 1987 doll. So I crossed my fingers it wasn't, say, Video or Danse or Synergy. A 2nd edition Hologram would have been acceptable, but dangit, I wanted a Misfit. So I was basically chanting "Please be a Misfit, please be a Misfit" over and over as I leaned forward.

AND IT WAS.

Not only was it a Misfit, but it was THE Misfit. Aja and Stormer were my first favorite characters in Jem, followed by Techrat, but once Jetta came along, she took over. I adored her. One of my biggest childhood errors was deciding to get BaNee when I'd come to the store for Jetta. But the Starlight Girls had just come out and little me did love BaNee, so she ended up coming home...and being my last Jem doll until probably 1998, when I finally got Roxy and my beloved Jetta. (I had Pizzazz and Stormer in my small childhood collection.) When I was first collecting Jem again as an adult, I always wanted a boxed Jetta, but ended up with boxed 2nd edition Misfits instead, which I eventually sold. So now after all these years, she's finally gracing my shelves and for only $50.

The top of the box was mostly open, so I did sneak a peek inside, wipe some dust off her hand, and turn her face more to the front before sealing her in there.

I'm really glad I had a good day on the 7th, because it was my last good day for about a week. I got nailed with the worst allergy attack I've had in years.

It was so bad, I couldn't even really enjoy the arrival of my new old bears. And let me tell you how fun it was to be dealing with allergy symptoms while this virus is around. I cough and people freak out. I'm sorry, y'all, but it's spring!

I used to have Loulabelle, but sold her. I've recently wanted her back and the same seller that had Asia also had her, so here she is again.

Little Goosebeary tagged along with her, as they were a 2-for-1. He was never on my list, but I'll never refuse a green bear.

Those two were my only new arrivals from the 11th until yesterday.

I had already put a bunch of money on my QCard for the new bear show on QVC. I wouldn't have splurged on this many otherwise, but hey, it was already on there, so I picked out five from the Secret Collection. They arrived very quickly and I had fun opening them last night.

Speaking of green bears, here's tiny Kim, who goes along with Kay and Koko.

Moppet is both adorable and incredibly soft. I do love tyber fur.

Queenie is my first CB cat that isn't a big cat. I love her deep blue eyes. I don't think I'll be buying many of the cats, but she was one I really fell for.

Kate is an absolutely stunning panda with a bit of "bearliner."

She was my most wanted from the ones I figured we'd see on Wednesday's show and she does not disappoint one bit.

Dido was a surprise! I think we got her in the US before anywhere else. She was my most wanted from the entire Sneaky Peeks catalog, so I was thrilled to be able to get her. She's actually a deep chocolate brown. I had thought she was gray and she does photograph more gray or black, but that deep base color is indeed brown.

I have two new arrivals from an international plush line that should be here tomorrow. They should have been delivered today, but man, is the post office ever dumb sometimes. And next week, I'll have my last doll until who knows when. She wasn't supposed to be in until late April, so of course she showed up a month early during this virus fiasco, but I happened to have a paycheck from a more normal work week and I could fulfill my pre-order. So I'll have those two more reviews and then we'll see what happens after! I might do a third round of my Hairdorables rankings, as I've got all of Series 4 I'm going to get. No way I'll ever get butterfly Neila now when my hours have been so drastically cut and the only ones for sale are from scalpers anyway.

REVIEW: Boxy Girls Family Dollar Exclusive Harper & Kayla

I finally found a Family Dollar that was convenient to get to! And that means, Family Dollar exclusive Boxy Girls!

They had 2 Sienna, 2 Harper and 1 Kayla. And perhaps Piper. My mom said after we were home that she thought she saw another one, but somehow didn't realize I was looking for these. So we'll go back Wednesday, as it's right next to her eye doctor.

Harper's little dress ruffle can be moved around, so it can go around her neck, shoulders or waist.

I adore her shoes. Definitely some of the best Boxy shoes.

Harper comes with a little aqua jacket that I ended up putting on my January, plus a yellow necklace, flower earrings, a cute chartreuse heart purse, and a little bear...purse? wallet? Something.

I adore Kayla! She might be the cutest one I have.

Kayla comes with translucent glittery hot pink boots, a heart purse, a kitty purse, a necklace that says "unicorn" and the cutest winged backpack ever. So glad I found her!

I really want Blake, so I hope to find her soon. If anyone comes across her, I would totally pay you for her.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.