REVIEW: Paola Reina Epoque Manica

 

I only have one regular Paola Reina doll, Summer Liu. I never got as into them as I thought I might. But there are some lovely new designs and I caved quickly on this girl. 

The Epoque line all wear historical-inspired clothing. I'm planning on getting the ancient Greek one the next time I order, but they've also done an African doll and various European "princess"-style ones. 

Manica is a very striking character, as she's East Asian but her hair is always some shade of blonde and she has blue eyes. 

She's actually the same headmold as Liu, but Liu tends to be black hair or unnatural shades, though she has also had lighter eyes and red or brown hair, too. 

  

I took off the flowered ribbon to remove the plastic circle from her hair and then I brushed it, so here she is without the ribbon. 

 

Ribbon back on.

I really love her. She's definitely like nothing else on my shelves. 

Closer shot. 

She has little ankle socks that I don't care for. I think they take away from the look. 

Yep, better.

She came with a cool compact. 

Mirror on one side, brush on the other. 

It pops out! Brushes decent, too. 

And one last shot. 

I have two or three more of these girls on my wishlist, as well as another Gorjuss from the same seller, so I may be importing more soon. 

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Santoro Gorjuss The Frock

I got my first new Gorjuss arrival in over two years! I wish I'd kept up with this line better, but I only dropped the ball on one doll and I'm still hoping to find her. 

So this is one of two I ordered from Amazon (via Amazon UK). They both got over here fairly quickly, but then sat in Atlanta from the...13th, I think?...until today. I got this doll and a Charlie Bear that was also shipped from the UK without warning today, as well as a package from Latvia that will be the next review and that one never tracked at all! But the second Gorjuss doll went to Pennsylvania. New Jersey to Atlanta to Pennsylvania. SIGH. She hasn't moved since yesterday morning, so I don't know when she'll arrive. On the plus side, this one here is the one I wanted more so at least she made it. 

This one is called The Frock, and it's indeed quite the frock!

Ah, deboxed. She's definitely one of my top 3 along with Ladybird and Little Violet. She has black hair like Violet. 

Her little purple bolero is a separate piece, but I don't want to undo that perfect bow, so I'll settle for showing the under layers. 

This poofy bit is sort of a bubble skirt underneath the striped dress. 

And the bloomers. 

She has a body stocking on, likely to avoid staining. I'm not sure how much it covers. I didn't look. 

One more picture so I'm not ending on a note with her skirt over her head. 

The quality on these dolls is amazing. I really do love the Gorjuss line. 

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Basic Fun Care Bears Wish & Love-a-Lot

 

I have not been keeping up with Care Bears news, so I was surprised to see Wish and Love-a-Lot in Walmart tonight! They're exclusives to there and cost $12.88 each. 

Love-a-Lot isn't one of my big favorites (Tenderheart, Cozyheart Penguin, Grumpy, Good Luck, Wish, Friend, Birthday and sometimes Bedtime and Champ), but I do have a soft spot for her. I had quite a few of the poseables when I was a kid and I want to say she was one of my earlier ones.  

I love this one's little open mouth design and the faces on the hearts are adorable. 

I always forget Wish is a girl. Was she always a girl? 

Yes, she was. Odd. I remember thinking of her as male, even during childhood. Although I admittedly made a lot of characters whatever I wanted. Cozyheart has always been female, but mine was male. 

Anyway. Wish is super cute. I do love this new style of design for the bears, though unlike the previous design, I'm not buying every release, only the characters I like most. (Can we have Birthday and Friend, please?)

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

CUTETITOS UNICORNITOS Series 2 CHEAT CODES

I had to look up what Series 1 of the Unicornitos even was, and it was a Claire's exclusive. 

So this is Series 2, which is a Walmart exclusive. 

They cost $9.76.

Thanks to you guys, I learned about these and I found my first case tonight. Peaceito is the only one I really like and he wasn't there, so I went with Glitzito. 

In the wrapper. 

Unwrapped. He's pretty cute. 

Here's the checklist. 

And of course, now for the codes!

CHEAT CODES:

Purplito: 25220/29920/32720/00421

Shineito: 25320/30020/32820/00521

Ribbonito: 25420/30120/32920/00621

Flowerito: 25720/30220/33020/00721

Kissito: 25820/30320/33120/00821

Glitzito: 25920/30620/33220/01121

Peaceito: 26120/30820/33520/01321

Fantasito: 26020/30720/33420/01221

REVIEW: Hatchimals Pixie Riders Series 2 Wilder Wings Part 3

So when I ordered the unicorn Pixie Rider on Target.com, I thought this bright version was the regular and the gold was the chase, but it's the other way around. Imagine my happy shock when I opened the box and saw that they'd sent me the variant I needed! 

I'm quite pleased with Starlight Samara here. She might be my second fave after Mel. 

Here they are. 

And the set of five. 

Welp, Pixie Riders are done. Now I just need more of the minis and one of the regular pixies. 

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Hatchimals Pixie Riders Series 2 Wilder Wings Part 2

No in-package photos this time because you know what those look like. I got my other 3 pixie riders from Target in the mail today. 

They must like the Rs to go with the tigers. The first series was Radiant Roxy with Tigrette and now it's Rhythm Rachel with...Tigrette. Yeah, same name. Where Target got cheetah from I don't know. 

Wings in.

And with Sophie. 

This is Chic Claire and Zebrush. 

I don't really get zebra from Zebrush, but she's cool, so I'm not that fussed.

Sophie, Rachel and Claire.

And my favorite, Magical Mel and Ponygator.

This is the only set where one of the types of wing crystals is different. Mel has pink pyramids, while Ponygator's are diamonds.

I love these two. 

Love them so much!

So these are all four of the basic rider sets. 

I've got another unicorn one coming, but it will probably be the basic and I'll just return it. 

I love these girls like I loved the first line. The fancy wings aren't my favorite thing though. The little bits pop out sometimes when you try to put the pixie on the animal and because of the giant wings, they don't often sit really well. But the designs are great, if a bit limited in color range.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Kindi Kids Minis

My Target finally had the single-packed Kindi Kids minis, so I had to grab some. They didn't have the single Lippy Lulu, but I hope to find her eventually. 

These run $4.99. 

They had the minis with vehicle a while ago and I got that version of Lulu, but opted to wait to review her until I could do both styles at once. 

I think this was $9.99.

So they're cute. Toys like this are easy to review, because there's honestly not much to say aside from that. 

They're bobble-heads and then also jointed at each shoulder and at the hips/waist. 

Each has a hole on the bottom of her feet to stand on various playsets. If you bend their legs to make them sit, there's a hole there, too, which is how Lulu stays on her scooter. 

They're roughly the height of the original Li'l Shoppies, though very different proportions. 

Not something I'd buy a lot of, but I am a sucker for cute and I do miss Shoppies, so these fill the void a tiny bit. 

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Na Na Na Surprise Teens Rebel Dare

One last quick review for the night. I was struggling with a dying camera battery at this point.

So Na Na Na has a new line of teen characters. These dolls are much bigger than the basic Na Na Nas. They're 11" tall and run about $30.

I haven't bought a Na Na Na in awhile, because they got a little samey for me. I still have the black sheep, the first series bear, the black cat (Tuesday!) and the purple mod girl, but that's it. However, when I saw Rebel, I knew I needed her. I ordered her off Amazon, but I saw one of the others in Target tonight, too.

All I did was pull apart the box and it flopped open. Then you pull this tray out. 

Rebel is held in with a few plastic tabs.

And she's got all the packets containing her outfit on the right. 

She has knuckle tattoos that say ROCK STAR. Ah, I love it. I really love her permanent fists. 

You'll have to excuse her hair. It is super thick and all over the place. Because I was running out of battery power, I couldn't stop to fix it over and over. 

She has a huge white tag attached to the back of her head. Really stupid place for it. I cut it off. 

Everything from the packets: hat, jacket, shirt, skirt, shoes and brush. 

Everything was packaged really nicely. Even the skirt was inside out, which might protect the faux leather. 

Everything but the jacket and hat. 

Add the jacket. 

The outfit pieces on these are much more nicely made than Rainbow High. Yeah, I said. Yeah, I know they're the same company. But you should see this skirt in person. It's gorgeous. The jacket is, too. And I'm not noticing any quality issues. 

With the doberman hat. It's cute, but I left it off when I put her out on display. I do love that they made the hats separate. 

So she is great quality, thick hair, excellent outfit pieces, poseable. She's just great. I wish I liked more of them, but I don't $30 like any of the others. The owl girl is close, but not quite. Maybe there will be another for me in Series 2.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.