NEWS: Naturalistas

I've been waiting to post about these until we had some more solid links. I've found some now, so here we go. 

Naturalistas are a new playline coming out this fall. In their own words: "Naturalistas Dolls are a line of Black fashion dolls, designed to celebrate natural coils, curls and crowns." I like that each of them has a distinct career. These are adults with jobs, not kids. It's a nice change. 

Each doll has very basic articulation and they appear to all have the same facemold and the same shoe mold. I hope they do well so the company can expand on the designs in the future. Dolls like these are important, but it's hard to compete with other lines that have articulation and more detailed clothing and faces. 

DAYNA:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09RGQ5HP1/

"Dayna is an LA native and owner of “Naturalistas Luxury Hair Salon.” With a degree in business (and training from a top beauty school), Dayna is a leading Celebrity Natural-Hair Stylist. A businesswoman and celebrity favorite, Dayna’s much admired career has earned her the nickname, “The Coil Whisperer.” Dressed to make a statement, Dayna has 5 points of articulation for lots of creative poses, Curly 3C Textured Hair, medium brown skin tone, and a gorgeous gold glitter-knit cutout maxi dress, sparkly stud earrings (complete with strappy heels and gold handbag). As Dayna’s motto is “Be Proud of Your Crown”, this 11-inch doll will inspire kids to appreciate their uniqueness, while also encouraging them to love their beautiful natural coils and curls."

KELSEY:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09RGNVQKL/

"A New York native, Kelsey is a talented fashion designer and founder of “Naturalistas Clothing.” With a degree in fashion from a top design school, Kelsey uses her platform as a well-known designer to support the careers of aspiring Natural-Hair models. Stylishly dressed, Kelsey has 5 points of articulation for lots of trendy poses, Coily 4B Textured Hair, light brown skin, sparkly stud earrings and a chic matching one-shoulder crop-top and fitted pants, featuring our custom “N” logo print (complete with strappy heels and a white shoulder bag). As Kelsey’s motto is “Natural Hair is chic,” this 11-inch doll echoes the beauty of coily and curly hair kids, while also encouraging them to love their beautiful natural tresses."

PAIGE:

https://www.amazon.com/Naturalistas-Accessories-Textured-Designed-Developed/dp/B09RFVMFYK

"Paige is a San Francisco native (and chemist) with a line of natural-hair care products, “Naturalistas Hair.” With degrees in marketing and chemistry, “Dr. Paige” utilizes her love of science to produce Natural-Hair Products that support natural hair health. When Paige is not running her business, she supports organizations that encourage kids to pursue careers in S.T.E.M. Dressed for success, Paige has 5 points of articulation for lots of interesting poses, Curly 3C Textured Hair, medium brown skin tone, hoop earrings and a chic silver glitter-knit dress (with a bright pink purse and matching heels). As Paige believes “Natural Hair is soo special, it defies gravity!”, this 11-inch doll will inspire kids to stay curious."

GRACE (deluxe):

https://www.amazon.com/Naturalistas-Accessories-Textured-Influencer-Developed/dp/B09RGD98NW

Grace is a deluxe doll with a $24.99 price point. She appears to come with 2 wigs, as well as a bunch of tech accessories. 

"Grace is a D.C. native, Influencer and Protective Style Enthusiast. With a degree in journalism, Grace started her career in the news room where she was often required to straighten her hair. In her spare time, Grace learned to install Protective Styles to keep her Natural Hair safe from over styling. Grace now runs a successful social media channel, teaching her followers how to properly care for their hair. Grace has 5 points of articulation for lots of camera-ready poses, a Textured 4B Pixie Cut, medium brown skin, hoop earrings and a stylish 2-piece matching tie-dye outfit (with pink shoulder bag and strappy heels). As Grace believes “Natural Hair is Professional,” this 11-inch doll encourages coily and curly kids to rock their Natural Hair with pride."

IN STOCK?: Mermaze Mermaidz

 https://www.walmart.com/ip/seot/567754410

So anyone interested in Mermaze knows that they were supposed to be put up for pre-order on February 18th. Apparently they decided they're waiting for International Mermaid Day, which is March 29th? And the dolls are supposed to be out in April.

Well, if you're curious about them or impatient for them, you might want to click that link. 

I posted Walmart's links for all five a while ago and I was surprised to see one of them available to add to cart yesterday. I ordered...and it's shipped today. I honestly figured it would turn out to be nothing but they shipped me something. It's the listing for Harmonique. Delivery is by March 2nd. I guess we'll find out next week!

REVIEW: Cave Club Tella & Partyceratops

 
Here we are at what is likely my final Cave Club review. I'm sad this line didn't do better because they were adorable and different. 

I've been eyeing this set on Amazon for months. It finally came in stock from various 3rd party sellers but with Prime shipping, but the prices were still over $50. I lucked into one for $39.99 a couple days ago and snatched it right up. It was sold by Amazon itself. Not sure how that happened but I'm not complaining. 

Art.

I love this dino and she's less oversized than Rockelle's so I'm keeping her. She makes cute noises, too.

The lone accessory. 

Tella was obviously the main draw of this set for me. She is GORGEOUS. 

I love her makeup and her color scheme. 

Her hair is simple and really nice quality. 

She looks cute on the dino, but I let my playset Roaralai take her place. Tella had to go on the shelf. 

She's got a lot of catching up to do with Bashley and Lumina. 

I've actually never had a Tella on my little Cave Club shelf. My Series 1 Tella has always been on my coffee table with S1 Roaralai. They're there now along with signature Bashley and Lumina. 

I'm glad I finally got my hands on this set! Tella is stunning and well worth the price. 

Goodbye, Cave Club! You'll be missed. I really wish I'd been able to get that third series of dino babies, but they never came here. 

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Mermaid High Spring Break Raynea

 

Look who made it early! I saw several delivery estimates for my Mermaid High Spring Break orders, but Raynea here actually showed up earlier than promised. (Unlike an overhyped mermaid line that had to make up a flimsy excuse for its delay.) No movement on Finly yet but I'm pleased Raynea is here.

These girls are $21.99, which is a few dollars less than the Series 1 dolls. They come with less. There's no comb, shell phone or collector card. Just the doll, her accessories, and a pair of shoes. 

 

If you wanted to know anything about Raynea, you are SOL. Seriously a little character blurb on the back would have been nice, since they don't come with cards. 

Art of her mermaid form. 

The packaging is like a freakin' fortress. Not easy to open whatsoever. Ugh. 

I finally got Raynea out. 

I'm sure a lot of people like it, but I'm really over the smart/nerd girl having to be into video games. There are so many other ways to show that she has nerdier pursuits. What I really want to see is a popular girl into video games. Popular boys are so why not a girl, too?

The earring in her left ear is ridiculous. I hate oversized earrings so much. I tossed it in my MerHigh storage bag. The right earring is a tiny shell with game controller details. That's actually cute. 

I was going to ditch the Tetris barrettes, but her hair is so huge that I'm leaving them in. It's so thick on top that she's almost got a partial beehive going on. 

Her hair is quick thick overall but it's coarse and dry at the ends in some places, especially the color change streaks. I love that it's shorter than the other dolls' but the quality isn't great. The bang pieces are gelled, so she's headed for the salon after this. 

She's really cute in her enormous glasses. 

How would glasses even work underwater? They wouldn't but it's a cute idea. More lines need to remember glasses exist. (*cough*RH*cough*)

I actually love how this looks. Her little feet are adorable in the chunky gamer girl sandals and I prefer the suspenders going into the bikini bottoms rather than her tail skirt thingy. 

Shoes from the side. 

So I like Raynea but I don't absolutely love her. She's conflicting for me. I love dolls with glasses but I hate that they're always the nerdy types. I don't like the nerds being restricted to gaming as much as they are. I like the shorter hair but the decline in quality isn't good. She's really cute in her human form, which is not how I was expecting to display her, but that's what's happening. 

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Rainbow High Junior High Violet

I hardly ever find stuff early these days. I'm on the East Coast. We're always behind. So when people started finding RH Junior High, I decided to check my Target tonight on a whim, fully not expecting a thing on the shelf. But tucked away on the bottom next to some Nananas, I found Violet!

Now Violet is not my favorite. She's actually by far my least favorite of the mainbow, but this particular doll is ADORABLE. I'm not a Britney fan, but even I gotta love the look. 

Price is $24.99. Welcome to inflation. Sigh. For $3 more, you can get a Series 3 doll with a stand and a complete second outfit. 

Back of the box. 

The backpacks are extremely well-made. MGAE really knows how to make fabric purses. They need to teach Mattel how because those lumpy things that come with the $75 MH fancy dolls are not okay. 

The detail on the straps. I mean, come on. 

I do wish she'd had a little stand though. 

She does have gel in her hair. It's on the bangs, of course, but also the pigtail tips and a little got higher onto one pigtail, too. Not awful though, so I opted to review before salon time. 

SO FRICKIN' CUTE. 

I'm not sure I'd want my daughter in a midriff top at that age, but it is Violet. She's totally the type to dress a bit older than she is. 

Although the promo pics did not have this as a midriff top. Hmm. 

Why did I take another photo so like the one that's two above this? Eh, who knows? 

Shoes are adorable, though definitely unnecessary for that age. But again, it works with Violet's character. Every other girl has flat shoes. 

Past Violet and Present Violet. 

I did not do any shots of the body. Violet has one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to redressing a doll. She wears a long-sleeved shirt layered over another long-sleeved shirt and each opens in the opposite direction. I HATE that. It's almost impossible to get the sleeves to not bunch up. They're already a bit bunched under that sweater so I was not taking it off. I'll do it for one of the other girls when I get more. 

So I'm smitten with these. Violet was on my definite buy list with Jade, Sunny and Poppy, but I'll likely cave and get all six. Ruby grows on me every time I see her pics. They're high quality little dolls for sure, but that's to be expected from RH. Price point is a bit high, but I'm sadly sure when Series 4 comes out, it's going to be more than $3 more than these. 

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Rainbow High Pacific Coast Simone Summers

All right, last of the PC lot for me. No interest in Bella and I'm pretty sure I don't want Finn. I've had Simone for a few days now, but my work weeks (Fri-Tues) are pretty hectic. 

I ordered her from Target at the same time as Margot, though she took a little longer to ship. 

Boring towel. Hate the visor. Love everything else. 

Simone has her heeled feet on. I really wish Bella had the heels so I could have gotten one more girl with flats. I still think it was stupid to not give them all the flat feet and flat shoes, as we have loads of heeled shoes. 

Anyway, she comes with stand, comb, flat feet legs, towel, bag, visor, sunglasses, one-piece swimsuit, cover-up skirt, and heels. 

I really hate that they tack the visor/headpieces down so hard. It almost always messes with whatever stock partial updo they have and I have to redo the hair. 

So here's Simone with her hair completely loose. I rinsed the little bit of gel out and then combed some of the yellow streaks forward. 

She has baby hairs!

Simone is easily the most sultry of the RH gang. And I love it. She is so gorgeous. I knew I'd like her but I ADORE her. 

Truly, truly lovely. 

With her bag. 

Margot really got screwed in the bag department. I love all the other ones but hers sucks. 

I'm glad I caved and ended up with more of this line than I intended to. 

My PC girls. My RH dolls actually live in my bedroom, sharing shelves with my bears. I will eventually get them into my toy room but organizing in there is a very long project. 

I would be hard-pressed to tell you who the most beautiful is. Margot is still my favorite by a smidge but Harper and Simone are super gorgeous, too. 

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Zombaes Forever Part 2

 

Time for a follow up to yesterday's Zombaes review!

I got my 10 from Amazon and was super happy to get 5 more that I needed. So now we have all but 2 codes. I was able to skip Love Struck. I got her today but I'll be returning her. I just have no interest in her. The ones I didn't get were Shop Til You Drop (though my guess for her code is 80) and the rare, Glitter Bomb. I'm happy because I didn't want the shopping one and I don't care if I have the rare, so the five I got were the exact five I wanted. I did get 4 total of Miss Everlasting. It's possible she's packed heavily. 

 

This is just going to be a quick speed through, no detailed or undressed pics. I'm starting my busiest part of the week, so I don't have much free time. 

This is Cold Hearted. She's transparent where her body shows, which is super awesome. I love that she's a little ice cream waitress. The ice cream cone was a minor struggle to get on but I managed.

She has snowflakes in her eyes. 

Stickers and card.

This is Ready to Drop, our sleepy girl. 

She has Zs in her eyes. 

Stickers and card. And sleep mask. 

Our cool-colored girls. 

Miss Everlasting, minus her sash. 

Her eyes are a skull inside a heart. 

Stickers and card. 

My second fave, Rock in Peace. 

I love the tongue. 

Her eyes are lightning bolts and music notes. 

I noticed on her stickers that some of them have photos of their significant others or crushes. 

Both Rock in Peace and Strike Out have photos of girls. Love it!

I opened this girl third and was SO HAPPY. As you can imagine, she's my favorite. 

I'm not a fan of the fat skirts though. Both she and Miss Everlasting have huge skirts that are hard to fit with the stands. 

So pretty! 

Her eyes are bats in front of a vertical white slit. Very cool. 

Stickers and card. And her sunglasses as I'm not hiding those eyes. 

My faves!

And these are all the dislikes. 

A friend pointed out to me that they have different patterns on their brains, so here's what I discovered.

Heart pattern: Strike Out, Mourning Workout, Ready to Drop

Rainbows and stars pattern: Rock in Peace

Bows and pearls: Cold Hearted

Roses: Miss Everlasting, She's Shady

So we have all but two codes now. I've updated the list at:

https://venivididolli.blogspot.com/2022/02/review-zombaes-forever.html

Who's your favorite?

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.