Now I'm Disgusted

I've seen that leak of the new MH Toralei doll and I'm absolutely disgusted that Mattel would allow this. 

Toralei was introduced as a short-haired character. We short-haired women hardly ever get any representation, something I've always spoken out against. (And don't even try nonsense. There are too many examples of entire doll lines with shorter hair and characters with short hair to try to give that bullshit line about how little girls must have long hair to brush. Fuck off with that.) 

When the reboot was coming and Toralei was a definite thing, I honestly fully expected her to have long hair. Mattel wasn't consistent with the doll's hair in the original line, though her animated version had short hair in every restyle. But a lot of the characters, including main ones, frequently sported bobs and other short styles in the original line. Let's not forget that. 

So when we saw the animated version of Toralei in with the voice actor announcements, I was absolutely thrilled that she had a short bob. It was an unexpected but very welcome surprise.

Cut to today and the doll leak has fucking long hair. That is not the Toralei from the art. I'm assuming that is not the Toralei from the show. It is a Toralei invented for the doll for literally no good reason. It's a slap in the face to Toralei fans that loved her as she was intended to be and a slap in the face once again to women and girls who have short hair and rarely ever get representation in doll lines. In this day of such openness and more acceptance of different genders than ever, we should be beyond such stereotypes and there should be plenty of dolls with short hair to choose from. And Toralei should be one of them.

Mattel should be absolutely, utterly ashamed of themselves. 

I'll be getting Toralei and I'll have a nice pair of sharp scissors waiting for her. 

Aphmau Mystery Meemows CHEAT CODES

 
I got my first Aphmau Meemows figures today! Walmart had four of the plush left and I found my angel one, so I have all of those now. 

For the figures, they had one left in a case and then another unopened case right behind it. There was a third unopened case on the top of the aisle, but I wasn't climbing for it. 

So these are definitely bigger than I expected!

I went through the entire untouched case and found only four different codes. I wasn't sure if the stamped on code I was looking at even had anything to do with the character inside, but I couldn't figure out another reason why there would be different codes in the same case. So I picked out one of each. 

They are indeed different. I opened Dragon, Fairy, Burger and Taco. 

There is no checklist and I didn't take a pic of the box, but that's fairly easy to find online. 

The others in the set are the Donut and Fries from Series 1 (like Burger and Taco), and the Mermaid and Unicorn from Series 2 (like Dragon and Fairy). 

I would not be surprised if there were two different case assortments and there's one out there with only the four I'm missing. 

Definitely do not buy a whole case and think you're getting the full set! From what I saw, you'll just end up with a ton of doubles. My set was 1, 2, 5 and 6, so it's likely 3, 4, 7 and 8 are also together.

CODES: 

Fairy: F11601SMDG

Dragon: F11602SMDG

Mermaid: F11603SMDG 

Taco: F11605SMDG

Burger: F11606SMDG

REVIEW: Rainbow High Junior High Karma Nichols

 

Karma! Karma was my first major favorite from RH. She'd hold that #1 spot until Series 3 came out. That's why I was getting her Junior High doll even if I didn't like her outfit and I pretty much don't.

She has a tank and shorts worn under a jacket. Then her sneakers, which are actually really cute for sneakers. And her adorable backpack and then the comb. 

After salon time. 

I don't hate the jacket, but the rest of the outfit is so basic. I prefer the shorts to the tank though. They're pretty cute as a single piece. I just wish she'd had another color other than white for the tank. Black? Maybe her chartreuse with a white print or something? 

She's got a gorgeous face and manages to look a little older than some of the other Junior Highs but not too old. 

With her older self. She clearly got some fashion sense during the in between years. 

I don't really think of Karma as a sporty character but the Junior High one definitely went that way. 

Still lovely. I wish they'd use her in the show more. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.

REVIEW: Rainbow High Junior High Stella Monroe

I had a pre-order for "Character 6" from this line and it turned out to be Stella. I actually saw MGAE answer this question on the item page, but she had already shipped at that point. 

Stella was one of the only two I wanted from this line, but I didn't want to pay full price for her once I learned how much they screwed her over in the outfit department.

However, once I opened the package and saw her face, I decided to keep her. 

 

Stella comes with a sequined minidress, a pair of socks, shoes, a comb, and her backpack. 

The girls got salon time last night and were ready for reviews today. 

She really is super cute, but a tiara and a pair of socks aren't enough to go along with this dress. Look at the amount of fabric freakin' River got. And Amaya's stupid, way too old for her boots. Yet Stella gets only this. Ugh. 

Would it really have been difficult to give her a little fur vest or cropped jacket? No. 

Here she is with her older self. 

Both are adorable. Stella is one of those that I wasn't wowed with initially, but once I got the doll and saw her in action on the show, she's become my second fave Series 2 girl after Karma. 

One more look.

No regrets keeping her for the full price. Opening Junior Highs always makes me want more, but I'm resisting the rest of Series 2 except for the next girl. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.

Late Night Blather

Just some random thoughts.

First, I'll have reviews for RH Junior High Karma and Stella sometime tomorrow. Their hair is drying. I like both a lot, though I'm still really mad they gave Stella barely anything and dared charge the same price. That's not right. 

I despise the RH Dia de los Muertos mess and want nothing to do with her. She's horribly offensive. 

I have no interest in the Paris doll and based on what she looked like in the show, I doubt I'll want Roxie Grand either, which is fine with me. Anything to save money at this point! RH is coming out with stuff way too fast and it's all expensive. 

Speaking of, I never thought I'd want all of the Royal Three, but I do. I just refuse to pay Walmart's $50 apiece. They're $40 other places. I'm hoping Amazon or Target get them. I may be weak and get one if I find any but I'm going to try not to. 

Bratz has those designer dolls coming out. I like the Jade one in the yellow and red dress. 

Now over to MH. 

I love the tiny plushies now that I know they're tiny. The cheap look is more acceptable if they're meant to be clip-ons or something. 

I passed on Haunt Couture Cleo. I have better Cleos already and for that price, I'm going to be picky. 

I'm sure I'm vastly in the minority, but I dislike the Reel Drama set. I hate the lengthened hair. Their hair lengths were just fine. They didn't need to have ridiculously long hair for zero reason. I also don't like the color pops. Lagoona is far and away the best one because she somehow makes the color touches work. Probably because they're more subtle. I might be tempted by her, but I might skip the entire line.

I'm still eagerly awaiting the reboot Lagoona. LOVE her.

Back to MGAE, I saw LOL Tweens Darcy Blush on IG and kinda fell in love. And now of course I can't find the pics, but I'm also being lazy. It's been a long work week. I'm definitely getting Jenny Rox but might get Darcy. 

And then there's the Fierce Cleopatra. Yeesh. She isn't awful or offensive, but she's certainly nowhere near accurate. Not that I expected it from a company that confuses Mexico and Spain, as well as China and Japan. I get that she's fashion and not historical but it's not even good fashion. The doll herself I like a lot and she's the reason I'll buy this. The hair bobble things are way too big. I'll yank them off if I can. The headband is okay. Completely not based in reality, but it's not ugly. The earrings and the pectoral (the collar) I really like. The belt and the manacles are incredibly gaudy and over the top. Why are there so many chains? Do you see a bunch of dangly chains in Egyptian art? Nope. The blue fabric with the gold trim looks incredibly cheap. Isn't she like $100? And that's the fabric we're getting? It's not awful over the minidress without the belt though. Still looks cheap but somehow it's also okay. The minidress confuses me. Is that a denim skirt? Why denim? Why not white or cream or red linen? Denim?!! And those shoes. Ugh. They make reboot Cleo's look like artistry. So there were some great choices here with the doll and certain jewelry pieces, but there were some very typical, stuck inside the box choices here, too, with the utter overuse of gold and whatever that denim horror is. I want her because I'm that into Egypt, but I'm not impressed with her by any means. 

I think that wrap things up for now. 

REVIEW: Hairmazing Swim & Princess

No photo of her in the box, since we already have those, but here's my most wanted Swim doll from the new Hairmazing line! I went to one of the farther Walmarts in search of her. At first, I didn't see her, but then there were two hidden behind other dolls. I would have bought both, but the second had her head mashed down on her neck. I'll pick up another when I see more in a different store. My little nearby Walmart still has mostly bare shelves, aside from the new bright unicorns and the curvy casual blonde. 

The most common new dolls seem to be the casual curvy blonde and aqua/mint-haired girl. I haven't seen the other two casuals in a store yet. For the swim line, I've seen the black girl with the yellow streaks and the non-curvy blonde in two stores now, so I'd say they're the most common. This girl here may be also, as she has a listing and others don't, but only this one store actually had her out to buy so I'm basing my judgments on that. I've seen both the fantasy and rainbow sets in at least two stores, as I saw the realistic horse sets in the store I was in today but no others. The unicorns have been in all 3 stores and I saw plush unicorns and realistic horses today in the bigger store. 

This girl does not disappoint in person. She's really beautiful. I like this more oval headsculpt a lot. 

Sunglasses (that were promptly given to another doll after this). 

I also saw the new Princess doll that we've seen on Brickseek before. 

I like this one a lot because her outfit reminds me of something Disney Fairies would have done. I actually thought she was a fairy at first, but no wings. 

The back shows a pink-haired princess and a black mermaid we haven't seen yet. 

I was hoping she was curvy, but she isn't. 

Still a great doll. I love the outfit and her entire color scheme, and her hair is fun. 

Definitely gives me more fairy than princess vibes. 

Both new ladies together. 

I'm loving where they're going with this line. Budget doesn't have to mean boring!

I'll be choosing the winner of my giveaway for the casual Hairmazing doll tomorrow. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.

QUICK LOOK: Masterverse Catra

 

In case anyone else out there also likes action figures, I thought I'd share a comparison photo of my Catras. 

On the left is the vintage Shower Power Catra. (She's wearing the skirt from Scratchin' Sound Catra. Shower Power is harder to find and expensive, so I was happy just to have the doll back decades ago when I was collecting vintage She-Ra for the first time as an adult.)

In the middle is the new Masterverse Catra that I just got today. 

On the right is the MotU Classics Catra. 

So the new figures are bigger than vintage, but not as big as the Classics. I'm not sure I'm going to collect all the new PoP characters but I just might. I like this Catra quite a bit.

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.

REVIEW: Glo-Up Girls Series 2 Erin

Ah, finally getting to Erin. I love Erin. I was expecting her and Alex to be my favorites. I think I said Rose was a contender, but she'll likely take third place. Now that I've got a non-messed up Erin, I'm loving her more than ever. 

WARNING: Do not touch the lipstick on these dolls. It comes off really easily!

Look at that box art. This line easily has the best art of any current doll line. The only one that compares is Nebulous Stars, but they're not exactly a steady line. 

Erin's stuff still boxed except for the accessories. 

Accessories opened. Erin was originally going to be my first review, so that's why she's the one where I photographed the makeup wand outside of its container. 

So here she is after salon time. 

I'm not taking any photos of her without the mesh sleeves. They're a pain to get on and off. 

She's so pretty. Erin was one of my two faves from Series 1, so I'm not surprised I love her again. 

Her earrings are fairly simple. 

I'm really not sure why they thought such pink socks would work for her. She's wearing a weird outfit with a ton of colors so I guess they just think she never matches. 

I like the gold chain earrings but not with this. They clash too much with the giant silver belt. 

I really wanted someone to wear Kenzie's socks. They look better than her own. 

I decided to just go crazy with the colors and give her what I liked best, no matter what color it was. I mean, her hair is dark pink but she has bright red boots. She's already committed to clashing. 

So she's got Sadie's broken heart earrings along with her own choker and armband. Then I left Kenzie's socks on to poke out above her own boots. And that's her own purse. 

Definitely my fave of the ones I have. Sorry, Rose.

Erin is one that makes me wish they'd used the modern color change methods so she could keep this darker lip color. 

So gorgeous!

The five! I finally got to pre-order Alex, but she's not supposed to come in until late September. Grr. I want her now. 

I also had wanted Kenzie to be more forward in this photo, as she was the other one with a later review, but she needs to be propped against stuff. Most of them are capable of standing on their own, but Erin is the only one that's really stable at it. 

They did a much better job with this second series. I love them all.

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.

NEWS: Rainbow High/Shadow High Rainbow Vision Costume Ball

I was just looking at my pre-orders for the Costume Ball dolls. I was able to order all five at the $34.97 price, but now the listings all say $39.97. 

They seem to be popping in and out of stock. Bella was the only one sold out yesterday, but now she's back. She and Eliza are the only ones available right now. 

I'm hoping they don't screw me over on these. The last time, they delayed my Marisa purposely because I'd done my pre-orders at the original cheaper price. I had to order her again and cancel the first order. I complained because clearly she was in stock and should have been shipped, but all they did was give me $5. I did get Robin and Brianna for the cheaper price though, I think. So hopefully they honor my lower prices. 

NEWS: Rainbow High/Shadow High Rainbow Vision Costume Ball

Okay, I've got more time available, so let's talk about these ladies in more detail. 

First up, my favorite: Eliza McFee. 

The doll herself is sheer perfection. She's so stunning. No matter what her theme was, she'd be stunning. Love the makeup. Love the hair. The mold is perfect for this look. 

The earrings are my favorite part of the outfit. 

The dress is lovely. The writing on the bottom is a bit odd, but I'm glad it's in French because English would really have ruined the look. 

The shoes are the main thing I'm not a fan of. They're pretty but a bit simple. I wish they'd gone outside the box and designed something that looked like she was barefoot. Something like Jewel's one pair but with fancy wing-shaped heels. 

The wings are on straps, which I understand because she's not a real fairy. I wish they were something that coordinated into her dress more. I also wish they weren't so plain. Considering her blurb goes on about how she's such a special effects pro that her wings look real, they look pretty cheap. 

She has some of the most beautiful art of the line. 

I'm nitpicking her above, but those are minor things. I'm pretty sure she's going to end up one of my big favorites from the entire line. 

Demilissabat! 

Yeah, I'm not gonna stop calling her that. 

I love the hair, Elissabat connection aside. Great colors and I'm always into goth bangs. Her skintone might be more light purple than pink, which will help her look a little less like Elissa. 

Her makeup is stellar. Getting to zoom in on it really helps. It's so out there. Love it. 

The earrings are my one nitpick about the entire design. Why not BATS? Seriously, stop overusing the stupid safety pins, MGAE. They do not signify edge. 

Her entire outfit is great. The poofy shirt, the gorgeous dress, those glorious boots. The cape is the standout piece though. It's beautiful. 

The most subtle standout though is her hands. Her nails and those rings are AMAZING. 

The blurb is where she falls apart a bit. If her look celebrates black and white movies, why isn't she grayscale? It would have been a natural choice for a line that started as grayscale. I prefer her in these lovely colors, but including that line is odd. 

The weakest of the SH trio, but Lola Wilde here keeps growing on me. Her entire face is sheer perfection. I love how the makeup accents her eyes and I love how the brown eyes work so well with her entire color scheme.

The outfit is definitely basic and saying the boots treads are supposed to be claws is a humongous stretch, but the doll herself transcends her boring clothes. 

Still love the nail artist aspect. Very clever.

From Shadow High over to Rainbow High, we've got a single standout. 

I thought Robin as a spider was a little ridiculous. Like I could see this idea starting as a joke based on what happened in the show. But they took that and not only ran with it but won the damn marathon. 

She is SPECTACULAR. 

I can't see her shoes, but I have no nitpicks for this doll based on what I can see.

The art gives a better idea of the makeup. 

Then we've got Bella the witch. This is surprisingly lovely. My initial reaction to Bella getting a doll in this line was "Ugh, she gets a third doll? Fourth if you count Junior High?" 

But no. Bella shut me up. Her outfit is excellent and I love the spider details that will match Robin. 

Her makeup is gorgeous. Love it. 

And she's totally giving me Jem vibes. Rainbow High Jem as a witch. That's this doll. She even has lacy ankle socks under heels. Come on. 

I'm glad I pre-ordered one. 

And then there's Violet. Dear dolly gods, what were they thinking? 

This is so bad. They've done worse with that Dia de los Muertos horrible mess, but this doll is an equally poor design minus the cultural insensitivity. Just as a doll design, it's so awful, you guys. I can't believe they did something this bad. 

I can't even rip it apart in detail. It's just that bad. If they'd gone with a proper Michelle Pfeiffer catsuit, it still would have been weird, but not nearly as bad. 

Thankfully, Violet's existence can be forgotten, along with Dia de los Muertos. I'm purposely not recognizing those dolls as existing any further than what I've said here. 

So! Who will you be adding to your collection? I'm glad I was able to pre-order my five (no Violet) and I can't wait to see this part of the storyline.