OVERVIEW: Sugar Planet

MGAE released Sugar Planet in 2002-2003. These small 3" dolls resembled the company's big moneymaker at the time: the Bratz.

I remember seeing some Sugar Planet toys in stores, but I never got around to buying any. I didn't get into them until many years later, buying my first in 2011.

Most of the line was pretty easy to find, but not all.

All of the dolls broke into two pieces at the waist and had an extra lower body with a different outfit on. Each girl came with a pet, a pot of lip gloss, and a metal charm bracelet with multiple charms.

The dolls were sold three different ways. The first was with playsets, which were the largest pieces in the line. Leilani above and Sianna to the right are this type. The second kind of dolls came with a much smaller purse playset that opened up into storage spaces for the doll, her clothing and her bracelet and charms. The third type of doll was sold individually on a backcard and came with pet, second body, charm bracelet, charms and lip gloss.

Frozen Candy girls

The line was broken up into themes. The dolls were called Sugar Girls, who of course came from Sugar Planet, but they each came from different areas. The Tropical Punch girls were the beach-themed ones, the only tan-skinned dolls in the line and all three had dark hair. The Frozen Candy girls had the winter theme. Frozen Candy is the only theme with a girl in every line. There are five in the set. The MMMermaids were the third introductory line and were obviously mermaids. Later, two additional themes were added: space and fairy.

Unfortunately, the majority of my collection fell victim to my pre-moving donation craze. I no longer have any of the playsets or smaller pieces from my collection. I donated everything except the dolls and pets. I might have some lower bodies, but honestly, I can't think of where they are! So I may not even have those. I also don't have any photos of the purse dolls with their purses. I wasn't as thorough with pictures back then!

I had a pretty easy time finding the girls that are actually accessible.

The only big playsets they released were Leilani and Tuku, Sianna and Zoe, and Snowee and Jax. These three girls look a bit rougher than the later ones. Their faces aren't as cute and the bodies on Sianna and Leilani are strange.

The original three purse dolls were Icee and Kundra in an igloo purse, Fianna and Pooki in a shell purse, and Kia and Huku in a hut purse. And while writing this overview, I just realized my Icee came with the wrong pet! I have two of Flurree's seals and no polar bear.

 
The first three individual dolls were Flurree and Trix, Arianna and Skye, and Leela and Tiki.

Another set of three purse dolls was planned, along with another three individual dolls. These lines were where the new themes were introduced, but only two of the individual dolls and none of the purse dolls are easy to find. The two individual dolls are Pyxis and Zip from the new fairy theme and Cosma and Atmos from the new space theme. The third girl in their line was a Frozen Candy character named Slushee, who came with a pink seal named Blizz.

Hailee and Squall, a purple polar bear, were the Frozen Candy part of the purse line. The fairy line continued with Frolique and Fin-Wee, a tiny elf, and the space line had Nebula and Sunspot.

I have never seen owner photos of Hailee, Frolique, Nebula or Slushee, although I know someone who swore he had Slushee, but never came up with any photos to prove it. So I was very shocked a few days ago, when my Sugar Planet ebay search turned up FROLIQUE. I couldn't believe I was seeing her and at a very low Buy It Now, so of course I grabbed her. She got here a couple days ago and I'm thrilled with her.

There are a lot of oddities in the Sugar Planet line. I have no idea how this Frolique came to be in the hands of this seller. Were these dolls actually sold in stores? But if they were, why are just those four so rare? It's especially odd that Slushee is hard to find when Cosma and Pyxis aren't. Frolique's appearance has raised a lot of questions, but I'm also newly hopeful that someday I'll have a complete collection of characters! I really want Nebula.

Sugar Planet also had a series of five books and these raised a lot of questions, too. The characters' names were all messed up.

Three of the books are board books for younger readers. The one about Fairy Princess Pyxis is fine, but the other two both have mix-ups. Mermaid Princess Malah is actually the doll named Arianna and her purple-haired friend in the book is named Syrene, but is clearly the Fianna doll.

Tropical Princess Leela has two major switches. The character of Leela in the book has brown hair and wears red, just like the doll of Kia who comes with the purse playset. In the book, we also meet her friend Kia, who has black hair and wears blue, just like the doll of Leela. Their pets are switched, too. The monkey that comes with the Kia doll remains Kia's pet in the book, but she's the black-haired blue-dressed Kia. So if you swap the dolls, putting the one in red in the single pack and the one in blue with the purse, you have the names and pets from the book. To make matters even more confusing, there's actually a promo pic with the blue-dressed Kia coming with the monkey and purse set!

Also, the poster that came with Frolique has "Pyxis and Zip" written on it, despite the picture being Frolique and Fin-Wee. Sugar Planet was seriously all over the place.

I like the books a lot, so honestly, I ignore the toy names. My Leela wears red and has a tiger and Kia wears blue and has a monkey. Arianna doesn't exist. She's Malah. Syrene is the only name that doesn't stick. I tend to think of that doll as Fianna.

There are two other regular paperback kids' books in the line. One is for Frolique, which is why I was surprised her doll wasn't released properly. The other is for Cosma, but features Nebula a lot. Those two are my favorites from the whole line.

Of what I have, Cosma is my fave, then Frolique, then Kia and Leela. I really should have taken more photos before writing this, because I don't think I have a single shot of Leela! Oh, wait, I found a pic of the Sugar Planet shelf from February of last year. It'll have to do, because I'm way too lazy right now to go shoot a new one.

There we go. That was my entire collection up until a couple days ago when Frolique arrived. All three Frozen Candy girls are there. Flurree and Snowee are just behind the Tropical Punch gang.

So that is my Sugar Planet collection. I think these are one of the most fun things MGAE has made, along with the Novi Stars and L.O.L. Surprise dolls. I wish I'd bought Sugar Planet when they were actually in stores, because maybe then I'd have more of the missing characters! But I still don't know if they were ever even sold. It'll be a mystery until someone tells me otherwise.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

RECOMMENDED SITES:
http://www.ghostofthedoll.co.uk/sugarplanet.php