Thursday, August 31, 2023

TEMU REVIEW: My First Two Orders

I placed two orders from Temu recently. I'm going to go into detail on how it went, so you can decide if it's somewhere you might like to order from. These online places with really cheap goods are questionable, so I wasn't sure what to expect. 

I placed my first order on 8/21. On the 22nd, they sent me a tracking number via UPS. On the 24th, it was at the airport. It arrived in NY on the 28th. My second order was placed on the 23rd and I received a USPS tracking number on the same day. It went through a similar shipping schedule, only it actually made it through customs earlier than the first order. It was in IL on the 28th. They both travelled via their carriers fairly quickly and both arrived today. So one order took 12 days and the other 10 days. Not bad. 

What isn't great is that they were both shipped in thin plastic "envelopes" instead of that orange box you may have seen in the ads. 


This is what my first order unpacked like. 

The plush is in thin plastic. That's fine. 

Two mermaid dolls are in thin padded envelopes. Also fine. 

The figurine is in a styrofoam cube. This was not fine. 



Let's start with the mermaids. 

This is one of the images from Temu. 

Current price: $7.98



Temu image of the doll I ordered. 




Here are my photos of the actual doll. 


Very cute. 



She has pretty peach hair. 


Does she look like the listing images? 

Yes. 

Do I think she's worth the price?

Yes. 



Now let's look at the little hedgehog plush.


There is a photo that says this is 9.84". They do seem to come in multiple sizes, though not in the listing I picked. 


Current price: $7.98



Here he is. 

Does he look like the listing photos?

Yes. Obviously, he's been squished into a plastic bag, so you can't expect him to look as perfect as the promo photos. His little nose is a bit squished. But basically, he looks like the photos shown. 

Do I think he's worth the price?

Yes.



My last item for my first order was one of these blind-packed kitsune figures. 


Current price: $6.01


Sadly, this is how mine came. It really needed to be protected better. It's a heavy figure with a heavy tail, but that still snapped right off in transit. 

I looked into saying it was broken, but it didn't look like they would refund without a return and I'm not sending back one little figure that was easy to glue. I am going to look into leaving a review for it though, saying it arrived broken. 


All fixed!

Does it look like the listing photos?

Yes. 

Do I think it's worth the price?

Honestly no. The figure itself is very nice, but you run the risk of it arriving broken. 


I placed a second order so soon because the Rainbow High stickers I wanted came back in stock. 

This time the packaging made more sense, as my order is mostly plush and there's nothing breakable here. 





Here's the image of the Rainbow High stickers from the listing. 

Current Price: $1.31



I got exactly the stickers shown. Some aren't printed that well, but none are completely messed up. They're on thin, non-glossy paper, but what do you expected for a buck? 

Does it look like the listing photos?

Yes.

Do I think it's worth the price?

Definitely. These are fun. 



I had to get this tiny Anubis pin. 


Current Price: $1.07



How freakin' cute is this for a dollar? Come on. 

Does it look like the listing photos?

Yes. 

Do I think it's worth the price?

Yes!



I liked these little clips, so I ordered the dark blue one. 


Current Price: $1.96, but I paid $1.67.



He came with some paint missing from one eye, but it cost less than $2. There are some things I'm going to give quality leeway to, just because they're so cheap. 


Does it look like the listing photos?

Yes. 

Do I think it's worth the price?

Yes. Just don't expect perfection. I honestly don't mind that he's damaged, because he's going on my work purse and will get beat up anyway. 




Ah, cute pastel chonk dragons!

You'd think I would pick the green or blue, but I was drawn to the purple. 

Current Price: $9.48




He's so big!

He was described as 11.81" and that's accurate. 

He doesn't look as fluffy as the photos because of how he was packaged. He's plenty fluffy. 



So round. 


Does it look like the listing photos?

Yes. 

Do I think it's worth the price?

Yes. He's very cute, large and soft. 



Is this a character I don't know? There were at least three plush with different expressions for this same cat. 


Current Price: $11.93



SO CUTE. 

He's described as 7.87", but he seems taller. He's probably not, but he feels like he takes up a good amount of space. 

Fur is super soft!




He's a very dark blue that shows better here.


Does it look like the listing photos?

Yes. 

Do I think it's worth the price?

Yes! Love him. 





Love these cuties. 

I don't see the white one in the listing I bought from, though the image of the three is the main listing image. They do have the orange, though he's pictured separately. 


Described as 11.8" and that's accurate.


Current Price: $10.48




He is so soft and cuddly! I adore this guy. 


Does it look like the listing photos?

Yes. 

Do I think it's worth the price?

Yes! Perfect for spooky season. I expected him to feel cheaper, but he's really nice material.


Now we come to my trouble item. Not a huge problem, but still, it was wrong. 


These are currently sold out. I paid $6.48.


Now there are clearly three sizes. The listing says it's 14.96", so that would be the pink one at the top. The measurement photo in the listing, however, is for the smallest size of 5.9". So the listing itself is misleading. I knew I was getting the little one though, because it was obvious on my order page. 



This is what I got. 

The size is right, but she's not wearing a blouse. 


Annnnnnnd she's a keychain. (And has a little dirty spot on her forehead, but that's okay.)

So I got the right size, but the one in the photos had a blouse and was not a keychain, although the latter would have been easy to hide in photos, as I did in the first photo.

Does it look like the listing photos?

NO.  

Do I think it's worth the price?

Yes, I do. She's not what I expected, but she's still nicely-made and a fair price. 

Here's a final photo of all my plush from both orders. You can see the variety in size and get an idea of the size thanks to the bookshelf background.

PROS: Cute items that are mostly accurate to the photos in the listings. Items were shipped pretty quickly and arrived in a fair time, considering they're all imports. The quality on many pieces was better than I was expecting. Will give refunds in the form of a store credit if the price goes down within 30 days after you've placed your order. 

CONS: Packing could be vastly improved. Boxes should be used for fragile items. Refunds should also be easier to get if an item arrives broken. I don't want to have to send broken shit back. One item wasn't anything pictured in the listing at all, but it turned out okay. 

Will I order from them again? Yup! I think their stuff is fine, though I will think twice before ordering anything else fragile. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

NEWS: Far Out Toys' Squadz Place


How long has this picture been hiding on Youloveit? 

Over on IG, Far Out Toys has been teasing their new Squadz Place line. I decided to put the name into Google and the first thing that popped up was a Youloveit post, but I have zero recollection of ever seeing this. I check Youloveit every day and I sure as hell would have remembered these.

Weird. 

Anyway, sorry, Far Out Toys, but your figures have been seen. They've been kinda annoying with the teasers. I don't like too much of that. 


So what do we know? They're supposed to run $14.99 each and there are six of them. Each figure is 3.75" tall. 

They come in a little playset crate and these are actually super cute. I'm not a playset person, but I will keep these and possibly display some. They even connect to add to displayability.

There are two fashion accessories and one crate accessory, aside from the basic outfit the figure is wearing. 


I do think these are adorable and I'll buy some. However, I would never look at these and think "Hey, that's Tokyo style." 

So for anyone who follows fashion, is any of this stuff actually a "Tokyo trend?" Or is the company just slapping "Tokyo" on there to try to get people's money? 

Possible false advertising aside, I like the variety of designs. Lots of different hair lengths and styles and only two of them have longer hair. They realize girls wear pants. All but one have black as part of their color scheme. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Obviously they're promos from Far Out Toys, so main credit goes there. My source is Youloveit. I do not normally actually post their photos, but this post is so buried that I have no idea how I and all of my friends missed it, so I'm sharing the info. And here's the link to the post itself:

https://www.youloveit.com/dolls/3215-squadz-place-tokyo-trends-dolls.html

Way back on page 20! So from last year, most likely. 

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

TEMU REVIEW: Mermaid Doll


I'm sure a lot of you are aware of Temu. I keep seeing ads for it everywhere! They managed to finally catch my attention by constantly showing me pictures of these beautiful mermaid dolls. I was unsure about ordering from them, but I managed to find this lovely pink mermaid on ebay. I ordered her and was amazed to see she looks exactly like the photos on Temu. 



These mermaids are pretty huge. She's over 17" tall! 


Her colors are more vibrant in person than in my photo.




Her face is gorgeous! Her head is a soft vinyl, while the body is lightweight plastic. She doesn't weigh much for as large as she is. 



Her arms are very poseable. 





She has cute little feet buried under her "fin."

One important thing to note is that her outfit is not removable. Every piece is glued on. I'm sure you could get it off if you really wanted a human doll and not a mermaid, but it would destroy the outfit. 

She's easily one of my favorite mermaid dolls in my collection. She's absolutely stunning, especially when you consider the low price!

I have since placed two more Temu orders and they're set to arrive in a couple days. I'm going to be doing unboxings here and comparing the actual product to the photos on the app. I mostly ordered plushies, but I did get some Rainbow High stickers, and the orange mermaid like this one. (Accidentally ordered two of her, so maybe I'll do a giveaway...)

In this particular case, the doll looks exactly like the photos and I recommend ordering some if you love mermaid dolls. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Stock image from Temu at the top, and then the rest are my photos. 

REVIEW: Shop Disney's ILY New Fashions


I ordered three of the Shop Disney ILY outfits and finally got the chance to open them up and try them on my girls. I also have the new Jasmine dress, but I want to put that on the Target exclusive doll and the only one of her I've seen had messed up lipstick. I wish they'd list her online! Bah. 


Anyway, I initially thought I was safe from most of the new stuff, but the boots and jacket won me over on the Mad Tea Party outfit. 



The outfit consists of a t-shirt, a jacket, a skirt, a pair of combat boots, a necklace, a purse, and some ears that I'm not putting on my doll. They're cute, but I'm not that into the whole Disneybounding thing. 



The Cinderella fan doll offered to model this for me. She was bored of her fancier outfit. 

This looks pretty cute on her. (She's still wearing her own earrings.)



I loved these dolls when they came out but photographing her here really emphasizes how much better the painted eyes are. The newer dolls are so much less starey. 




I love the detailing on the boots. 




The jacket is gorgeous. 



I think she looks super cute in this! I almost gave it to the Mickey fan doll, but I had something else planned for her. She would have looked great in this, too, though. 

So she's wearing the entire Tea Party outfit, minus the mouse ears, and with her own watch and earrings. 

My little nitpicks are that the skirt should be a little more low slung, and that the necklace floats above the shirt instead of looking how a necklace actually would. 



So what outfit did I have in mind for Mickey girl? This one. 




The Merida fan outfit is a tank top, kilt, hoodie, shoes, purse, glasses, belt, necklace, and earrings. 

The Mickey doll does not have pierced ears, so she won't be wearing the little arrow earrings, but they're very cute. I also don't like the safety pin necklace, so I set that aside. 



I did have some struggles with this one. 

The tank looks cuter untucked from the kilt, though I didn't take a photo of that. However, the belt is too short, so the tank has to be tucked in so the belt can look like it's worn over the skirt. 





She looks great in these colors. 





The placement of the belt really doesn't matter because all of that cute stuff gets covered by the hoodie. While I love this piece, I hate having the tank and belt covered! I think I would have done this as a zip front hoodie instead of a pullover. 



The glasses are actual glasses, not sunglasses. I love them. 




Glasses off and holding the purse. 





Another angle. 




Glasses back on. I'm going to have her be a glasses-wearing girl. 





And one more. The glasses are even cuter in person when they don't have the flash glare on them. 

I put the purse in my storage box. I like it, but it seems a little out of place without any of the other archery-themed pieces in use. 

I love this outfit on her, but as a whole, it could have used some tweaking to make all the pieces work together better. 




And finally, the Haunted Mansion outfit. 



This has a tank top, sheer black blouse, skirt, fishnet-type socks, shoes, bat necklace, purse, and mouse ears. (Once again, not showing the ears beyond this.) 



The Ursula fan was made to wear this outfit. 



I didn't actually take many photos of her because she's shows it off so well in just a couple. 


No real flaws with the outfit itself. My only complaint is that my socks weren't the same lengths. 

She kept her own earrings, but the rest is the Haunted Mansion outfit missing only the mouse ears. 

I love her in this, but I also loved her in the Ursula all-black ensemble. I was disappointed my doll had a bit of lipstick roughness and that there was a cut in her pants, so I'm using this as an opportunity to buy a second one. I'll put her in the all-black outfit and they'll be twins with differing fashion styles. 

I hope to find the Target doll soon without flaws, and I hope the Cruella fan is orderable soon, too! 

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.