BEARRIVAL

 

Well, I did it again. I let months go by without a Charlie Bears update. Ah, well. Let's catch up!

Earth Elf is so tiny and cute. And surprisingly soft. 

My last one featured the first three of the Bearhouse dragons that I got. This is Spades, the fourth one. 

Those teeth. 

Pathfinder is a thylacine/Tasmanian tiger. He looks quite a bit more like a dingo. I think they could have tried harder here. He's still very cute, but I love thylacines and would love a better plush of one. 

Ramble is really cute, but I don't think I've tried to cuddle him yet and I've had him since April. I do love his horns though. He's a Pyrenean ibex. 

YETI!

He is HUGE. Definitely my biggest CB character, though I used to have one even bigger. He stands nicely in his spot in my room, which tempts me to get one of the 30" ones I really want. I can't afford one right now, which is the only thing holding me back. 

So the ones above were all April arrivals. The rest are all June. We've had nothing in July, but a huge shipment is impending, so I'll have four newbies throughout August. 

This is Miss Johnson, but I absolutely got her because her colors remind me of Pizzazz. Therefore, this is actually Miss Gabor. 

Water Elf goes along with Earth Elf, only he's a little bigger. 

Super super soft!

Sofia is gorgeous. She was one of those surprise exclusive specials that we didn't know about, but I had to get her. There's something elegant and eldergothy about her. 

I had been wanting this grump for probably a year or so. I'm grateful he waited for me! He's just amazing in person. This is Heartwood. 

There's a kid-friendly CB line called Bear & Me. They're basically made to compete with Jellycats, in my opinion. Similar structure. 

Well, they made a Nessie and I had to get her. She's got six legs just like the big one. 

Stepping Stones is my big win of the year. He's a $231 bear. Quite large at 22.5" and made of lush materials. 

I paid...

Wait for it.

...$69.

Someone made a little pricing error during their big sale and I got lucky and ordered him before they fixed it. 

These next five are my most recent buys. 

The dragons were first Bearhouse line of the year. The second? GARGOYLES. 

You know I needed them all.

This brown guy with the hair tuft is Bartizan. He's one of my two faves. 

Drawbridge here is the second of my faves. 

Gorgeous blue and I love the horns. 

Spires is the third of the larger 10" gargoyle size. 

Then in the 8" size, we have Moat, who's the most typical gargoyle style of the five. 

And finally, Porticullis in her bright purple. 

That's it for my most recent arrivals. This month, I'll be adding two new dragons, including my most wanted of the year, and two wonderlandiful characters. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine. 

PRETTY LITTLE PUPS UPGRADES

It's one of those can't sleep kinda nights, so let's do some random posting. 

Today, I got a lot of five Pretty Little Pups in the mail. I have the full set, but some of mine aren't exactly perfect, so when I see them for good prices, I grab upgrades. So let's take a look at my collection in alphabetical order. 

This is Alphie. My childhood one is on the right. Those bows really did not hold up well to being constantly played with and enduring moves. For context, we moved a lot when I was a kid, and my small toys like these were basically crammed into two giant cardboard boxes. They got banged around a lot. 

The upgrade I just got is on the left. Bow intact, even the fabric tail bow. Looking good! 

BOBO! Bobo is my adulthood favorite. She was my most wanted of the handful I still needed up until I got her a few years ago. That one is on the right. She has a weird condition where her paint is very unstable. Like it rubbed off in places after I washed her with soap when I got her. (I usually give my plastic vintage toys a scrub upon arrival.) But I've never had one of these with the paint practically melting off. It's weird. So when I saw the lot I just received and saw the gorgeous Bobo on the right, I had to buy it. Yeah, fully admit that I bought them just for her, but $30 for five is a really good price, too. She's in amazing condition with both plastic and fabric bows. Love her!

Boomer on the left was the last one I got in childhood. She held up fairly well, but the upgrade has all her hair intact. 

Doxie on the right was very well-loved, as my childhood dog was a dachshund. She's still in pretty good shape though. The upgrade has all her hair and, interestingly, a slightly different shade of peach paint. 

Not in bad shape at all, but I need to find this girl with her plastic bow. 

I've probably mentioned before, as I've done several posts on this line, that Peppi was my childhood favorite. She got into a bunch of shenanigans. I loved poodles when I was a kid. 

Someday I'll find an upgrade of this girl. 

Puffy is the weird one of the line. I don't want to say she's my least fave, because I don't have one, but she kinda sticks out by being entirely pink. Most of the others have at least one natural color on them. Doxie I give a little leeway to, because her peach isn't that far off a natural red. I mean, okay, it kinda is, but it's closer to natural than pink. 

Puffy has fab hair though. I'll get an upgrade with the plastic bow someday, but I doubt I'll part with this one because those curls are awesome. 

I'm pretty sure Scotti was my first one. I loved black, even as a kid. I think Trixie and Doxie were next. 

She's due an upgrade for hair reasons, but this one is still super cute. 

I love Snowball, but I feel bad because they did not try hard enough on his eyes. 

Upgrade needed for plastic bow reasons. 

Oh, Spanky. I'm sorry about your stock name and for chopping all your hair off. She had fluffy hair like Snowball's. Someday I'll find an upgrade. 

Speckles on the left was the first I found as an adult collector. Speckles on the right I got recently, because she was an upgrade and she came with the backcard.

Oddly enough, the right one has no speckles!

And finally, Trixie. Upgrade on the left, childhood on the right. 

So I have six of them with good upgrades and six that still need them. The hunt is always on!

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine. 

REVIEW: AMERICAN GIRL + WEDNESDAY

I've been with American Girl since the beginning. I read all the books in the local library. I had the original Molly, Bennett, her Christmas dress, and Samantha's Christmas dress and nightgown (because I liked them more than Molly's...sorry, Mols). I got back into them in 2007 when I went to the American Girl Place store in New York. I've adopted loads of dolls and rehomed several, too. But I've gotten pretty picky now, mostly thanks to the fact that I don't have a ton of space. 

However, do you know what I have space for?

The first ever goth American Girl!

I doubt we'll ever see another goth. It's not exactly AG's thing. And this collab completely took me by surprise. Like did anyone see this coming? 

But as a fan of both AG and Wednesday, I had to have her. Good gods, she was expensive, but I had to have her. 

She comes with her piranhas from the first episode and, of course, Thing. 

Thing is an actual AG hand. I love that so much. 

She's perfect. So cute! 

I admit, I did not instantly hit add to cart on her. The price made me balk. I did say that if they'd made a new unsmiling mold, that would have gotten my money instantly. 

Yeah, Wednesday isn't known for smiling. 

But is this doll still cute and still her? Yes, she is. 

She came with a little hairnet to keep her bangs in place, but I had to do a trim on a few flyaways. 

Gah, love her. 

The dress is velvety. 

The necklace charm can flip from a W to an M (for Morticia). 

 

The nails!

The shoes!

Right now, she's hanging out on the back of the couch. We're going to keep watching The Prophecy movie series together and then we night rewatch Wednesday Season 1. It's almost time for Season 2!

Unexpected, Mattel, but well-played.

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.  

REVIEW: Monster High Fearbook VENUS & ABBEY

I ordered the new Fearbook pair from Target. 

This line continues to impress. I'd say Fearbook is the best line G3 does. The dolls are always very nicely-detailed and designed. 

Venus comes with a lot of gardening accessories. 

I don't love her jacket, so you won't see it on her. It's a bit plain. 

And while I do love the plant tray, those things fall out if you look at them wrong, so they went right into her storage coffin. 

Mattel did almost the right thing for her hair. They put it in a hairnet! I want to say she's the first MH to ever have a hairnet. Buuuuut they counteracted that a bit by stapling the net to her head with those stupid plastic tabs. They did the same with her sunglasses. So getting those out poses a risk to snagging her hair. I managed to do it safely and I'm thrilled with how her hair looks. 

Ugh, she is GORGEOUS. 

Venus has never been my favorite MH character. That's fallen to Cleo, Toralei, Abbey and Twyla. But in G3, Venus is the queen. She only has three dolls, but every single one is essentially perfection. (We do not speak of the pet disaster.)

I love this outfit so much. 

The gloves were a cute idea. My only wish is that they weren't randomly bright blue. Why not pink or red to match her overalls? Even orange would have gone better. These just stand out and make me not want to use them. 

These are perfect. Gah, I love them. 

So yeah, three nitpicks: 

-Please come up with a better way to package these dolls so their hair stops getting snagged. 

-Plants should have been more stable. I'm afraid to even display the tray. 

-Gloves should have matched her outfit. 

Aside from that, she's perfection. The doll herself is utter perfection. 

Abbey got the nicer jacket by far. 

She does have four crayons. They're in the cardboard box. I LOVE that kind of detail. Kid me would have super loved it. 

Oh, chainsaw. Nostalgia. 

Everything is cute, but other people have photographed it already, so I'm only showing what I like best. 

And she's adorable. 

Like Venus, my major complaint is how they packaged her. The stapled on sunglasses snagged her hair. You can see the loose strand on her right side especially. But removing them snagged both her bangs, which are held down underneath, and her ponytail, held at the top. One accessory removal messed up her entire hairdo. 

Much better in the jacket than the little sweater. And no apron blocking the skirt pattern. 

She's not my favorite Abbey. I do prefer the first two. I'm not sure what exactly it is about her face that seems a little off. Maybe it's that there's no hair blocking her ears? I love her ears though. 

I love the colors of her hair. 

Really love the jacket. 

LOVE. 

I also love her face more here. What's wrong with me? No idea. 

Classic Abbey chainsaw! I'm so glad they kept this idea from the original Art Class line. 

Yeah, she's definitely growing on me every minute. 

Fearbook is the best line. Don't care what anyone says. To me, it is. 

I'd love to see Spectra and Jinafire get dolls. Maybe this would be the place for Ghoulia to return, too. Who do you want to see in the Fearbook next?

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.