REVIEW: VIP Hair Academy Series 1

I finally got my hands on VIP Hair Academy! I hate that the newer IMC Toys dolls never made it here but importing these and the Series 3 Cry Babies BFF wasn't that much more expensive. I'm thrilled we're getting VIP in the form of the Hair Makeover line. I hope they continue. 

Anyway, recently, I discovered Giselle and Hailey for sale on Tradeinn/Kidinn. I ordered them both, even though they were my 3rd and 4th favorites. I was just happy to have some of the line. When I'd first looked into them, Amazon DE wasn't sending them to the US. I looked again on a whim, after placing the Tradeinn order, and there they were, now available for shipping. 

Hailey and Giselle were $30.99 each on Tradeinn.

The dolls are varying prices on Amazon DE. Chloe is 12 Euros and change, but Mia is 42 (the main reason I didn't get her). Hailey is 17, Lexie is almost 27. I can't find Giselle, but she's probably there somewhere. 

My Tradeinn order arrived yesterday and the Amazon one came today, so I'm able to do these all together. 

I don't have boxed pics of Giselle or Hailey, because Tradeinn slaps these big stickers on the boxes and of course, they were right over the dolls and didn't peel off neatly. 

So here are Chloe and Lexie in box.

The dolls each come with a barrette clamped around some hair bands, a brush/comb of some kind, and various hair accessories. 

They each have a pamphlet which shows their pictures, their dog's picture, and some ways to do their hair. I didn't take pics of those. 

So this is Chloe's stuff. I guess you're supposed to put water in the pink/purple thing and it does hair color stencils. 

Chloe is my favorite of all the VIP dolls. My not so inner 80s child loves neon forever. 

Charlie, the designer of Charlie Bears, likes to refer to her bear's eyes as "who, me?" eyes. Well, the VIP line definitely have "who, me?" eyes. Some people may not like them. I find them endearing. 

Her earrings are a yellow X and a purple O.

 

The back sections of her hair are not done in the Jasmine style of the front pieces. (I'm not sure what the actual name for this hairstyle is. Maybe bubble braids? I just call it Jasmine hair.)

The rooting here is not looking so good!  

Okay, better.

I'm opting to leave it like this and not do the Jasmine hair myself. I like this neon watermelon thing she's got going.

So that is Chloe. 

This is the boot mold Quinn uses.

Here are Giselle's pieces. I think that ice cream thing is a hair twister? 

The little barrettes are cute. 

I don't get why they'd give her a bow hairstyle only to block it with this giant plastic bow. 

Better. 

She's my fourth fave, but she's super pretty. Her hair colors are nice. She's got that creamy light pink I'm a fan of. 

Her earrings are bows. 

They each have little hair accessories, but they're attached to the pouches or pockets they're in and I'm not undoing them. 

Rather plain shoes compared to the others, but still cute. 

Hailey's hair activity is glitter. That little star at the top is filled with superfine glitter that I may have sprayed on myself while opening everything. I'm not a glitter person, but this is honestly, more pretty than I'm used to glitter being. The pink section has sticky stuff that holds the glitter in place and those are little stickers on the bottom. 

Hailey's my third fave. 

I think she has the worst outfit though. I like that it's white and silver, but the VIP ribbon is too much for me. 

She's still really pretty.

Megan has this earring mold. 

From the back. 

Best footwear in the line. 

Lexie has a hair marker. 

My second fave after Chloe. 

I'm picky about red and pink together, but I love how all her colors go together. 

Her earrings are rainbows. 

I wish some of these colors were in the front. 

Nope. 

So here is everyone except Mia (too expensive) and Evelyn (THEY BETTER MAKE HER). 

I love these girls. They're adorable, have mostly nice hair, mostly cute outfits, and cute shoes. I don't care that they can't bend their knees. 

I hope Megan and Quinn (and hopefully Evelyn) do well enough that we get more on our shelves here.

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.

REVIEW: VIP Hair Makeover MEGAN & QUINN

Going to do things a little differently today. I've got two lines to review and instead of my usual one review per character method, I'm going to do everyone in one post. 

I ordered the two VIP Hair Makeover dolls from Walmart. 

These are $19.97 apiece. There are three characters, but only two are available at the moment. 

This is Megan. 

And this is Quinn. 

They had better make Evelyn or I will be MAD. 

The art for this line is super cute. I should have taken pics of the sides of the boxes. There's an illustration of the girl you've bought and it's not the same pose as the ones seen here. 

I originally didn't like the hair color selection for each girl. It's like they picked most of them to match and then added one that clashed, making sure to place it front and center in the bangs. Megan's pink in the art is a little darker than this and I think it does look better, though the doll is adorable in person and it looks better in real life than in the promo pics. Or maybe she's just so cute that she's convincing me it looks better. 

LOVE her makeup. I'm always a sucker for dark purple lipstick. 

So you pull the little beads in her hair and these bows form. 

It's cute, but I prefer them down, I think. 

She's got a couple braids. 

She comes with a fairly useless brush and some hair stickers. 

Jumping to Quinn, she comes with some hair confetti stuff that I think you stick on using the substance underneath the foil. I'm not messing with any of this. 

Behold, one of the shortest doll dresses I've ever seen. 

I hate it. 

Thankfully, the girls of Be Fashion Academy had a dress for Quinn. 

The orange of the dress is bolder when it's not in the camera flash. It actually works well to tie the orange in her bangs together with the rest of her overall look.

I really wish her bangs didn't cover this up!

Mine has a little lipstick misprint, but I like it. It almost looks like she's biting her lip. 

Quinn's hairplay things are in the back. 

I dunno. They're just kinda lumpy. 

Not a fan. It's a cute idea and as I kid, I probably would have enjoyed changing her hair if I was changing her outfit, but as an adult, I prefer them down. 

Body comparison with Rainbow High. 

This is pretty cute. 

Okay, we've looked at them. Now what else do you need to know?

The knees are not articulated in any way. Not a dealbreaker for me, but it is to some. 

Megan stood on her own easily. Quinn is less stable.

If you have any of the VIP Pets, the hair is the same quality. Very soft and nice. 

I love them. I'm so happy to see these coming stateside. Amusingly, they came out right after I ordered the four I wanted from the original Hair Academy line. I'll be showing them off once they get here. 

I thought I'd love Megan best, thanks to the makeup and the yellow, black and blue hair, but Quinn holds her own enough that I love them both equally. Her skintone is gorgeous! Really, really hoping Evelyn comes out. Don't screw this up, IMC.

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.

NEWS: IMC Toys' VIP Hair Academy...in the US?

How long have we been waiting for VIP Hair Academy? We still don't have the original series in the US, but Walmart popped out some surprise NEW releases! Amusingly enough, I just imported four of the first series. I'm glad I have them coming. These new ones would have made me want them even more. 

These are called VIP Hair Makeover instead of Academy.

MEGAN:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/VIP-Hair-Makeover-Megan-Fashion-Doll-Transformable-Hair-and-Hair-Stickers-Kids-Ages-3-Years-and-up/5091859608

Megan is currently sold out. I bought one, but mine didn't go right into "preparing" like Quinn did, so I'm a little concerned I may not get her. Ah, well. They'll be back in stock someday. 

I adore this doll's face. That's the main reason I bought her. 

I like her hairstyle, but it's like they just fired several darts at a color board to choose the hair colors. How do the black and light pink go with the brighter blues and greens in the back? No idea. 

Her dress is cool, but also much cheaper-looking than the clothes from the original dolls. Boots are cute. 

QUINN:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/VIP-Hair-Makeover-Quinn-Fashion-Doll-Transformable-Hair-and-Glitter-with-Heart-Shape-Beads-Kids-Age-3-Years-and-up/5087164177

Quinn is in stock.

She's also really pretty, but her dress is terrible. Cheap fabric, bad cut. 

Her bangs are...interesting? I dunno. They look okay in some of her promos and horrible in others. 

Again with the really random hair colors. The two fat orange streaks on the bangs? Bizarre. 

These dolls are $17.97. Very cute faces, but a clear downgrade from the originals. Some unusual choices. Not sure they're going to grab the attention of the target market. 

There is apparently a third one named Evelyn. I've always loved that name. I'll have to try to hunt her down!

PHOTO CREDITS: Walmart

NEWS: IMC Toys' VIP Hair Academy

This first official link to a VIP Hair Academy doll has been found on Amazon.de. I totally forgot about this line. 

IMC Toys are most know for their VIP Dogs (and Cats) and the Cry Babies line with their accompanying BFFs. 

While I do like the VIP Pets a lot, I've never bought a Cry Babies BFF because they suffer from next level sameness. Almost all of them are white. There are maybe two with brown eyes. And so far, both series have used the same color schemes with minor variances. The entire first series uses only white, pink, pale yellow, blue (mostly pastel), purple (mostly lavender), and a hint of black on the dalmatian girl. The second series uses the same colors except there's no black, one girl has a neon yellow jacket, and the strawberry girl has red (or dark pink?) shoes with tiny green bows. They're adorable dolls, but they're so boring theme-wise. Unless you like pastel, I guess. Then you'd love these. 

So the Cry Babies are frustrating, but VIP Pets are usually quite good at having a wide array of colors. Being that these Hair Academy dolls are part of the VIP Pets world, I expected the same. 

Nope. They went the Cry Babies route. 

The one on the right is one of the better ones. She at least knows red exists. I like her makeup and her hair colors are more unusual. You don't typically see pink, red, blonde and blue together. I like her hairstyle, too. The bangs flatter the big-eyed face. I hate the headband and braid earrings, but that's fixable. I'm also not really feeling overalls as a full garment, but I do prefer them to most of the others' outfits. I'd get this one. From what I remember, I think she's a deluxe version of one of the four girls. Probably the pinky one next to her, as they both have freckles and the same eye color. Neon girl has freckles, but I'm pretty sure her eyes are green, and the left two have blue eyes. 

Moving on to the pink one. Well, she's pink. Pink and mint green isn't a bad color combo. Certainly been done a lot before, but it's better than others. I don't hate her outfit, though I certainly don't love it either. An easy one to skip.

Then we've got the ambiguous tan girl in the middle. I actually really like her doll. The hair colors complement her nicely and I like her makeup. Definitely love her boots! They're awesome. But I absolutely cannot stand that outfit! It's the worst one of the five. I hope these fit other clothes because she needs saving. 

Neon girl is probably my fave. Not shocking. If I can't have goth, dark jewel tones, red, or orange, I'll take neon next. 80s kid. She's the only one whose earrings I like. I like the vinyl outfit. The pawprints on her and tan girl make me wonder if they're training to be groomers. Not that you'd wear anything like these outfits to groom. I love all her hair colors. Looks like dark pink, light pink, chartreuse and maybe blonde mixed with the chartreuse on the hidden pigtail? 

And then we have Mia, the girl in the listing. You can see pics of all she comes with on Youloveit and follow the link to the original listing. I'm not posting all the accessory pics. 

Oh, poor Mia. She not only has 80s bangs but they look lopsided. I'm also sick of the one black girl in the line so often getting the purple hair. Shana rocked that look in the 80s, but that doesn't mean it has to be the go to. Mia would have been cute in any of the color schemes the white girls have. I like her outfit okay. It's nice to see multiple fabrics, though I'm not a big fan of the fraying on the skirt. Her shoes are bland, and I would have given her pink instead of the neon girl or overalls girl. Neon could have had chartreuse and overalls red. I want to like her. Her skintone is gorgeous in the boxed pic. And she has brown eyes! But I just can't with those bangs. 

So yeah, those are the first series VIP Hair Academy. The four on the right should be the regular line and overalls is deluxe. I'm pretty sure I'm remembering that right. I think the dolls are really pretty and show promise, but I want to see way more diversity in future lines. 

PHOTO CREDITS: IMC Toys promos from Amazon.de.