OVERVIEW: It's a Small World

Morocco and Japan

One more entry for the night! You can see why I had to follow up Cherry Merry Muffin with these girls. When Mattel stopped making the CMM dolls, they used the molds for these six little cuties. They were made in 1993 and represent Disney's It's a Small World.

The eyes and shoes are both painted differently than the CMM line and a different plastic was used for the limbs, but they're obviously still very similar.

I don't have any photos of my collection still on their backcards, but I'm sure there are some photos on ebay if anyone's curious.

North America and Mexico

The dolls each have their country name stamped on their outfit somewhere. I think they're all incredibly cute and it's nice to see such a diverse line. Mexico and Germany are the only two dolls to not have brown eyes!

Morocco and Germany are my favorites, but I love each one. They're all just super adorable. I think my only real complaint is that the Native American doll is called "North America." I think they should have done something else, because you know what's also in North America? Mexico.

Germany and Nigeria

 

The German doll took me the longest to find, because she would turn up in large expensive lots or she'd be loose and her hair would be a wreck. I got her in January 2012, while I'd had the others since October 2010.

These are my favorite Small World dolls. The large ones from the Disney Store were pretty cute, but I don't think they have anything on these!

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

OVERVIEW: Cherry Merry Muffin

Grape Ice, Penny Peppermint and Banancy

You would think I would have been really into these girls, but I wasn't! They're 6.5" scented dolls a little reminiscent of Strawberry Shortcake. Mattel produced various lines from 1988-1990.

This is going to be a short entry, because I only have three of these!

I always liked Chocolottie, who was in the first line, but I never got her, because I preferred the Series 2 version with green eyes. I never got that one either, so there's no Chocolottie in my little collection. Maybe someday!

Banancy is my only one from 1988's Series 1 set. She doesn't look like a doll I'd really gravitate toward, but I do. I think she's adorable.

Penny Peppermint is my fave from the whole series. She's just crazy cute and I'm a sucker for red. The wild curls on the top of her head are a little weird, but I just decided Penny's the eccentric of the group. She's from 1989's Series 2.

Grape Ice is my Series 3 doll. I did have Peach Perfection for awhile, but ended up either selling or trading her. 1990's Series 3 is the hardest to find set. Cookies and Cream is still on my wishlist. I just don't often shop for these girls.

CMM is a pretty simple line. There are only 3 series of dolls with 5, 6 and 4 characters (5 dolls counting the black version of CMM). There were really cute miniatures made, plus some playsets and fashions.

I think I might have to wander off to ebay now and see if I can find the Chocolottie and Cookies and Cream that I want!

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

RECOMMENDED SITE:
http://www.ghostofthedoll.co.uk/cherrymerrymuffin.php

OVERVIEW: Star Fairies

Princess Sparkle

I love the Star Fairies! This cute doll line came out in the mid-1980s. Let's say 1986 because that's when the cartoon is dated. The Star Fairies were made by Tonka, but sport the bodies of the Hornby Flower Fairies, a more cheaply made line from the UK.

The Star Fairies line consisted of 6 regular character dolls (Princess Sparkle, Whisper, Nightsong, Jazz, Spice and True Love), 1 special edition doll of Sparkle, 6 fashions, 3 flocked animal friends (cat, swan and rabbit), a unicorn with a coach, and a couple playsets. There was also a cartoon (with the main little girl character voiced by Drew Barrymore) and I have a story booklet, though I don't know what it came with.

Princess Sparkle is obviously the leader, sporting a pink and silver costume, and she's the only one with any sort of headdress. She has dark blonde hair and blue eyes. Her wings are pink and lighter pink. Sparkle lives in the land of WishComeTrue and grants children's wishes when they do the old "star light, star bright." She asks the wishing well for a helper and it sends her to Mount Wishmore, where she zaps a shooting star with her wand and creates the other five fairies.

Whisper

Whisper is the brown-eyed brunette. She was the only one I had in childhood. I adored her gorgeous purple outfit and I've always been a sucker for brunettes. Her wings are purple and pink. Whisper whispers a lot. Obviously. She's the fairy of secret wishes. I had my original for years, but eventually she became far too beat up to keep any longer. Her hair was falling out, there were holes in her sleeves from being redressed a lot. Those thin sleeves do not hold up well! She's still a fave, although my adult faves are different.

True Love

True Love's a platinum blonde with brown eyes, a rather neat combo. She's got the most boring costume, but a nice pair of wine and gray wings. True Love's the dreamy romantic. I don't typically go for the blondes, but True Love's actually one of the prettiest, I think.

Spice

Spice is your typical redhead with green eyes. Her hair's pretty wild and is always in her face. She's also got a lovely pair of wings in shades of red, yellow and orange. Spice is the energetic, headstrong one, deemed the "energy fairy." I thought she was going to be my adult collection fave, but she's not. She's surprisingly much lower on the list than I expected. Although I do love every one of these girls a lot!

Nightsong

Nightsong is my second favorite and the first one I got when I was recollecting. She's got a rather simple design, but it's very pretty, too. She has dark brown hair the same shade as Whisper's and brown eyes. Her wings are blue and white. Nightsong plays a little set of pipes that put people to sleep. She's the dream fairy.

Jazz

Jazz is my favorite! I love that she's the only one in pants, even if they are see-through. She's got dark blonde hair and blue eyes like Sparkle. Her wings are a dark pinkish red fading to lighter pink. Jazz is voiced by Susan Blu, the same wonderful voice actress as Stormer. How could I not love her? Jazz is energetic like Spice, but a bit less reckless about it. She's the "talent fairy."

Each skirted Star Fairy has adorably lacy panties. Jazz is the only one without them.

Royal Princess Sparkle

There are two different wing shapes. Whisper, Sparkle and Spice have one shape, while Jazz, True Love and Nightsong have another. They each have a star on their clothing. Three girls have gold stars and clothing details (Jazz, Whisper and Spice) and three have silver (True Love, Sparkle and Nightsong).

These dolls have fabulous detailed outfits and are very poseable. Definitely one of the better small lines from the 80s.

I've grown to like the Flower Fairies more than I used to, but I still think the US got the better end of the deal with the Star Fairies.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

RECOMMENDED SITE:
http://www.ghostofthedoll.co.uk/starfaries.php

REVIEW: DC Superhero Girls Supergirl of Krypton

Not a ton of pics for this review, because she's been out for awhile. My store just never got her in, so I ended up using my ebay bucks to get one there. And then my mom came home tonight and told me there was one on the shelves at Target. Sigh. But I think she was a return. There's no way we sold three of these things when we were just at the store and saw nothing not long ago.

Anyway, Supergirl of Krypton is the second in the DCSG origins series, the first being Wonder Woman of Themyscira. They cost $19.99.

In my opinion, the Wonder Woman is the far better doll, but then I also think she's one of the best dolls of the entire line, so I'm biased.

This new Supergirl has an outfit that was first seen in the DCSG comic pages. I like the top with the family emblem on the shoulder and the cape-like outer skirt with gold edging over the tighter blue inner skirt is pretty neat. My favorite part is the boots. I'm not huge on the signature doll's sneakers.

The boots look more like something comic book Supergirl would wear and I like that. They're a lovely shiny red, too. 

Supergirl has no bracelets or other plastic accessories, aside from a more textured blue headband than her signature doll has, a gold belt and the emblem on her shoulder. I think one bracelet would have been a nice addition. 

The new doll has wavier hair than the signature and a little twist to the right of her face. It's a cute hairstyle and makes her look different from the sig, which I always appreciate. 

I don't regret adding her to my collection, mostly because I totally adore those boots and I find the cut of this outfit appealing, but unlike with Wonder Woman, I think the signature is the stronger doll. 

Two DCSG reviews in one week! I wish I could use this power to summon Frost into stock. She's gotta be next! Although who knows when action figure Starfire or Hawkgirl will show up on shelves?

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: DC Superhero Girls Katana

People have been waiting for signature Katana for ages, but she's finally here! I still think it's silly that she was left out of the initial assortment. I mean, who says that a case has to be only three dolls now? That's lame. 

Katana is $19.99 like the other DCSG sigs. However, you will not find her in stores. She is an Amazon exclusive. 

I've had her on pre-order since...I think October? She was supposed to release on April 15th, but in true stealthy Katana fashion, she snuck into stock on Monday. 

Katana is very different from her first appearance in the line as last year's SDCC exclusive. Naturally, she's less detailed than the SDCC, but she has several improvements, too. 

This version looks like her animated counterpart, while the SDCC did not. 

Mine's hair seems more layered than my SDCC doll's. The one section was even loose in the box as you can see in the first photo. 

She has the red streak of the animated design and the painted-on white mask with a darker edge at the bottom meant to indicate depth. This is likely going to be her most common spot for flaws. I remember how the mask lines on the action figures varied a lot. 

This Katana looks cute and approachable, whereas the SDCC doll was definitely more battle-ready. 

The biggest difference between the two dolls is the eyes. Signature Katana looks straight ahead, while SDCC has a side glance. 

Her hair is soft and silky, like most of the DCSG line. I really like how it lays, although she does get strays in front of her eyes a lot. But that's only annoying when taking pictures! 

I did have a shot of her armor, but it came out blurry and I stupidly only took one. It's been a long day.

The armor fits more nicely than the SDCC doll's did. The chest plate is great because it's like they got my memo about the shoulder pieces being attached to the chest plate, not sitting awkwardly on her arms with a big gap in between. She just has the one arm piece now and that looks fine on its own. 

They also fixed my other big complaint about the SDCC doll: that she couldn't hold her weapons well. Katana's sword fits well in either hand. It's not loose at all. She can also hold the sai from the SDCC doll. I didn't try the shuriken. They still seem a little too small for the action dolls, but they're great for the action figure. 

Signature Katana's boots are a solid pearly white. I wasn't expecting the pearly color, although now that I know of it, it's obviously pearly in her promo shots. They still look more white and less pearly in those pictures though. I like it. Gives her a bit of flash. 

While sig Katana is less detailed than SDCC, I do feel she's actually a better doll. She represents the show character, which is always a plus. She has improved armor. Even though it's not as fancy, because it fits better, it looks better. I like her sweeter expression better than the side-glancing sass. Which is pretty surprising, considering I'm usually a big fan of sass. I do like the red and black boots on the SDCC doll, but that's the only thing I like better about her. 

Her ID card has some really cute art on it. 

When this doll was first announced, I saw people complaining because they'd paid more for the SDCC doll. Well, having two versions of Katana by no means devalues the SDCC. Exclusive dolls are still more detailed and automatically worth more than a regular release. Nor should children, the target audience for the line, ever be denied the chance to own a doll they couldn't otherwise afford. 

The selfishness of people never fails to blow my mind. 

I also saw complaints about her being an Amazon exclusive, but honestly, that makes it easier. There seem to be loads in stock. She hasn't sold out once that I've seen. It's easy to order online and now you don't have to stalk the stores, waiting for them to restock their already loaded shelves. 

Some people just aren't happy unless they're complaining!

So get yourselves to Amazon and get your signature Katana. She will not disappoint. And she makes me very eager for Frost to come out! I hope she does soon. 

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine. 

MONTH IN REVIEW: March 2017

Tulipop Gloomy and Fred

It has been a slow month for dolls, that's for sure! This month in review is going to be mostly plushies, so if you're not interested, you may as well move on. Like I said last time, it's doll lull, so I've been spending mostly on plush.

I pre-ordered Tulipop's Gloomy and Fred through my comic store and they arrived early in the month. I love Fred in particular, but Gloomy's really cute, too. 

LOL Surprise Rocker

The second wave of LOL Surprise finally made their way to stores, only to complete frustrate people because they only needed 3 regular and 3 limited edition balls but the assortment still held repeat after repeat from the first wave. I threw up my hands and went running to ebay to complete my collection. I still need the little twin babies, but I'm not in a rush. 

Enesco Nici giraffe

Many years ago, my mom and I were in this gift shop across from the mall back at home and I found a display of Enesco Nici items. There was an enormous giraffe that was probably four feet tall. I wanted him, but I didn't have $200 to spend on a giant plush. Well, I found this guy, who's much smaller at 21", on ebay for only $21, so I had to have him, Hes not the big guy, but he's a pleasant reminder.

I picked up one new vintage thing this month and that was the poseable Rainbow Brite. These poseables are annoyingly hard to find. I'm not sure they were released in the US. The others in the line are Twink, Baby Brite and Patty O' Green. I'm just hoping to add Patty to my collection someday. Not really interested in the other two. 

Not vintage, but definitely not new either! I finally completed my set of Tokyo Mew Mew food figurines. I've been after them all, although obviously not looking very frequently, for years. Lettuce was the last one I needed and I bought her on ebay at last. Mint will always be my fave. I had her for ages before I got around to buying the others. 

Spook got a friend from The Monster Cafe. I actually have a third one arriving possibly tomorrow, possibly Tuesday. I love these handmade plush. The materials are neat and I love the color combos. I still don't have a name for Mr. Orange and Black here, because most of what pops in my head seems too obvious! 

I've been on a dinosaur kick this month, so Patrick Parasaurolophus by Jellycat made a nice addition to my pack of dinos. 

I got a whopping ten new Charlie Bears this month. I'm not going to put up photos of all of them, since it's almost time for me to do another collection in depth on those. My "hug" as they call it is growing so quickly! I think I'm at 43 now. Although a fellow collector from Australia has only been collecting as long as I have, about a year, and said she's got around 200. Yikes! I feel rather conservative compared to that. 

Pansy and Daisychain

I have been a little more into the Heather Lyell-designed bears like Pansy and Daisychain here. I have five more of them on my want list, but I'm trying to cut back on buying old ones until I see if any pre-orders are coming in this month. Joining Charlie Bears groups on Facebook is awesome for meeting fellow collectors and seeing real photos of bears, but it's really hard on my wallet! 

Melody's awesomeness reminded me that I NEED to get Addy this year. I need to get Addy in the next few months really, because Nanea is coming in August or so. I also need to rearrange my computer desk display shelves, because the American Girls need more space!

Another reawakened old love is Disney Fairies. I've been pretty successful at finding the 3.5" Playmates fairies I realized not long ago that I'd accidentally donated before we moved. Tink and Bess are back in my home, Prilla is on her way, and I've got the book versions of Beck and Fira now, too. I just had the 2-pack variant outfit ones before. Rani is also back, although I'll still be looking for an upgrade for her. I do love fixing up toys though and mine is still pretty, so I'm happy to have her.

I got this amazing recumbent Anubis plush on Amazon. I love Anubis and Seth. They're my two primary deities, so I collect items of them when I can. I'm kind of picky, since I've got some great stuff that's hard to top. And also because a lot of merchandise gets Seth's ears wrong! This Anubis is fabulous though. I love him so much. 

Two more bears and then I'm done! Red Liquorice was a Today's Special offer from my stockist. She's been on my want list for ages, so I couldn't resist scooping her up. She goes perfectly with Chuck and Clancy, too. Red is interesting because she has a sixth joint. Most CBs have five joints: neck, arms and legs. Red has one in the middle of her torso, so she can turn sideways like so. It's really neat and I need to look up which others have this feature! She's also a standing bear, so she's got two special features, which is unusual.

And finally, this big guy to the left is named Kuma. He's 20" tall, but he's got as much girth as my biggest bear, who's 21". He's much darker in person. The flash picked up on all his subtle colors. Kuma's definitely one of my new favorites. Charlie Bears are called the "bears with personalities" and you can certainly see why when you look at Kuma. 

So that takes care of March. Technically, Kuma arrived on April 1st, but I didn't want to wait to share him. He's so gorgeous. 

I'm hoping to have some more doll stuff next month, but I'm not sure what's coming out. I will have a review of the DC Superhero Girls Supergirl of Krypton coming up, since I just bought her on ebay. And the signature Katana comes out on the 15th, so there will be that, too. Not sure if we'll see any new Monster High, Ever After High, Descendants 2 or any of the other new lines for this year, but it'd be cool if a little bit of new stuff came out! 

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Wonder Woman Battle Ready Movie Doll

I was surprised to see the Wonder Woman movie dolls in Walmart tonight when I went after work. I picked up the Battle Ready doll only, although I do want the Hippolyta one. I just wish she didn't come with the horse! I neither have space for nor want a doll horse. Anyway, Battle Ready and the one in the blue gown were $12.88 each.

I really love the look of these dolls. They did a pretty good job of mimicking her outfit without making it textured rubber or plastic. Her face is lovely and she definitely looks like the actress. The hair is decent quality, too, and not overly gelled.

My biggest surprise when I deboxed her was that she has no wrist articulation. Maybe this has been obvious all along and I just wasn't very observant with the Toy Fair photos and such, but I was surprised. I mean, she's Wonder Woman. This is a movie with a lot of action. She's a superhero. She should have articulated wrists.

Because she lacks the wrist articulation, she doesn't have the slip-on gauntlets like DC Superhero Girls Wonder Woman. Hers have big cracks up one side for them to be taken off and put back on. The top of her outfit sits a bit high and her belt also likes to sit too high. I do like the overall design, but a couple little tweaks would have improved it.

Her boots are awesome though! Easy to get on and off and a totally excellent design.

I liked the design of the lasso until I realized one big problem. Look at the back of the doll box. She's holding onto that one little bit hanging off the side. They didn't even make her grasping hand large enough to hold the entire lasso. I mean, you can't hold a lasso like she's doing on the box! Rope does not work that way. Rope also doesn't hang that way with the other bit all defying gravity.

I solved the lasso problem by running her belt through it.

Overall, she's a fun movie doll who resembles the actress and I like the outfit, but she lacks articulation that I think the character should have, she can't properly hold her one accessory, and the outfit pieces don't fit quite right in a couple places. If you want a really good Wonder Woman doll, I recommend skipping the movie lines (unless you specifically want Gal Gadot) and buying the DC Superhero Girls Wonder Woman of Themyscira. Way better value for your money!

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.