REVIEW: Bratz Fashion Pixiez JADE

 

Amazon surprised me yesterday by saying Jade and Lina were ready to ship. My estimated dates were like the first half of September. So I was pretty excited to get them today and I ended up not taking boxed pics. Oh, well. 

I actually opened and photographed Jade last, but we're saving the best review for last. 

I love Sasha's flower purse but Jade's is also fabulous. 

Those shorts are super cute, too.

Not my fave shoes in the line but definitely unique. 

Her outfit is gorgeous. 

Gorgeous face and cute earrings. 

Oh, I should mention that unlike Sasha and Yasmin, Jade had barely any hair gel. Just needed a quick brush, no washing. 

I'm not sure if she or Sasha is my second fave from the line. Both are stunning. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine. 

REVIEW: Bratz Fashion Pixiez YASMIN

 

Yasmin is the one pixie I did not get from Amazon. I got a notification from Target that she was in stock a few hours before they started popping up on Amazon. I ordered her and she arrived a couple days ago. My weekends are so chaotic at work that I can't even remember which day. 

But she needed gel washed out of her hair, so it's not like I could review her right away anyway. 

They made some interesting choices with Yasmin. 

She does have lovely hair.

Her top is nice, but the pants are a bit simple. 

She has really pretty makeup. Mine has a little lip error, but I wasn't going through the hassle of ordering one from Amazon and then returning this one and all that nonsense. 

Don't search the box for a second earring. She only comes with one. She doesn't even have the other ear pierced!

Her shoes are simple but pretty. Nowhere near as cool as Sasha's though. 

Her purse is also cute. I love the colors. I don't think it's as nice as the flower-shaped ones though. 

I like most of what she has going on. I do find the forced one earring to be a strange choice. What if she wanted to borrow someone else's pair? At least have both ears pierced. She does seem simple compared to Sasha. Like Sasha has a bracelet and a pair of earrings but Yasmin only gets one earring? 

She's a pretty doll but my fourth fave from the line. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine. 

REVIEW: Rainbow High Shimmers SKYLER

 

I got my first Shimmers the other day. There was the usual delay of waiting for her hair to dry after gel removal. 

Skyler is my favorite of the not new character Shimmers. Is the new character line even called Shimmers? I can't remember. Anyway. 

So let's talk about the slime experience. 

First, the slime and the four glitters are all in a plastic tray. You're supposed to pull off the plastic sheet that covers the backs of all the little compartments. Then there are plastic circles that sort of act like lids to hold the glitter and slime in place. 

Yeah, that plan fell apart when the plastic sheet wouldn't come off. I had to cut open the slime and then both of the glitter sections I wanted (the bottom pair). 

Let's just say, like many things involving glitter, this got messy. 

To open the legs, you press down on a tiny lever on the back of her thigh. Then the entire back of the leg comes off. You squish the slime into the open space, hook the heel part of her foot back into place, then snap the leg back on and wipe off any slime that squished out the seam. 

Now a lot of this may be common sense to those of you who work with slime and glitter. Or just have more common sense than I do. 

Don't commit the entire slime to the colors you want. You will not need much to fill the legs. If you break a chunk off and mix the glitter into it, then you'll still have more "blank" slime to mix the other colors into so you have options. 

Before you even start all this, find some sort of containers to keep the open glitters and slime in. The packaging is not even close to reusable. 

When I get my others, I'm going to use one single slime to fill all three dolls' legs. Then I'll have two unopened ones as backups for the future. If they don't dry out. 

The mixing and filling process is pretty easy. And the results are kinda cool.

I do plan on keeping the glitter, because years down the road, when the slime eventually dries, I could always fill the legs with glitter, which is eternal. 

Skyler's hair is very gelled. I did do a rinse on it and got some of it out, but it's still on the crunchy side. I don't want it all to fall apart though, so it'll stay this way. 

Her outfit is pretty cute, though a white shirt under things always reminds me uncomfortably of high school. 

Mine's makeup is a bit off, but I don't even care. I kinda like it. 

The pets are SO CUTE. 

I think she's my favorite Skyler that I own. I like the hair and makeup a lot. 

Bella should be here later today. Iris was supposed to be, but I'm not sure she'll make it. And Violet is slated for Monday. More reviews to come next week!

Before that, I'll have Fashion Pixiez Yasmin, whose hair is drying at the moment. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine. 

VINTAGE REVIEW: 1992 Glitter Beach Jazzie

 

Got the other Jazzie I'd been wanting to add to my vintage Barbie collection!

For some reason, Glitter Beach is one of the pricier ones to get boxed. Like the cheapest ones I saw were typically $45+. So when this one popped up for a BIN of $20, I jumped on it. 

I deboxed her and she immediately went into the salon. The poor girl had been living in a box with dust and possibly mold for who knows how many years? I gave her a good scrubbing and washed her hair. 

 

Now she's free and clean. 

Her hair is in a permabump. I could boil wash it but nah. Let her hair be tall. 

She's cute, like all Jazzies. She's got a little bit heavier makeup than other ones, but I think it suits her well. 

Now I need to get my hands on a Cool Times Midge. She's next on the vintage list. I should make a master list of all the ones I'd love to buy... And I need to get back to my vintage MLPs. But play line has been too good lately!

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine. 

REVIEW: Disney Adoorbs Series 2 LIZZIE

 

I found four of the new Series 2 Adoorbs in Walmart yesterday. These, like many other things, have suffered a price increase. They're up to $17.97 from their original $14.97. That has made me very picky on which ones I want. 

The four my store had were Bo Peep, Sulley, Mike and C3PO. 

My original plan was to only get Darth Vader and Ariel at that higher price, but I caved and brought Lizzie, the Mike fan, home. 

I do love her colors a lot and she's definitely adorable, so no regrets. I'll probably end up with the Aladdin fan, too, but no more! Only those four! 

These come with a little hanging globe thingy to display the figures now and I love that. Way better than the first series. 

Her shirt has cute little shoulder cutouts.

The vinyl skirt is attached to the pants, because of course it is at this tiny scale. 

 

Celia purse. 

Super cute! So glad I brought her home. 

I didn't take a photo of the collection lineup. The symbols this time are extremely easy. 

Mike and Sulley's are basically their heads. Bo Peep's is a shepherd's crook.

Ariel's is a shell. Aladdin's is Abu and Genie's a lamp. 

C3PO and Vader's are their heads, and R2D2's symbol is R2D2. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.

Upcoming Releases Rambling Part 2

Two major lines got updates yesterday, so let's talk about those pics. 

I'll start with Monster High, because it's easier. 

There are five dolls in the upcoming core refresh. It is yet again the same damn characters. This line hasn't been out that long, but I honestly have more than enough of all these characters. Except Cleo. I can never have enough Cleo, and yes indeed I recognize that is a personal bias. 

Other characters should have been here. 

Toralei: Though she does have a lot of dolls, none are a core refresh.

Twyla: Same reason. 

Abbey: Ditto, though she has fewer dolls. 

GHOULIA: Big time in need of a new doll. 

Purrsephone and Meowlody: Make them more accessible. I'd swap out Toralei if it meant these two could have new dolls that looked more like their show selves. 

Or hey, do an all-were line of core refresh Toralei, the twins and Catty, and then toss in a signature Howleen.   

I would have put Venus there, but I can't imagine anything beating her newer releases, so yeah. Spectra is vastly in need of something, but not a core refresh yet.  

Anyway. That complaining aside, let's look at the dolls. 

DRACULAURA: I wrote her off at first as cute but don't need, but she has grown on me a lot. I love the hair, the dress is cute, and I like the idea of the legwarmers, though they needed to be black. I hate the sweater/sleeves thingy. No doll needs ten damn bows on her. That'll come off. I'll likely get her. 

FRANKIE: Nah. While I do love the crimped hair and the outfit is very cute, I simply do not need yet another Frankie doll. If they'd had less boring makeup and a leg that actually matched something, I'd consider them more. 

CLAWDEEN: No. The doll is pretty, and the jacket and top are cute, but I'm sick of them trying to make her more like G1 and less like the show character I loved. STOP TAKING AWAY HER GLASSES. SHE NEEDS THEM TO SEE. If they'd given her simple jeans with sneakers or some sort of flat shoe, I might have been sold. Everything from the waist down here is terrible. And those earrings are hideous. It's pretty sad that the best thing is that croissant. I hate that they made her such an important, fun character and then barely produced any dolls that represented that character. 

LAGOONA: The doll herself isn't the worst and the black top is fine. Those sleeves are one of the ugliest things to come out of this entire G3 line. Absolutely hideous. That skirt has got to go. Lagoona is like Clawdeen for me. They keep ignoring her show self in the dolls. Do you know how Lagoona travels around the school? Via water. Would she wear anything to constrict her leg movement? No. I have the same problem with this mostly hobble skirt that I did with Core 2.0's long pants. They conflict with her movement. Now I'd be fine with her changing into an outfit like this above ground, but "core" to me means that it's an outfit that would have been seen on the character a lot had the show had enough budget to add more outfits. I'm well aware this is a moot point, because the show is sadly over, but it's not something I can get over easily. Show accuracy is always gonna be a hill I die on. 

CLEO: Oh, thank the gods. I have never really been into Cleo with pink makeup, but she makes it work here, and a lot of that is the sheer awesomeness of this outfit. WE FINALLY GOT PANTS, Y'ALL. FINALLY. Her top is great. I like everything here except the excess of kinda basic gold bracelets. They're not bad, but they've done better. Her hair is pretty. I want her now. 

And now we'll move on to even more complaining about show accuracy. 

AKA: The new TLS Jem dolls. 

First of all, TLS is utterly killing me with their prices. I feel lied to. Tricked. Deceived. Etc. They came on the scene with all their cool nostalgia products and they were incredibly affordable. Their biggest problem was how damn slow they put stuff out. (WHERE ARE INDIGO AND LALA?!!) Well, that's over. Now they're throwing product at us left and right and all of it is massively overpriced. 

We're not even going to talk about the SDCC bull. That's just slapping an "exclusive" name on a product as an excuse to make us overpay. 

So instead of Glitter 'n' Gold Jem and Pizzazz being the next releases, as teased at shows, they went with GnG and the rest of the Holograms. No Pizzazz. I am pretty livid about that, because she looks better than anything they've just given us. Now we're going to have to wait even longer for the Misfits, and screw that. Their songs are better.

GnG JEM: GnG has a price tag of $55, which is $30 more than the original Jem. That Jem is up to $30 now, but $25 more is still a lot. GnG looks quite good and she does come with a lot. Pretty sure it was on par with what regular Jem came with. I'm not okay with the price, but I am okay with the doll. 

I'm aware the Holograms are still prototypes. Really hoping they'll improve. Gonna nitpick anyway. I am definitely furious though that these cost $45.

KIMBER: Kimber's outfit looks good. They pretty much nailed it, though I do wonder if she'll have the socks or not. One photo does, one does not. Her hair is her biggest flaw. It's too red. Kimber on the show did not have Ariel red hair. Kimber the vintage doll did not have Ariel red hair. It needs to be more pink in tone. It also completely lacks any sort of 80s style and it seems like she's got too big a forehead. Hoping the forehead at least will be fixed on the final doll. Her makeup looks good. Overall, she's not awful. Just not quite right. 

AJA: I hated Aja from the first pic we saw, but now she's actually my favorite of the new release. Her face is super cute and the makeup looks great. My biggest complaint with her is, again, the hair. They left out an entire layer, so it looks way too thin and inaccurate. I also wish her top wasn't so close in color to the skirt. 

SHANA: I may get hate for this, but she's too dark. If you look at the show and vintage doll, even the Integrity dolls, her hair and skintone are supposed to be lighter. I'm all for darker skin, but not when a character is already established in almost every other media as a different tone. There was nothing wrong with Shana's skin that needed changing. Same with her hair. It's not that dark purple. It's much lighter. The version of Shana that she resembles is the one from the modern comic book. I loved that Shana, but it was established there that everyone had updated looks. They were drastically different from the original. This line is based ON the original. Everyone else looks more like the original. So why change her? In every single other way, she looks amazing, so it's disappointing to me that the doll herself looks so unlike the cartoon. That makeup though. Superb. I think I'm just going to pretend she's comic book Shana cosplaying. 

So yeah, there you have it. I definitely want Cleo 3.0 and Aja in my hands right now, but it'll likely be quite the wait before I get either.

REVIEW: Bratz Fashion Pixiez SASHA

I have been stalking Amazon for this line and the only one I've managed to order has been Sasha. I don't know what MGAE is doing. She also had an elevated price for...no reason? I dunno. She was worth it though. 

I only have one other doll with this newer Bratz body type, and I didn't love it on her, but the whole spindly thing works well for pixies. 

I love her makeup. Love the makeup designs for the entire line. 

Love the top!

The pants are gorgeous. 

The purse is spectacular. Adore that shape. 

Earrings are cute. Love the bracelet. 

The wings are my least favorite thing. They're a very odd shape. I give them credit for being unique, but they feel like they belong underwater rather than in a fairy line. 

 

These are my new favorite Bratz heels ever. Probably not fave boots, but definitely fave heels. 

The detailing!

Yeah, she is amazing from head to toe. Excellent quality. Lovely color scheme. Gorgeous face and clothes. She's basically perfect. The wings are growing on me. I think they're really going to look good on Lina with her darker vibe. Sasha was my third most wanted from this line after Lina and Jade, and she does not disappoint. 

Now come on, Amazon, put up the others so I can order!

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.