Monday, March 10, 2014

Zelfs Series 2 Review! :D

Last week, my mom and dad went on an out-of-town trip for a couple of days.  While there, my mom stopped by a Toys R Us and found several of the new Series 2 Zelfs! :D  She bought them and allowed me to open and review them.  (My evil influence continues!) ;)

Here are all of the Zelfs in their packages.  It was like getting a really early Christmas present! ;)

First up, we have Snap Jack, the Jack Frost Zelf.  Because of my current obsession with Frozen, this guy was at the top of my wish list.  Mom let me keep him for my own collection. :)

Snap Jack's Package Art


The back of the package features some of the other new Zelfies. :)


This time around, the rare Zelf is Jewely.  Like Miss Clover, she will be super hard to find.


Before going on, I thought I would do a comparison of the differences between Series 1 and Series 2 packaging.  Mermalade, on the left, is from Series 1, and Snap Jack is from Series 2.

The plastic "bubble", for lack of a better word, on the Series 1 packaging has a more gradual slope at the top and sticks out evenly all across the front.

The Series 2 bubble goes in closer to the packaging in the section that houses the accessories.  

It also has little raised sparkle marks on the plastic.  My mom found these really helpful, as she is not as familiar with the Zelf line as I am.  All she had to do was feel the front of the package to see if it was a new one. :)

This pamphlet guide to all of the new Zelfs was included in the package with Snap Jack.  (Sorry the picture is a bit fuzzy.) :{

A closer look at the different Zelfs and their personalities:

The other side of the pamphlet has a map of Zardenia, home of the Zelfs.


Snap Jack came with a blue plastic comb, three elastic hair bands, an an adorable snowflake charm.

The Zelfs are held in with a rubber band that holds them in place.  

They are also held in place by plastic pieces across their hair (sorry it's a different Zelf...I forgot to get a picture of Snap Jack's hair). :}

Here is Snap Jack with his accessories. :)

Snap Jack from the back.

I love the snowflake details on his back and arm.

Snap Jack has the same face mold as Buttershy.  (For more pictures of some of the different face molds, you can read my earlier post HERE...you'll have to scroll to the bottom).

Snap Jack in profile.

Because of Snap Jack's frosty theme, I just had to take a few pictures of him with my Disney Store Elsa doll. :)

Goofin' around...

Elsa thinks Snap Jack is adorable. ;)

Okay, on to Flitter, the Dragon Fly Zelf. :)

Package Art


I didn't take pictures of the backs of the other new Zelfs' packages since they were all the same. :)

Flitter out of his package.  He comes with the same pamphlet and elastic hair bands, a blue comb, and a dragonfly charm.

Back view

I love the detail on his glittery wings. :)

A closer look at his paint details.

Flitter has the Elfa/Miss Clover mold.

Flitter in profile.

Next up is adorable Lochlan, the Loch Ness Monster Zelf.

Package Art 


Lochlan comes with the same pamphlet and hair elastics, a green comb, and a Loch Ness Monster charm.

Back view

One thing I love about Lochlan is his movable tail, which can rotate in a complete circle. 


Some of Lochlan's paint details.

Lochlan also appears to have the Elfa/Miss Clover mold, but with added horns (I think that's what you'd call those). ;)  UPDATE: One of my readers pointed out that Lochlan's eyes and moth are slightly different than Elfa's, so she does not have the same face mold.  I also noticed some variation in the ears.  It appears Lochlan has a unique face mold. :)

Lochlan in profile

Next up is adorable Birchy, the Tree Zelf.

Package Art


Birchy comes with the pamphlet and hair elastics, a light green comb, and a tree charm.

Back view

I love the nifty artwork on Birchy's tummy, and his legs even have a wood grain pattern painted on them. :)  Birchy looks quite Narnian to me, almost a combination of Mr. Tumnus and a Dryad. ;)  (Although I think Dryads were girls.)  

Birchy's face.  More on his mold in a bit...

Birchy in profile.

I thought at first that Birchy was another Elfa mold, but when I compared him with Flitter, I noticed a few small differences.  For one thing, his profile is a lot flatter.

You can also see slight differences in the shape of his eyes.  His ears are a bit shorter, and his smile is not as wide as Flitter's.

Next up we have Teeny Genie, the Genie Zelf.

Package Art


Teeny Genie comes with the pamphlet and hair elastics, a pink comb, and a lamp charm.

Back view

Teeny Genie has some great details on her arm, bottom, and right ear:

She has the Pega Sue face mold.

Teeny Genie in profile.

When I first saw Teeny Genie, I thought she'd look almost identical to Pega Sue since they had the same face mold and very similar coloring.  However, as you can see from this picture, they actually are pretty unique from each other.

I think you could have both in your collection and not feel like you had two duplicate Zelfs.  They'd make great cousins or sisters, though. :)

The other new releases for Series 2 are the Masquerade Zelfs.  My mom was able to find Masquerade Flamy, Masquerade Buttershy, and Masquerade Mermalade.

We'll take a look at Flamy first.

Package Art


The Masquerade Zelfs have different packaging than the regular Series 2 Zelfs.  



They also come with a  special "leaflet".


There are only six Masquerade Zelfs:  Buttershy, Vampula, Spellinda, Mermalade, Flamy, and Pega Sue.

Flamy comes with a pamphlet, a pink comb, and a dragon crown.

Back view

A closer look at Flamy's fancy paint details.

Flamy has the Flamy/Mermalade face mold (duh). ;)

Flamy in profile.

Here is Flamy with his crown on.  It widens easily to fit over his hair.

I thought it would be interesting to see regular Flamy and Masquerade Flamy next to one another.  You'll notice that aside from their obvious paint differences, there are also slight differences in their hair color patterns.

Back view

I find I actually prefer the simplicity of regular Flamy's face paint, especially since Masquerade Flamy has almost an 80s rocker look about him (not my favorite look), but both are cute. ;)

Next up, we have Masquerade Buttershy.

Package Art


Buttershy comes with her own Masquerade Leaflet, a pink comb, and a purple and pink butterfly tiara.

Back view

Buttershy with her butterfly tiara on.

The tiara is open in the back and can be pushed open wider to fit over Buttershy's hair.

Buttershy has the Buttershy mold. ;)

Buttershy in profile.

Here's a look at regular Buttershy and Masquerade Buttershy.  Again, there are differences in the hair as well as the point.

Back view

I like both of these versions.  Masquerade Buttershy reminds me of a little kid that got her face painted at the fair. :)

Last, but not least, is adorable Masquerade Mermalade, the other Zelf mom let me keep. :D

Package Art


I decided to keep Masquerade Mermalade in the package, so I just took a few closer pictures of her paint details on her face...

...and body.

Here is as close of a comparison as I could get to regular Mermalade (mine has a few stains on her face) and Masquerade Mermalade.  I can't choose a favorite with these two either.  I like them both. :)

Here is my current Mermalade collection. :)  Since Mermalade is my favorite Zelf besides Miss Clover, I decided to try to collect all of the different versions of Mermalade.  I still need to find the Pearly and Matt Lil' Mermalades, and then I'll have all of the Mermalades made so far. :)

Here are all of the new Zelfies together. :)

I thought it was interesting how much shorter Snap Jack's hair was than all the other Zelfs. :)

Here are the Zelfs my mom is keeping for her collection.  (Notice the slight differences between Flitter and Lochlan's faces?)

And here's most of my current Zelf collection.  There are several more Lil' Zelfs that are interspersed among my AG dolls, and I was too lazy to find them for the photo. ;)

From left to right:  Super Mermalade, Pearly Lil' Elfa, Elfa, Mermalade, Glitter Lil' Mermalade, Glow-in-the-Dark Lil' Mermalade, and Masquerade Mermalade...

...the same Mermalades ;), Flamy, Glitter Lil' Flamy, Snap Jack, NIB Mermalade, Glitter Lil' Pega Sue...

...(Snap Jack, NIB Mermalade and Lil' Pega Sue again), Pega Sue, Buttershy, and Glitter Lil' Buttershy.

I have been a huge fan of the Zelf line ever since I first received Buttershy for a review from Moose Toys.  It is so exciting to see this line expand and continue.  They came up with some really cute new Zelfs for their second series.  They are fun to collect, very affordable, and make quirky conversation pieces. ;)  Kids love them, too.  My three girls are already talking about which of the new Zelfs they would like for their collections. :)

Another fun thing is that there are new Super Zelfs and Lil' Zelfs in the same designs as the new Medium Zelfs I've shared in this post.  There are not Super Zelfs of every Medium Zelf, but there should be Lil' Zelfs of every one. :)  

To see the rest of the new Zelf releases, check out their website HERE

If you'd like to see my earlier Zelf reviews, you can click the links below:





I'm looking forward to seeing what else they come up with in the future. :)  I'm also hoping to find Kitsu and Dandy Lion for my own collection...and perhaps some of those new Lil' Zelfs, too. ;)

Which of the new Zelfs is your favorite?

P.S.  I apologize for the slightly dark spot in many of these photos...I think there's something on my camera lens that I need to clean off! :}

23 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm going to have to be on a lookout for Owlmanda...I'm stoked that there is an owl-themed Zelf!

KrissyLou said...

Hi 'Belle, I've been wondering when you'd be posting about the new Zelfs! I only heard about them last week - then went hunting :) Thankfully our department store had all the ones I was wanting to choose from - so Flitter ended up coming home with me. I had fun taking some garden portraits of him on Sunday for Flickr. Your evil influence does continue! ;) I'm seriously considering a Masquerade Mermalade too... oh dear... :)

Unknown said...

Ok, I suppose I'm a little bias but I love Lochlan!!! If I ever got her it would be so fun to take her (I know it's him but Nessie's a girl) to Loch Ness and get some fun pics!

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Owls are definitely big right now, Unknown. :) I'd like to see Owlmanda in person...she does seem cute. A fitting choice for you, too. ;)

Lol, sorry KrissyLou. ;) Flitter is adorable...I'm sure your garden portraits were really cute. :)

This is the first we've seen of the new Zelfs, so we were thrilled to find them. Too bad it's a couple of hours away to the nearest store that carries them. :(

Caitlin, I agree. Lochlan is adorable. Hmm, I'd forgotten that Nessie was a girl...kind of funny that they chose to make Lochlan a boy when he was modeled after her. ;)

I do the same thing, though. Even though Mermalade's supposed to be a girl, I've always thought she looked more like a boy to me.

Lol, I actually had to go back to my picture of the pamphlet to make sure I got all of the Zelf genders right. I thought that Flitter was a girl until I read his bio. :}

Nina said...

The Zelfs are so cute! I love the small ones the best. I have yet to get one, but next time I go to Toys R Us, I'm going to pick one up!:)

Panthera said...

Thank you for the review!
And welcome back to blogging! I missed your reviews while you were gone. :o)

I've liked the Zelfs since I read your first reviews of them, but there hasn't been one that really hit all the boxes enough for me to import one (they haven't shown up here in Norway), until I went and looked up the rest of series 2 after reading this, and saw that Kitsu..
OMG, she's amazing! MUST HAVE HER NOW! Hopefully they'll become more common soon, and I can pick up a Kitsu from a UK Ebay seller. (There's currently not many new zelfs on ebay)
Might end up getting the Birchy too... I really like the facemold with the downwards angled ears. :o)

Anonymous said...

I love Zelfs! They are so adorable. Right now I have Wave 1 Lunanne, Wave 2 Flitter, and Masquerade Mermalade, Masquerade Buttershy and Masquerade Vampula. I also have a large Vampula. Mermalade is probably my favorite. I would like to get Birchy and Lochlan and maybe a few more of the wave 2's.

Ampy said...

Woooooow....
The new ones are pretty neat!
I like Kitsu,he is so japanese (he's based on a kitsune,which I think is a fox in japanese).

but I really love Snap Jack and Teeny Genie.Love their charms! would they work on fashion dolls?

you should take a picture of elsa and Snap Jack's charm if it does! :)

Ampy said...

sorry for commenting again,but I found doll news!
there will be new frozen dolls...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PagGuiuPsnM

they still have painted on clothes,but now they're more articulated and have bases!

Freja said...

im so happy that Zelfs just came to Denmark
Im gonna look for Elfa and Flamy

Of the new zelfs my favorite is Birchy
I love plants exspecially trees, and my favorite tree is actually birch.
But I allso Really like Flitter and Owlmanda.
I think the frog zelf is cute but he comes with a playset :( I have no interest in having a playset bit frogs are my favorie animal.

Juliet XD said...

Sorry to be off-topic (I love the Zelfs!), but I nominated you for the Liebster award on my blog:

Anonymous said...

My cousins love these. I think I prefer the trolls from the early 90's.

I've nominated you for an internet 'award'!
http://dollyconfessions.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/liebster-blogger-award-qa-from-april-of-of-dolls/

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Wow, thanks for all the comments! I'm so glad you guys are enjoying the post and the new Zelfies. ;)

Hi Nina! I hope you get your special Zelf soon. :) My favorites are the medium-sized Zelfs. I think they have the cutest faces. :)

Panthera, so glad you liked the review. It's nice to be missed, too. ;)

Kitsu is really cute, and I love Birchy too. I hope you're able to find them! :)

I agree, sailingintheark. :) They're so adorable and one of my favorite current toy lines.

Hi Ampy! I think the charms probably would work on a fashion doll. I'll try to get a picture up for you, but I'm still having issues with uploading pics to my computer, so it might take me a while. :}

I saw a little about the new Frozen dolls when I was researching Toy Fair 2014 news. I have to say, I'm not really thrilled with the Mattel versions of the dolls. I think their faces are not nearly as nice as the Disney Store faces, and I was very disappointed by the fact that they had mostly painted on clothing and minimal articulation. :( It will be interesting to see these new ones, though.

Freja, I'm so glad the Zelfs made it to your country. :) I hope you find your favorites soon! :)

Juliet and Anonymous, thank you so much for your nominations! :) I'll try to get to those as soon as possible. :)

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Whoops...I feel really silly. Sorry, "kewpie83"...didn't realize that was you at first! :} (I love your blog.) Thank you again!

misspiggy=awesome said...

Aww, the Zelfs are so cute! Sorry to go all off-topic, but I went to Target yesterday and they had this Barbie outfit set that actually looked like something a real person would wear, kind of! It had a red polka-dotted sleeveless blouse and capri jeans, and the other outfit was a pink sweatshirt with two bunny silhouettes on it and a blue and pink plaid skirt that is surprisingly long.
And I'm probably going to be customizing a Chelsea doll into Vanellope Von Schweetz. :D

Anonymous said...

There's a sale going on at American Girl! I'm so excited...

Anonymous said...

No worries. I hit 'reply' too fast and forgot to leave my name!!! I missed that you were already nominated. I won't take it personally if you skip my questions! (Answering 11 is tough enough!)

~Kewpie83/Ashley
Confessions of a Doll Collectors Daughter

Ampy said...

@Beastbelle..
ahhh...I see.
I get you with the computer issues...they can be a real hassle...

anyways...more dollie news on the black market.
it seems that they have cloned disney store anna now,but this time she has more joints than the disney store version...with a matching elsa version

I have links...

fake anna:
http://www.dhgate.com/product/2014-hot-toys-frozen-anna-12-quot-classic/184311327.html#svh-4-5|null:0

fake elsa:
http://www.dhgate.com/product/2014-hot-toys-frozen-elsa-12-quot-classic/184311252.html#s2-23-1|3747981629

fake elsa and anna pack:
http://www.dhgate.com/product/frozen-9-inch-snow-romance-dairy-queen-boxed/183323265.html#s2-6-1|3747981629

fake anna and elsa dolls with olaf toy(less articulated doll):
http://www.dhgate.com/product/frozen-figure-play-set-elsa-anna-classic/184170989.html#s2-15-1|3747981629

The Dolls said...

You are making it hard to avoid these little guys, I am so in love with Snap Jack!! (I like Jack Frost.)


Also, you've been nominated on my blog for The Liebster Award, here is a link to the post.


http://madnessandfun.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-liebster-award.html

Alice said...

Hi, I love your reviews and how you let your readers know when you won't be posting, but I would just like to point out that Lochlan and Elfa don't have the same face, Lochlan has a smaller mouth and slightly different eyes than Elfa, just wanted to point it out in case you didn't know.
P.S Sorry if that offended you.
P.P.S. Sorry for the grammar mistakes.

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Thanks Alice, I do believe you are right. ;) Some of the molds are so similar, it's very hard to tell. I'll correct that in my post.

Don't worry, I wasn't offended. I am human and bound to make mistakes every once in a while, and I'd rather have people call me on them than let me continue to pass on incorrect information. ;)

KrissyLou said...

Hi Belle, just sent you a pm on Facebook about the new "Butterfly Friends Forever" Aussie only release :) Let me know if you're interested :)

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Thanks, KrissyLou! Got the message and sent you one in reply. :)