Thursday, May 26, 2016

Thrifty Thursday and Other Fun Finds

Happy Thursday, everyone! I thought I'd share another quick "Thrifty Thursday" post, along with some other non-thrift store finds around town. :)

This past week at Goodwill, I was able to find this guy:

He's from the "Ty Girlz" line (the same company that released Beanie Babies). This line of plush dolls have wire in their arms and legs to make them posable. They kind of remind me of plush Bratz dolls (the girls especially). A few years back, there were a ton of them in Tuesday Morning, and I discovered that some of their shirts and sweatshirts fit the Hearts for Hearts Girls. The tighter shirts and pants are too small for H4H, but I thought they might possibly fit... 

...our Curvy Barbies. And I was right! :) The jeans look a little awkward in this picture, but they do work. I don't know if the pants on the girl dolls would fit. I think the bagginess of the boy pair is what made them fit Tori...and just barely. The girl styles might be too small. It's nice to have another option for our Curvy girls, though. :)

The shirt fit Dell and her friends perfectly. :D

At the 49 cent table, I found this interesting little doll. I picked her up for my friend from the doll club who collects these types of dolls. She has either a porcelain or paper mache face (as far as I can tell), hair in need of a comb, and a body/kimono that appears to be made of Styrofoam (or something like it). 

Her crazy hair from the back. ;)

***
That's all of the exciting stuff from the thrift store for now, but here are a few non-thrift store treats that are still "thrifty" for your wallet. ;)

At Michael's last night, my girls and I found these Michael's exclusive "Flash Charms:"

They're made of plastic and have little silver bells attached to them.

Aren't they cute?

They cost $1.99 each, and there are lots of different designs to choose from. (You can see more of them on the Michael's website HERE.)

Of course, these instantly brought to mind the "Bell Charms" of the 1980s. Do any of you remember those? (If you need a refresher, HERE's a blog post about them.) I never had any of these myself, but I remember seeing them around. They were pretty popular then. The Flash Charms look almost exactly the same, down to the little silver bells and the design of the plastic clasps. You can even get plastic chains for your charms like the original ones from the 80s. 

My girls had a fun time choosing one for themselves and one for a friend. It was a great walk down memory lane for me, and an inexpensive treat for them. :)

Middle Gal decided she wanted to take her charm off of its clasp. She's hoping to find a doll tiny enough to ride this scooter. ;)

I love that it even folds up! :)

***
Another recent fun find was from Walmart. For around $2, you can get blind bag necklaces:

(I apologize for the blurry picture. I took it in a hurry and threw away the wrapper before checking my phone.) :} They had Disney Princess, Avengers, My Little Pony, Frozen, and more. I chose My Little Pony this time around.  

And I was so excited to see that I ended up with FLUTTERSHY!! :D My favorite pony. :)

***
This next find falls into the "not so thrifty" category, but I still wanted to share. At my local Target, I saw two new Shoppies dolls I'd never seen before:

Meet Rainbow Kate and Sara Sushi. :) ($14.99 each)

Sara Sushi has yellow eyes, green makeup, iridescent white hair, and red, black, and green clothing with a sushi headband. 


A look at the back of her packaging.

~Her bio~

Rainbow Kate was my favorite of the two. Talk about a throwback to the 80s. ;) She has lavender eyes and freckles, rainbow colored hair and clothing, and a cake-themed headband.


The back of her package (sorry it's a little blurry).

~Her bio~

Target also had some cute accessory sets for the Our Generation line, priced at $6.99 each. "Fine in Floral" includes glasses, three pairs of earrings, bracelets, a hair accessory, two hair pins, and a necklace, all in floral themes.

"Blue Belle" includes glasses, a headband, bracelets, and earrings in blues and greens.

***
Those were a few of our fun finds from around town. Hope you enjoyed them! :) Will any of these things be finding their way to your collections?

10 comments:

simsgrl said...

What great finds, I purchased those charms at Michaels to give as Christmas gift. My daughter was not impressed :-( but I thought they were cute.

KiciaKocia said...

That tiny scooter might fit Calico Critters/Sylvanian Families animals.

About Shoppies - personaly, I prefere Sara Sushi over Rainbow Kate. I'm not really fond of dolls with open mouths. (Plus sushi theme is always win for me)

Aileen said...

I think it's odd that the Our Generation earrings look like they're for pierced ears but none of the dolls have pierced ears.

jSarie said...

Fun finds!

Some of those "Flash Charms" seem to be almost 100% identical to some of the ones I remember from the '80s. It's too funny to see those making a comeback!

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Hi simsgrl! Sorry these charms weren't a hit with your daughter. :( I sure think they're cute. ;)

Hi KiciaKocia! Good thought! :) I'll mention your suggestion to Middle Gal. She certainly has plenty of Calico Critters lying around to choose from. ;)

What I love about these two new Shoppies is that they're so different from one another, so they're more likely to appeal to a wider audience. Sara Sushi is super cute, too. I especially love her hair. I'm not really a fan of sushi personally, and I have a weakness for rainbow colors, so that's why Rainbow Kate is my favorite of the two. ;)

Aileen, I was thinking the same thing. My mom's theory is that they're stick-on earrings, but that doesn't seem like good planning on the company's part. After one or two uses, they wouldn't be usable. Maybe sometime I'll splurge and try one to see what the earring design actually is. ;)

Thanks, jSarie! :) I'm wondering if they have some of the old molds from the 80s charms. I thought some of them looked identical, too. It is funny how trends make comebacks like that, isn't it? :)

Mark Patraw said...

I love those Ty Girlz dolls (the male ones don't appeal to me as much though). I've currently got a couple of the ladies (Trendy Taylor & Dazzlin' Destiny), one with a wire armature body, one without (if I'm remembering right, the first releases didn't have the wire). Plush animals/figures are so much more fun when you can pose them! I haven't messed around with clothes swapping with those myself. I always found it interesting that Ty chose to give them Saran-type hair, rather than yarn, as most rag/plush dolls have yarn or felt/fabric tresses.

The Japanese doll is neat too--I'm not sure what type/style that one would be classified as. As far as traditional Japanese dolls go, I really like the minimalist wooden Kokeshi ones (which, in their most basic form, are little more than a spherical head mounted on top of a rod column).

The Michael's flash charms are cute--I like the painter's palette one the best out of the lot, that'd be a great gift for an artist, and it's cool that the scooter folds up like that. While I'm the right age for the time period, I afraid I don't remember the Bell Charms you mentioned at all. I don't recall ever seeing any of my childhood classmates sporting those either. Maybe we just didn't get them in my neck of the woods.

I admire her outfit and design/theme, plus Sara Sushi's creepy-looking eyes give her kind of a Youkai (the catch-all term for mythical Japanese creatures/entities) vibe to me, and the white hair suggests Yuki Onna (Snow Woman) in particular. Speaking of which, there are many Youkai that are living/sentient everyday objects (lanterns, musical instruments, umbrellas, etc.)--it's not unthinkable that those may be what inspired the Shopkins brand in the first place (I don't know if Shopkins are sold in Japan or not, but I could see them becoming very popular for that similarity alone). Rainbow Kate is a little too garish for my tastes (and that's coming from someone who loves Rainbow Dash), but, then, it's kind of hard to do rainbow couture without being visually loud.

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Hi Mark! It's funny, I actually prefer the male dolls to the females in this line. ;D Funny, huh?

Thanks for the info on these, by the way. I didn't realize that only some of them had wire armature.

I was also surprised by Ty's choice of hair for the dolls. Like you said, normally this type of doll has yarn or fabric hair.

I don't know much about Japanese dolls myself. Thanks for this info! I'll have to check out the Kokeshi dolls.

The bell charms were pretty huge when I was growing up, but now that I think about it, I think I saw them more in ads and on acquaintances or people I didn't know. Most of my close friends didn't have them.

Again, interesting thoughts on the possible effects of Japanese culture on Shopkins and Shoppies. I could see these being really big over there, too. The Shoppies' clothing has always brought to mind the Japanese Lolita fashions, with the short skirts, chunky shoes, and colorful hair.

Lol, yeah, rainbow couture is a little tricky if you want subtle. ;) I think Rainbow Kate just appealed to me because she felt like another throwback to my childhood, like I said. Her color scheme fits right in with My Little Pony, Lady Lovely Locks, and all those other cute, pastelly toys of my childhood. ;)

Farrah said...

I also remember those 80s charms...we used to love to collect them so it's cool to see that they are back in a new form! Great idea for the curvy Barbie jeans and H4H shirt..Dell is so cute!

Aileen said...

I tried my best to look in one of the Our Generation packages and the earrings look like they have posts to me. I'll have to buy a set and check it out.

I used to have tons and tons of those bell charms on red plastic necklaces when I was little. I went to Michael's with my mom and saw them and made a big deal and she looked at me like I was crazy cuz she had no recollection of these charms. I think it's pretty funny that she doesn't remember them since she was probably the one buying them for me. lol

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Thanks for the info, Aileen. I'd love to hear how they work if you end up with a package. :)

Lol, funny that your mom doesn't remember the charms. I guess they weren't as big a deal to her as they would have been to you. My mom doesn't remember a lot of the toys she got me as a child, either, while I can remember them so clearly I can describe the packaging. ;D