Wow, these past two weeks have flown by so quickly. Hope you've all been enjoying this holiday season.
It's always a challenge to slow down and focus on my family and the reason we celebrate: the birth of Christ. I feel like this year I've done a better job with that. My house is a mess and I'm horribly behind on blogging and Christmas cards, but I've made some great memories with the girls and my hubby. :)
The craft fair I mentioned in my last post went very well for the school. We personally didn't sell a whole lot at our booth, but we still had a great time of fellowship. And now, we have lots of ready-made Christmas gifts. ;)
This week is the last week of school for the girls, so once we get past Friday, things will be slightly less hectic. That being said, I'm not sure how much posting I'll get done this month. I have a couple more posts I'd like to share before the new year, but we'll see how things go.
In the meantime, I thought I'd share some of the fun doll and toy-related stuff I've found over the past few months, giving you some last-minute gift ideas for the kids and collectors in your life. ;)
Shoppies and Shopkins
Lil' Shoppies
Some new Lil' Shoppies have started making an appearance. So far, I've seen them at Justice and Walmart. They retail for $4.99 at Walmart. They're a little more at Justice (I think around $7 or $8), but it works out to about the same price if you shop their sales.
First up is Riana Radio. She's part of the "Slumber Bear Party" set. Each of the new dolls are part of a new line of Petkins that complement a line already in production. So the "Slumber Bear Party" stuff coordinates with the "Dreamy Bear" line already released.
The back of Riana's package.
Next up is Kristina Apples, who is part of the "Kitty Dinner Party." This coordinates with the previously released "Kitty Kitchen."
The back of Kristina's package.
Finally, we have Tiara Sparkles, who is also part of the "Kitty Dinner Party."
The back of Tiara's package.
The pamphlets in their boxes show the new dolls and sets:
And here are the three new gals deboxed. Riana comes with journal and pen Petkins, Tiara comes with candle and candlestick Petkins, and Kristina comes with a pie and a separate slice.
All three are super cute, but the girls and I all like Tiara the best, just because of her sweet face and adorable accessories.
We also noticed a new "Sparkle Hill" Happy Home set at Walmart. This set includes exclusive sparkly furniture and comes with another new Lil' Shoppie character, Lucy Smoothie, instead of Popette. It retails for the same price of just under $30.
Shoppies
There are plenty of regular-sized Shoppies to choose from in stores, too. At the beginning of November, I finally gave in and purchased one of my favorites, Rainbow Kate, to go with my Donatina.
Rainbow Kate in her packaging.
The back of her package.
Here she is with all of her Shopkins and accessories. I love Rainbow Kate's color scheme. She's a throwback to my 80s childhood. ;)
Here she is with my Lil' Shoppies Rainbow Kate.
And here she is with her new friend Donatina.
Of course, the newest offering from the regular Shoppies line is the Chef Club line. Several of the previously released Shoppies have been given makeovers, and there are all sorts of fun playsets for them to use. This is all to promote the new Chef Club movie they've released.
Donatina with her new look.
Jessicake
Bubbleisha
The new Shoppies-sized sets include the Hot Spot Kitchen...
...the Nice'n'Icy Fridge...
...and the Sparkle Clean Washer.
There are also new Shopkins sets, including the Juicy Smoothie Collection...
...and the Hot Waffle Collection.
The new Shopkins blind bags come in food jars.
Shortly after I purchased Rainbow Kate back in November, I decided to get the new Peppa-Mint, too. The older version of Peppa-Mint didn't really appeal to me, but I loved this Peppa-Mint's style and sweet face. Plus, mint chocolate chip is one of my very favorite types of ice cream. ;)
Peppa-Mint in her packaging.
Package details:
Here she is, free from her box.
From the back.
And here's a closer look at her Shopkins friends, whose names escape me at the moment. :} I especially love the ice cream sandwich!
Her brush.
All of the Chef Club Shoppies have removable aprons.
They are made of rubbery plastic and connect/disconnect with a knob in the back.
A closer look at some of her detail:
She seems very happy with her new friends.
Shopkins
At Walmart, I found these cute plush Shopkins...perfect for presents or stocking stuffers. I didn't catch the price on these, sorry.
And Target has these adorable Shopkins ornaments with exclusive Christmas Shopkins inside! :) These are around $3 each, and include two Shopkins.
My Little Pony
New Brushables
The newest line of brushables before the rebranding have been showing up in stores. I knew I wanted to find Pretzel. I mean, come on. It's a My Little Pony with carbs for a cutie mark. What's not to like? ;)
Pretzel in her packaging.
I opened this one right before I went to the gym. Is it better to buy a carb pony if you work out right afterwards? ;D
Nightmare Night Minis
I feel like Hasbro really missed the boat with these guys. While my local stores have had the Nightmare Night Golden Oak Library for months, the little mini sets never made it. You'd think they'd want to get these out around Halloween since Nightmare Night is pretty much the MLP version of the holiday. The only place we've been able to find these are at Toys R Us stores. So if you need to buy for a My Little Pony fan and have a Toys R Us nearby, you can check there.
While I'm not a fan of Halloween myself, I was really interested in several of these sets because it was the first time they'd released Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Spike in this line. Thankfully, my mom was able to snag the sets for me on an out-of-town trip.
Scootaloo and Pip Squeak
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom
Spike
Because the costumes are removable, I can use the characters as their normal selves. I just have to remove the brown werewolf toes from Scootaloo's front hooves. ;)
Plush Ponies
If you're a fan of the plush ponies and purses put out by Aurora, you should check out your local Tuesday Morning. They have a ton of these for great prices.
Equestria Girls Minis
A lot of the new EG Minis have started showing up on the shelves over the past month. I was so excited to finally add adorable Sunset Shimmer to my collection.
Sunset in her package.
The back of the packaging.
I love what they did with her. The sculpt and colors are spot-on. :)
Some of the other new sets.
Guardians of Harmony
I've been looking forward to this line ever since I first saw pictures and videos from last February's Toy Fair. There are several different sets, but I just took a picture of my favorite one: Spike the Dragon.
I found this guy at Walmart. He's so cool!! Not sure where I'd put him, though. ;)
I love that he comes with a regular version of himself.
New Disney Little Kingdom Sets
Some of the newest releases of the Little Kingdom sets are starting to show up, like this Anna and Elsa set. I'm looking forward to more new releases from this line. Little Gal is most excited for the Mulan set that's supposed to be coming out soon. :)
Beauty and the Beast Ornaments
Have a Beauty and the Beast fan in your life? How about these adorable Target Exclusive Beauty and the Beast ornaments?
The Beast is my favorite. I snagged one of them for my collection.
Belle is cute, too. I love that she has the magic mirror.
Barbie Fashionistas
New Fashionista Dolls
A few weeks ago, Mattel released their newest lineup of Fashionista dolls on their website. It was so exciting to run across the dolls in person at Walmart about a week later. There are all sorts of new dolls in Regular, Tall, Petite, and Curvy.
Here are just a few of them. (You can see the rest on Mattel's website.) They retail for around $8.
"Denim and Dazzle" (Tall)
"Plaid on Plaid" (Tall)
"Kitty Cute" (Petite)
"Double Denim" (Original)
"Zig and Zag" (Curvy)
This one has hair that reminds me of Bumblebee from the DC Superhero Girls.
"Polka Dot Fun" (Curvy)
"Style So Sweet" (Petite)
I was seriously tempted to put every single one of them in my cart, but I really don't need that many more Barbies, shouldn't pay that much for that many more Barbies, and have no room for that many more Barbies. ;) Plus, it's close to Christmas and I'm not supposed to be buying for myself. Ahem. :} But I did snag Denim and Dazzle because I loved her face mold, which is a new one for Mattel.
Here's a lineup of all of the new releases. You'll notice that there are two Ken dolls with new face molds, too. I'm especially excited about THIS GUY. Can't wait to see him in person. :D I'm glad to see that Mattel is starting to pay attention to their Ken line, too. :)
You'll notice the little scale on the left hand side that shows the four different body types and has a check mark beneath the "Tall" silhouette? More on that in a bit.
Here is Denim and Dazzle out of her box. For some reason, she's striking me as an "Ally" or a "Lexi." I'll keep you guys posted on her final name. :)
I love her sweet face.
Here it is in profile.
Her hair was a bit crazy in the back from being smashed up against the box.
And a little crazy from the side, too.
I was able to tame it with a little effort.
So pretty! :)
As much as I love the different body types Mattel is doing, I really wish they'd give their Fashionista dolls more articulation. I would LOVE to see Made to Move style articulation in each of the body types. What do you guys think?
All that to say, I decided to do a body swap with an extra Made to Move doll I had. The body is technically a bit lighter than her face, but close enough that it works.
I love how posable she is now. :)
Barbie Fashionistas Fashions
At a Walmart trip this past week, I was super excited to find some new Barbie fashions...in different sizes! :D This is something I was hoping Mattel would do. They have some fashions for Original Barbies, some for Tall, some for Petite, some for Curvy, and some that fit all four body types. They retail for around $5 each.
Here are a few of my favorites. The left and middle fashions are for Curvy Barbies, and the one on the right is for all four body types.
The little key at the top right of the packaging coordinates with the key on the back of the doll packaging. Whichever body type is checked is the one the clothing is designed for. When it fits all four types, all four are checked.
Again, I was really trying not to buy too much stuff for myself, but I LOVED this watermelon outfit set, so I picked it up. Here, Tori, my Curvy girl, is modeling it.
I love the colors on the top!
The shirt is longer in the back.
Since the shorts were pretty crazily short, I decided to change her back into her Ken pants. She still looks adorable. :)
My Mini MixieQ's
As you guys know by now, my girls and I really enjoy little blind bag toys, and there are plenty of them around. Since the initial release of the My Mini MixieQ's, we've been looking forward to the Wave 2 release of the second half of Season 1. When the aqua colored boxes came out in September, my mom and I assumed those would be the ones we were waiting for, but they weren't. They were a completely different series of figures.
When a new box of two packs that looked exactly the same came to our stores, my mom bought one two pack. After purchasing it, she opened it and discovered that it held two of the Wave 2 My Mini MixieQ's. So she went back into the store and bought the whole box. ;D
We then had a big deboxing party at my house with my mom, my three girls and me. ;)
So here are all of the figures we got in the box. We basically ended up with two of everything (including all of the rares), but there were four that weren't in the box at all. We're wondering if those will be released with the playsets down the road.
The interesting difference between this half of Season 1 and the first half is that the combination of MixieQ's in each two pack were different. In the first release, the same two always came together. This time, they were mixed up. (Which is kind of nice, because even if you get one repeat, you at least have the chance of getting one new figure.) Even with that difference, we still ended up with two of everything.
And here are all of the different figures we ended up with.
Teal Unicorn (eep!!!), Equation Girl, Soccer Girl, Blue Butterfly, Mermaid (Ultra Special)...
...Tiara Girl, Skater Girl, Lady Bug, Tokyo Shopper, Pink Hamster...
...Hip Hop Dance Girl, Ikat Girl, Ice Cream, Sun Girl, Donut (Ultra Special)...
...Surfer Boy, Star Hero, Paris Shopper, Vintage...
...Girl Robot, Purple Tutu, Pink Elephant (Ultra Special), Nurse, Yeti (Ultra Special)...
...Flower Crown Girl, White Rabbit, Ukulele Girl, Roller Punk, Starlet, Swimsuit, Yoga Teacher...
...Selfie Boy, Brown Bear, Koala, Reggae Girl, and Violinist.
The figures we didn't get were Ninja, Purple Stars, Sailor Girl, and Gymnast. (You can see pictures of them on the pamphlet in my original My Mini MixieQ's review. Sorry, you'll have to scroll down a bit.) ;) It will be interesting to see when and where those figures turn up.
So the bummer is, there's not really a way to know if the MixieQ's are Wave 1 or Wave 2 without buying a box and opening it. (I've basically decided I'm not buying anymore after ending up with two more Wave 1 boxes). I hope in the future this will change.
Twozies
I don't have any pictures of the second wave of Series One Twozies, but they have started appearing in stores. I just had to mention Twozies, though, because my mom and aunt found a Rupert and Keepa!!! :D It's the first time any of us have ever found any of the Ultra Rare stuff from Moose Toys.
They're super cute. :) My mom and aunt ended up selling them on eBay, because even though they were cute, there were others they liked more, and they were selling fairly well.
For those of you looking for the newer Twozies, you're in for a challenge. Sadly, Moose Toys has decided to package their Wave 2 Twozies along with their Wave 1 Twozies, so we've ended up with a lot of duplicates. And there's no way whatsoever to tell if the blind bag pack you purchase is new or old. I really hope they change this in the future, or I'm afraid they're going to end up with a lot of frustrated customers who stop buying them.
It especially puzzles me that they've chosen to package the Twozies this way, since they've always been so great about packaging their Shopkins in a way that's easy to tell which season you're purchasing. Like I said, I'm hoping they get enough feedback to make them change this in the future. I've pretty much given up on buying Twozies because I keep ending up with so many duplicates.
Glitzi Globes
While we're on the subject of blind bags and Moose Toys, here's another fun little treat from them: Glitzi Globes.
I found this at Justice for around $3 on sale. It comes in an egg-shaped package.
Inside are all of the things you need to make your globe...
...and detailed instructions.
First, you turn the see-through globe part over and balance it in the base.
Then you fill it with water.
Once the water is in, you drop the included glitter pellet.
You let the pellet sit for a few minutes until it dissolves.
Meanwhile, you open the little figure for inside your globe (made of plastic).
There is a hole at the bottom of the figure, and a peg on the thin plastic base that fits the hole.
Like so. ;)
It takes a while for the pellet to dissolve, but when it does, you attach the thin base to the bottom...
...and then place the whole thing in the bigger base. Shake up the water and, voila, you have a mini snow globe!
These would make great stocking stuffers or doll-sized snow globes. :)
Squinkies Squashies
Another fun blind bag item comes from the Squinkies line. The "Squinkies Squashies" are a throwback to the original Squinkies from the early 2000s.
There are two Squinkies in a tiny plastic gumball machine.
Each Squinkie comes in a plastic bubble just like the old ones.
Surprise! :)
They're squishy like the old Squinkies, but the larger size of the new ones.
Here's the other one I got.
The included pamphlet shows all of the Squinkies in the Squashies line.
"Magic Creatures" (I think this one is my favorite category. I'd love to find Prairie Mist.) :)
"Birthday Party"
"Puppies"
"Picnic"
"Down Under"
"Fur Babies"
Ultra Rare "Stuffed Animals"
I'm so glad they're bringing back Squinkies that are like the originals. I like these a lot better than the Squinkies 'Do Drops. It will be interesting to see how they do in the future.
Lalaloopsy
The Lalaloopsy line definitely seems to be slowing down, which is a shame, but I found a few new offerings from them in stores.
Tinies
First up are these fun blind bag buttons.
I found this at Walmart for $2.88.
Inside is a surprise figure and a collector's guide.
I got this ADORABLE little mixer and bowl.
Some of you may have noticed the adorable Tinies Character Collections that have been in stores for a while. According to the Collector's Guide, the blind bag buttons coordinate with these sets. We have Jewel's Palace with the coordinating extras...
...Rosy's Pet Hospital with its extra...
...Crumbs' Bakery and extras...
...Bea's Schoolhouse and extras...
...and Blossom's Garden Party and extras. (Somehow I missed getting the pictures of Mittens' set...sorry about that!)
There are also the two Fairytale Houses.
New Dolls
I ran across this just yesterday. It seems that MGA is releasing new large dolls to go along with their Netflix show. As much as I love the older dolls, I think some of the new design changes are a great idea. These new dolls appear to be able to stand up on their own and have real hair. They include their pets...not sure if the pets can stand up unassisted.
While the older large LLL dolls are cute, one of the hardest things any mom or collector knows is that they are next to impossible to display. They can't stand on their own, and their huge heads make them horribly top-heavy, even if you try to have them sit on a shelf. Changing the design to dolls that can stand on their own is great.
I do wish they'd used yarn hair instead of "real" hair, as that would be more consistent with the characters' actual looks. Maybe they thought actual hair would be easier to take care of than yarn.
Either way, I hope these dolls sell well. I'd love to see the Lalaloopsy brand do well again.
Tokidoki Neon Star Unicornos
My aunt and I found these cuties at Claire's a couple of months ago.
These are all of the ones in Series One.
The Neon Star Unicornos are slightly smaller than the regular ones, and are absolutely adorable. Great for fantasy, unicorn, or Tokidoki fans. :)
Lil' Woodzeez Blind Bags
I've never been a huge fan of the Lil' Woodzeez (I much prefer Calico Critters), but in recent months, they've brought out their own blind bag goodies: Lil' Woodzeez bobbleheads.
They come in these cute little acorns.
I ended up with the adorable Koala.
Here she is standing up.
A look at her bobblehead.
Here are some of the others in the series:
DC Super Hero Girls Minis
These were another recent fun find. The DC Super Hero Girls Minis are so darling.
I found Katana, Harley Quinn, Batgirl, Wonder Woman, Bumblebee, and Supergirl.
They're really small, as you can see from my hand in the picture. I believe they were about $5 at Walmart.
Gotz Precious Day Girl Dolls
For those of you interested in a nice 18 inch doll for a child or collector, there were some of these at Tuesday Morning. Gotz is a great company, and the doll was either $30 or $40, which is a great price for a nicer 18 inch doll.
American Girl
Of course, any of you AG fans will know that Sam and two of her extra outfits are at Costco...while supplies last. I think it's about $90 for this set, which is a great deal compared to what you'd pay at the AG Place.
I don't need any more 18 inch girls, but even I was tempted by this. ;)
Our Generation Mini Dolls
There are some really fun new OG mini dolls at Target.
These are pretty compatible with mini AG dolls and have fun outfits and hair/eye/skin color combinations. :)
World's Smallest
In Target's Christmas section, I found several fun "World's Smallest" toys, which would be great for 18 inch dolls. I believe they were around $5 each.
We have the World's Smallest Rubik's cube, which actually works.
And the World's Smallest Sock Monkey. There was an Etch-a-Sketch and more. :)
Strawberry Shortcake
Funko Pop
Have any Strawberry Shortcake fans in your life? There are some adorable Funko Pop figures depicting the vintage 80s versions of the characters. And they're even scented. :)
About a month ago, I snagged a Strawberry for my collection.
The others in the series include the Purple Pieman, Lemon Meringue, Orange Blossom, and Blueberry Muffin.
Strawberry deboxed.
I think my favorite thing is adorable little Custard. :)
Dorbz
And while we're on the subject of Strawberry Shortcake, Walmart has a couple of exclusive Dorbz that are pretty cute.
We have Strawberry...
...and Blueberry.
Disney Dorbz
They also have Disney Dorbz, including...
...exclusive Abu...
...and Jasmine Dorbz.
Funko Pocket Pop
They have a large selection of Disney Pocket Pops, too. :)
Bath Fizzy Surprises
I'll end with a surprise that's NOT worth your money. ;)
I found this "Bath Fizzy Mermaid Surprise" at Walmart about a month ago. It was only a couple of dollars, so I bought it, thinking there would be a cute little mermaid or something inside. Right?
Wrong! It was this silly fake jewel! So disappointing. :( Pass this one up if you see it, folks.
I think that's about all for now. I know this was a long and rambly post, but my hope is that it might give some of you a few ideas of what's out there. Happy Shopping, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas. :D Have a great next couple of weeks as you get ready to celebrate with family and friends. :)