Goodwill Haul

Some of you may remember from earlier posts that a new Goodwill thrift store opened in my town at the end of March.  That has been both a good thing and a bad thing, if you know what I mean. ;)  It's great because I've found a lot of wonderful items at phenomenal prices.  Unfortunately, it's very easy to nickel and dime a bit too much.  My mom and I have both been guilty of going to Goodwill more than once per day! :} The thing is, they put new stuff out all throughout the day, so you do find things, even if you go again on the same day.  And pretty much every time we go in, we find something.  This makes it a bit difficult to stop going. ;)  

Thankfully for my recovering checkbook, it is rather stressful to take 3 girls in there and try to have a relaxing shopping experience, so I have a feeling my trips to Goodwill over the summer will be much fewer and farther between (I usually go after dropping the older two off at school).  The nice thing is, my Mom is collecting doll stuff too and is pretty aware of what I look for, so whenever she goes, she'll be on the lookout for special Beast'sbelle items. ;)  

Anyway, here are just a few of the special treasures I've discovered over the past 2 months:

A Jeff Gordon Nascar car for my Emma doll-99 cents.

An Alexander Girlz doll with nasty hair-$2.99.

Knowing that her hair was not that great in the quality department, I decided to skip the Downy Dunk and instead opted for a re-wigging procedure. ;) 

Here she is with her new hair.  Much better, don't you think? :)

By the way, the dress, hair bow, and shoes were not from Goodwill, just in case you're curious. :)

Lady Lovely Locks doll, complete with dress, shoes, and 3 pixie tails-$1.99

I'm pretty sure these are her original pixie tails! :D

2 Disney Store Belle dolls-99 cents each.  Once I get these cleaned up and do a little more research on them, I'll add them to my Disney Store Belle doll comparison post. :)

One frustrating thing about Goodwill is that they put the prices directly on their product in pen.  I'm guessing it's some sort of dry erase pen or something, because usually it's removable.  Unfortunately, it does not like to come off of the soft vinyl on fashion dolls.  And for some annoying reason, they often decide to write the prices on the dolls faces or heads.  These pics were taken after I'd "removed" the price markings.  So basically, I have two Belle dolls with tattoos...which I've actually thought could make for a funny plot line on Belle's Bulletins. ;)  "Belle meets the Goodwill Girls" sounds about right. :}

This one kills me...it's so visible! :(

I can't complain, though, because I also found this beautiful, barely used Disney Store Tiana doll for $3.99! :D  And thankfully, they decided to write her price on her back, which is made of hard plastic, so it came right off.  

I'm not a huge fan of "The Princess and the Frog" because of its dark themes, but I did enjoy the beautiful animation, the great songs, and the main characters themselves.  Plus, I went and saw it in the theater with my best friend, so I have some fond memories associated with the movie.  So even though we don't do much of the movie in our house, I think I'll probably keep ahold of this adorable gal. :)  (In fact, I even ordered a Prince Naveen from the Disney Store to go with her.  She seemed lonely.) ;) 

My mom found this great Chococat mirror and jewelry holder that is just the right size for a vanity for Jenna. :)  (Remember?  She's a Chococat and My Melody fan!)

My mom also found this lovely, old-fashioned dresser jewelry box, also the perfect size for the dolls.

I think this will also belong to Jenna.  It really suits her. :)

And here's a picture of Jenna, just because she's such a cutie! ;)

This shows the size of the Chococat mirror.  It doesn't exactly match the dresser, but you get the idea, anyway. ;)

It's been fun finding vintage toys from my childhood there, like this Fashion Star Fillies Joelle horse.  I think she was 99 cents.  Anyone remember these? 

Joelle's face.  Her coloring really reminds me of Lady Lovely Locks' horse Silkymane, which is one of the reasons I got her.  I figure she can be a stand-in until I find the real thing.  :)

Gotta love those 80s colors! ;)

She still had her original "saddle", or whatever this thing is supposed to be.

I think this is also her original hair accessory.  It was braided into her tail.

Here's one of my most exciting finds:  A lovely Beauty and the Beast Trinket box from the Disney Store, still in its original box, for just $3.99! :D  This appears to have been released at the same time as the diamond edition Blu-ray and DVD.  

I love the detail on this!  It's absolutely perfect for my collection. :)

The bottom of the box has the Beast's head and a rose above him.

The four feet that hold the box up look like the Beast's claws. 

A shot of the back of the box.

The top simply lifts off to reveal the storage inside.

Underneath is an on/off switch.

When you turn it on, the box lights up.  I was so excited that it still worked! :D

One of my favorite sections to look through is the 49 cent table at the front of the store.  It's full of McDonald's toys and other similar-sized figures to dig through.  It's a lot to look through, but if you're patient and persistent, you can find a lot! :)  

I found this Genie bee...

...and a Rajah for Hayden's Jasmine collection.

I was really excited when a month later, I found a Jasmine to go with him! :D

I also found this adorable like-new Madame Alexander McDonald's doll.  Isn't she a cutie?  Right now, she's on Nahji's bed. :)

By far, my most exciting 49 cent finds were the vintage Strawberry Shortcake pets and figure I found just last week:  Souffle Skunk (Angel Cake's pet), Burrito (Cafe Ole's pet), and Blueberry Muffin! :)

I was so excited to find this vintage Lady Lovely Locks wrapping paper, still sealed in the plastic, for just 49 cents!

And this Hello Kitty cup, also 49 cents, makes a perfect trash can for Hailey. :)

I've also been able to find several American Girl doll books.  These ones were $1.49 each...

...and this one was 75 cents.  

I've found other things too, but if I were to put everything on here, it would be an incredibly long post. :}  I just wanted to remind everyone that with a little patience and creativity (and willingness to shop thrift and secondhand stores), you can find some great stuff that works with your budget.  You never know what sorts of special treasures may be waiting for you in your local area! ;)  What are some of your most exciting thrift store or garage sale finds?  I'd love to hear about them! :)

Exciting News for Fans of "Tangled"! :D

I got some great news from one of my faithful readers last night (thanks, Elaine!). ;)  As many of you may already know, Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" is coming to theaters in 3D in January.  Since I'm not a big fan of 3D, I wasn't really planning on going.  But then I heard from Elaine that there will be a new "Tangled" short film released with "Beauty and the Beast"!! :D  It's called "Tangled Ever After", and supposedly picks up where the movie left off, including their wedding! 

You can click HERE to see a promotional picture from the film, and click HERE to see an article about it.  As a bonus, when you read the article, you can follow a link to read about the new Toy Story short that will be released with the new Muppet movie. :)

I can't even tell you how excited I am about this!!  I often find myself wondering what happened to the characters from my favorite films after the movie ends.  Now we get to get a glimpse of Eugene and Rapunzel after the movie! :D

What do you guys think?  Are you excited too?

New Disney Store Beast/Prince Doll

Now I must do a post on my disappointing Disney Store purchase.  I bought their newest version of the Beast/Prince doll because all of the dolls were on a good sale.  I must say I was hoping for more than I got, especially after being so pleased with Rapunzel and Eugene (Flynn).  WARNING:  this post will contain a few pics of Disney Prince dolls in their skivvies to compare body styles (they basically look like they're in Speedos).  If this is offensive to you, skip this post. :} 

This guy is not nearly as great of a doll.  There are moments when he slightly resembles the Prince, especially in profile.  Even then, though, they just didn't quite get his face right.  He has enormous lips, a huge nose, a strange shape to his face, and his eyes don't seem like they're placed quite right (these pics actually make him look better than he does in real life...I guess I can be thankful that at least he's photogenic).

He also has a hard time standing on his own, as if he's overbalanced or something.  And he's not nearly as tall as I thought he'd be.

Probably the worst disappointment is his Beast costume.  His Beast head is proportioned way too small for his body.  Even worse, the Beast's neck doesn't even touch the shoulders of the doll, so there's a gap between his shoulders and neck.  As for his paws, they are attached to the sleeves of the blue jacket, which is typical for these dolls.  What's not typical is having to twist the sleeves of the jacket around so that the Beast's "thumbs" are in the right place.  The thumbs were pointing down when I first put it on, and it didn't look right. 

His head is rather thin compared to Belle's head.  It makes her look like she has a really big head.  I can actually sympathize with this because I have a big head and my husband has a small one.  It drives me crazy looking like a balloon head in pics with him! :}

Slightly better with the profile view.  Here he almost looks like himself.  By the way, Belle was completely mortified having to pose for this pic (she just met him today). ;)

I also have the older version of the Disney Store Beast/Prince doll, so I took some pics next to my new one just to compare them.  This version has a much better Beast head design.  Unfortunately, that part is in storage somewhere.  If I can find it later, I'll add some pics to this post.

So here are the guys.  You'll notice that while my new Prince has a fairly narrow head, the old Prince doll's is even smaller.  

I think they did a better job with the new Prince's eyes, but the old Prince is better looking overall (despite his somewhat cheesy grin).  I think a big problem is the new Prince's nose:  it just looks humongous!  

 WARNING:  UNDIES PICS COMING UP!!!

So here we have the Princes in their skivvies.  You'll notice that the Disney Store has changed the Prince doll body style dramatically in the past few years.  The older doll is just about fully poseable.  He has elbow, knee and wrist joints, and his head and waist move up and down as well as side to side.  It's too bad they changed this, because it would have been fun to have a fully poseable Prince doll to match the new poseable Princess dolls.  The newer Prince does have jointed elbows, but other than that resembles a Ken doll in poseability.  You'll also notice that the older Prince is much more built than the newer one.  I'm not sure what prompted this change either...maybe giving little girls more realistic expectations and little boys better self-esteem? :}  Another reason could be that all those joints wear out quicker than a few simple joints.  My daughters have the old version of Prince Phillip, and it's getting hard for him to hold any pose because his joints are so worn out.

The above pics show the differences in the two Prince's arms.  One annoying thing about the old Prince is they used two different shades of plastic to make all of his parts.  What's up with that?  

Leg details.  The new Prince looks like he hasn't worked out his legs quite as much as the old Prince.   

Notice the difference in their feet.  I much prefer the older mold for its detail.

A profile comparison.  Once again, here in profile, the new Prince looks much more like himself, but something is still not right, at least in my humble opinion.  Maybe I'm just too picky. :}

Here's a profile shot from the movie for comparison.  In all fairness to whoever sculpts the Disney dolls, this would not be the easiest profile to recreate.  It's actually pretty close.  Huh...he kinda has big lips in the movie, too.

Here are the two sets of clothes.  The newer Prince's outfit is all one piece.  I think it is slightly better quality.  The pants are fully lined with a mesh or veil-type material, and the gold trim on the sides of his pants looks nicer.  The blue "jewel" on his cravat is pretty pathetic, though. 

The older Prince's outfit consists of three pieces.  He has a nicer vest, but no cravat.  

Their boots are exactly the same.

Overall, I wish I'd held out for the Mattel Prince doll that came out when the Blu-ray was released last year.  But it's funny.  I couldn't bring myself to return this guy when my main complaint was against his looks.  It just seemed cruel somehow, when "Beauty and the Beast" is all about looking past appearances and finding the beauty within.  I know there's no "within" with dolls, but I'll probably still tough it out with this guy.  It could make a good story for my "Belle's Bulletins" segment on Tess and Maggie's blog.  (You can get there by clicking HERE)  

So, I'd give this guy a 5 or 6 out of 10, just because he was such a disappointment.  Who knows, though?  Maybe I'll like him more once I get to know him better. :)