Something about the Union Jack T-shirt made me want to do a Bond and Bond girl pose…but Monster High dolls do not really want to do this pose. I just could not get Scarah’s head to stay down on Toralei’s shoulder. 😦
Monster High
On the dance floor
This is one of those rare photos that I’m actually kinda proud of. I don’t usually have much luck posing dolls the way I want to, so it’s amazing to me that this one worked out this well.
Because of the furry arm things, you can’t really tell in the photo, but Clawdeen has her arms around Frankie, and they’re holding hands in front of Frankie’s stomach:
First Date
Monster High Minis
I had hoped that week three of the April Alternative Challenge could be Princess Elizabeth. (Which would have been especially appropriate today, since it’s the Queen’s birthday.) Alas, she’s still at the dolly hospital. 😦 And if I’d had more time, I could have put up a really freakin’ awesome Princess of Power post (it will be coming eventually, I hope) but I have two major projects due on Monday, so I’ve been freaking out trying to get them done. (And they still aren’t done, either. I have to go back to the library on Sunday (skipping work!) and possibly on Monday, too.)
So this post is sort of slap-dash. For which I apologize.
Anyway, so maybe you’ve seen the tiny, ragdoll-like Monster High Minis in stores, if you frequent the Monster High aisle. (I know many don’t, especially since the reboot.) They’re about as tall as the distance from the knuckle of my thumb to the tip (wow, that’s a precise measurement!) and super-cute, but Mattel’s sort of tricksy about them: they sell some in sets where you can see what you’re getting, and the rest in blind boxes. The visible sets get you hooked on the cuteness, and include little fliers to show you all the other ones you’re missing out on, and then you end up buying the blind box ones….and I’ve been kind of hooked on blind box figures lately anyway. (Though that’s another post entirely. 😛 )
So I was trying to resist the lure of getting anything other than the packaged sets. Then I was at Walmart looking for various stuff I didn’t find, and found an 8-figure set of Season 2 of the Monster High Minis (why do blind box figures get “Seasons” instead of something more normal?) and I just had to get it. Mainly for these two:
Pineapple Deuce. Pineapple. Deuce.
How could I resist?
There were some other really cool ones in the set, too:
These two were exclusive to the set. (Actually, I think the two fruity ones may have been, too…not that “fruity” is what they call them…) They’re also the only “gem” ghouls in the season.
So, a werewolf mermaid…is a weremaid? Merwolf? Yeah, I think I like that one…
Anyway, the background on the set had super-adorable illustrations of a strawberry Draculaura and a lemon Rochelle, so I found myself studying the little flier inside for the whole contents of Season 2, and there are so many of them that I just need, in that awful doll-collecting itchy way. (Or maybe Clawdeen’s fleas feared the ocean water and jumped onto me?)
And then I had a look at the flier for Season 1 out of one of the packaged sets, and found that it actually had some pretty cool stuff, especially the space ghouls:
Though, honestly, I didn’t get this Frankie from a blind box. I got her with the carrying case…
Most of those 28 minis came from sets of 3 (and the set of 8), but there have been a few blind box purchases, too…just enough that there’s actually one more mini than can fit in the case. (I’m hoping Season 2 when it gets fully released will have a different case, maybe with more room, a more transparent cover, and a new mini to go with it. But I’d settle for just a different mini…)
I guess this one’s supposed to be the new ghost, but to me she’s Spectra. Because they have the same color scheme and all. Anyway, she’s the odd one out, but she still has a home to live in, ’cause most of the blind box minis come in nice, interlocking lockers…
See? She’s got a nice flat in a small high-rise.
But it seemed a bit lonely this way…
…so I let some of my other blind box figs move in, at least for the time being. 😛
Well, I realize that’s not been much of a post, but I have to go make dinner and then finally get to work on my school work for the day. (I had to go to work today, so I didn’t have much time to work on my projects.)
Oh, I almost forgot! There’s a project on Kickstarter right now to start a Fashion Doll Museum. If anyone out there is interested, check it out — and pass it along to anyone else who might be interested, too!
Silent Sundays – Caprice Whimcanter
Last Week’s Loot
Okay, so, as I told you last Sunday (well, Monday morning, really), last weekend I was at a “comics” convention. (I figure the quotation marks are merited since everyone I was there to see was someone I had seen in a television series…though admittedly three of them were Marvel series, but still!) But I also promised more info later, since most of my vendor room purchases hadn’t been photographed yet. (This is, after all, a toy-collecting blog! It’d be silly if I didn’t crow about my loot!)
Well, the last week has seen a mad burst of photography around here (at least 200 pics!) in order to get this post ready, to finish up the April A-to-Z photography, and also to fully document my antique mall find from a few days before the con. (I’ve yet to name her, but hopefully by next weekend she’ll have a name and be ready for prime-time.)
So, I can now share all the stuff I got at the con. 😀
First off, remember this?
Well, the glue on one side of the box had come loose (I no longer recall if it was that way when I paid, or if it happened as I was carrying the box around all day) so it seemed like a good idea to make sure that the contents of the box were actually, you know, correct.
I would have felt like the biggest idiot ever if Arrow hadn’t actually been in that box! (Even more important, he’s still sealed in his factory bag, so it really was just a case of the glue having come loose, rather than him being a used toy simply returned to its box for storage.)
Bow was very happy to be (re)united with his trusty steed, needless to say!
Of course, given my current space issues and all, I’m not actually planning on truly opening Arrow at this time. For the moment, I’m just glad he’s really here. 😀
Anyway, since I didn’t show you last time, here’s the back of the box:
Mostly, what I want you to see is this part here:
I had every one of these dolls when I was a kid. And, really, I still do have most of them. I lost my original Bow and Glimmer when I moved here, but I’ve since replaced them. And I’ve now got two of She-Ra, because I found one in better shape than mine, and picked her up, thinking I’d customize mine into a new character. (Though now I can’t find my original one…but I know she’s in this house somewhere.) I did not, however, have Kowl, Enchanta or the Crystal Castle. Or Arrow. Arrow is new to me. 😀
Okay, so now we can move on to the stuff you haven’t seen yet. Starting with the third item I bought from the vendor who sold me Arrow and Rainbow Brite:
Before Rory came along, Donna was my favorite of the new series companions, so I’d been wanting to add her figure to my collection.
More importantly, on Saturday, there was the same vendor I remembered from the last of these conventions, who had this huge bin filled with Doctor Who figures. Last time, I was mostly seeking out Doctors, but this time my Doctor complement was complete (thanks in part to that eleven Doctor gift set I got from Amazon), so I was mostly looking for companions.
Perpegilium “Peri” Brown, about whom Peter Davison once said (perhaps jokingly?) that her cleavage upstaged his regeneration. And yes, I think this is the outfit she was wearing in that episode… (Or is this the “Vengeance on Varos” outfit?)
Hmm, what was that? Some kind of interference, right? Well, no matter. On with the companions!
I’d really have preferred to have a figure of Sarah Jane Smith from the original series, rather than from her new series appearances, but the guy at the booth said…well, actually, he seemed a little unsure if it was that there hadn’t been any made, or if it was just that they didn’t have any, though he was leaning towards the former. Anyway, he had a couple of this version of her, and one in the same scale that was a figure from her spin-off show, but I felt like this one had the better facial sculpt, so I went with it. Because having a figure of the older Sarah Jane is better than having no figure at all; she’s one of the greats, and she will always be missed.
Uh-oh! Looks like a Cyberman stowed away in my bag!
No need to fret, though!
Leela of the Sebateem is here with her really big gun to save us! 😀
[Okay, yes, that got stupid. But I couldn’t decide which angle I liked better on the Cyberman, so…anyway, I’m not 100% which Cyberman story he’s from. His foot says 1968, so I’m thinking he might be from the lost 2nd Doctor story “The Wheel in Space,” which introduced the awesome Zoe…who, now that I think about it, doesn’t have a figure yet! Man, they’re really slacking off!)]
Okay, anyway, before I move on to my really big purchase, I want to show you another purchase that’s about the same physical size:
Aren’t they adorable? I’m not posting any photos of anything else I got from artists at the con (I know they can be touchy about that, and for good reason, since there’s no much point in buying prints if you can download someone’s photos of a print) but since these are plush pillows, I figured it was probably okay. 😀 The card there is the artist’s business card, which did not photograph well when I tried to use it to give the address. So instead I’ll just insert links into the text here. The artist’s professional name seems to be Kafai (or maybe that’s the name of her studio?) and she’s got an Etsy shop where she sells things like these pillows.
Of all the Ghibli designs she had, my first choice would have been Howl, but between closing time Saturday and when I got to her booth on Sunday morning, he had sold out. 😦 But I love Spirited Away, so Chihiro seemed like a good choice, too. 🙂
Of course I love Link — doesn’t everybody? — but I’ve especially been in the grips of Legend of Zelda fever since Hyrule Warriors Legends came out, ’cause…I’m a glutton for punishment, I guess. 😛 Of course Link, more than just about any other character you could name, is especially appropriate to be holding a heart in front of his chest. 😀
One more shot, just for scale:
That’s the “Ghouls Alive” Clawdeen, so a standard-size Monster High doll. So these pillows are actually pretty big. And they are super soft! They were professionally printed, and they have napping and everything. They’re extremely huggable. 😀
Okay, so now I can get on to Sunday’s big (and last) purchase!
This was just sitting on the floor of one booth, being ignored by the other visitors…
When he found me crouched in his booth admiring (drooling?), he said he’d knock $50 off the price for a cash purchase.
I totally shouldn’t have, but…of course I found the ATM and got out the money. Because when was the chance ever going to come up again? This was the San Diego Comic Con doll (set) from 2014, and Mattel is nerfing the line later this year. Yeah, Monster High will still go on, but under a budget crunch, and the first thing that’s going is anything that’s going to eat away at the amount of profit they can get from a single unit. Look how much plastic went into Manny! They’re obviously never going to make him again. If I hadn’t bought this one, I’d either never get my hands on him, or he’d cost even more. (To be honest, I’m not actually sure what he originally cost at Comic Con. Maybe I didn’t even overpay by that much? I know the vendor’s original asking price was the lowest I’ve ever seen for these two online.)
Anyway, backing up a bit, let me talk about the packaging a little. There’s two layers of box. The outer layer — the first photo — is Manny Taur’s backpack. Then the inner layer, the one that opens out with flaps, is his jacket. And that little white square on the front of the jacket?
When you open the flaps to reveal the dolls, you also reveal their diaries. I haven’t even removed those from the pockets to look at them, ’cause why bother? I stopped reading the Monster High doll diaries a long time ago.
They’re pretty sweet together, right? (Despite how disparate in size they are.)
It’s appropriate, for someone who’s half-cow, that Manny is very beefy. 😛
You’d think it would be hard to hold hands with someone whose hand is almost the size of your head…
This is really pretty elaborate packaging! The locker back there actually has openings with plastic accessories in it. (Well, plastic notebooks or whatever they are.) And you probably can’t tell very well in the thumbnail (or even in the full size picture) but the poster beside the locker features the superhero versions of some of the Monster High ghouls that were released as Target exclusive dolls. Well, specifically, that’s definitely Frankie Stein’s Voltageous character on the end there, next to the locker. I’m not sure about the other one. (Wydowna’s Weberella character would make sense, since she was another Comic Con exclusive doll.)
Okay, so this was mostly just to give you a really good view of Iris’ awesome purse. But the little sign in front has me thinking. (Even though it turned out largely illegible in the photo.) Okay, so Manny Taur is the son of the Minotaur. Aside from the fact that that makes him about 3000 years old, that’s fine: there was only ever one of those, after all. But for Iris, it says “Iris Clops, Daughter of the Cyclops.” Um, what? “The” Cyclops? As if there was ever only one? There wasn’t even only one kind of Cyclops, let alone only one individual! Is she the daughter of one of the three Cyclopean blacksmiths who were the elder siblings of the Titans? Or is she more along the lines of “granddaughter of Poseidon by way of one of his ickier sons like Polyphemos”? ‘Cause that’s a pretty big difference. Gigantic, in fact.
Sorry, that was bothering me, and I had to let it out. I’ll get back to the dolly photos now. 😛
While I’m showing photos of accessories, here’s Manny’s backpack. Which does not match the exterior of the box, even though the exterior is supposed to be his backpack. (Little goof-up there, Mattel!) But that’s not actually why I’m showing you. (Nor am I showing you to point out how incredibly tiny the pack is for him, or to talk about how he’d never be able to get anything in or out, because his hands wouldn’t fit.) No, I wanted to point out the little orange maze on the top half. You probably noticed the same thing in black on his T-shirt, and if you look at the box shots in the gallery, you’ll see that a similar (but more elaborate) maze pattern runs around the base of the inner box that’s supposed to look like his school team jacket.
On the face of it, that’s a really cool throwback to his old man, right? And I’m sure that’s all they intended. But — and here’s my mythology/archaeology geekery rearing its ugly head again — it doesn’t make sense for it to look like that. That’s a very modern maze. You wouldn’t find one like that before the 20th century. (Well, maybe the 19th century, but even then probably only in the US.) Ancient mazes tended to be circular, with a clearly defined central point, et cetera. And, of course, there’s a difference between a maze and a labyrinth, too, and as a minotaur, he’d need a labyrinth, not a maze. (The main difference being that there is one path through a labyrinth, and any side paths are more to fill up the space than to distract from the path. A maze will have multiple solutions.)
So, yeah, long story short, if I ever decide to open these two (which will definitely not happen in the foreseeable future), I am going to have get Manny a T-shirt with a proper Greek labyrinth on it. (There are some really good ones on coins from Knossos. That would be appropriate.)
Okay, sorry, that ended up even more talky than the last picture. I’ll try and reign in my Greek mythology buff from here on out. (At least for this post…)
It is really hard to get a good shot of his face! Especially in the box like this, but based on one of the other dolls (non-boxed) I was trying to photograph in the last week, I think it’d be hard even if he was out of the box. I wonder about the nose ring, though. I know that’s just sort of a standard thing we’re used to seeing on bulls, so people put them on minotaurs, too, but would they actually want that? I mean, isn’t that ring there as a way to bring the bull under human control? Then again, if it is, I suppose in Manny’s case it would be kind of like, well, getting a nose ring for a human teen is: a way to honk off his parent(s). (Though his father’s been dead for 3000+ years, so maybe that’s not a very good analogy.)
I’m often on the fence about the romances put forward between the various dolls in the Monster High line. Without reading/watching the additional materials that try to flesh out the characters, I can’t really comment on how well they do or don’t work, so all I can go on is my own personal take on the characters’ aesthetics. But I have to admit that this is a pretty cute couple. I just wish they’d done a playline doll of Manny. 😦 (But at least they did one of Iris! I’ve got two of those, one to stay Iris, and the other to be customized into someone else. Not sure who yet, but…)
I’m not sure what that thing is next to Manny’s hip, btw. Maybe it’s a basketball? (I mean “casketball,” lol.)
Well, on that pathetically random note, I’ll close out my report on last weekend’s loot. It feels a bit underwhelming in comparison to all the stuff I didn’t get (doesn’t it always?) and it’s also a bit lesser in terms of how much I got for my money, since Manny and Iris were so expensive. (Though they came to less than a single Pullip.) But it’s still a pretty good haul. 😀 And, actually, I left out a few things: I got a couple of enamel pins at the same booth where I got most of the Doctor Who figures (one of Animal and the other of Starbug from Red Dwarf) but those didn’t seem like they’d really photograph all that well, or be terribly interesting. And I got a number of prints from artists…ack! I knew there was another photo I meant to take! One of the artists was selling postcards with cute little chibi designs, and four of them were specifically of the dolls from the DC Super Hero Girls line! Naturally, since I had Harley with me, I had to get them! (Of course, I’d have had to get them anyway…) I meant to take a picture of Harley holding her own portrait! *sigh* I’ll take the picture later and tack it on to some un-related post, I guess. (Or whenever I get Wonder Woman and/or Batgirl, I can do it then, since I’ve got their portraits that way, too. I didn’t get the Supergirl one, though. I don’t like the line’s Supergirl design. So since his postcards were “buy 3 get 1 free” I changed things up a little and got Scarlet Witch (movie version) for the fourth. 😛 )
Anyway, in light of all kinds of things (including but not remotely limited to my finances) I am hoping to put a halt to the majority of my dolly spending. I need to be focusing on cleaning up my house (I sound like a broken record here) and finding a better place to put everything I’ve already got. So hopefully for the foreseeable post-April future, most of my posts will be about things I already own, not new purchases, but…I make no guarantees. It’s kind of a sickness, after all. (A good sickness, but a sickness.)
But space concerns are my #1 thing at the moment: I’m so cramped for dolly space that I can’t even open Grell and the Undertaker! (Yup, they arrived here on Friday! There was much squeeing.) So, obviously, once I have space to put them in, there will be a lengthy de-boxing post for the two of them. Or maybe two less lengthy de-boxing posts. And probably a number of Black Butler-themed photo skits, ’cause it’ll be hard to resist…
Okay, so that’s that. The gallery — which is about half Manny and Iris — is here.
Tokidoki Barbie
I mentioned at some point not too long ago that I had made an all-Mattel Amazon order, right? Well, it’s been here a while — in fact, these pictures have been ready for a while — but I just haven’t been in quite the right frame of mind to post about it. Er, or something.
Uh, anyway, yeah, so here’s the main attraction of the order:
I saw that Amazon was selling this doll for under $30 instead of $75…and that was an automatic “you bet!” Because I didn’t like this doll $75 worth, but $30? Yeah, no question of that.
At this time, I have no intentions of opening her, though, so let me try and give you a close-up to see how neat she looks.
Photos through the plastic never really turn out too well. 😦
Anyway, in getting the order up to the $50 required for free shipping, I got a couple of other Mattel dolls…
She’d been a “not sure about it” kind of doll the whole time she was in stores, then she was gone before I finished making up my mind. And since they’re about to nerf the whole line, I figured I should get her while she was still cheap. No idea when I’m going to get around to opening her, however.
These Frightmares don’t show up around here with much regularity, so I figured there was a good chance I’d never see her in person, and therefore went ahead and ordered her.
Part of me wants to lie and say I haven’t already opened her, but the truth is I have, and that I’ve even taken pictures…but I’m going to save them, ’cause the Frightmares have made good “Silent Sunday” fodder in the past. 😛
Lastly (in keeping with the abandoned former post title “Mattel keeps taking my money!”), about the same time these arrived, I hit K-Mart on the way home from the museum, in the hopes that the Draculaura and Clawdeen Scarrier Reef dolls were actually K-Mart exclusives, which they certainly don’t seem to be. But I did find something good on clearance:
I thought I missed out on this one altogether! (In case you can read that price tag, let me assure you that there was an additional 50% off the lowest marked price. A very important detail!) I really want to open her, but…ugh, no idea when. My life in the near future is looking hectic and complicated. And I really lack space right now. (And constantly buying things isn’t helping…)
I’d like to check out the effects mentioned on the back of the box here, but it says it requires 6 AA batteries! If it takes that much power, Mattel, maybe you should just provide an AC adapter and have done with it. Batteries aren’t very power (or money) efficient anyway.
Right, so, anyway, in other news, I have a doll review(ish) ready to write. Er, I’ve taken the pictures, I mean, and all I need to do is write it. Plus I got in that Mandarake order on Wednesday, and so once I take photos of that stuff, I can tell you about it, too, apart from the one piece that’s being saved for April A-to-Z. But I’m not sure when I’m going to get around to all that, ’cause I’m trying to pre-write at least one post a day (though I’ve now fallen a couple of days behind) and though next week is Spring Break, I’m working three days next week, and I plan on devoting a lot of time to catching up on the pre-writing for my main blog, which got shot in the foot by the discovery that some of my sources were lying to me (or something).
So…to sum up…hopefully fun posts ahead. Hopefully. (Double hopefully: hopefully they’re ahead, and hopefully they’ll be fun. Unlike this one, which was kind of…um…lame.)
Oh, almost forgot! The gallery for this post is here.
Silent Sundays – Bay Tidechaser
Some Very Deer Dolls
I apologize for the terrible pun, but I think it may be required by law to make such an awful pun when presenting a set like this one. Three of the four of these dolls are very recent acquisitions, and the other I’ve had for a while, but she fit the tone, so I thought I’d throw her into the mix.
We’ll start with the most recent two.
One of the three “Brand Boo Students” dolls in what’s probably one of the last new Monster High sets before they reboot the franchise. Target actually had all three of them, and had lots of Isi and only one each of the other two, so I should have gotten one or both of the others and left Isi for later, but I wanted her more than the one who’s a troll (though I respect the video game accouterments she came with, playing off the Internet type of troll), and the gorgeous bat doll had a paint flaw on her lips, so Isi was the only real choice. Besides, I’ve been looking forward to this doll ever since I saw her picture online! (Though, really, I’ve been looking forward to the bat as well; I love bats.)
Isn’t that a pretty face? I love the way they did her eyebrows.
For the most part, there’s not much to say about Isi that doesn’t apply to all Monster High dolls, since they all have a standard body, with a few exceptions due to size or unique patterning. (Or they all had a standard body. Mattel’s already started cutting costs. There’s a new set of super-cheap ones who don’t even have articulated elbows, and at least one of the earlier budget dolls was manufactured with sub-par plastics in certain places, which I’ll talk about at length if I ever finish getting her re-outfitted.) Anyway, Isi actually has one thing about her that stands out:
She has hooves! Cute, dainty and delicate, deer-like hooves at that! 😀
The little spur-like things at the back (I forget what they’re called, sorry) are more-or-less accurate to a real deer’s foot, and they also serve a function here in that her leggings are hooked over them to make sure they don’t get shoved up by her shoes. 🙂
Anyway, moving on to the other doll I got at the same time:
I’ve already forgotten her name. 😦 She’s a super-budget doll from the Ever After High line. (Bringing my collection of EAH dolls up to 3. Mattel’s finally starting to make them a little interesting to me…right before they’re about to reboot them along with MH. Though I gather the difference won’t be as severe in EAH’s case, presumably because their faces are already more generic than MH’s. In EAH’s case, they’re probably just going to cut back on the accessories and fantastic outfits, which were the part that was starting to appeal to me.) Anyway, I had been holding off on getting this little cutie, on account of her total lack of articulation (not only no elbows, but not even working knees!) but she’s just so adorable, and she made such a perfect pair with Isi! Getting them at the same time just felt right.
Anyway, whatever her name is (it might have been something like Deerla), she’s much smaller than the standard EAH doll:
Also, is it just me, or does it look like the fabric was used upside down for my doll? There are stags facing both up and down on it, but the black ones — the most noticeable ones — are upside down. Makes it feel like they put the cloth into the machine backwards. But she was the only one the store had of her that day. And that’s not a big deal, anyhow.
I really want to re-body her, but finding a body that would be compatible with her neckhole and was the right color…yeah, probably not going to happen.
Okay, moving on to the one I got about a week earlier, when I was at K-mart looking to replace my space heater.
Her name is Fawntine Fallowheart (they should have spelled that “Fallowhart“), and she’s one of the Frightmares. I really love the concept of these little centaurettes, but trying to get them to stand up is a challenge and a half! Fawntine here may be my favorite. (Or maybe it’s Flara. It’s a close call to be sure.)
Finally, I’ve had this one for a while now:
If I recall correctly, her name is Gilda Goldstag, and she’s the daughter (somehow) of the Golden Hind, which was one of the Twelve Labors of Heracles. (Though it should be pointed out that said hind merely had golden — or gold-covered — horns, not that the entire beast was golden. So the reverse of Gilda here.) I tried to remove her boots to see if she had hooves like Isi, but I couldn’t get them off, oddly enough. From what I could see through the slits on the backs of the boots, she seems to have ordinary feet. (Well, she’s from a 5-pack sold exclusively at Target; it would be weird if they went so far as to create unique feet for a doll being sold in those circumstances.)
I’m not sure what happened that Mattel put out so many deer-related dolls in such a short period, but it seems I’ve added quite the little sub-collection here!
I should get some BJD-sized deer horns, and one of those hooved BJDs from the Junky Spot… (Ugh, why am I saying that when I’m totally freakin’ broke? I can’t start getting paid fast enough… *sigh*)
Target finds
Between various things, I haven’t had much time to hit stores looking for the new dolls that were released right before Christmas. (For that matter, stores don’t even really start recovering from Christmas until mid-January, anyway, so I didn’t miss much.) But when I went to Target the other day (when was that, Friday?), I found some fun stuff I wanted to share.
As anyone who knows me might guess, I’ve been wanting to add the Great Scarrier Reef line of Monster High dolls to my collection ever since I first saw the photos online. But they didn’t hit the stores until after Thanksgiving, which was in my “no buy” period for playline dolls. And then all the stores were emptied of them after Christmas, so it wasn’t until now that I managed to get my hands on one.
Their names are Peri and Pearl Serpentine, and I was somewhat appalled to learn from their box that their monster parent is the Hydra.
And why would that appall me, when I’m a Greek mythology geek who’s loved all the other MH dolls tied to Greek myths? It appalls me exactly because I’m a Greek mythology geek. For the following reasons:
- The Hydra lived in a swamp. (Fresh water, not salt.)
- The Hydra had a lot more than two heads.
- The Hydra was traditionally depicted as a massive snake with numerous heads. Not a flippin’ mermaid.
- Seriously, guys? The Hydra? You couldn’t find any other mythological beastie with multiple heads? (Um, apart from Cerberos…and let’s hope they don’t go there.)
- (Also, I’ve gotten pretty caught up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe stuff, so suddenly Hydra has an extra meaning that it didn’t used to… 😛 )
Yeah, so their monster parent is going to have to change. (Though I’m not sure, off-hand, what I’ll change it to.) I may change the names, too. Or rather, I may drop the “Peri” part, because to me Peri is either a winged angel-like being, or a Doctor Who companion. Neither is appropriate for a two-headed mermaid. (Although Peri was first introduced in a bikini…off the coast of Greece, I think, so maybe that’s the reason they picked the name?) This misuse of a Greek mythological name makes me want to do a post about all my custom Monster High dolls that OC offspring of various Greek mythological figures. (Some being considerably more customized than others, naturally.) Not sure when I’ll get around to the photography, but that’s definitely on my agenda now.
Anyway, I’m not doing a full review of the Serpentine sisters(?) right now, as I didn’t have time to take more photos. I’ll do a full review of the whole line once I have them. (Like the full review of the Freak du Chic dolls I’ve been planning for some time now, or the Boo York, Boo York one. So I guess by the time the reviews go up, the dolls will no longer be in stores…maybe I’ll have to call them “retro reviews”…?)
The next doll I want to show you is this one:
Her name is Sage Starling from the Star Darlings line, a Disney property being made by Jakks Pacific. She’s using bendy-Sakura’s stand because she didn’t come with one of her own, and she can’t sit down very well. But she’s a nifty doll, and by getting her at Target without a stand, I paid $10 less than the fancy edition with a light-up stand. The light-up stand version was very fully reviewed at the Toy Box Philosopher, so there’s no need for me to try to review her, too. (The only accessory this one came with is a child-sized ring; the window locket is exclusive to the more expensive version.) I picked this one over the others Target had primarily because she had purple hair. Hair, I might add, that’s styled the way I like to wear mine. Only her braids are cleaner and smaller than mine. (Smaller proportionally, I mean.) Not that I put the rest of my hair into banana curls, of course! (Though it does that on its own when it air dries…)
Um, right, so, moving on!
There’s actually a lot of Disney to report on, somewhat surprisingly. Target had in some of the new Hasbro Disney Princess dolls, but I didn’t feel like any of them really called out to me saying “buy me!” Their faces were much more like the ones on the Disney Store dolls than Mattel’s old lines of Disney Princess dolls, but I felt like their heads were a little too big for their bodies. And yes, I realize that sounds absurd coming from someone who is literally surrounded by Pullip and Blythe dolls, but it’s sort of a proportion thing, or something. All I know is that I looked at those Hasbro dolls and felt like their heads were the wrong size. (Hopefully I’ll come across one later that I actually like, ’cause I’d love to do a three way comparison, between Mattel, Hasbro and Disney Store. But I don’t want to buy one just for that reason.)
The other toy I have to show you today is also Disney. I’d already heard about the small, plastic Tsum Tsums, and I’d even seen the sets, but all the sets included ones from Frozen, which automatically turned me against them. (I will be so glad when the merch from that movie starts going away. I’m sick of looking at it.) But this time there were also little blind bag ones:
Obviously, this flat one here is already empty. 😛 Here’s the back, which shows you what might be inside:
Now, I’ve mentioned before that I’m not very lucky with blind bag/box figures. But some of these are extremely cute, and one of them is incredibly cute, and I felt that absolutely had to have it. Fortunately, because it’s a bag, I was able to stand there for I-don’t-know-how-long feeling the different packages until I was positive that I was holding the one I wanted.
Fortunately, the downright Seussian trees of the Tulgey Wood were easy to detect through the package! 😀 (I’d rather like the ones of Figaro, Marie and Lucky, too, but I’m not so sure I could successfully detect them through their packages.)
He’s even got a little sign on the tree saying “This Way”! 😀 (But there isn’t one on the other side saying “That Way” unfortunately.)
You may be wondering just how small the blind bag figures are? Maybe this photo will help answer your question:
The Sadness Tsum Tsum is the smallest size of the plush ones…and actually, she came from Target, too. Just not all that recently. (The SHFigurarts Elizabeth there did not come from Target, though.) If you still need further scale information, there are other shots of Elizabeth here, along with various other toys that may clarify her size. (If you’re still unclear, let’s say she’s about 1/12 scale, but a bit on the small side even for that scale.)
I would have taken a photo of the little plastic Cheshire Cat Tsum Tsum with my plush one, but he’s the big size (or is he actually the medium size?) so the plastic one would be so tiny as to not even really show up. (Seriously, Juliet, my 1/3 scale doll uses him as a chair. Though he’s a better size for the slightly smaller “frightfully tall ghouls” Monster High dolls, which I suspect are sort of the MH equivalent of 1/4 scale. I need to get a real 1/4 scale doll to be sure, I guess.)
Anyway, there was one other item I got at Target, a Legend of Zelda figurine, but I’m saving that one for a later post. (How much later, I’m not quite sure. Probably either when Hyrule Warriors Legends (or whatever it’s called) comes out for the 3DS, or when the Link Between Worlds Figma arrives. (Yup, I’ve already pre-ordered it. In the deluxe edition that comes with all sorts of cool extra stuff.))
In other news, I have officially given up hope of repairing Pyrrha’s eye mechanism, so now I have to decide where to buy her a new one. I’ve found two places I can get one. One is from Etsy, for about $25 with $10 shipping, from a seller I’ve bought from before. The other is for about $13, from the AliExpress seller that sold me Pyrrha. The shipping on the latter is listed as $26, but there’s also a note on there saying that if you buy it at the same time as a nude doll, then the shipping cost on the eye mechanism will be adjusted to zero. But maybe that only applies to one of the nude dolls that isn’t listed as “free shipping”? (Not that the shipping is truly free, of course; they just increase the base price to account for the shipping cost. But they don’t adjust the price as much as the shipping would cost, so…) I do want to get another factory girl — I’ve even decided her name — but I don’t really feel ready quite yet (Pyrrha’s not even done yet, thanks to the eye mechanism SNAFU). And, of course, I’d hoped to get one from this one Etsy seller, only they suddenly closed their shop, so I don’t know what’s up with that. (Because I’d wanted to compare the different factory girls and see how they differed from each other.) So I’m not sure which to get. Especially with one Kickstarter coming due today, and another a few days from now, plus having made another Mandarake order last night. (Though I do currently have some money to spend, thankfully. It’s just that I need to try and make it last as long as possible. Which, unfortunately, isn’t very long with me, it seems.)
So, yeah, I’m in a bit of a quandary about where to buy the new eye mechanism. Also about where to get another Pure Neemo XS body for Tomoyo-chan. And about where to get a Picco Neemo body, because I want to try doing a body swap, as I think Picco Neemo is about the right size for a Little Pullip+ to swap onto. (I may be wrong about that, but…) I got a Little Dal+ at Tuesday Mornings yesterday that has an unappealing costume and bland hair, but a phenomenal face-up, so I thought she might make a good body swap candidate.
Crazy Doll Lady 