In the Toy Aisle

I ran into some difficulties that left me without energy or interest in blogging, so although I have been reading what other people are writing, I haven't been up to posting anything of my own. I'm going to slide back into this with a quick overview of what is popping up in the toy aisles of my local Target.

First is a playset for the 11 1/2" Frozen dolls. Half of this is the castle, and half is Elsa's ice palace. Of course it comes with an Olaf. Is that dressing screen integral to the movie? It showed up in Elsa's miniature wardrobe playset, and now here. Frankly, I think these type of playsets are always overpriced. $89.99 is the sale price, and even that I feel is too much money for what you get, which is a couple of plastic facades and some furniture pieces.

There were lots of Monster High dolls, mostly the Freaky Fusion and candy nightmare ones. I'm not particularly interested in the dolls, but I did see they are branching out with a Monster High styling head and cloth Monster High dolls. Cloth dolls seem to be a trend at the moment. I think the Mooshka line was one of the first to start this.

 

In Ever After High, there was a large selection of dolls, from the originally basic dolls to the Hat-Tastic Party line. There is also a furniture set for you to use when your dolls throw a Hat-Tastic party, that includes a Madeline Hatter doll. The other set appeared to me to be Briar Beauty's Thronecoming book, but my one picture it happened to be in doesn't seem to match the pictures from Dollsville USA's review. Maybe I'll take another look the next time I go through Target.

The LEGO Friends line has come out with a outdoor adventure set, which seems to have a rescue theme. There is also a Friends Advent calendar, which I was happy to see. Mainline LEGO always comes out with an Advent calendar. I didn't check the LEGO aisle to see if Target carries that one.

Lastly, I thought there was someone whose blog I read, who likes the three good fairies from Sleeping Beauty. Apparently Flora, Fauna and Merriweather now teach at Sofia the First's Royal Prep school. There was a good selection of Sofia dolls in various types and sizes. $39.99 seems like a lot for Princess Sofia and 13 small friends. At least the dolls seem to have a variety of dress styles.

The Barbie section seemed an indication of how far the plastic princess has fallen in sales; it was fairly small but also pretty boring. I'm not sure which came first, the decreased sales or the decreased quality in the Barbie line. Mattel doesn't seem to be trying hard to bring her back this Christmas season, though. There was nothing new except the holiday Barbie and an expensive Barbie townhouse not very different from the generations of townhouses before it.