About a month ago, I got a chance to go to the Toys R Us on the other side of town. This one is connected to a Babies R Us, which makes the store smaller, as
Muff told me a while back her TRU is. However, this TRU often has different merchandise to the store closer to me, and as soon as I walked into the TRU on this day, I saw a doll line I've never seen before, and it was already on clearance.
Their story is that they are teenage princesses of the Planets of the Pentangle. When the EVIL Empress Geela takes over their planets, the girls disguise themselves as musicians and form a band called SpacePOP, because why not. Let's hit all of the tropes that we can! It bugs me that four of the five dolls have Greek and Roman mythological names (Athena, Hera, Rhea and Juno), but those goddesses don't seem to be linked in any way to the dolls or their stories. Indeed, Hera and Juno are the same goddess, one from Greece and one from Rome. The fifth doll is called Luna, but her character doesn't seem to be linked in any way to the moon, either. I was surprised to see that these dolls are produced by Madame Alexander. Honestly, I expect better from them. I was even more surprised to see that these dolls were at the
MA booth at the 2017 NY Toy Fair, when this group was already on clearance at TRU in January. There was another set of the same doll wearing a uniform outfit, so maybe that's the next wave.
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| This doll reminds me of Draculaura. |
At this TRU, Monster High and Ever After High were piled onto a square fixture with some other assorted toy items. I took a picture of the tall Madeline Hatter (17 in/43cm) and the super tall Madeline Hatter (over 2 ft/over 60cm), just to show you what they look like proportional to other dolls. I've never seen the super tall version in-store before.
I also saw a couple of houses that looked *not bad* for the price, considering they looked like they have some wood construction, and not just plastic. They also seem to come with some furniture that is not just plastic. My daughter would love the ballerina poster and dance barre in the modern house.
Lastly, since a lot of you like Sparkle Girlz outfits as good bargain outfits for your dolls, I took a couple of pictures of the ones that I saw at Walmart a few days ago. To me at least, the pink top outfit, workout outfit, and pink and black sparkle dress seemed new, but I don't keep up very well with these.
Speaking of Toy Fair 2017, what I saw looked pretty boring. Have you seen anything that you are looking forward to adding to your collection?
At this TRU, Monster High and Ever After High were piled onto a square fixture with some other assorted toy items. I took a picture of the tall Madeline Hatter (17 in/43cm) and the super tall Madeline Hatter (over 2 ft/over 60cm), just to show you what they look like proportional to other dolls. I've never seen the super tall version in-store before.
I also saw a couple of houses that looked *not bad* for the price, considering they looked like they have some wood construction, and not just plastic. They also seem to come with some furniture that is not just plastic. My daughter would love the ballerina poster and dance barre in the modern house.
Lastly, since a lot of you like Sparkle Girlz outfits as good bargain outfits for your dolls, I took a couple of pictures of the ones that I saw at Walmart a few days ago. To me at least, the pink top outfit, workout outfit, and pink and black sparkle dress seemed new, but I don't keep up very well with these.
Speaking of Toy Fair 2017, what I saw looked pretty boring. Have you seen anything that you are looking forward to adding to your collection?
Super tall Maddie Hatter?! I had never heard of that! I've got the seventeen inch one, now I think I may need to investigate the super big one!
ReplyDeleteThe Space Pop dolls look a LOT like sanitised Monster High dolls to me.
I like the super tall one because she's dressed like Maddie from the Hat-tastic Party, which is my favorite look for her.
DeleteI agree with you about the SpacePOP dolls. I think if Madame Alexander wants to compete in the play doll market, they're going to have to up their game.
In all honesty, those Space Pop dolls look like knock off EAH dolls to me, and their outfits look cheap. Hera looks like a mash up between Draculaura and Apple! Even though I'm not into Disney dolls, the Frozen castle looks pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteYeah, these dolls are not particularly original, so it's no wonder they are already on clearance. Madame Alexander seems like Mattel, in that they can't seem to concentrate on more than one or two doll lines at once.
DeleteI looked at the SpacePop dolls when my fave TRU was going under. Even at half off, I wasn't interested. The faces have next to NO sculpting to them, so they look flat and weird. The worst thing IMO is their clothing. It looks terribly designed, cheaply made, and several of the outfits don't even appear to fit the doll they're on all that well.
ReplyDeleteI did find the Kuu Kuu Harajuku dolls at Toyfair interesting. They're like teenaged Shoppies with more articulation!
DeleteI hate to see doll lines that don't have any redeeming qualities.
DeleteI keep forgetting about the Kuu Kuu Harajuku dolls, maybe because I don't find their outfits interesting. They're cute though, and they'll probably sell okay, especially since I think they look like Shoppies too.
Do you recall if the SpacePop girls were fully articulated? I'm always interested in what type of articulation different doll brands have even if the doll itself looks horrible.
ReplyDeleteThey seem to be able to bend at the elbows, wrists and knees, and of course arm movement at the shoulder. I couldn't say for certain about how well their heads move, or what kind of movement they have at the hips.
DeleteI've never seen those SpacePop dolls before, but they look interesting. I'm going to have to make some exploratory toy store visits!
ReplyDeleteI hope you'll find something interesting! Or am I just enabling?
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