Browsing at Target, Shopping at Pat Catan's. LORI Adds On, EAH Takes a Dive. Outdoor Furniture!

I've had a cold for over a week. Ugh. While I've not been feeling too awful, I really didn't feel like sitting in front of a computer and composing a blog post, either. But I'm slowly returning to feeling like a human being again, so today I'm sharing some pictures of things I looked at when I was at Target picking up a few things, and also some stuff I actually bought at one of our local craft stores a bit over a week ago.

If you want to get back at a sibling or an in-law for something, nothing says "Ha ha!" quite like giving your niece or grandchild or whomever, the Barbie Sparkle Style Salon, with a comb full of glitter, and a real working sink. Wet glitter everywhere!

Target seems to think there's a new Trolls movie coming out that's going to be a thing. Shrugs.

Jaye reviewed the set below. Apparently most of the pieces work with 12" dolls, so that's positive. I've heard there's another set of little accessories like this one, which I'm hoping my Target will get in before Christmas. In a positive note, my Target has wrapped the LORI section so it still has an endcap, and also is partially stocked into the Our Generation section. Hopefully they're going to rectify the mistakes of Christmas Past and have enough merchandise available on the shelves this Christmas.

Plus, your 6" dolls will be able to have horse riding adventures with new horses, a barn, and a horse trailer. This also gives the already-released LORI car something new to tow. I was ready to head home at this point, so I only took a picture of the horses that were there. I don't know if there will be any other horses released. These horses might at least be able to become ponies for taller dolls.

Also, Mattel has re-released some of the signature Ever After High dolls. I can see the appeal to Mattel of having some dolls of popular characters available in stores, that aren't currently represented in the latest theme lines, like Ballet or Epic Winter. But I'm giving the execution a big fat F. I've talked about this before, but the new Signatures just aren't up to the quality of the old dolls, and yet they're asking just about as much money. When I saw Cerise Hood at Target, I just had to gripe about this.

So here we have Cerise Hood. Less packaging than the original dolls. You don't get the thick diary entry from the character anymore, just that flat card in the right hand corner.

What disturbed me so much was the purse. The picture below shows the purse you get with the current Signature doll.

This purse below? This was the purse you got with the original Signature Cerise Hood. With the lovely checked detail on the top of the basket that made EAH the stand-out line that it was. Seriously, Mattel? It's not like the original dolls and accessories are NOT STILL AVAILABLE second hand and at places like Amazon. It's so obvious the shortcuts you took this time around. Cerise also doesn't come with the ring and chunky bracelet she was wearing before, in this incarnation either. I don't have pictures of my own of those, though.

Honestly, this makes me worry about Mattel's future. Even if I give them the benefit of the doubt and say the quality is going down because of a poor economy, it still doesn't bode well that Mattel had to cut these corners to keep them at a price where people will buy them. Yeah, Mattel lost the Disney Princesses, which was a big indicator of issues in itself, but Hasbro hasn't proven yet that there's huge profitability in that market either. There are two things I know for certain though. 1. Adult collectors alone can't keep a playline doll line afloat. 2. Mr. BTEG informed me that a short while back, LEGO almost went under. Yeah, that LEGO. Which, by the way, has a huge market of adult collectors.

On a happier note, I stopped by a local hobby store called Pat Catan's. It's a local chain; I don't know quite how many stores it has or where. I found a few really great deals!

Back in May, I posted about some mini garden type decorations I saw at a Michael's craft store. Michael's had lanterns on a short shepherd's hook type stand. For $1.19 each, I found just lanterns at Pat Catan's. I'm just not sure why they're described as "sleeping cats" in French and Spanish. I didn't realize that was a term for a lantern.

I also had to snatch up these wooden pieces of furniture which are much larger than the general 1/12 scale that you find at craft stores. The chairs were $3.95 each, the table $1.27. I haven't measured them, but Cerise's picnic basket is still in the picture to give you an idea of what a nice size these items are.

Don't worry, Mr. BTEG. These things will be off of the robotics table by the time that you get home.

You may have noticed that the items above are all Darice brand. Darice is an inexpensive local line of craft items which Pat Catan carries. Apparently, Michael's recently bought out Pat Catan's just to get the rights to sell Darice items; at least, that's the rumor that I heard. Now I wonder if Pat Catan's will disappear as a chain, and if Michael's will jack up the price on Darice stuff. Michael's has a reputation for being more expensive than other local craft stores. I'm kind of hoping that Michael's wanted to acquire Darice items as a way to also appeal to the crafter with the smaller budget, and we'll still get Darice's wide line of items, plus the same good prices.

So do you have any thoughts about new items on the shelves? Crafting? Mattel, for better or worse? I'd especially love to hear thoughts on Mattel, or even any good dirt you have. :)

Shopping: Ever After High, Glue Head, Bratz

I've been wanting to post for a while, but I haven't known where to start. Hmm. Well, remember when I said I was buying Ever After High's Ashlynn Ella and Hunter Huntsman, back in January? I'm now up to ten Ever After High dolls in my collection. I've gotten really good deals on all of them, at least. Thanks to Tam's enabling, for example, my most recent purchases included Hat-tastic Cerise Hood for only 9.99 at Tuesday Morning. I also found some Nanotech blocks that I've wanted for a very long time, but wasn't sure where to find. I'll do a separate post about those, after I get some pictures taken.

At Toys R Us, I bought a Mirror Beach Ashlynn Ella. I love the doll, but she has an awful case of glue hair, the worst I've seen of the dolls I have. I've tried Dawn dishwashing detergent, tea tree shampoo, and baby powder. The baby powder seemed to help, but I wanted to wash it out, which made the hair feel greasy again. I very likely used too much baby powder. I'm tempted just to fix it with a re-root, but I'm nervous about doing it myself because of the tiny holes, and it's costly to have it done, not surprising when you look at the time involved. I'm just glad I got Ashlynn for half off. Not that I think she was worth her original price, what with no stand, not a lot of jewelry, and a simple bathing suit/skirt costume.

Speaking of quality and pricing, pictures are leaking of the new EAH dolls that are being produced this year. Maybe the reason they weren't at Toy Fair is because the quality has dropped in a big way. Darling Charming, for example, a major character whom collectors have eagerly awaited, has molded hair, and painted on pants and shoes. This also means his knees don't bend. Ugh! Several of the new dolls in the Epic Winter movie line also have painted on leggings. I read somewhere a suggestion that Mattel may be trying to fill in its range of toys for littler girls, now that the Disney Princess line has been lost, with EAH and MH. Thus, the more smiling faces, and fewer small clothing pieces to deal with. Not a good plan if true, Mattel. Get your creative team to be creative!

Although I was uncertain for a long time about getting Ever After High dolls, I'm happy now about getting into the line. I love bright colors, and EAH has those in abundance. The shelf these dolls are on really stands out among some of the other groups of dolls that I have. I'm trying to move my dolls around so they can be on a shelf where I can see them better. I'm actually kind of having fun with the overhaul of my sewing/books/dolls area. I guess that's good.

Oh, and I also wanted to mention that TRU seemed to have all its Bratz merchandise marked down and piled in a big bin in the middle of an aisle. That doesn't seem to be a good sign, but I don't follow the Bratz market. Toy drama everywhere! :)

My Cinderella Dolls and New Cinderellas at Target

Not only has the new live-action Cinderella movie produced new dolls in the likenesses (more or less) of the actors, Cinderella and Prince Charming dolls were also featured on an endcap at Target recently. I'll show you those pictures, but first I thought this would be a good time to put up pictures of my own Cinderella and Prince Charming dolls.

This may be the first Disney Cinderella doll Mattel ever made. I'm going to guess this dolly is about twenty years old, give or take a few years.

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.

I Need Ideas!

Remember how I talked about some of the pieces I was keeping as my daughters give up most of their childhood Barbie doll collections? Well, I have two more pieces to show you today, and I'd like ideas from you on how best to spruce them up for adult doll display.

The first piece came with some Mattel Disney Cinderella set, as you can see by the cardboard backing still in place. I'm not even sure what this type of furniture would be called if you saw it in real life. A side table, maybe? It's not useful for much besides decoration. I would have put this in the pile to pass on except that I like the rose and silver details. Of course, I'd have to repaint those if I repaint the whole piece some more realistic furniture color than pale blue. Anyone seen any real furniture like this? If I do repaint it, should I paint the roses a single color or maybe go for more depth using shading (if I thought I could even accomplish this)?

I also wasn't sure I was going to keep this hutch, until I saw what Cheryl did with hers. Now I think I'd be crazy to give it up, especially since mine still has all the pieces.

The problem is, I've never been much of a paint artist, or necessarily creative making things "out of nothing," as it were. I suppose I could produce something to replace the oval piece at the top that has the "Princess" banner on it, using poster board or foam core and some beads. What I'm really debating is what to do about the doors. They're see-through, but shaded purple, which would probably not match any attempts to non-Disney Princess this hutch, and I don't know what kind of paint to use on this type of plastic.

To be honest, I'm a little scared of taking on either of these projects! Previous tries I have made to repaint Barbie furniture and give it non-Barbie colors has not ended well. I've looked up many tutorials online, but I'm still afraid to take the next step. I'm trying to convince myself that if I had any inspiration on how to decorate these, it might motivate me. Thoughts?

Angelina Ballerina chairs

Here are two more Angelina Ballerina pieces that I received in my eBay purchase: the kitchen chairs. Considering that these were made for stuffed animals to sit on, I find they work quite well with dolls the appropriate height(s). I also don't think missing the table is a big issue. Tables are a lot easier to create than chairs, and Angelina's table doesn't seem to be as stand-out as the chairs.

First of all, however, I want to show a couple more pictures of the dresser and chest. jSarie suggested that the mirror might be throwing off how the Barbie size doll looked standing next to the dresser, so I got Snow back out and took a picture of her next to the pieces again.

Now I almost like her better next to the chest but am not so sure about the dresser! Ah well. These pieces seem to have a juvenile touch to them, with the painted on flowers, so I don't know that an adult Barbie size doll would get them anyway.

Since I had Tonner's 12" Alice in Wonderland doll out to take pictures seated on the chairs, I put her next to the dresser and chest as well. She's close to a Barbie in height, but Barbie is an adult in her world, while Alice is a tween in a world of 16" adults.

Alice is wearing a night dress from Tonner's Nutcracker Ballet line. Poor Alice is barefoot because while slippers did come with this nightdress (as well as a pretty robe), I need a dolly size shoehorn to get those shoes on her feet. Adams-Harris Patterns has a free pattern for a Marley (Alice) sized shoe that I really should try.

And now we return to the chairs. They are even more fancifully painted than the bedroom furniture, and almost have a shabby chic look since some of the paint has the appearance of wearing off.

Again, they're made of wood, and are nice and durable. They're a little broader than some other doll chairs of a similar height, but they ended up working pretty well with dolls the proportional sizes.

We'll start off with Alice and a Kripplebush Kid. (I really ought to give those poor Kids names.) Both look fine here. The Kid might have to scramble a bit to get up, but what little kid hasn't had to do that at some point?

The Kid also doesn't look badly standing next to the chair. Which makes me think that these chairs would also work for a similar doll like Kish's Riley. Some people have inserted Riley into Tonner's world to be the little girl, instead of the Kripplebush Kids.

I thought these chairs would be too broad for the Barbie sized dolls. Maybe for a Barbie in a bathing suit, they would be, but Snow with her wide skirt makes it look acceptable.

Lastly, I took a couple of pictures with Snow by herself with the chairs. I know many of you that read here have more Playscale sized dolls than Tonner sized ones.

Once again, these are two pieces which I am glad to have in my collection. I often prefer to have my dolls sit on chairs rather than be in stands, if I have the space, so the more chairs, the better!

Angelina Ballerina Dresser and Chest

My Angelina Ballerina furniture arrived today! Well, most of it did. I couldn't find the stove in the pile of newspaper that everything came wrapped up in. Still have to talk it over with the seller. But everything else is fantastic! I decided to stick to the wooden dresser and chest, because otherwise this post would be way too long. I'll highlight the other items in later posts.

The chest and dresser are very nice pieces, made of wood, with what I think is called fiberboard at the bottom of the drawers and the bottom of the chest. They also are marked on the bottom with HIT Entertainment (who owned the rights to Angelina Ballerina, at least the animated series) and American Girl, who distributed the stuffed dolls and furniture.

I forgot to take measurements! Let me know if you want a particular measurement. But you can get a pretty good feel for how big the pieces are by looking at the dolls I thought worked best with them. First up are some pictures of the dresser and chest by themselves.

A couple of the dresser drawers are very loose; the small drawer on the top right is very tight. You might be able to see how it fits a little crookedly into its slot.

There are some marks on the front of the chest. Nothing serious.

Because the chest used such thick pieces of wood, I feel like it looks a little funny on the inside, proportionally. But it's a very solid piece, which is the main thing.

First up to model is Disney's Snow White, by Mattel. As an aside, I realized while I was taking pictures that the dress Snow White is wearing is over ten years old! I got it in a dress swap, as a member of a doll board I don't even remember anymore. Actually, it might have even been an old-school bulletin board. Anyone else active on those back in the day?

She doesn't look too out of place here. The chest looks a little small proportional to her height, but the dresser isn't bad at all.

The mirror piece on top of the dresser is completely separate, giving it even more play value, as it can be moved around on top of the dresser or used by itself.

I wonder if this is a magic mirror?

 Next up is a J-Doll, Melanie.

Being more petite, I think she works better overall than Snow White. Possibly it might be a little too big for her, but I don't think so. She looks right sitting on the chest.

Lastly, we have my 8" Kripplebush Kid by Tonner. At the moment, I think she works with these pieces the best.

 

The mirror tilts (although it doesn't stay in a tilted position) so anyone could sneak a peek in it, but I like that this little girl can look right at the mirror.

I also had my Madeline and mini AG Samantha out, but the furniture completely overwhelmed them. So I think these are the ones in my collection who would work the best.

Obviously, with the flower decorations, these pieces are rather girly, so they're not for everyone's collection. Can you see GI Joe using these? :) But they're well made, real wood pieces that are going to look great in one of my doll's bedroom set. Which doll you think should get them?

Doll Shelves at Target

I've been having some health problems lately, so unfortunately I haven't been getting much done, in real life or on the Internet. But while I was shopping at Target today, I snagged some pictures. Sorry that most of them are blurry.

If you have a larger size young child doll, she might enjoy finding a few toys under her tree at Christmas. These were in the ornaments section. At $8.00 each, though, you might want to try to snag one during the after-Christmas sales.

The Monster High dolls get a crossover car, and a cafe. I guess in Scaris you need a good cafe or deaux. Although I'm not into Monster High, I am interested in seeing what kind of playsets will come out of the Ever After High series. I wonder if we will see a pumpkin carriage instead of a purple convertible?

Speaking of Ever After High, there were only a few of those dolls, and they were wedged in here and there around this MH Once Upon a Time series, a Target exclusive. It seems like Ever After High hasn't really hit its stride yet, at least at this Target's toy display. On the other hand, of course Target would want to feature its exclusive Monster High stuff.

This picture and the one below were it for the Pinkie Cooper line. I'm not even sure what this line offers right now, but these four dolls don't pack much shelf presence displayed as they are. Maybe once all the clearance Winx Club dolls are gone, Pinkie's display will look better. Right now they are just four dolls with dog faces, not its own world to explore and have fun with.

Oh. Oh my. Poor, poor Anna. The animated character's eyes are slightly off in an endearing way. This doll looks like she needs eye surgery. I kept thinking about the Island of Misfit Toys while looking at this doll. This doll wasn't the only stuffed Anna with this issue, either.

I liked the idea of a doll and a matching dress for the child, all in one box. However, when I looked at the picture at home, I realized they should have made more of an effort to make the doll's dress and the child's dress look more alike. Yes? Looking at the Disney Princess stuff reminds me of the year we went to southern California over Thanksgiving for a friend's wedding. Our daughters were not quite six and almost three. We did a lot of Christmas shopping that year at Disneyland and LEGOland. Among other things, our youngest daughter got a Cinderella tiara and a pair of Cinderella dress-up shoes for Christmas. They also each received a doll this size of their favorite Disney princess at some point.

Despite the wonky eyes of this doll (what is it with the wonky eyes?) she has cute accessories. Among other things, there are a "balloon" animal, cotton candy and a candied apple. I wonder if the books help sales, or is it almost just an expected thing anymore with 18" dolls?

Lastly, I know a lot of you like Hearts for Hearts dolls. There were two each of these two on the shelf. That seems about average for this line here, not fully in stock but not sold out.

Honestly, I didn't see much to interest me at all. Of course, I'm not interested in Monster High or Frozen, and I don't have little girl daughters anymore, so those things might be big contributors. Monster High, Frozen and Target's Our Generation line were the winners as far as attention paid to display, with Disney princesses in general coming in next, so if you're interested in any of those dolls, there was lots to choose from. I expect Ever After High to have its own section next Christmas if sales in 2014 go well overall. Otherwise, everything at this Target just seemed kind of packed in here and there. Even Barbie seems to be a mish-mash of themes (Fashion! Sisters! Life in the Dreamhouse!) and nothing stood out as special. Plus as I said above, the quality on some of these lines was a bit disturbing as well. Meh.