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.

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.