Rainbow High Accessories and Skyler in New Clothes

I mentioned in my last post that I completely forgot to share the accessories that Priscilla came with, in lieu of a second outfit. Since several of those accessories match the ones that came with a rolling makeup case that I bought separately, I decided to put all of that in this post, as well as Skyler in a new outfit made up of separates from other purchases.

Here are Priscilla's accessories. It's ironic that that Rainbow High collectors would have liked hangers, but not in place of a second outfit. It makes sense from a financial standpoint, I imagine. In addition to the two hangers, there is a cellphone with case, a laptop computer open to a designing program, three makeup brushes, an eyeshadow palette, and a tube of lipstick. MGA did a good job making the laptop screen look like an actual illustration program, but it's too bad that the cellphone just has the same image cut down.

 

To me, it's odd that the little clip on the case, so that the doll can hold it, means that the doll holds it in her left hand. Right-handed folks out there, what hand do you generally hold your cellphone in when you're checking things out on there? I'm left-handed, but somewhat ambidextrous, as left-handed peeps are often required to be.

Here's Skyler standing next to the makeup cart to demonstrate its proportions next to a doll. Her shirt and shoes came with RH doll Cecilia. Her jeans came from a clothes rack full of clothes that came with an Avery Styles doll. The makeup case came in a Rainbow High gift set. There were three dolls that each came in a different color, dressed for a stage performance, and the makeup cart and makeup, each matching the dolls' dress colors, were included. Thanks to eBay, at least in the US, it is fairly simple to pick up part of a doll set, if you don't want the whole thing.

This makeup case is very nicely made. The handle of the case pulls up so you can roll it like a suitcase. The two doors open to reveal a storage area and a drawer that pulls out. The top of the case flips open (once the handle is down) to two compartments, that can also be hung on the outside of the case.

The case came with a hair dryer, three makeup brushes, an eyeshadow palette, and a tube of lipstick. As you can see, the makeup is exactly the same as Priscilla's, just a different colorway.

 

The eyshadow cases, the lipstick tubes, and the front of the makeup case, all have the same 3D image. To me, it looks like a Greek goddess cameo, sort of a Victorian Greek goddess.

What accessories would you like to see with a doll? I can think of so many things, depending on era and type of doll. I think I would like detailed jewelry the best, because I'm not very good at making small doll jewelry.

And Then There Were Two

Yes, I picked up another Rainbow High doll. Well, technically this doll is part of the Shadow High line. Shadow High is Rainbow High's rival school, and the first dolls in this series varied in skin tones and clothing from mostly all white to mostly all black, with shades of gray in between. Shanelle Onyx is the doll who is mostly all black, except for a white streak in her hair, and she's the doll we're looking at today.

This is the way she came, fresh out of the box. I like her outfit for the most part. Her lace socks and strappy heels with black fur looked cool in the YouTube show, but they look a little odd in real life.

Fortunately, she comes with a change of clothes and shoes. I like her second outfit too. There is no slit or clasp on either of her pairs of shoes, so they have to be worked on and off. I don't like that her clothes mostly fit *very* tightly, meaning you have to really pull the sides together so the Velcro can meet. With the black belt that comes with Shanelle's dress, I feel like I'm not getting it closed all the way; I can't get all the Velcro covered by the other end of the belt. At least her hands can come off, similar to the way Monster High/Ever After High dolls' hands could. It makes it a lot easier to put on things like the jacket with ruffled sleeves in the second picture below.

I like her makeup. Her hair is silky soft, with only a little crunch on the end of some of her hair at the bottom of her ponytail.

Her body has some marks and scratches, but those don't bother me for some reason. Also, these dolls have an "unrealistic" knee hinge, which again, doesn't bother me, but I thought I'd show those of you who don't have one of these dolls. 

These dolls have their own names, with personalities and story lines you get to see in the show on YouTube, but the dolls seem mainly designed to display the clothes. As with Mila's dress, for example, Shanelle can't sit down in the black and silver houndstooth skirt. Of course, lots of kids just hold their dolls in the air and make them "talk." This also reminds me that the dolls do come with color-coordinated stands, and a comb. I talked with Dana about whether these clothes would fit curvy Barbies, and the answer is: no. I have a picture of a curvy Barbie/Shadow High doll under the fold.

My Caboodles Collection (Doll and Human Sized!)

Has anyone outside of the US (and Canada) ever heard of Caboodles? The origin story varies, but someone was inspired by seeing a woman using a fishing tackle box to hold her makeup, and the Caboodles case was born. Caboodles are made by the Plano Molding Company, which started out in 1952 making tackle boxes. I still use my vintage Caboodles box, and when I saw that the American Girl 1980s doll Courtney has a Caboodles box as an accessory, I had to buy it. I got it with my Kirsten doll order, and now I have a vintage Caboodles, a modern Caboodles, an American Girl Caboodles, and a Barbie Caboodles. Caboodles Barbie was the very first doll that I acquired as a collector, given to me by Mr. BTEG in 1993 or 1994. She of course came with her own Caboodles case.

 

We'll start with the Barbie case, as that is the least interesting. The plastic handle stays straight up, and there is nothing on the inside. Still, I like having it in my Caboodles collection. I never knew that I would get another one in a doll size!

 

The modern Caboodles case is the least like the other three. I saw it for a good deal on Amazon Prime Days and picked it up. I use it to hold a lot of my eye shadow products. It's the only one that I own that has a mirror.

My American Girl case is very much like my vintage one, fittingly. Of course, Courtney's year is 1986, and Caboodles didn't appear on the market until 1987. It also seems that the very first Caboodles cases looked different, standing up taller and having two drawers that pulled out in the front. Still, I'm pretty sure I had my personal case by 1991, and possibly earlier, so they're not that far apart in age. Courtney just couldn't have had one in 1986.

As you can see, the cases look extremely alike from the outside. Courtney's even has the small rectangle indentation, where you could stick a plate ordered from Caboodles with your name on it.

The insides also look very much alike, down to the drawer compartments.

Here's what Courtney's case came with. I don't want to open up the pack of nail stickers, but they contain 4 sheets of stickers in different colors. When I saw the can of hairspray, my first thought was "LA Looks!" so I think they got the style right. Rave hairspray also apparently used something like this color scheme.

The outside of the eyeshadow case. I remember CoverGirl being the go-to eyeshadow for the younger crowd back then.

I haven't measured every dimension, but the American Girl case seems quite close to scale. My main problem is with the banana clip. It should be worn laying against the entire back of the head (I've worn them!) The entire length of this one only covers about three-quarters of the back of an American Girl head. I also feel like the hair pick is a bit small. I still needed to get this set for my Caboodles collection!

For a little fun, I'm posting two pictures of myself in all my 80s big haired glory, from 1987. I was going out for the night and had just gotten my hair done. :)