Barbie Creatable World dc-725

Being unboxed today is doll dc-725 from the Barbie Creatable World line. This line features a new body design and is marketed as something that is slightly more customizable than the standard Barbies as, in addition to different outfits, it comes with two alternate hairstyles. A short default haircut and a long wig. The dolls sell between $30-$40CDN.

The dolls have also received quite a bit of publicity due to being of indeterminate gender, meaning that kids can decide if they want their doll to be a male or female character (or neither). Some people have called this the non-binary Barbie, but based on the height difference between this doll and standard Barbies, it seems more like a pre-pubescent one. Either way, if you’re looking for a Barbie-line doll without the exaggerated chest or Barbie or Ken, this fills that gap.

Happy Holidays!

I can’t believe we’re already at the end of December! I’d had great plans for at least five other posts this year (reviews of two Barbie releases, a modern versus vintage Cabbage Patch doll post, a vintage Star Wars post, and a travel-related tourist dolls of Vietnam and Cambodia post). But I suppose they’ll all have to wait for 2020!

If you’re celebrating Christmas this week, I hope it’s a happy one! 🎄
And if I don’t post again until January, Happy New Year! 🥳

The Fresh Dolls Mia from Positively Perfect

I vaguely remember reading some reviews of the Fresh Dolls line back in 2017.  While I did think about picking one up, since I was on a semi-hiatus when it came to toy collecting at the time, I never got around to it.  Fast forward two years, and while checking out the toy selection at Dollarama (the Canadian discount chain), I noticed three different Fresh Dolls on the shelf.  Remembering my earlier interest, I picked one up.

The Fresh Dolls line are a fashion doll (11.5"/29.5cm) brand within the World of EPI umbrella who previously brought us the Positively Perfect line of 14.5" (37cm) soft-bodied dolls for toddlers. The Fresh Dolls line consists of seven jointed fashion dolls, each of which is differentiated by their unique outfits (a range of formal to casual) skin colour (a range from medium to dark that's described on the official website as "deep mocha, caramel, latte, and even blended") and hair colour/texture (smooth to curly, long to short, and blonde to black).  There has since been a release called The Fresh Squad, which consisted of three male dolls, also fashion doll size.

The particular doll that I picked up ("Mia") has curly hair, medium-dark skin, and wears a patterned jumpsuit and faux-leather jacket.  This doll is one of the basic releases and originally retailed for $10.99USD, but the Dollarama price was $4.00CDN. The deluxe releases originally retailed for $17.99USD.

Let's take a closer look!

Barbie Fashionista #121: blue dress & prosthetic leg

As promised in my post about Fashionista #133 (the new release with the wheelchair) weekend before last, today I'm unboxing Barbie Fashionista #121.

Fashionista 121 is distinguished from the rest of the line by her prosthetic left leg.  Unlike 133, who came on a multi-jointed body, this doll has the standard five points of articulation that most of the Fashionistas have by default, however there is some rotational movement to the hip on the left leg that we don't see in the standard bodies (or on the right leg of this doll).  Some dolls in this line are noted by being shorter, taller, or chubbier, but (leg aside) this particular model is on the standard height/size body.

This doll is in a medium skin tone and has long brown hair and green painted eyes.  Her accessories include a sleeveless sweatshirt dress, hoop earrings and white flat shoes.  Her prosthesis is an above-knee one, and seems to be sculpted to resemble one with a microprocessor-type knee. I'm mildly surprised that they went with an above-knee style, since below-knee amputations are so much more common, but either way it's an interesting design.

Let's take a closer look!

Barbie Fashionista 133 & her blue wheelchair

Earlier this year I saw the announcement that the Barbie Fashionista line would be adding three dolls featuring visible disabilities: Two in wheelchairs (both in the same outfit, but one white with her blonde hair down and one black with her shorter hair up) and one with a prosthetic leg (in a medium skin tone and a different outfit). As someone who specifically looks for disability representation in children's/playline toys, I knew I'd be bringing at least a couple of these home. Today I'm opening up #133, one of the wheelchair-using dolls.

This doll is currently retailing for just under $15CDN online and locally. And while that is higher than the average price for most dolls in the Fashionista line (which usually retail for $10-$12CDN), considering the size and detail of the wheelchair and the fact that this doll comes on a much more elaborately articulated body, I was impressed that she isn't being sold at double the price.  Considering the additional cost of Monster High's wheelchair-included doll, and the extra cost of wheelchair accessories for American Girl type dolls, I was pleased to see that this doll will be affordable for a wide range of families.

Now let's take a closer look!

Better Late Than Never: Made To Move Barbie

The soccer player waves hello.

Before I get to the dolls, I thought I'd let you know that my house stayed dry during Hurricane Harvey. I was out of the country (my five day trip to visit family in Belgium ended up doubly extended), but my husband and the dog were in town - one of our cars was flooded, but other than that we were lucky.

And now on to the dolls!

It's been almost two years since people started reviewing the then-new Made to Move multi-jointed Barbies. At the time I'd been planning to pick one up at some point, but I'd never thought it would take quite as long as this!

But last week I found the "Soccer Player" edition on clearance, and since I can't resist a bargain I decided to bring the doll home.

Discount Shopping Adventures, May 2017

It's been a while since I checked out the local discount chains (in this case Tuesday Morning and Big Lots), so last week I decided to pay them a visit.  I took some photos of the toy aisle offerings and thought I'd share them with you guys!

Doll shelf at Tuesday Morning: Fashion dolls and play doll outfits.

The Canadian Tire Wow Catalogue's Toy Section

It's been ages since I've posted now - I'm still staying with my mother as she's recovering from surgery (and thanks to everyone who sent her well-wishes! :)) - I did manage to fit in a holiday in during November (which will soon be highlighted over on Project Evil Bunny), but instead of going home, I cam back to Toronto. And since I'm here, I thought it might be fun to share the toy pages from the annual Canadian Tire Wow Catalogue (90% of which isn't toys, so just a few photos here).  So here they are!

The Front page

A Quick Update

I haven't posted for a month so I thought I'd pop in quickly to say a quick hello. I've been out of town (my mother had surgery last month and I've been staying with her as she recovers), so I haven't had time to post with my usual frequency - and that's aside from the fact that my collection is back home!  I have been trying to keep up with everyone's new posts, although I haven't been able to comment as much as I'd like.

While I'm here, I thought I'd show two new additions of mine. The first are some fast food toys: the McDonald's Happy Meal Toys of the month include figures of the DC Super Hero Girls, and I've picked up two of them, Supergirl and Bumblebee.

Bumblebee and Supergirl: They're not as detailed as the standard figures,
but by fast food toy standards, they're decent.

And then just the other day my mother surprised me with a gift: the new limited run Hudson's Bay Company Barbie!

HBC Barbie. I'm not usually an in-box collector, but I love this
packaging so much that I haven't been able to bring myself to
unbox her yet!

The back of the box.

I probably won't be back to posting regularly until November, but hopefully I'll have the opportunity to squeeze in a retro week post or two.  I hope October is treating you all well! :)

Attack of the Giant Barbies: Can SD-range BJDs wear Barbie BFF outfits?

Mattel has been putting out extra tall Barbies at regular intervals for years, but yesterday was the first time I realized that they actually sell extra outfits for their 28"/71cm BFF line.  And since that's roughly the same size as a number of SD+ (65cm+) sized BJDs, I naturally wondered if this meant we now have a mass marketed supply of giant doll clothes, and so brought one of the outfits home

The tag that caught my attention.

Today's photos aren't the best, but I thought this was too interesting of a find not to share.

Kids do like dogs, but..

One of the two Taffy sets.

I was checking out the toy section a few weeks ago, when I noticed a proliferation of dog-related sets. A dog spa set, a puppy-keeping set, and a dog walking set.  Cute, I thought, but then I looked more closely at the dog-walking one and realized that it's actually called the "Potty Trainin' Taffy" set, and spotted something ridiculous (but set-appropriate) on the accessory list: 5 little brown bits of plastic representing the dog's bowl movement.

Height Comparisons Across Doll and Figure Lines

Earlier this morning a co-worker asked me about the relative sizes of BJDs with American Girl dolls, and at almost the same time I read Vanessa's question about the size of MA's International Travel Friends relative to playline dolls over on Black Doll Collecting.  And since a couple of weeks ago I also received a PM on Den of Angels asking about Teen Trends to MSD comparisons, I decided that I've amassed enough comparison photos to warrant it's own post.

First up is the Travel Friends/Playline line-up:

Back Row (L-R): Disney Classics (Li Sheng), Barbie (Princess of South Africa), Monster High (Clawd Wolf)
Front Row: Bratz (Cameron), International Travel Friends (Namaste), American Girl Mini (Ivy)

 The AG comparison:

 

 

L-R: Iplehouse EID model body (Chase), American Girl Cécile,
Illusion Spirit mini (ZhuQing), Monster High (Jane Boolittle)

The Teen Trends comparison:

L-R: Volks SD13 Long-leg body (Irvin), Soom ID51 (London),
Illusion Spirit Mini (ZhuQing), Teen Trends (Deondra)

And finally, a larger one:

Back Row: Angelheim Elderheim Angelo, Volks SD13 Irvin, Souldoll Vito Rouse, American Girl Cécile
Row 2: Iplehouse JID Boris, Ellowyne Wilde Lizette, Monster High Clawd, Girls of Many Lands Neela, AG mini Samantha
Row 3: Sideshow Toys Krycek, Hot Toys Wolverine, PlayArts Commander Shepard, DC Direct Tali, Figma Yukiko Amagi
Front Row: Hasbro/Marvel's Greatest Battles Captain Britain, Star Wars Black Series Mace Windu, Heroclix Pete Wisdom

Out of the Box: Princess of South Africa Barbie

Barbie, Princess of South Africa

As part of my quest to cut down on the amount of space being eaten up by toys in their boxes, yesterday I de-boxed my 2003 Princess of South Africa Barbie (my only Barbie, actually).

I've always had the impression that most of the "Barbie Collectibles"-labelled dolls were actually designed to stay in their boxes, so this doll managed to surprise me by looking better out of the box.  Freed from the packaging, the colours on her blanket and necklaces became that much more vibrant.  And I was able to get a closer look at her face, and discovered that her eye paint was actually quite a bit more detailed than I'd expected, giving her a soft and thoughtful expression.

The doll could just as easily been called "Ndebele Princess", because she's very obviously dressed in that style - there's none of the cultural mash-up of the "Tribal Beauty" Barbie here, and the box actually goes into some detail about the cultural elements and related ethno-linguistic groups (although a bit of it walks a rather patronizing line, I don't think the line was crossed).

In the box. 
The inner packaging is decorated with Ndebele house-style geometric patterns

The included accessories include a dress, a shawl/blanket, a staff, two headbands, ankle rings, earrings, neck rings, and three faux-beaded necklaces.  The necklaces are a little plastic-y for my tastes, but every other element is lovely.  If you've every seen a Ndebele beaded doll, you'll recognize the stylistic similarities.

With a beaded tourist doll.

 The doll also comes with a stand, which was so well-hidden in the packaging that I originally wasn't even sure that it had been included.  Being barefoot with the standard Barbie heel-feet means that this doll can't stay upright on her own, so the stand is essential.

Overall, I'd give this doll top marks for almost everything, and I'm glad I took her out of the box since that let me fully appreciate her.

A better view of the eye paint and jewellery.