Sunday, February 11, 2018

Sunday Surprise: Surprizamals and L.O.L. Confetti Pop!

It's been a while since I've done a Sunday Surprise post, and during that time–not surprisingly–MGA Entertainment has released yet another group of L.O.L. Surprise dolls!  They're called Confetti Pop and they sound pretty awesome.

I've had a bit of L.O.L Surprise overload lately, so I wasn't really planning on reviewing any more of these toys, but the Confetti dolls have a few new tricks up their sleeves that I really wanted to see for myself.

I didn't want to make this review all about the L.O.L. dolls, though, so I decided to include another ball-enclosed surprise toy: Surprizamals by the Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company.  I've accumulated four Surprizamal balls over the past year and have only opened one of them.  I'm eager to open the rest!  To start things off, here's my opened Surprizamal dog, Pam, with the (disappointing) L.O.L. dolls from my last review:

A L.O.L. Series 3 Pet, a Surprizamal, and a L.O.L. Glitter Series doll.
I opened one of the Surprizamal balls a while ago because I wanted to see what the quality of the animals was like before I purchased any more of them.

I was very impressed with the adorable little Pomeranian I got!

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She doesn't look much like a Pomeranian to me (Chihuahua, maybe?), but she's really soft and tiny with enormous glittery eyes!



Each Surprizamal comes with a tag that has their name, birthdate and favorite color:


Pam is from series 4, which includes all of these cuties:


Pam is actually one of my favorites from this bunch, although I also like Yety the Yeti, Bailey the bloodhound (?), Tara the narwhal (!!), and Stanley, who I think is a sloth.

In this review, I will open a few different balls from the Surprizamal collection and two of the new L.O.L. Confetti Pop balls.  

Most of the Surprizamal balls that I've seen are smaller than the L.O.L. balls, but the other day at Target I found a large Surprizamal.  Here's a look at the relative size of the the three types of ball I'm going to open today:

From left: large Surprizamal "Wackys" ball, L.O.L. Confetti Pop ball, and standard Surprizamal ball.
I have two small Surprizamal balls and one large one to open today.

Another fun Surprizamal group that's out there right now is the Mamas and Babies collection.  There are three different toys, each of which includes a large stuffed "Mama" and three babies that are enclosed within surprise balls.

I have the unicorn, Jamie, from this group:

Jamie stikes me as an odd name for a unicorn.  It's not very mystical.
Jamie is really cute on her own, with huge glittery pink eyes and a stubby rainbow horn!

She's really soft and cuddly!
Jamie is holding a regular (small) Surprizamal ball in this next picture, for reference:


The three babies are the same size as the regular Surprizamal balls.  I have no idea if these mystery balls contain only baby unicorns, or perhaps random babies of various types?  The back of the box shows animals from four different series, suggesting that perhaps any one of them could be inside those balls??

That surprise will have to wait until another Sunday.  If you happen to know what kind of animal is in Jamie's surprise balls already...please don't give it away!  For today, let's get back to the regular Surprizamals.

The first ball I'll open is one of the smaller Surprizamal balls.  These cost around $4 at various toy stores and big box stores.  I found mine at a small toy shop in Camden, Maine.  It cost $4.99.

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This ball is from series 4 (like Pam).

Maybe I'll get the Yeti!
These balls are very easy to open.  They have a plastic sleeve around the middle, and once that's been removed, there's just a simple plastic ball remaining:

I'm glad that the ball has air holes!
The balls open just like plastic Easter eggs...


Oh!  I see a flash of blue sticking out!


It's a blue-ish/purple bird of some kind, stuck head first into one side of the ball!

Get me out!
At first I didn't see which animal it must be, so I thought perhaps I got the mystery pet (that would be exciting!) but it's actually pretty clear who it is:


It is...


Penny the penguin!

Peep!
She doesn't stand up very well for pictures, but she's really sweet!

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Penny's birthday was just a few days ago, and she likes to play in the snow.  She'll be pretty happy around here!


The Surprizamals all come with very large, stiff tags on their backs:


Penny's tags actually helped her to balance a little better, but usually I cut these tags off so that the animals aren't overwhelmed by them.

Look at how wide-eyed and cute she is!


That was fun!  Let's open another one.  This one is the same size, but it's purple:


Also, this ball is from series 3, so there'll be a whole new assortment of animals.


I can see a hint of color through one of this ball's air holes...


I see pink!


But when I cracked the ball open....


I realized that the pink color must have been from the tag. 

The animal itself is mostly grey!


Oh, wow.  Look at those royal blue eyes!!


I think it's a husky dog!


Yep!


This little guy really doesn't sit up very well.  I had a hard time getting him to stay upright for the camera.  Like the other two Surprizamals, though, he's super soft and looks really well-made.

Let's figure out who he is!


His name is Hudson the husky and he's common.  He's listed right below an adorable baby unicorn, too!  She's ultra-rare:

I hope Jamie comes with one of those!!
My other favorites from this series are all in the same row.  There's Drake the dragon, Squiggle the octopus...


And little Barry (the boxer?):


Hudson's birthday is also in February (coming soon!) and he loves to run in the snow.  Lucky for him, his eyes are his favorite color!


I think that the Surprizamals do a very nice job with their dogs.  This little guy is great!

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It might be an unconventional choice, but I even like that Hudson's happy little mouth matches his eyes!

He makes me smile.
The Surprizamal dogs make great pets for 12 or 13-inch dolls with large eyes, like the Shibajuku Girls:

Surprizamal with Shibajuku Girl.
Ok, now I'll take a break from the Surprizamals for a bit and open some of the new L.O.L. Confetti Pop balls!

These are the same size as the other large L.O.L. balls, but they feel heavier:

L.O.L. Confetti Pop surprise ball, $9.99.
They're part of Series 3 (the same series that includes the Pets).

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The balls have a different, wheel-shaped design for advertising the surprise elements inside each ball:


Apparently these balls have nine surprises (seemingly two more than the original L.O.L. dolls).  Those surprises are:
1. A picture message 
2. A sticker sheet
3. A tattoo ring
4. A bottle
5. An outfit
6. Shoes
7. An accessory
8. A doll
9. A water surprise

As usual, I'm a little critical of the definition of a surprise here.  First of all, the sticker sheet is not a surprise.  It's always the same.  Second, once the doll, the shoes, or the outfit has been revealed, the other two are not a surprise.  They all coordinate.  The accessory is sometimes a surprise, but often not. The bottle (because of its color scheme) only gives a hint at which character it might go with, so I'll consider that a surprise.

With all of that in mind, there are only five unique surprises:
1. The character (with her specific outfit, shoes, and accessory)
2. The bottle
3. The picture message
4. The tattoo
5. The water surprise

That's pretty good, though!  And furthermore, these new dolls all have some kind of confetti-releasing feature that sounds fun...as long as the pop isn't too loud and the confetti isn't too messy.


The only new thing, other than the confetti feature, seems to be the tattoo ring:


I like temporary tattoos, so this is a fun addition.

For anyone who's counting, the Confetti dolls seem like they have two more surprises than the original L.O.L. dolls because of a difference in what's being counted.  The original dolls did not include the water surprise as one of the advertised seven surprises.  They counted the message, the sticker sheet, the shoes, the outfit, the accessory, the bottle, and the doll.

The packaging on these dolls always has a cute UPC code design.  This one looks like a Christmas cracker!


All of the other L.O.L. balls I've opened have had perforated strips that look like zippers on each layer of plastic.  These are not only cute, but make the unwrapping easy and fun.

The perforations on the top layer of this ball did not work.  No satisfying "zip!" noise was happening here:


In fact, trying to rip this top layer off hurt my fingers and made me a little crabby.

One nice side effect to the ineffective perforations was that I didn't lose the secret message like I usually do.  I uncovered it gradually as I tried to peel the ball like an onion:



I covered the answer to this message so that you can all have a chance to guess what it says:


Sleepy girl?

Blackout?

Head rest!  That must be it.

But no...


Did any of you guess that?  My family was stumped.

Another different thing about this packaging is that it has an ingredients list!


I think these are all of the ingredients for the temporary tattoo:


I thought it was only necessary to include ingredients for food items, so this was a surprise.

The second layer of wrapping did not have much in the way of decoration, but it did have another perforated zipper for me to try!


This one didn't work, either.


Once again, I had to peel the plastic off bit by bit...revealing the sticker sheet as I went:


This sticker sheet is a little different from the ones in previous waves, so I guess it was a bit of a surprise:


Now there's a question mark included in the mix:

That's intriguing!
The final layer of plastic didn't behave any better than the first two:


Notice the band around the inner ball, though.  This has instructions for how to operate the confetti feature!  I can't wait!

The last layer uncovered the tattoo ring.  It's really cute!


The confetti instructions are printed on a long strip that comes stuck to the seam of the pink plastic ball.

Here are the instructions, step by step.  First, you start where it tells you to start:


Then, you open little compartments to reveal bags...in a certain order?


You close each compartment and then spin and repeat:

Whatever that means.
At some point you find a string:

Like a piñata!
Then you flip the whole thing over...

Like a lamp!
And pull!  The ball pops open and confetti flies out!  Oooh!  I really can't wait to try this!


Let's see how this goes in reality.  First, I started where they told me to start:


I peeled off the sticker to reveal two little pink plastic flaps:


These lifted up to reveal a compartment with a bag inside!

It's like the Death Star, but with confetti!
It's really fancy:


Here's the first bag:


Inside the bag, I found...


Eyes?

A mask?


It looks like a panda eye mask–like a sleeping mask, maybe?

The back part of the mask was curled up:


But it looks like a peg and hole strap:


Sure enough!  It fastens together with a little molded bow covering the clasp:


Ok, the next step was to close the flaps, spin the lid, and uncover a new set of flaps to open.  The little flaps have to close until they make a "snap!" noise, then the spinning cover moves easily over them.

The next two flaps were gold, which makes them easy to distinguish from the first two:

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Once two gold doors were showing, I stopped spinning:


And then I opened the flaps!


These flaps fall off pretty easily, but they snap right back on.


The second compartment held another bag:


This was was also hiding something black and white...


It looks like the bottle!


It's a bottle in the shape of a milk carton:


The bottle has a molded design with a missing kitty's picture.  It's hard to see, but it says "have you seen me-ow?" at the bottom:


That's sad.  Poor kitty.

The bottle is warped along the bottom and does not have any other decorations:


Next, it was time to spin again!


The third set of flaps were pink again:


And these revealed another bag...and the ribbon!


The ribbon has a zipper print on one side and a cardboard zipper pull at the end:

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This bag was really flat...


And had the shoes inside!


The shoes are a little unusual.  They look like fuzzy-toed black and white bunny slippers...with sports socks underneath:



I wanted to capture the confetti pop on camera, but I did a terrible job.  First of all, my camera is set to some strange lighting scenario, so the screen looks yellow.  But also, I blocked most of the action with my own hands.  Sorry!  Video is not my thing.



The process is simple and fun, though. You really do just have to turn the ball upside-down and pull the string!  And it's not loud at all.

Here's the scene right after I opened the ball (the doll is hiding under the top part of the ball):


Once really nice surprise is that the confetti is BIG.  It's not like glitter.  I was worried that it would be hard to clean up, but it's very easy to manage.  When I was ready to clean up, I just swept the glitter into my hand in one movement.  It would be really easy to save this and use it again:


The popping action works because of a spring-loaded platform inside of the ball.  Here is the platform right after the ball popped open:


The platform can be pressed back down into the ball, though, and the whole mechanism can be reset!

It reminds me of a popping platform game called Perfection.
The top of the ball fits back on, and now the whole thing is ready to be popped again and again!  

I can't tell you how much I love the fact that this ball is reusable...and in such a fun way!  Even if you own multiple balls, they could be saved up for birthday parties, New Year's Eve celebrations, or even just as a fun way to package up a new surprise for somebody!  This is so, SO much better than the useless plastic balls (with seats that didn't work) from the older L.O.L. dolls.  Way to go, MGA!

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The inside of the ball has a bag with a doll inside, a bunch of confetti, a catalog, instructions, and a zipper-shaped handle for the ball:


The design of the handle is really creative, but I've never really understood why these balls need handles.


The handle is decorated with a little L.O.L. charm:


Here's the handle attached to the ball:


That left me with the doll, the catalog, and a sheet of instructions:


The instructions don't include very much information that we haven't seen before, so I won't show those here.  

I wasn't sure whether I should open the doll first, or look at the catalog and try to guess which doll I got.


I decided to go through the catalog first, but if you don't want to have the surprise of the doll ruined, please skip ahead to when I open the bag!

There are a lot of dolls on this catalog!  One side has the larger Confetti Pop dolls and the other side has the Series 3 Lil Sisters.  I'll show you the Confetti Pop dolls first.

There's the Glitterati group (which I hope to avoid):

I'd love a glitter-free Boss Queen, though.
Notice that Boss Queen has a question mark underneath her instead of a spitting, crying, peeing, or color change icon.  This is where that new sticker sheet comes in.  If the doll does not have a water feature that reveals itself when you feed her with the bottle or dunk her in water, then she's one of the question mark dolls.  I have no idea what the mystery water feature might be, and it does not explain this (not clearly, anyway) on the instructions sheet.  Fascinating!  I hope I get one of the question mark dolls.

There's also the Opposites Club:

Dusk reminds me of Wednesday Addams.
Notice how Dawn can be either a crier or a mystery color change doll.  I like this new variety and the element of surprise it adds.

Here's the Glam Club:


The Theater Club:


The Athletic Club:

Sprints is really cute!
The Retro Club:

I really like both of these girls!
The Rock Club:


The Swim Club:


The Sleepover Club:


And last but certainly not least...the S.T.E.M. Club!


On the other side of the catalog sheet, there are the Lil Sisters.  These include baby versions of most of the dolls on the Confetti Pop side.

There are the baby Glitterati:


The baby Athletic Club:


The Theater Club group has three different characters:


But the Glam Club has baby versions of Showbaby and Black Tie:


The Retro Club has the same two characters that we saw on the other side:


As does the Swim Club:


The S.T.E.M. Club:


The Sleepover Club:


And the Rock Club:


Did all of you spot the doll I got?

Let's see how she looks in person!


There's that black and white hair!


And here she is–Snuggle Babe!


Believe it or not, it was not until this point that I realized I'd never opened an outfit for this girl!  Facepalm.

Apparently, I got so excited when I found the ribbon in one of the compartments, I forgot to spin and open the last compartment!

Each ball has four compartments.  Two pink and two gold.  I can count.

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The outfit really isn't a surprise at this stage, so I'll spare you the theatrics of opening the bag slowly.


It's a black and white bathrobe.  It comes mounted on a funny little clear plastic torso:


This little thing cracks me up!


Anyway, here's Snuggle in her outfit:

L.O.L. Surprise Confetti Pop Snuggle Babe.
A tee shirt and shorts are molded together with the bathrobe.  The tee says "the snuggle is real," which is a snarky take on "the struggle is real" meme.


This outfit does not look very good from the back, nor does it allow Snuggle to move her arms. I do like the zig-zag pattern on the back of Snuggle's head, though!


Here she is from the side:


This doll has holes in her ears, which I have never seen before:


They're not like holes for earrings or anything, but they're definitely intentional.  I hope this doll doesn't squirt water out of her ears!  That would be truly bizarre.


Here's Snuggle with her panda sleeping mask:


The mask fits well and looks pretty cute:


There's a lot of black and white with this doll and her accessories!  I'm glad she has those bright blue eyes:

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These new L.O.L. balls still have indentations on the top so that they can be used as doll stands:


Once I was done taking pictures, I tested the water feature.  Snuggle Babe can be either a crier or a color change doll:


My doll didn't do anything at first, so I thought for a moment that I'd gotten one of the mystery dolls. But then I looked at the catalog and saw that it wasn't even an option for her.  I tried again, squeezing the head really hard, and finally got one eye to squirt.  She's a half-crier.  It took a while to get the water out of this doll's head.

Even with the underwhelming water feature, that was really fun.

These new Confetti Pop balls are a bit hard to find in stores right now, but I was lucky enough to stumble upon a Target in the middle of nowhere Massachusetts that actually had a huge stock of them.  I bought a second ball so that we could see one more doll from this new wave:


The first perforated zipper on this ball worked well, thank goodness!


And I still found the picture message!  This one is not as perplexing as most:


Do you have a guess?

Here's the answer:


Sadly, the zipper in the second layer of wrapping did not work:


I won't bother to show the sticker sheet again–it's the same.

The perforations in the third layer didn't work, either.  I wonder if MGA was having trouble with these coming unwrapped in stores?  That might explain the tougher (and less effective) perforations.


This ball came with a perfume bottle ring tattoo:


It matches the little charm I got in one of my fizzy L.O.L. balls!


I won't go through all of the spinning and compartment opening again, but I do think it's interesting that this new ball design dictates the order in which the bags are opened.  This–in theory–could prolong the surprise a bit, assuming the bags are packaged in a particular order.  If the accessory or bottle is opened first, the identity of the doll is more likely to be kept a secret for longer!  

In the first ball, the accessory was the first bag I opened.  Let's see what's first in this ball:


It's a very flat bag...


With a pink pacifier inside!


This accessory gives absolutely nothing away about the identity of the doll!  Yay!


I opened the three remaining compartments (yes, all three of them...) and found the ribbon!


I decided to open all of these remaining bags at the same time:


I see a lot of pink!  And some gold:


It's a swimsuit, some fancy little pom-pom heels, and a gold-topped bottle!


The bottle has a fairly plain shape that reminds me of a slushy cup:


The shoes have a lot of molded detail, but are all the same color pink:


I wish those pom-poms had been painted a different color.  Gold or light pink would have been really cute.


The swimsuit has a lot of layered ruffles, each layer in a different color:


I didn't let myself look at the catalog this time.  I wanted to be surprised by the doll.

Here's another ball-opening video.  I remembered to change the color settings this time, but still managed to block all of the action with my hands.  Sigh.



This ball yielded two bags in the middle, in addition to the zipper handle and all of the paper items.  Now that was a surprise!


The bonus bag had something with a feather on it...


It's a pink feathered headband!


That definitely gives away the character!

Let's meet her...


Pale pink hair, gold fishnet stockings, pink gloves...


It's Showbaby!

Ta-da!
 I like the painted features on this doll's limbs.  It makes her distinct:


Here's a closer look at her sparkly tights and pink gloves:


Her pastel hair is molded into little French braid buns.  She doesn't have holes in her ears, but she does have notches behind her ears (for glasses and other head accessories):


Here she is from the back:


I like this doll's upward glancing eyes and the beauty mark next to her mouth!


Here's Showbaby in her full outfit:

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L.O.L. Surprise Confetti Pop Showbaby.
Her outfit only has one slit in the back!  The bottom part slides on over her legs.  The whole ensemble looks better than any other L.O.L. clothing I've seen.  She can move really well in this outfit, too!


The pacifier coordinates with the outfit, but I think these dolls look silly with pacifiers:

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Maybe a good rule of thumb is that if you're either using lipstick or wearing fishnet stockings...you do not not need a pacifier.  Just a thought.

Showbaby's cup coordinates well with her outfit, too:

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I love how even the confetti coordinates perfectly with Showbaby!  She's very photogenic:

Toy Box Philosopher

Showbaby can be either a spitter or a crier–no mystery option here.  


Mine is a spitter.  I guess maybe the mystery water feature is having water come out of the ears?  That's so strange, but I can't think of any other possible reason for Snuggle Babe's ear holes.  Maybe it's supposed to represent an angry emotion–like steam coming out of a cartoon character's ears?  It's hard for me to get excited about this.

I rarely use the water feature on these dolls anyway.  It's hard to get the water out of their heads, and I don't like dripping water all over my backdrop or near my other dolls.  In fact, I instinctively try to avoid getting water stuck inside any doll's head (mold!) so I'm not a fan of water-themed dolls in general.

Now, at the risk of subjecting you to surprise ball overload, I have one more ball to open!

This is the larger of the Surprizamal balls that I showed you at the very beginning of the review.  It's about the same size as a normal L.O.L. ball:


This ball is from the "Wackys" series 3:


The larger balls look exactly like the smaller balls, just with a bigger diameter:


I cracked this ball open and the weight of the larger stuffed animal immediately caused the ball to fall apart.  No prolonging of suspense this time!


It's another penguin!


Oh--wait.  Apparently it's Ollie the Owl!


Ollie has beautiful dark blue eyes–just like Hudson:


I also like his little stuffed beak, although an owl should have a hooked beak.  Maybe this is why I thought he was a penguin?


Ollie also has little embroidered feathers on his belly!


He's very sweet, but I don't think I like him quite as much as the littler animals.


To me, one of the most appealing things about the regular Surprizamals is that they're so tiny, and yet they're still very soft and well-made.  In the larger size, some of the novelty is lost.

Here's the catalog of all the Wacky series 3 animals:


In contrast, here's the regular series 3 catalog that I showed you earlier:


The characters are all the same, but the Wackys are bigger and have different names.  Hudson is now Harold and the dragon is Blake instead of Drake.  Weird.

In any case, my Ollie has a red heart next to him, which means he's rare!


Here's Ollie next to Hudson so that you can see the size difference:

Surprizamals Wackys Ollie the owl with series 3 Hudson the husky.
Ollie and Penny look especially cute together.  I think they could definitely be related!

Surprizamals Wackys Ollie the owl with series 4 Penny the penguin.
Well, that depletes my stash of surprise ball toys for now!  Before I end the review, though, I have one last surprise to share with you!

I found this blind bag toy at the same toy store that was selling the smaller Surprizamals balls.  I don't think I'll ever make a post just for this one blind bag toy, but I still wanted you to see it, so I'm squeezing it in today!

It's a dog toy from my favorite model horse company–Breyer!

Breyer blind bag dog set, $1.99.
This bag only cost $1.99, so I couldn't resist!

What I found especially intriguing was the fact that the different dog breeds are advertised with actual photographs of real dogs:


There's no way that the model dogs could be this realistic, of course, but it made me insanely curious about what the toy dogs would actually look like!

Here are a few of the photos up close:


I hope I get a poodle!


What's really amazing is that each bag contains two dogs and a few accessories!  Everything must be incredibly small.


I opened up the bag...and found a small box inside!


The box is adorable!  It's the size of a matchbook:


Showbaby was eager to step in and demonstrate how small this box is:

It's really small!
Despite its size, the box is colorful and nicely-decorated on all sides.


What on earth could they have squeezed in there??

Let's find out!  

The box has a little drawer that slides out–again, just like a matchbook:


And sure enough!  There are two dogs, a sticker, and a dog bowl inside:


Wow.  There's even a photograph backdrop printed on the inside of the drawer!



And the dogs are realistic...or at least they're trying to be.  This little chow-chow is great:


He has detailed molded fur:



And his eyes, nose, and tongue are painted.  The paint on his eyes is off-center, but I think this gives him a wonderful side-glancing expression with a ton of personality!


The German shepherd is nowhere near as successful.  First of all, he's very yellow:


Parts of his coat are painted black, but the overall effect isn't great.


The worst thing is that the poor guy's eyes are off-center, but the error doesn't add to his personality in a good way.  He just looks a little angry:

I'd be angry about those eyes, too.
Both dogs are made out of rubbery vinyl.  They're easy to squish and bend.

I'd say that the set is worth the price for the detailed packaging and this cute fellow:


Maybe he can be Snuggle Babe's new pet?

L.O.L. Surprise doll with Breyer blind bag dog.
Ok, NOW I'm done with surprise toys for the day!

I love the Surprizamals.  They're very appealing, and the tiny size of the regular animals adds significantly to their novelty.  I think the dog characters I got are especially cute, and would make great little pets for some of the large-eyed doll brands on the market. 

Surprizamals Hudson and Pam.
The new Confetti Pop L.O.L. dolls are pretty great, too!  I'm so happy to see some of the new features in this wave, especially after the disappointing Pets and Glitter Series dolls.

L.O.L. Surprise Confetti Pop Showbaby (left) and Snuggle Babe (right).
Not only do the Confetti dolls come with an extra surprise (the tattoo ring), but the reusable ball-opening mechanism is a huge improvement on the useless molded "chairs" in all of the previous L.O.L. balls.

I can see families reusing the new balls (and the large, manageable confetti) again and again.

L.O.L. Surprise Confetti Pop Showbaby.
I also like the compartment design in the new L.O.L. balls.  The spin-and-open approach not only increases the suspense of opening each ball, but it might be dictating the order in which the mystery bags are revealed, which also prolongs the surprise.

Last, the dolls themselves are cute, especially Showbaby.  They have a nice mix of accessories and are blissfully free of glitter.  Best of all, Showbaby is the first full-sized L.O.L. doll I've ever owned who has an outfit that looks good from all angles and will actually allow her to move!

L.O.L. Surprise Confetti Pop Snuggle Babe (left) and Showbaby (right).
If step into my more responsible self for a moment, I have to admit that I still think there are too many L.O.L. Surprise dolls flooding the market these days, and too many blind bag toys in general.

However, if these toys are going to be prevalent, I'm glad that the sweet, soft, and affordable Surprizamals are in the mix.  I'm also heartened to see the creative and well-engineered changes that MGA Entertainment has made to their mega-popular line.  I feel like they listened to some of the complaints, and are making a better product as a result.  It's hard to ask for anything more than that.

Surprizamals Pam and L.O.L. Surprise Confetti Pop Showbaby–both waving goodbye!

22 comments:

  1. Woohoo! A Sunday Surprise! These are like Christmas. The confetti balls are so cool!

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  2. This penguin is super-cute ��

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  3. I really like the tiny dogs. If they were cats, I'd be all over them! I wonder if all the boxes have the same background, it's really cute.

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    1. They exist somewhere! XD

      http://www.breyerhorses.com/pocket-box-cats

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    2. Oh maaaan! We don't have this brand!

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  4. I love Sunday Surprise! So fun to enjoy the surprises without spending on them myself... maybe that's kind of mean?! Sorry haha!
    I really enjoy a lot of the L.O.L. character designs... just until I remember that they are supposed to be babies. Then they kind of creep me out. Babies have no business wearing booty shorts or fishnet stockings. Why can't they just be super stylized "chibi" adults or older teens...? :(

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    1. Yeah, it's really weird and disjointed to have sexy toddlers. The chibi aesthetic would solve that but then MGA would have to change or remove the water mechanics (fine by me) and alter the accessories a little. Personally, I don't know why they didn't just market them as chibi instead of babies but I guess they weren't sure the general consumers would understand and/or they wanted them to work as kid sisters for the Bratz.

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  5. Yay! A new review so soon after the last one! You spoil us, Emily. :)
    I can't wait to see what kind of babies the mama unicorn has! I hope they're unicorn babies... <3

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  6. The new LOL dolls are super cute...there's very few that I would hate to get.

    And yes at the improved packaging! That's way cooler than flimsy plastic and a bunch of paper.

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  7. My local Target has Surprizamals, and I have to admit that I've been tempted to grab one every time I walk past them in the store. Now that I know how cute and well-made the dolls actually are, I think I'll probably go ahead and pick up a pair next time I'm there with my nephew. He's 9 and really loves both surprise toys (so far we've tried the Hatchimal Colleggtibles and the LOL Charm Fizzes) and stuffed animals, so I think the Surprizamals would be right up his alley!

    Great review, as always! And it was absolutely amazing to get both a regular post and a Sunday Surprise in a single week! :)

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  8. Great review again! Always enjoy a Sunday Surprise to read at work. I'm really surprised that they neglected the chow chow's blue tongue, it's one of my favourite dog facts.

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    1. Oh, good call!! I totally forgot about that! It's an excellent dog fact! :D

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  9. I love your Sunday Surprise posts. This one was definitely chock-full of great surprises. :) The Surprizamals are really sweet, I would love to find those in my area. And while I've never been too keen on the L.O.L. dolls, I like this new wave. It would be too easy for me to spend way too much money finding the dolls I really wanted. Dusk (the one channeling Wednesday Adams) is adorable, I'm kind-of obsessed with her!

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    1. Maybe you could find Dusk cheaper on eBay? But then you wouldn't have the surprise... XD

      I really like her and Dawn though and I'm just as tempted. There's a lot of super cute designs in this series, I think. And I could be wrong, but it seems like more of them might have flexible outfits that look better from most angles (not all though... Blacktie is cute but I bet her outfit is as bad as Snuggle Babe's when it comes to movement and the open back. Dusk's might be like that as well, but at least she has a skirt.)

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  10. I don't usually go for blind bag/box toys, but the Surprizamals are nice enough that I might actually pick up a few. They can hang out with my Pullip family dolls. I am looking forward to seeing the babies you get with the Mama & Baby set.

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  11. Whoa, Sunday Surprise! Puppy is really cute, but I'm not sure, if pacifier looks good with heels and fishnet stockings, too. It seems kind of weird to me.
    And excuse me. You had a doll on Obitsu body, hadn't you? I remember there was a foto of a Barbie doll on such a body, but there wasn't any separate review for Obitsu dolls.

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    1. Hello Sophie, I presume you mean this? www.toyboxphilosopher.com/2012/03/few-really-quick-things.html
      It's not a barbie, but a Mattel Stardoll Fallen Angel doll.
      Hope this helps!:)

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  13. Will you also be checking out Hatchimals? I'd love your thoughts on them!

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  14. What a fun & surprising way to write a blog post this is! I love the little baby dolls a lot and will look for one next time I go to town. Thank you.

    Q: does the stickers go on the milkbox perhaps? It looks strange blank like that. :)

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  15. The Surprizamals are cute and as long as they're all anatomically correct I like the idea of the dogs, as they're cheap they could easily be repainted more accurately. As someone else said Dusk is super cute! :D

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  16. I have an idea for Sunday Surprise: Secret Central dolls, a childhood favorite of mine. It was this doll that came with another surprise doll!

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