Showing posts with label Juku Couture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Juku Couture. Show all posts

Thursday, September 25, 2014

My Favorite Horse "Let's Go Riding Western" Set by Breyer

When I was a kid, I had a huge collection of Breyer model horses that was the center of my imaginary universe.  Every last one of these horses had a name, a personality, and a specific role in an elaborate game that I would lose myself in whenever I got the chance.  I played with these beloved horses more than I played with any doll.  Most of my games revolved solely around the horses, but every once and a while there would be doll riders in the plot.  I had some Mego Corp Wizard of Oz dolls and a Marx Jay who could ride really well, but I was never tempted by the Breyer dolls.  The first dolls, called "Brenda Breyer," had blank-looking faces and weren't articulated enough to ride the horses properly.

I still gaze admiringly at the Breyer horse displays in toy stores, but I haven't purchased a new horse for a while.  Recently, a friend told me about the Breyer Stablemates "Mystery Foal Surprise" sets.  It's hard to think of three words that would entice me more than mystery, foal and surprise.  That's a triple threat.  These little $10 toys each contain a mare and a stallion, and also a tiny foal that's concealed behind a closed door.  I can't resist surprises, so I bought one of these sets on a whim the other day (some pictures are posted over on Facebook).  This experience inspired me to put aside my Breyer rider prejudices and look more closely at the doll-related products that this company is offering right now.

Today I will look at one of the larger (Traditional size) horse and rider sets from the 2013 My Favorite Horse collection.  I have to admit that after spending most of my life as a Breyer horse fan, I was really excited to finally get my first close look at one of the Breyer dolls.  The set I bought is called, "Let's Go Riding Western," and I chose this particular toy because the rider looked unexpectedly pretty and realistic to me:

Breyer "Let's Go Riding Western" set
"Let's Go Riding Western" set by Breyer, $39.99.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Juku Couture "Hayley" by Jakks Pacific

Update: two quick announcements: thanks to a reader suggestion, you can now translate the whole blog into the language of your choice with the Toy Box Translator (on the right).  This is fun even if you speak English.  I love the Latin translation of the blog title, In Toy Box Philosophus.  Classic.  Also, you can now follow the blog by email.  Hope that works.

Juku Couture dolls are 9 inch articulated plastic fashion dolls with inset eyes.  The dolls are named after a Japanese fashion trend called "Harajuku" that involves combining lots of mis-matched fashion elements into a personalized look.  The dolls are dressed in multi-layered outfits with pieces in contrasting styles and colors.  These dolls were released by Jakks Pacific in 2008 and, from what I can tell, were discontinued after only four waves: Series 1, Series 2 (called "In the Wild"), a 2009 re-release group, and the "Global Good" series.   Each release of dolls has four different characters, Hayley, Jun, Kana and Audrina.

The dolls originally sold for $19.99, and can now be found on eBay and Amazon for significantly more or significantly less than that.  The 2009 re-release dolls are thought to be of lesser quality than the originals, and they seem to be the easiest group to find.  I bought Hayley from the 2009 re-release series for about $10 on Amazon:

Juku Couture re-release Hayley (2009) by Jakks Pacific.