Sunday, April 20, 2014

The Cute New Makie Face from MakieWorld!

I have been waiting for just the right moment to introduce you to my second Makie doll, Effie.  Effie has the new Makie face that was introduced last November.  The new dolls still have customizable faces, just like my first Makie, Glythia, it's just that the basic face shape has been changed.  Ever since I got my first peek at this fabulous new face shape, I have wanted to buy another Makie doll.  I figured that this wish would have to go to the bottom of a very long waiting list...but I was wrong.

Several months ago, I got an unexpected email.  Stephanie, a fellow fan of the Makies, wrote to say that she had a coupon worth an entire new doll...and she wanted to give it to me (!).  I was surprised by the fact that MakieWorld would have coupons worth so much, and completely stunned by the generosity of this offer.  All that Stephanie asked for in return was that I share a few pictures of my new doll here on the blog.  Well.  I can do better than a few pictures, I hope.

I have big plans for Effie this week, but before I tell you more about that, I would like to offer a huge, heartfelt thank you to Stephanie for making a wish come true:

My new "Cutie" face Makie doll from MakieWorld.
What made this gift even more incredible was the fact that Makie dolls were on sale when I received my coupon, so I was able to get a doll and a few extras to go with her.  I did chip in some of my own money, but only because I got greedy with the new wigs and accessories:

Makie doll Effie with her extra accessories.
The accessories that really caught my attention were the "fukubukuru" grab bags.  Not only do these mystery bags have a neat name, but you don't know what you're going to get in each bag.  I adore surprises, and these were on sale for £4.99...so I ordered three.  I don't think these bags are available anymore, as they were a way to clear out old stock, but I hope they return some day because the idea is really fun.  I also ordered a few extra wigs for Effie, a pair of pink Nerd Spectacles, and some black Industrial Boots.

When I designed Effie, I gave her pink hair, but the pink wig was out of stock when I placed my order, so I switched the hair to black and ordered the pink wig separately when it was available again.  This is what Effie looked like when she arrived:

Makie Doll

I'll show you a few pictures from Effie's design process.  It's still super fun to design a Makie doll, but I think there's less variability in the facial expressions than there used to be.  For example, it's not possible to do a really wide smile anymore.  The up-side of this change is that the faces reliably look much more human--and quite lovely, at that.  The alien qualities that Glythia had are all but gone.

Another thing that I love about the new dolls is that the default outfit for girls back in January was a "Math is Easy" shirt, which I think is awesome.


I chose the name "Effie" for this doll because it reminds me of the name Stephanie, and also because I think it has a cuteness factor that matches the spirit of these new Makie faces.


I was tempted to order a doll with a different skin tone from Glythia.  I also designed a green-skinned alien girl and a hunky dark-skinned guy, but I decided that the best way to compare the new doll to Glythia would be to select some similar features.

Glythia did not look as much like her design pictures as I expected, but Effie was very, very close to exactly what I expected.  In fact, she's even cuter in person than she was in her pictures.  

The first thing I did with Effie was switch her into the pink wig.  This wig goes on very easily, but the hairstyle makes it tricky to keep hair out of the doll's face:


A little clip is a very handy thing to have with these dolls:


And here she is with her pink glasses:

Makie Doll

I'll do a quick comparison between Glythia and Effie.  The biggest difference between these two is, of course, their basic face shape, but I also had a different experience with the clothes I picked for Effie.

Glythia and Effie.
I picked this orange sheath dress outfit for Glythia, but I was not thrilled with my choice.  The dress is made out of a beautiful silk print, but it's very simple and it really restricts the doll's movement.  In contrast, Effie's outfit is wonderful.  Not only is it very well made, but it's cute and stylish and allows the doll to move freely in all directions.

Effie's outfit includes a deep red satin skirt with a white tule overlay.  The skirt is decorated with tiny rhinestones that catch the light in a way that makes them sparkle with color:




And of course there's the white "Math is Easy" tee, which is also sturdy and well-made:



Unlike Glythia, Effie didn't come with shoes, so I ordered her some black 3D printed boots:

The Industrial Boots.
These boots snap on to the doll's lower legs instead of feet, so Effie's feet have to be removed in order for her to wear boots.  


The boots were a bit hard to attach the first time, but it's gotten easier with each subsequent foot change.  I love how these look, but when they're on, Effie doesn't have any rotational ankle movement.  


Here are some quick close-ups of Effie's glasses:


They are very lightweight, and the 3D printed plastic gives them a nice degree of flexibility.  They do not have lenses, so its easy to get pictures of the doll's eyes when she's wearing them.


Now, let's take a closer look at the differences between Glythia and Effie's faces.  

I ordered blue eyes for Effie so that I would have some variety, but you can see that the style of the eyes are the same.  They both have beautiful colors and nice, realistic details.  I painted Glythia's face with acrylic paints and watercolor pencils, but Effie actually came with some light face paint already applied.  I think it looks fantastic:


She has a small line defect on her left cheek.
Elf ears are still an option with the new dolls, but I chose to give Effie slightly less exaggerated ears than what I selected for Glythia.  Glythia has a larger head than Effie, and her jaw is much more pronounced:


Effie's head opens in the exact same way as Glythia's, offering easy eye swapping access and other modding opportunities:


From what I can tell, the body shapes of the two dolls are exactly the same.  Effie has a pinker, more natural skin tone, but I am not sure if this is just due to natural variation in the tint of the plastic, or perhaps an effort on the company's part to make the skin tone slightly more vibrant.  Either way, I really like Effie's coloring:


So, those are the basics of this new doll, but what I really wanted to do for this review is take Effie on a trip with me and get some pictures that I would not be able to take in Maine.

It is spring break for my kids, and so we are off on a great adventure for the next week.  This struck me as the perfect time to show off Effie.  I won't reveal where we are quite yet, but maybe you'll be able to guess.  I will give you a few clues later in this post.

As I was getting Effie ready for the trip, I decided that her boots might restrict her foot movement a bit too much for traveling.  

Makie Doll

The boots will surely come in handy for some hiking later in the week, but I wanted to see if perhaps one of my grab bags had a different style of shoe.  Let's peek inside this fukubukuru bag to see what it holds:


I was really impressed by how many items were in this little £4.99 bag.  It had two dresses, a shirt, and a pair of shoes!  What a deal.


It also included a small Makie booklet and a sticker:


I'll show you what was in the other two fukubukuru bags later this week.

The shoes are white wedge sandals that look fine for traveling:



It took Effie a few minutes to get the hang of these shoes...



But with these and her pink glasses, she's ready to go:

Makie Doll

Now, the question is...where is she going??


We played a travel music mix at the start of our trip, and this particular song actually holds a small clue to where we're going...


At the Logan airport in Boston, they have some painted fiberglass cows in the atrium.  I couldn't resist snapping Effie's picture with this particular cow:



Effie turns out to be an excellent traveler.  She was even responsible about reading all of the safety leaflets that were provided:

This safety card might hold another clue...
As we landed at our layover destination (hint: the seats on this airplane were green), Effie pointed out how lush and green the grass is in this country.

Maine is not green yet.
Spring is here already!
Here's the scene out the window as we took off again on the final leg of our trip:

Everything was shrouded in mist.
And here's the scene as we landed at our final destination:

That hill in the center is a well-known landmark in this area.
One final hint is that in the country where we are currently recovering from our jet lag, these are readily available and have never been illegal:

Kinder Surprise Eggs!  I love these!!
If you've never heard of Kinder Surprise eggs, they're these awesome toy-filled chocolate eggs that have been banned in the United States until just recently.


The eggs are milk chocolate with a white chocolate lining...


Each egg contains a small capsule with a secret toy.  These were outlawed in the U.S. because authorities were afraid that children would eat the capsules by accident.

If you ask me, it looks pretty hard to eat that capsule by accident.
The toys inside are great.  The batch of eggs I bought has a random assortment of toys, but you can also find packs with different themes like Marvel Heroes and even Frozen.

My egg had this funny little guy inside:


This fellow has a little clear-bristled paintbrush on his head, and two colors of watercolor paints on his feet.


The paints actually work!


I will be back soon with more pictures of sweet Effie, more about where I am, and perhaps some reports about the dolls that are available here.  In the meantime, I hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter weekend, and please feel free to offer your best guess as to where my family and I have landed....

46 comments:

  1. Wow, Effie is SO cute! I think the pink wig is a great choice on her, it brings out the bit of color in face up much, much better than the black wig does.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Presto! I agree about the pink! I just love it on her. You're exactly right that the black can wash her face out. She'd need some darker lips to pull that off, I think. The pink adds to her cheerful, quirky persona.

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. Good guess--and very close. We had a layover in Dublin, but have flown a little ways further... ;)

      Delete
  3. The new face is a lot better! I can't wait to see a parade of all the stuff from the secret bags and trip photos, of course. Is it somewhere in UK? I don't know of any famous hills elsewhere.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As much as I like Glythia for being so different, I agree with you that the new faces are an improvement. I think they will be much more broadly appealing. And...you are correct that we are now in the UK! Good call.

      Delete
    2. I forgot to say, the black wig is gorgeous! So glad pink wasn't in stock, now you have two! I wonder if they work with the old heads.

      Delete
  4. Since the sign and the Kinder Egg packaging is in English, and you talk about green repeatedly, you must be in Ireland! :D

    (Also, I miss Kinder Surprises. I used to eat them when I was a little kid in the UK, and as a teenager in Germany, and missed them whenever I was in the US!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good guess! We were in Dublin for a layover (that was all of the green and the mist), but have moved on to the UK.

      Aren't Kinder Surprises the best? It's so neat that you had them when you were little! The prizes are so good for what they are--I'll have to share a few more of them as I open them up. There are whole videos on YouTube of people just opening up these eggs! Seems odd, but I'll admit I've watched a few myself. :D

      Delete
    2. I grew up with them but my mum never brought them and I never ate them (I'm vegan you see) But my friend collected the toys sometimes he'd give me one of the yellow egg's with toy's inside (I suspect the ones he didn't want and shoved back in the yellow casing to give away) One Easter I was given so many pink little bunnies. Anyway they where so much fun, I can't believe they where banned :O
      It would be cool if you'd share some more, it's rather interesting to see the odd little toy's people get.
      As for where you are I'm pretty sure that's the UK! Mainly since I live in UK. Where about are you going? I would guess London, that's where most go but you do mention Hiking so perhaps Wales? Or Scotland?

      Delete
  5. Awwwww..... She's so cute! I like the her face mold a lot better than Glythia's (maybe I'm just not a elf person?) I hope to own one of those dolls someday! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Did you fly Aer Arann from Logan Airport to Dublin, Ireland for a layover and then fly to the UK? Anyways, congratulations on your new Makie! She looks much more "human" than Glythia, and her ears are very well structured. I think she looks better with black/brown hair than pink hair, but the pink hair and red glasses look very pretty on her! Congratulations, and thank you for sharing these beautiful pictures with us! ~Amelia

    ReplyDelete
  7. The future Mr. BTEG and I enjoyed KinderEggs when we were in Germany over 20 years ago. I agree with you that it's a bit silly to think they were illegal here, but many things are rather silly these days.

    I'd also like to stand up for those of us who did find math hard. :) I think my youngest got all her math smarts from her daddy.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Kinder eggs are fun and are addictive!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm guessing Edinburgh! The new Makies seem a lot cuter than the old once but I was super excited about your Glythia back in the day too... Hope you're having a pleasant Easter!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Omigosh, is that Edinburgh?
    .........because I live there. Right under that hill. OMG.

    Also, the new Makies do look cuter! I was actually tempted to buy one when you first mentioned them, but the faces turned me off a bit, so this might end up tempting me further (whoops).

    ReplyDelete
  11. Had to be the UK with the Kinder Surprise with English-only packaging, but the city? That must be Edinburgh, right? The harbour and the hill?

    It's wonderful to see the new Makies - it was always a fabulous concept, so it's great to know that they're still working on improving the end products with the new head options, the painted faces and (it looks like) better constructed clothing!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Are you in Australia? The new Makie face is adorable. Now I want one!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Australia is most certainly NOT green! :P our grass is like friggin YELLOW

      Delete
  13. Your in the UK, right?
    I love the new Makie Face! It's so cute, and I love Effie's new outfit:)

    Lulu
    P.S. I nominated you for the Liebster Blogging Award! You can read more about it here: http://theawesomeadventuresoflulu.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/the-liebster-award/

    ReplyDelete
  14. Effie is so adorable! Your review of Glythia is featured on the Makie homepage, by the way.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Your review is wonderful Emily! Effie is so cute! Have a great vacation!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I just read your review and decided to check out the makie website and guess what? They have a review from you in the front page! : )

    ReplyDelete
  17. Awesome!!! I've liked the idea of Makies for awhile now, but their faces always disturbed me. It's awesome that they now have cute, likeable faces! And what a great deal that grab bag was... I can't wait to see what's in your other two bags!

    ReplyDelete
  18. This new face kind of reminds me of Pullip's face.

    ReplyDelete
  19. She's gorgeous! I have an account and wishlist at Makies. I'm so thrilled they let you save the dolls you've created online even if you haven't purchased anything.
    The extras kind of baffle me, so I haven't made a huge effort in purchasing. Do I have to buy feet and hands separately?
    Anyway, again, she is gorgeous. Love the comparison. And that little critter that was in your chocolate eggs is super cute.
    Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Wow, Effie is such a little cutie*! And what a generous offer of Stephanie!
    (*I seem to have a non-deliberate soft spot for pink-haired dolls, so that new/original wig of hers is a bonus too! When I first read about the pink wig I was like "Oh why? She's so cute with the black one!", but totally squeed when I saw her in the pink one, and no explanation was needed anymore :D )

    Welcome in Europe! *waves* It seems you are doing a trip to several countries, not just one?

    I have only recently heard about that Kinder eggs aren't available in the US. When we were young we collected them heavily together with my sister. I haven't really thought of it this way before, but it played quite an important role in our childhoods. However strange this may sound, it was somehow just... natural and part of our lives that we collected the figures. What made me realise just how big a part it had was that when I tried to imagine what it'd be like if I erased this part from our childhoods, it just didn't seem possible.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Wait... So kinder eggs are LEGAL now? Please clarify.
    Kinder Eggs are available in Canada too!

    ReplyDelete
  22. I was just over playing around on the Makie site throung your link, and the review that came up said it was from Emily in Maine. Was that yours? I said something about never feeling something quite like a Makie.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Your definitely in the England area lol. I have a friend who lives there and she posted on facebook a picture of her kinder surprise egg.

    ReplyDelete
  24. hey! did you know that toys r us is taking the zelfs off the shelves? :( It's really sad. Toys r us is the only place other than Wal-Mart where you can get them.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Hi!! I was just on the Makie site, and I just noticed that they have a little snippet of your first Makie review on the front page. It took me a few seconds to realise it was you! Effie is so cute!! I love the new face so much!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Aran?? Arabia? Random guesses LOL! I dont think Japan is even in Europe XD

    ReplyDelete
  27. I assume you are somewhere in Europe. If so, you MUST try to find Cadbury egg n' spoons (I believe this is the name). They are not available in the US, but are sold in Europe from what I have heard. I'm so jealous! D:<

    ReplyDelete
  28. Kinder is made by Ferrero company which is Italian - so are you in Italy and is the famous hill mount Vesuvius?
    Tali

    ReplyDelete
  29. She's so cute! I love the new face I'd love to get one eventually! I have a friend that works for Makies and does some of the face ups for them too so maybe you got one of hers ^_^!

    ReplyDelete
  30. I was scrolling through Makies' Instagram, and I found Effie there! She's a total cutie ( pun intended. ) I can't wait for Grace to arrive, now.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Nossa amei ela e sua peruca tambem deixo ela mais bonita eu quero.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Hello Emily

    as always I loved your review.

    I saw your first Makie Glythia and was a totally fascinated,
    but not until I saw Effie I *HAD* to get my own Makie.

    She arrived yesterday and I love her !

    Thanks for introducing me to these wonderful little companions :)

    I blogged about her here :

    http://addicted2dolls.wordpress.com/2014/05/12/dotd-my-makie-doll-dottea/

    And I mentioned your blog .. once or twice .. ;)
    I hope this is okay for you -
    I am really a big fan of your blog and wait eagerly for each new review :)
    Thanks again :)

    Lucy from Germany

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree! I was like Gynthia! So pretty! Then I saw that you can make their personality and I was definitely interested. Then I saw Effie and I was like: WOWOWOWOWOWOW! SO PRETTYYYYY! I will check out that blog post!

      Delete
  33. o Effie is so cute, I wish I could get a makie

    ReplyDelete
  34. Can she share clothes with other dolls? If so, can you tell me which ones? I just ordered a makie and I'm very curious

    ReplyDelete