Sunday, July 3, 2022

Sunday Surprise: Mini Fashion and Real Littles!

I was disappointed that I couldn't quite get last week's review done in time for a Sunday Surprise, so I decided to try really hard to get a quick surprise-themed review done for you today!  

My progress was slowed down a little bit this weekend because I finally hit a breaking point with my work space.  I've been writing reviews almost non-stop since October, and I forgot that if I don't take a day or two every now and then to stop and clean up my mess...well, things can get very out-of-control!  On Friday, when fetching the doll for my next review felt like an obstacle course, a death trap, and a game of hide and seek all wrapped into one, I realized that it was time to pause and clean up.  But now my room is beautiful and clean again and it's such an amazing feeling!

As I was tidying and sorting through my stash, I realized that I'd accumulated two different surprise-themed toys that involve purses or bags of some kind: Mini Fashion by Zuru and Real Littles by Moose Toys.  I thought that these two brands might be fun to compare and contrast.  Lina was excited about this idea because she's been pestering me for months to de-box the Mini Fashion sets.  She knows that they contain high-end purses that might be just her size!

Barbie Lina with a Surprise Mini Fashion ball (Zuru, $9.99).

To keep Lina happy, I'll look at the Mini Fashion toys first.  These sets are part of the 5 Surprise line.  Other products in this line include Mini Brands, Toy Mini Brands, Unicorn Squad, and the original 5 Surprise balls.

Most of the 5 Surprise toys that I've looked at come in plastic balls that open to reveal five orange-slice compartments, each sealed and holding a treat.  Here's an example from my Toy Mini Brand review:

The Mini Fashion sets also include five surprises, but the packaging doesn't have the orange slice design.  Instead, everything is enclosed within a hollow plastic ball with a double plastic wrapper:


The Mini Fashion packaging looks a lot like the L.O.L. Surprise packaging (L.O.L. came first).  But it's nice that at least this ball is made from recycled plastic.

The ball boasts "40+ real fabric fashion bags and accessories to collect!"  


However, I'll tell you right up front that there are only 11 possible purses, which makes that 40 seem a bit less impressive.

These balls are ridiculously hard to unwrap.  Just like on the L.O.L. balls, there's a perforated area decorated to look like a zipper, but that area doesn't pull apart smoothly at all, and it doesn't really help with the inevitable struggle that comes trying to get the two tight layers of plastic removed:

I had to use scissors and even then it was hard.
After I'd conquered the plastic wrapping, the de-boxing was easy.  The ball opened to reveal two plastic bags and a collector's sheet:


Lina pounced on the collector's sheet to see which purse she might get!


She was pretty excited about the two rare purses:


Here's a closer look:

I want the diamond ring!
The bottom section here shows some of the smaller accessories that are available--like stickers, perfume bottles, and nail polish.

I was pretty excited about the pet Chihuahuas...maybe because I have three Chihuahua mix dogs in my house:


Since this is pretty casual and we're just hanging out on a Sunday, I'll show you one of my favorite pictures of my dogs.  This is my granddog Wiggles (left), my Chihuahua rescue Zeno (center) and my little full-bred (?) Chihuahua Bucky (right).  My son says it looks like a movie poster:

The Jersey Boys.
Sadly, none of my dogs like to ride in a purse.

The other purses that are available in this collection are shown at the top of the sheet:


They all look great, but I really love the green one in the bottom row--and the pink one right next to it.

I would have drawn out the purse surprise a bit more and shown you the smaller accessory bag first, but Lina couldn't wait another second, so I opened the up the larger bag first:


It's a lovely imitation leather bag with a rainbow "MF" (Mini Fashion) design and pink accents:

The "MF" branding could go a completely different way.  Samuel L. Jackson agrees.
I didn't expect the purses to be this detailed!  It's pretty amazing.  The strap buckle is metal (and works to adjust the strap) and the different colors of leather are all stitched meticulously together from small pieces.  It's made just like a real purse!


The best thing is that the flap closure has an actual magnet in it!

I'm blown away.
The strap is a little short for Lina, even when it's extended, but she loves it anyway and I don't blame her:


While Lina was strutting around admiring her new purse, I opened up the smaller bag:


This bag had a sticker (bo-ring), a makeup brush, a compact, and a golden jar of something:


The brush is remarkably detailed for something so tiny.  It has two-toned bristles and a sparkling red handle:


The compact is made out of gold plastic and has a molded pattern on the top:


It opens to reveal a blush-colored sticker and a working mirror!


The jar is also made out of gold plastic and has "MF" emblazoned on the top:


This opens to reveal some molded pink cream!


These accessories were enough to distract Lina from her purse for a few minutes:


And of course because the purse opens and closes, it can easily hold all of the accessories:


The quality of this toy was way higher than I expected it to be.  I know somebody here recommended these purses to me, and I wish I could remember who it was (BlackKitty, was it you??).  Whoever you are: thank you so much!  Good call.

In fact, I loved the purse and accessories so much that I bought another ball.

This time, I opened the small bag first:


To my surprise and delight, none of these smaller accessories are duplicates of the first set!


I got a pair of sunglasses with black rims and tiny gold accents:

Sadly, there's a little speck of gold on the lenses.
The best thing about these glasses is that the ear pieces fold up!  Most Barbie glasses do not have this feature.


And they fit Lina perfectly:

Barbie Lina wearing Surprise Mini Fashion sunglasses.
This perfume bottle is the least impressive item in the set.  It doesn't have much detail and there are no moving or removable parts:



The last item (other than the sticker, which I ignored), is red lip gloss:


This container opens to reveal a tiny little lip brush tipped in red!


Unfortunately, the scale of the lip gloss is way off for Lina.  It's enormous:


I guess I understand why they didn't make it smaller, since it would have been super-tiny and easy to lose.  A smaller size might also have made it difficult for the container to open and close.  But still, I would have been happier if all of the items were in the same scale.

Next, I opened up the larger bag...and could see right away that I didn't get a duplicate!

Yay!
This sack-style bag is so attractive; it's the type of thing I would use:


It has real metal grommets and a pull cord that can actually cinch the bag closed:


That pull cord is made out of extremely thin imitation leather, though, so I used extreme care when tightening it.

The bag is constructed really well, though, with neat stitching and solid-looking seams:


Look at how nicely that strap is put together!  It's very impressive to me.

This bag fits Lina perfectly:


It even goes with her outfit!  Speaking of Lina's outfit, I'm still searching for shoes that have good balance and match her outfit (her original shoes are way too unstable).  This has not been an easy quest, and so Lina almost always ends up barefoot.  Sorry, Lina.

I like the second purse and accessories even better than the first!

I actually opened two more of these sets (yes, I got a little bit addicted).  And this is what I found in the third ball:


The compact and perfume are repeats, so that was a bit of a bummer, 

Although the perfume is a different color.
The wallet was something I hadn't seen before, though,  This is made out of neon pink vinyl and has a flap that can open and close:


The flap stays closed pretty well, which was a pleasant surprise.  Many of these cheap vinyl accessories are not designed well enough to function as intended.

Sadly, there's no opening inside this wallet--it's just solid vinyl.

And the color hurts my eyes.
The purse in this set is great. It's made out of embossed metallic pink imitation leather that has a lot of stiffness and body:


All of the gold accents are real metal, and the construction is great:


The handles are made out of solid plastic, which reminds me of purses with thick wooden handles.

There's a little metal charm on one handle that has a key and a heart:

Very cute!
The fourth Mini Fashion ball that I opened had this same pink purse, the same sunglasses I showed you earlier, another jar of cream, and another lipstick.

I definitely got greedy wanting to open so many of these balls, so it serves me right to get all of the repeats, but the purses are so great.  I really love them...and so does Lina!

Once you start to get repeats with these, the best option is to go to eBay or Etsy and buy the specific purse or accessory that you want.  For example, I could get the green purse that I was coveting for about $15 on eBay:


...which is a popular solution, given the 192 sales that this vendor lists!  I'm not at all surprised.

I wanted to compare these wonderful Mini Fashion sets to the Real Littles sets that I've seen cropping up at Target over the last month or so.  The Real Littles bags are in a much larger scale than the Mini Fashion purses, and I was hoping that they could work with 18-inch dolls like American Girl or My Twinn.

I browsed the offerings at Target several times before I finally committed to buy.  The selection was always picked-over, and I didn't see anything that really tempted me.  But then, finally, one day this particular bag showed up, and I knew the time was right:

Real Littles Disney Cinderella bag by Moose Toys, $9.99
The idea with these toys is that you can choose the bag you purchase, but the contents of the bag are a surprise.

The Cinderella bag can come with any seven of the following items:

I really wanted the magazine and the phone.
The packaging here is very simple.  The purse is attached to a cardboard backdrop with one (and only one!) plastic tie, and then the backdrop is enclosed within a clear plastic box.


Both sides of the purse have a picture of Cinderella that changes when you look at it from different angles.  From the far left, Cinderella is in her rag dress with magic starting to swirl around...


Looking at the image front-on, Cinderella has raised her hands above her head and you can start to see the outline of the ball gown:


And then from the far right, the transformation is complete!


Here's a little movie so that you can see the whole image progression:


The bag is about the right size to be held by an 18-inch doll like American Girl or My Twinn Annie:

18-inch My Twinn holding a Real Littles handbag.
The bag has a sturdy metal snap closure that opens to reveal a white plastic bag:


I'm glad there's only one bag to conceal and contain all of the surprise items.


I cut open the bag, and a lot of light blue things toppled out!


Here's everything that I got:


All in all, there were twelve different items crammed inside that bag!

I'm not sure if this is technically a surprise, but one of the items is a blue metal carabiner that could be used to clip the purse onto a child's outfit or backpack:


I also got two emory boards or nail files:


I *cannot stand* the sound of fingernails on an emory board.  It's like nails on a chalkboard to me, so I immediately put these things aside.  No, thank you.

The next item is a clear vinyl pouch.  I'm not sure what this is supposed to be used for:

What would fit in there?
The box describes it simply as "pouch," which isn't helpful.

The pouch has a clock face design on one side, with the time set just before midnight:

Tick, tock, Cinderella.
Another one of my surprises was this small sheet of metallic stickers:


I also got this glass slipper attached to a loop of string.  It's like a Christmas ornament--or maybe a zipper pull?


The shoe doesn't really fit any of the dolls that I have laying around my house.  It's way too big for Lina:

No Prince Charming for you, Lina.
I was thinking that maybe it'd be compatible with the larger Disney dolls, like the 17-inch singing Princesses?  But it's too small for that:

Disney 17-inch doll shoe (left) and Real Littles shoe (right).
I know that Disney didn't manufacture this toy, but it would have been cool if the shoe was in scale with one of the Disney Store doll sizes.  Maybe it is, and I just don't have the right doll?  Since there's only one shoe, it hardly matters.

Update: Ryleigh suggested in the comments that the glass slipper might fit a Rainbow High doll.  So, I tried it on Jett Dawson:


It fits pretty well!


The shoe is made out of soft vinyl, so it has some flexibility.  This helps with the fit quite a lot.  You can see when the slipper is on a Rainbow High foot with no sock, the shape of the shoe's sole is flatter than the shape of the foot:


I'd love to know if other Real Littles shoes fit Rainbow High feet.  But that's a mission for another day.

The next surprise was this small plastic brush.  It's plain silver on one side:


With some simple blue decorations on the other side:


The brush is pretty unremarkable overall, but it's about the right scale for Lina:


The surprise that I was most excited about was this little cell phone and its two covers!


The phone is made out of plastic and has a sticker screen showing a text conversation between Cinderella and her prince.  The phone easily slides into one of two soft vinyl covers.


One of the covers has an outline of Cinderella's face and the world "dreamer" down one side:


The other cover is blue and has a picture of Cinderella's castle:


The last two surprises were a pair of sunglasses and a glasses case:


Like the Mini Fashion glasses, these have ear pieces that fold in and out:


The glasses are made out of blue plastic and have painted white rims with little molded jewel shapes.


  The center of the white area has yellowed and doesn't look great.


I love that these have moving ear pieces, but overall they look kinda cheap.

The glasses are way too big for Lina:


And they're way too small for an American Girl-sized doll like My Twinn Annie:


I don't have any of my 17-inch talking Disney Princesses left (they were all given away before we moved), but I do still have a 17-inch Limited Edition Belle doll, who is incredibly unpopular and didn't even sell when I listed her on eBay a few years ago.

And the sunglasses are just about right for this girl!

Just a little crooked.
She can make the cell phone work, too:


Since I opened so many of the Mini Fashion sets, I wanted to explore one more of these Real Little toys--just to be fair.  Lucky for me, I found this awesome unicorn backpack on one of my trips to Target!

That's right up my alley.
The back of this package doesn't reveal any of the surprise, but shows the other backpacks in the collection:

I love the mermaid one, too!
The backpack is made out of shimmering iridescent silver fabric, and has ears and a golden horn to make it reminiscent of a unicorn.  The zipper on the front sort-of looks like a mouth, too, which lends a very silly expression to this bag!

Drunk, cheesy unicorn.
The back of the pack has a handle and two shoulder straps, although the straps are not adjustable:


The front pocket of the backpack has a sturdy working zipper with a tiny compartment:

Buuurp
And the main part of the backpack opens to reveal the surprise--with, wait for it, no plastic bag!

Yay Moose Toys!
This is literally the only mass-market, surprise-themed toy that I've ever seen that didn't include at least one plastic bag.  Incredible.

Here are all of the items that were inside:

That's exactly seven things, including the carabiner.
The construction of the bag itself feels very sturdy, with covered seam edges and neat stitching:


This bag came with a shiny purple carabiner:


That's useful for kids who want to clip these bags onto their life-sized backpacks or jackets, but it doesn't feel like much of a surprise at this point.

The first two surprises were this miniature notebook and working pencil--both with golden unicorn decorations:


I also found a tiny tape dispenser that has real glitter tape on it:


The tape is hard to dispense and there's not much of it, but the idea is cute:



Another one of the surprises was this little sheet of stickers:

The rearing unicorn is pretty!
My favorite accessory is this tiny unicorn eraser:


My least favorite accessory is this little cardboard star ornament.  I'm not sure what its purpose is, and it has a sandpaper texture that reminds me of an emory board.  Shiver.


These accessories are more underwhelming than the Cinderella accessories.  The notebook, pencil, eraser, and stickers would be fun for a child to play with, though (I loved mini notebooks when I was a kid!).  I think the notebook is in a good scale to work with American Girl, which enhances its value dramatically.  Kids could write out little stories for their 18-inch dolls!  However, the other accessories feel dismissible.

The real question for me was whether or not the backpack itself would work with 18-inch dolls.  It looks good when Annie is carrying it:


It's small, but a lot of kids have mini backpacks these days:


The bigger problems is that it doesn't even come close to fitting over Annie's shoulders.  One of the straps can loop over her arm, but there's no way it would ever fit completely across her back.


The pack is a better fit for 14-inch dolls like this Glitter Girl:


The pack can slide over both of her arms and fit on her back:


However the fit is extremely tight and the whole pack crumples in the middle from the strain:


I don't keep a huge stash of de-boxed dolls in the house anymore, or at least that's one of my goals, but I was able to try the backpack on this Paola Reina Las Amigas girl who is part of an upcoming review:


The pack fits over her shoulders pretty well, and the scale seems about right, but it rides up really high on her back for some reason.

I also tried the backpack on my Smart Doll Monday, who's still hanging around waiting to see if I'll ever finish a comparison review.  The pack looks good on Monday (everything looks good on Monday), but it only fits over one of her shoulders.


I also tried the pack on Jett Dawson.  It fits very nicely over her shoulders, but the size is too big:


Whew!  I got the review done in time for Sunday!  I honestly wasn't sure that would happen, but here we are.  I really enjoyed looking at both of these brands, and it was a perfect project for a hot holiday weekend.

The Mini Fashion purses are extremely stylish and well-made, and they fit Barbie dolls well.  I'm not a purse fanatic in real life (I have one dog purse that I will use until it falls apart), but I found myself addicted to these mini purses.  The purses themselves feel like they're worth the $9.99 price tag all on their own, especially on today's market.  But some of the accessories are real gems, too, and make the price tag seem even more reasonable.  The tiny makeup brush, with its real bristles, is wonderfully realistic, and I also love how so many of the items (sunglasses, compact, cream jar, lipstick) have moving or removable parts.  Because so many of the accessories work perfectly with 1:6 scale dolls like Barbie, I wish Zuru had kept this sizing consistent.  The huge lip gloss is pretty jarring.  Also, I wish the quality had been more consistent throughout the different accessories.  Getting the sunglasses was awesome, but I felt let down by things like the perfume bottle and the garish vinyl wallet.  Overall, though, the only problem with these toys is that repeats become inevitable, and at $10 a pop, that can be frustrating.  After treating yourself to a surprise or two, I'd recommend hand-selecting the purses and accessories you want from some of the online resellers.  I'm seriously considering that $12 green purse on eBay...and Lina is desperately hoping I cave!

The Real Littles bags are also great.  I love the changing picture on the Cinderella clutch, and I think the unicorn backpack is well-made and has a very cute design.  However, it's not so clear how these bags can  reliably interact with the doll world.  I suspect Moose Toys designed the bags to be cute as miniatures in their own right, without any thoughts about dolls.  The carabiners, in particular, suggest that the bags are meant to be clipped to a full-sized backpack as a novelty decoration.  That's great, and I would have enjoyed playing with a toy like this when I was younger.  However as a doll lover, I'm left wishing that the bags had been designed to be compatible with some kind of standard-sized doll (American Girl being the most obvious).  It wouldn't have taken much tweaking to accomplish this; some adjustable straps on the backpack would have done the trick.  The accessories in the Real Littles sets are not as appealing to me as the Mini Fashion items, either, and I suspect this is also because they're not intended to be used with dolls.  And even if I evaluate them strictly as miniatures, some of the items are better than others.  I like the notebook, eraser, and pencil because they're all adorably small while also being functional.  But other things, like the emory boards, strange dangling objects, and tiny stickers, are harder to appreciate.  I won't buy any more of these bags for myself or my dolls, but they would make great little gifts for kids who enjoy tiny things for their own sake.

I've tried to be diplomatic here, but Lina wants me to tell you, for the record, that she thinks the Mini Fashion sets are the best toys I've ever reviewed, and she's seen a lot of stuff.

30 comments:

  1. Oh, this is just too much fun! Accessories can up the fun factor of doll collecting, especially if they look real and are well made. Lena is quite the assistant—has she asked for a title and a raise (that nice little drawstring bag would be a nice perk!) yet? I’ll have to pay more attention in that section of the toy aisle. And yes, I’d love that green bag too! In human size!
    On another note—I was at a small Target yesterday, and they had a bunch of mermaid High dolls marked down, a a big collection of the mermaze line, also on sale. I just can’t get over that awful packaging.
    And on yet another note, I’m just about ready to boycott anything in the overawful packaging world. I got the Oceana MermaidHigh doll, and was swearing just trying to de-package her. It is ridiculous...and why? I’ve gotten other dolls that are simply tied with ribbons or twine, or those rubber-band and hooky things. At the very least, I have to write some letters. Curmudgeonly MinnesotaGirl signing off.

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    1. I'm right there with you, Minnesota Girl! The packaging is getting worse and worse for some companies. I'm excited by the Disney Store's new efforts to switch to cardboard, though, and also pleased with the packaging on the Real Littles. Also, many of the 14" inch dolls I've been collecting for a review series have plain cardboard boxes...so maybe there's some hope. ;)

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  2. I have enjoyed several of the Real Littles backpacks, just for their own sake, and I have a whole bunch of the 5 Surprise minis for my 1/6 scale toy store that is planned in my mind (LOL!). Have you also seen the Real Littles shoes? These are pretty well-done, but I haven't yet found the doll they will fit. I love your reviews, and am often sent in search of the dolls you feature! I recently got the notBlythe doll you reviewed, only I got the short-haired version--she is ADORABLE!

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    1. I did see the shoes, yes! I would have gotten a few of those sets if I knew what size of doll they fit. Ryleigh suggested that the glass slipper fits Rainbow, High, so maybe the other shoes would work for RH, too? I'll probably buy some to check it out. I'm so glad you like your fake Blythe doll! The short-haired ones are adorable. :)

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    2. A lot of Real Littles shoes fit Ken dolls and the rare few flat footed 90s Barbies. Some of the newer ones fit Curvy & Tall Barbie too. They're too flat for RH though.

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    3. Real Littles shoes mostly fit Creatable World dolls if that helps

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  3. those mini fashion bags are exquisite and i really wish they were available in my area! they look even better than the fabric bags that came with the monster high skullector dolls (or the plastic purses from $100 barbie style dolls lol). the shiny pink bag is definitely my style!

    also, totally relate with the workspace situation--my breaking point was stepping on a pincushion filled with pins and needles 👺

    another great review as always and i'm excited for the future comparisons! if you're still looking for a good mattel mermaid with a removable tail, 90s ariel dolls might be a good place to start! there were some pretty stunning collector's editions. i feel most of the playline barbie mermaids don't have the fishy allure of mermaze or versatility of mermaid high.

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    1. Oh, ouch!! Stepping on a pin cushion sounds awful. My worst was stepping on a plastic hair clip, which wasn't terrible. Thank you for the recommendation for a Mattel mermaid! Right now I only have two examples (Monster High and a Barbie). I'd love to include Ariel! And I relish a good vintage doll hunt. ;)

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    2. A good time to clean room is after you step on a barbie shoe, d4 and a Lego at ONCE

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  4. I have the mini fashion purse in brown with little logos, and it works for my Smart Doll as a mini bag, and the lipstick is also passably in scale for her! I also got one of the Real Littles backpacks for her. I’m tempted by the real littles shoes, but I’m not sure they’ll fit her big feet! Some 18 inch accessories like the Our Generation mini sets also work for Smart Doll. I love hunting down Smart Doll sized stuff. Great review!! And Lena looks great with her new accessories!

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    1. Oh--the lipstick for a Smart Doll is a great idea! I'll tell Monday she can have it. ;)

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  5. BTW, Monday’s pink wig is fantastic!

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    1. Thank you! It's glorious. It's one of the silkiest and best-feeling wigs I own. I think I got it from Dallas Doll Co. on Etsy, but I'm not positive.

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  6. I've never heard of these but the purses look incredible! Also, Lina is so beautiful, she is the perfect model, she is like your assistant

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    1. Thank you, Luis! She's definitely my assistant, and she works really hard! I was glad to get her a few treats. :)

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  7. I’ve been a long time lurker here and this is my first comment! I’m pretty addicted to the Mini Fashion bags, they’re a nice size for my Rainbow High dolls. I have most of the bag designs by now, just missing the pink rare and the white/brown/yellow combo. Unfortunately I was getting pretty frustrated with doubles so I stopped buying.

    I like the Real Littles bags too, since I like mini stationery quite a bit (and Disney!). I have the same Cinderella bag that you bought. I think the mystery pouch is supposed to be a coin pouch. I totally agree about hating the sound of emery boards, they drive me crazy whenever someone is using one. And the glass slipper is a perfect fit for Rainbow High dolls, I put mine on Gabriella. The only thing I don’t like about Real Littles bags is that they’re a really awkward size to try to pose with dolls. I had a Real Littles backpack on my NaNaNa Surprise Tuesday Meow at one point and she looked like a kindergartner on her way to her first day of school. Which was amusing but not ideal.

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    1. Hi Ryleigh! Thank you so much for your comment! I can't believe I didn't try the glass slipper on a Rainbow High girl. I'll do that this morning and add in a picture. I wonder if the other Real Littles shoes would work for RH, too? I should have tried the Real Littles backpack on RH, but I figured it'd be huge! I'll test that out, too, and if nothing else--like you said--it'll be amusing. :D There's clearly more that I need to explore...

      Also, I'm glad I'm not alone in hating the sound of emory boards! I can barely think about it without cringing!

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  8. I definitely mentioned Mini Fashion in connection to the frustration of buying surprise toys. If I knew you paid such close attention to comments, I would have returned with an update. I did cave, sort of. I identified my favourites (none were rares) and looked for offers where the price per bag was lower than retail. I decided for a set with the fuchsia bag (my top pick), the green, the sack and the pink one you got two of, plus some accessories. I'll tell you, the green bag was the biggest disappointment straight away. The bags are just slightly too big. They are all the same size and weight for the purpose of the surprise, but some styles are clearly clutches or small purses, but they look like trunks next to Barbie. People photograph them in clever ways for eBay, but they are oh so out of scale irl. Luckily, I sold the green one to someone who saw it in person. I dismantled the shiny pink one to make it daintier. The other two are ok. One size of doll they fit really well is RH, but I only have a greyscale one.

    I don't have many thoughts on Real Littles because of the scale. Where MF had a good chance to fit my dolls, RL has none, so I wasn't interested. I like the tiny stationery, but let's be honest, it's pretty useless for a human. Btw, I too hate emery boards on nails, but they are great for sharpening fragile pencils and shaving pastel.

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    1. Well, you just saved me $15 on that green purse! I love the color, but if it doesn't work for Lena, I have no interest in it. Thank you. It's also good to know that the scale isn't reliable, because that tan and white bag feels perfect for Lena, so I assumed they all would be.

      I'm SO tempted by the greyscale RH, but it's hard to justify another review. Which one do you have? I want the extremes: Shanelle and Natasha. And, now that I'm thinking of it, how cool would a bright green purse look up against a neutral doll?? Could be striking...

      Interesting idea about using an emory board to sharpen delicate pencils. I have a lot of nice watercolor pencils, so maybe I'll keep Cinderella's emory boards after all. You always have good tips.

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    2. I'm glad you like my comments! I put some pictures of the bags on FB: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.5512602392123618&type=3
      If that doesn't work, here's a direct link to the best one: https://bit.ly/3Iat3f7 My photos are a bit deceiving too because I took them from up close, so the bags look smaller in proportion to the head. In real life, the green bag appears the size of air cabin baggage.
      I have Heather! Shanelle was a close favourite, but I really dislike sculpted baby hairs on the forehead. Heather's design is more up my alley and I like many things about her, but she had several defects that I pointed out in an Amazon review. You can find it under 3-stars if you are curious.

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  9. Fun fact: The bags in the photo on the back of the unicorn bag package all have themed accessories and every bag has the same surprises(like all the unicorns have the same unicorn themed stuff). The “Gamer” one has a teeny laptop/mouse (the mouse actually plugs into a port on the laptop) that are perfectly sized for barbie(and the keychain is a little game controller that’s also perfect). I highly recommend the “gamer” bag and the shiny silver beach tote because the accessories are too cute!

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    1. Oh, my gosh--wow! The gamer bag looks amazing! I like those miniatures so much more than the unicorn ones. So does Lena! Thank you for the suggestion. I might have to splurge on that. :)

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  10. Your dogs are the absolute cutest!!

    Sorry -- had to get that out first, hahaha.

    Ooh I was anxiously awaiting this review of yours since I just LOVE everything miniature. Even though the MF branding is a tiny (pun intended) bit unfortunate (indeed, I am absolutely sure Samuel L. Jackson would agree) the Mini Fashion purses are just so darling to me. I've seen many people give them to their Rainbow High dolls and some truly look like they were meant for those dolls in the first place (especially when matching color themes). I've searched and searched but Zuru minis are really hard to come by here and if you can find them, they are way overpriced. Since I love basically everything they put out, including the mini brands, mini Disney toys and now these fashion bags, I hope Zuru will notice how popular their products are and how well they could sell overseas. Europeans love miniatures too, you know, haha! The Real Littles bags are also incredibly cute, but less so my style since I don't have many larger dolls. I'm thinking they might fit Moxie Teenz but I could also be totally wrong about that. Anyway, thanks so much for this Sunday Surprise comparison, Emily! :)

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  11. What a great review. I have one of the backpacks, and it is the perfect size for my Little Darling dolls. The accessories are even a good size for them.

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  12. I picked up a Zuru MF pack at Target maybe a month ago (the branding does make me giggle, as someone who's very easily amused) and the contents were exactly the same as your first one minus the sticker being different- pink purse, makeup brush, blush, jar of ambiguous cream! it's interesting that we happened upon the same combination, but then again I haven't done the math to see how many combinations are possible. the Real Littles carabiners aren't too sturdy- one of mine broke after about a month of regular backpack usage- so I don't know that I'd trust them to keep the entire bag secured as a keychain. the accessories are very cute, though! I bought the pink bunny backpack and the gold makeup bag, and I really like how everything looks with my American Girl dolls, but I'd like to replace the straps on the backpack so that they can actually use it. I know as a kid I would have been ecstatic about the mini school supplies and I still think it's a very fun line. I'm intrigued by the other RL options, too...

    also, your dogs (and granddog) are adorable! :)

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  13. The little purses are so cute! I hope they work with Monster High dolls.

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  14. Your dogs are so cute! That is a great photo.

    I just picked up one of the mini fashions today when I saw them marked down a bit at Walmart. I think people have been using the Real Littles shoes with Ken dolls. For Rainbow High, you would need one of the dolls that also comes with flat feet.

    Also, I'm glad to see Monday still hanging around for now. It seemed like you really bonded with her in her review. I find that giving myself permission to keep some splurges makes it easier to let go of other things.

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  15. ohhhh I've been *so* tempted by the Mini Brands, but they're too small to be in scale with my 18" dolls and too big for the mini dolls. But those bags are just delightful, and most of the little accessories, too. It's nice that they're in scale with Barbie, since I feel like that's probably the most common doll scale out there. The sunglasses especially look like they were Lena's to begin with - like, that they were specifically made for her. She definitely owns that look, like the fashionista she is. XD

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  16. Being a doll/Toy collector myself, I must say I got addicted to both the mini fashion and real littles. I don't use them with my dolls as my unbowed ones I had for about 30yrs all barbies spanning 70s 80s and an official 'Gone with the wind barbie" in the famous green velvet curtain dress (she was the only one boxed) were all destroyed in a flood in my dad's basement! I've never gotten over it lol fr tho. But back to the bags. The surprise balls I have 3 doubles 2 of which are double double lol which is annoying, I have to buy food for me and my PA Ollie Cat! 3 things I wanted to touch on for you though; the diamond ring is all metal with a sculpted metal "Diamond" but u do get a real synthetic diamond in the RL Ultra luxe collection display case which isn't really a display case, in my opinion. 2nd point the little ornaments like the cinderella shoe are meant to be little bag tags to put on the handle of the RL bag like you would clip the RL bag to a kids bag. However I don't have kids but if I did I would never let them clip what essentially looks like a coin purse but I think hanging your little shoe on the Disney bag should be fine lol. Hope this helps. This is the first time reading your page and tbh I don't really know how I got here?! But I'm glad I did! Everyone thinks I'm crazy buying dolls n toys, I don't tell them anymore yup definitely an addict! Lol! Lots of love jodie. X

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  17. A quick comment on an older post: All of the bag designs are based on real luxury purses! the metallic pink bag is a Lady Dior, the green bag is a Balenciaga City, the drawstring bag is a Louis Vuitton NeoNoe, and I believe the pink and white bag is based on a vintage LV design. I purchased a ball recently and was surprised to see the incredibly trendy Bottega Veneta Jodie! The designers of this toy line must have a passion for purses!

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