Tea with Lena: A Rainbow High Doll House Renovation

Lena and Ian's house is finally done!  Or it's done enough...for now.  These projects have a way of stretching on and on, because there's always some cool new accessory or decoration that can be added.  For example, not only did we squeeze in a record player from the last review, but Lena will be sifting through some Mini Brands Masterpieces artwork today to see if any of it can be used as a last-minute finishing touch.

So this review will have two purposes: the first is to show off the house and talk about all of the products I used, and the second is a mini review of the Masterpieces surprise balls.  But Lena's going to be in charge for the most part, so I'd better turn things over to her:

Lena in her renovated Rainbow High house.

Tea with Lena: A Comparison Review of the Mini Brands and Miniverse Record Players

I've been putting the last few finishing touches on Lena's (and Ian's) house this week, and one of the final decisions that we have to make is whether or not we can fit a record player into the space!  I didn't really have this in my original plans, but then I realized that not only has Zuru come out with a Mini Brands record player and accompanying surprise balls, but MGA has followed suit and done the same exact thing with their Miniverse line.  Sounds familiar.  

However, I think the release date of these two products was exactly the same, so it's not clear what (if any) copycatting was going on.  The companies are very competitive these days, with a lot of parallel products.  I wonder if there are spies or something who try to figure out what the other company is doing all of the time?  Maybe that's too dramatic.  I tend to act as though I'm living in a movie.

Anyway, today Lena's going to help me explore both record player options and see if she'd like to try and fit one (or both?) of them into her home:

Lena with a Zuru Mini Brands Vinyl surprise ball, $9.99.

A Sunday Surprise Assortment!

I've been in a kind of blog limbo for the last week or so, a lot because I'm waiting on a few finishing touches for Lena's house.  She and Ian have already moved back in, but I want everything to be just right before I show it to all of you.  It should be done by the end of this week!  I was also doing a bit of traveling to see my family, which was wonderful.  We got to celebrate the married kids and enjoy upstate New York in spring.  If it weren't for ticks and poison ivy, upstate New York would be perfect at this time of year.

Anyway, I wanted a casual review to fill the space, and decided to do a Sunday Surprise!  It's been a while since I've done that.  At one point, maybe a year ago, I hoarded a lot of surprise-themed toys with the intent of being more regular with my Sunday Surprise posts.  I've obviously made no progress with that goal, so I decided to gather up a bunch of those toys and look at them all at once.  Which means I have a grab bag of surprises for you today!

From back left: Monster High Potions, Disney Tower Surprise, OG Surprise Lunch Bag, and Pea Pod Babies.