Mirror Mi Dolls by MGA Entertainment

With all of the big summer releases that I mentioned in my last review, I wasn't sure which ones to buy first, and then which ones to review first!  I guess I'm most excited about the KPop Demon Hunters dolls. I've been waiting for those like a predator ever since I saw the movie.  And I've pre-ordered everything associated with that franchise.  But I preordered a lot of other new releases, too.  And, as it happened, the Mirror Mi girls showed up on my doorstep first.

Even then, I was hesitant to review this brand right away.  The Mirror Mi doll who I'm the most excited about is Suki Goldpetal, and I haven't been able to get my hands on her yet.  She's a Walmart exclusive and has been slower to roll out than the other characters.  It feels competitive to buy Suki right now, but I know that feeling won't last.  MGA doesn't tend to limit their dolls, so for collectors, a little patience goes a long way.

As a reviewer, I don't have time to be patient.  There are so many new and exciting dolls that I want to look at this summer!  My schedule is full and I can't afford to wait around for one elusive character.  So, I decided to forge ahead with a review of the Mirror Mi dolls that I have right now.  One of whom, as you might have predicted, is the spicy redheaded rocker, Blaze Maxx:

Mirror Mi Blaze Maxx by MGA Entertainment, $29.99.

Fearbook Ghoulia Yelps from Monster High: A Guest Review!

Today I have a treat for you: a new guest review!  I don't feature a ton of guest reviews these days, but when Cherry emailed and said that she's been reading the blog for fourteen years and would love to write a review...well.  Of course I said yes!  Anyone who's been hanging around this place for fourteen years deserves a medal.  When I learned that Cherry wanted to review Fearbook Ghoulia Yelps, I was even more impressed.  That's not been an easy doll to find, at least not in this part of the world...or at least not for me.

Cherry is a twentysomething doll lover from New Zealand (which is arguably much cooler than New Jersey...) who likes puns and bad jokes.  She'd fit in perfectly at my house.  I feel like I live in pun stereo, with my husband in one ear and my son in the other.  But anyway, Cherry is a delightful person, and also an excellent artist.  In fact, I've been given hesitant permission (she is modest) to show you two of Cherry's drawings, but I'll save those for the very end.  For now, I'll stop yammering and turn it over to my esteemed guest!

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Hello! Thank you Emily for having me on the blog! I'm Cherry, and today I'll be reviewing the new Monster High G3 Ghoulia Yelps Fearbook doll!

A gaggle of Ghoulias!

Wild Hearts Crew by Mattel

The doll world is poised for an explosion of big summer releases.  Mattel is rolling out their Moonspell Magic Monster High line and their KPop Demon Hunter dolls, MGA launched their Mirror Mi girls (who look like shrunken-headed Rainbow High dolls), and Zuru is tantalizing us with their pregnant My Mini Baby mommies and the 1:12 fashion doll line called Minnee.  It's overwhelming to have so many great things coming out all at once, not to mention extremely dangerous for the budget.  I'm eager for the future, when I can get my hands on all of these new dolls, but for today's review we're going to take a trip to the past: 2019, to be precise.  That doesn't sound like very long ago, but it was a different world back then--at least for me.  In my personal life, both kids were still in college and we lived in Maine.  We only had four dogs and no cats, which feels completely insufficient...but also adorably rational.  And of course the pandemic was just around the corner, although we had no idea it was coming.

In the doll part of my world, I'd recently stopped writing reviews and was focusing attention on My Twinn restorations.  I wasn't missing a whole lot at that point, I don't think.  The last few reviews that I wrote in 2018 included mostly vintage and discontinued dolls, which suggests that nothing new was grabbing my attention.  I did write about the Boxy Girls and the blind box Hairdorables, which were relatively new in 2019, but I can't remember anything earth moving going on.

What was Mattel up to in 2019, you might ask?  Well, Ever After High had been gone since 2017, and G2 Monster High was more recently deceased.  But Barbie Fashionistas were getting increasingly inclusive, American Girl was in full swing, and the charming Creatable World sets had just come out.  I reviewed Mattel's 1:6 scale WWE Superstars in 2018, so I assume they were still kicking around to some degree as well.  But a 2019 release that I was completely unaware of at the time (and have heard very little about since) is the Wild Hearts Crew.  And that's exactly who I'll be talking about today:

Wild Hearts Crew Kenna Roswell (2019).