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Lena with Penny's Box Adou from the Street Series, $24.99. |
Monday, March 13, 2023
Tea with Lena: Penny's Box Street Series Adou
Sunday, December 18, 2022
Sunday Surprise: Penny's Box Natural Wonderland Antu Dolls!
Twitter is a bit of a disaster these days, so I hate to even mention it here on the blog, but I kind-of have to for this post, because without Twitter, I never would have known about the dolls I'm featuring. I should mention, though, for anyone who is fleeing the Twitter chaos, that I've started an account at Mastodon. I'll put everything that I post on Twitter on Mastadon, too. Here's the link, which you can also find over on the right side bar -->
I joined Twitter so that I'd have a way to announce when I'd written a new review, and it's worked fine for that, but after following a bunch of people, I realize that it's also a great platform for learning about new dolls and appreciating talented artists. In fact, it's maybe too good of a platform for learning about new dolls. I feel like every time I log in these days, I end up buying something.
Today's review was inspired by a Twitter friend from New Zealand, surprise-yawns, who introduced me to Penny's Box and their whole range of adorable blind box BJD-style dolls. I find it mind-blowing that you can get a fully-articulated, adorable little elastic-strung doll in a blind box format...for about twenty bucks. Sounds too good to be true, right? Let's find out.
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Box photo from Penny's Box Natural Wonderland Antu, $22. |
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Sunday Surprise: Hairdorables by Just Play!
Hairdorables are made by Just Play (not to be confused with Jay at Play, the makers of the Boxy Girls). I think the most recent Just Play toys I reviewed here were the Spirit Riding Free horses and riders. I can actually see a resemblance between the dolls from that collection and these new Hairdorables:
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Hairdorables "Bella Bunerina" doll, $12.88 . |
Sunday, April 8, 2018
Sunday Surprise: Surprizamal Mama and Baby Jamie!
Since I just posted yesterday (and I'm in the middle of working on that Madame Alexander Fan Girl review) I'll keep this short and sweet.
Here's Jamie, my Surprizamal unicorn mama, who I introduced back in February:
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Surprizamal Mama and Baby unicorn, Jamie ($19.99). |
Saturday, April 7, 2018
Goodbye, Toys Я Us
I didn't want the occasion to pass without doing something, so I decided to take a few trips to the store and bask in the feeling of being in such a large space, entirely surrounded by toys. I don't know when I might get that feeling again.
I visited two weeks ago (before the closeouts started) and then again this Friday. I bought a few things that I'll review really quickly today, and a few other things that will get bigger reviews in the near future. I'll mostly just pretend that you were there shopping with me, and show you what caught my eye as I wandered through the familiar aisles for the last time.
I'll start with a picture that I took last summer. This is the temporary Toys 'R' Us that was set up in Times Square for the holidays:
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Temporary Toys 'R' Us branch in Times Square, 2017. |
Sunday, March 11, 2018
Sunday Surprise: FlipaZoo Flip Box Surprise by Jay at Play!
I don't go to Walmart much anymore, mostly because the toy department seems to be shrinking. That might be the only reason I noticed these surprise toys, though. They were in the stuffed animal aisle, which I don't usually spend much time in, but last week I wandered through because I'd quickly run out of other things to look at.
The toy I found is called a FlipaZoo. There are many varieties of these "flippable" stuffed toys, but the ones that caught my eye are called Flip Box Surprise:
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
L.O.L. Surprise Series 2: Let's Be Friends Lil Sisters!
I reviewed a first wave L.O.L. Surprise doll back in December....actually, I opened two dolls during that review, but they ended up being duplicates of the same character, Hoops MVP. Since that time, I've opened a few more balls on my own and they've all been different, which is great. I have to say though, that I'm growing tired of opening this particular surprise toy. Once the multi-layered packaging loses its novelty, the balls just become tedious to deal with. I got to the point where I was ripping open the balls; completely ignoring the stickers and picture phrases, leaving bottle accessories unopened, and immediately pitching the plastic balls into the trash. I only wanted to see the doll. That's way too much waste for a $10 toy.
However, just as I lost enthusiasm for purchasing more of these dolls, the new series--Let's Be Friends--hit the shelves. Series 2 includes regular-sized L.O.L. dolls, but also a whole collection of Lil Sisters. Lil Sisters are smaller (and cheaper!) balls that contain surprise baby dolls. The Lil Sister babies coordinate with the larger L.O.L. dolls from both Series 1 and Series 2, so it's possible to get matching big and little dolls. Fun! Of course I had to buy a few:
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Series 1 L.O.L. Surprise doll, "Center Stage" ($9.99), and a Series 2 Li'l Sisters ball ($6.99). |
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Sunday Surprise: Hatchimal Colleggtibles by Spin Master!
I decided to tackle a smaller review in between all of this traveling and raining, but couldn't decide between the super-popular Hatchimal Colleggtible miniatures and the new L.O.L. Li'l Sisters surprise balls. So, I've been working on both posts at the same time. The Hatchimal review ended up being a little faster to photograph, so I'll share that today as this week's official Sunday Surprise. However, the L.O.L. sisters will probably make an appearance well before next Sunday.
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A hatching Hatchimal Colleggtible figure ($9.88 for 5). |
Sunday, April 16, 2017
Sunday Surprise: Happy Easter!
I overcompensated for this change by trying to pack way too many things into today's Sunday Surprise. I have an odd mix of surprise-themed things to share with you: some Li'l Woodzeez blind bag bobblehead figures, a Matryoshka nesting doll (with a mystery number of smaller dolls inside!) and some vintage Holly Jolly baby-filled eggs by Zapf Creation.
Sunday, February 5, 2017
Sunday Surprise: Twozies and Sonny Angel!
This post happened out of the blue because of a lucky coincidence. I've been eyeing the Twozies surprise packs in the store for a while now, even purchasing one on a few different occasions with the idea that I'd add them to a Sunday Surprise post one day. Then, last week, as I was checking Amazon for the availability of L.O.L Surprise dolls (they're still so hard to find around here!), a new kind of doll popped into my suggestions list: Sonny Angel figures by Dreams Inc. I'd never seen these little cuties before...and they remind me a lot of the Twozies.
Both Twozies and Sonny Angel dolls are baby-like figures that come wearing animal (or plant) hats...and not much else. Twozies and Sonny Angel dolls are also both packaged in a blind box so you never know exactly which doll you're going to get. I thought it would be fun to de-box a few of these little ones and see how similar they actually are:
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Sonny Angel (left) and Twozies (right) blind box figures. |
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Sunday Surprise: Lil Outrageous Littles (L.O.L.) Dolls!
So, out of the blue, today I will do a quick review of the Lil Outrageous Littles (L.O.L.) by MGA Entertainment! I want to thank Amy and Lilium for suggesting these toys to me. Each mystery doll, packaged in a softball-sized blind box, has seven accompanying surprises to uncover. They're the perfect little Sunday treat:
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Lil Outrageous Littles (L.O.L.) doll by MGA Entertainment, $7.99. |
Sunday, September 4, 2016
Sunday Surprise: Toy Box Monthly Subscription!
My son and I tried a subscription a few months ago called The Mystery Experiences Company. This company sends out a detailed mystery to be solved every month--each with little puzzles, artifacts and clues to help with the solution. This was fun, but we discovered quickly that we didn't have the time or patience to dig into a complex new mystery every month. When I was canceling the mystery subscription, I spotted Toy Box Monthly. For $20 ($15 plus shipping), this company sends a little box of mystery toys every month. This sounded like the perfect thing for the Sunday Surprise!
I should mention right off the bat that the Shopkins Lil' Shoppie shown below did not come in the subscription box. So why am I showing you a picture of her? Well, I didn't want to give away what was in the subscription box (that would ruin the surprise!) but also, these Shopkins items will make an appearance at the end of the post. That's all I'll say for now.