Blind Box Mermaids by Penny's Box and LuckyDoll

I was happy to read in the comments of the World Peacekeepers review that some of you are as excited about Lena and Ian's relationship as I am.  Lena doesn't really want me to talk too much about it here yet, but I can tell you that they've been chatting on the phone and have made tentative plans to get together again.  I hope the romance can stay alive without the beautiful sunsets of Culebra!

Speaking of Culebra, before we went on our trip, I hunted around for water-themed dolls that I could bring with me.  The best options were some blind box BJD mermaids that looked like they might be waterproof.  I've written a lot of reviews of this type of doll lately, namely the Street Series Adou boys and Natural Wonderland Antu girls from Penny's Box, and the Come4Free Bonnie dolls.  But I figured it couldn't hurt to explore one more style of blind box BJD.  

This time around I'm going to introduce a little competition into the mix by comparing the Penny's Box interpretation of a mermaid to similarly-sized mermaid characters from LuckyDoll.  This is a bit of a surprise-themed post since I'm not going to reveal which mermaids I got right away, but the timing didn't quite work out for a Sunday Surprise.  Nevertheless, here are the two contestants, still hidden away inside their boxes:

Tidal Secret Language by Penny's Box ($39.99) and Mermaid Chuchu by LuckyDoll ($29.99).

World Peacekeepers Sport & Adventure Diver by M&C Toy Centre

My husband and I had a huge amount of fun on our trip to St. John last February.  You might remember Lena's Spring Break posts from that trip, or the underwater photos of some Mattel mermaids.  We had such a good time, in fact, that as soon as we got home, we booked a trip for this February, hoping to re-create the magic.  Following through on that plan, last week we traveled to the small Puerto Rican island of Culebra, which is where I photographed my first Maru and Friends Mini Pal review back in 2017.  Culebra was rainy, but delightful, and of course I had Lena and a collection of doll friends along with me to share in the fun.

One of my guests was a World Peacekeepers Sport & Adventure scuba diving action figure.  The World Peacekeepers are primarily 1:6 military characters, similar to G.I. Joe.  Heavily-armed military dolls are not my thing, but fortunately there are also a few civilian offerings including police men, firefighters, athletes of various kinds, and even an astronaut.  The diving character's underwater theme seemed perfect for our island trip, and I also thought he was particularly handsome...something Lena whole-heartedly agrees with, as you'll see.

World Peacekeepers Sport & Adventure Diving figure, $19.99.

Keeping Up With Kurhn

It's been a few weeks since I've posted anything, mostly because my job uses up a lot of energy, but also because I've been taking some actual time off to relax and do silly things like hang with my dogs or play Tears of the Kingdom.  It's been nice.

Time off gives me a chance to reflect, too, and one of the things I realized is that I've been reviewing dolls for so long, some of the brands I looked at early on have changed and expanded significantly since my last check-in.  Kurhn dolls are a great example of this.  I first reviewed the Kurhn brand way back in 2013 with a two-part mini series that featured a basic Kurhn playset and a more expensive Glamorous Kurhn girl.  I was impressed with the brand back then, and planned a few follow-up posts, but got distracted by other things.

I was reminded of Kurhn dolls as I was packing up to move from Maine to New Jersey in 2020. I found a second Glamorous Kurhn that I'd apparently purchased at one point...and then completely forgotten about.  I was surprised by how nice she looked, and so instead of selling her, I brought her with me to the new house.  Then, about a year ago, I took some time to investigate the current Kurhn market.  That research led to several more purchases (of course) not all of which will fit into today's review.  Today I'll look at the new-ish Kurhn fashion dolls that caught my eye, like this adorable panda-themed Anniversary doll:

Little Panda 17th Anniversary Edition Kurhn doll, $21.50.