Rainbow High Dolls by MGA Entertainment

One of the things I'm doing over on Patreon is giving my Patrons a chance to weigh in on what review they want to see next.  Two weeks ago, they picked this Rainbow High girl over a different play doll.  The vote was extremely close, though, so the other doll will probably get her review soon.  I'm happy that this review won, because I've been extremely curious about the Rainbow High brand for several months now.

When I was taking a break from doll reviews and putting all of my energy into My Twinn restorations, I rarely visited any kind of toy store.  This is highly unusual for me, since I get a huge amount of happiness from just being around toys.  But something happened about a month before I started writing here again: I was at Target looking for a game in the electronics section, and I found myself wandering into the adjacent toy aisles, unable to resist the pull.

I didn't give all of the toys the scrutiny they deserved on that day, but I did a broad sweep of the doll sections to see what was new.  The one thing I saw that stuck in my head was the Rainbow High collection.  The Rainbow High dolls were displayed opposite the L.O.L. toys, and I found the cohesive color schemes of the Rainbow High characters to be a soothing and attractive contrast to the neon chaos of the L.O.L. shelves.  Each Rainbow High character has clothing and hair that match, and so looking at all of the dolls together is like looking at a big rainbow.  It's very seductive.  And of course I'm always roped in by dolls with interesting eyes and nice articulation.  I almost bought a doll on the spot--I really wanted to see what the articulation was like--but told myself it was silly since I wasn't doing reviews anymore.

As you can imagine, as soon as I decided to write reviews again, the first thing I did was scoot back to Target and buy a Rainbow High doll!  Here's the one I picked:

Rainbow High's Georgia Bloom, $27.99.

Disney's Zombies 2 Movie Dolls by Mattel

September has not gotten off to a great start for me.  First of all, my newest rescue dog, Kit, was recently diagnosed with heart disease and bladder stones.  This involved spending a whole day at the emergency clinic with him, and stressing while he had surgery the following day.  Literally one day after the surgery, I had to travel (with all five dogs in tow) to take care of some family business, which was both physically and mentally exhausting.  These are not the worst problems in the world to have, but they're why I haven't posted anything for a while.

Needless to say, I was extremely happy to get back into the swing of things this past week.  I'm delighted to be sitting here typing up a new review, with Kit cuddled beside me--healing beautifully and filled with new-found spunk.

And of course rather than easing back into things gradually with the blog, I decided to jump in with a behemoth review.  The goal today is to look at six (yes, six) dolls from Disney's Zombies 2 movie.  I started researching these dolls because I thought they looked fun, not because I'd actually seen the Zombies 2 movie.  In fact, I hadn't even heard of the Zombies movie franchise before I found these dolls.  The movies are similar in style and with the same target audience as shows like High School Musical and Descendants.  Movies like this tend to produce interesting and popular dolls, which was enough to get me on board for a review.  Also, I've never been one to resist a good zombie doll, especially if he has green hair:

Zed and Addison dolls from Disney's Zombies 2 movie, $19.99 each (by Mattel).

The Toy Box Tourist

In addition to visiting as many gorgeous castles and palaces as we could manage on our trip to Scotland, I had my own "doll tourist" agenda to follow.

When I lived in Edinburgh, the only doll source I was aware of was the toy section at the Jenners department store.  My favorite things to browse at this store were the beautiful Sasha dolls and the numerous Playmobil sets.  I also remember the realistic Beswick porcelain horses in the home department that I would admire while my parents were looking at dinnerware.

Before we left Edinburgh, I wanted to return to Jenners (now owned by House of Fraser) to see how the toy selection had changed over the years.  I also wanted to visit Smyths, because my online searches suggested that this store is similar to Toys R Us--one of my favorite Maine haunts.  In addition, I took Nealie's advice and stopped in at the Edinburgh Museum of Childhood to admire their collection of antique dolls and dollhouses.

I'll share some of what I found at all of these places with you, starting with one of my favorite little Scottish faces:

Flirty-eyed hard plastic Pedigree walking doll, c. 1950s
(Edinburgh Museum of Childhood).

A Review of Ken's "My Cool Mini" Mini Cooper Car

While I was on my birthday trip a few weeks ago, I saw Ken's Mini Cooper at a Target store in New York.  I didn't buy it then because, although it looked nice, it also seemed big and expensive ($29.99).  After I got home, I kept thinking about it and all of its shiny redness.   I don't own a Ken doll, but I could imagine my Monster High girls having an awesome road trip in that car.   I love real Mini Coopers, which has a lot to do with the awesome movie, The Italian Job.  If you've never seen that movie, check it out and then afterwards, try not to like Mini Coopers.  I'd be thrilled to own a real Mini Cooper except for two things: my family wouldn't fit in it, and I'm in love with my 20-year-old Camry.  So anyway, after I got home from that trip I caved and bought Ken's Mini Cooper online using some of my hard-earned Toys R Us dollars.  Here it is:

Ken's Mini Cooper

Monster High Ghouluxe Ghoulia Yelps by Mattel

One of the really fun things about blogging is that when I have a few hundred pictures to sort and edit, I tend to watch a lot of television.  Lately, that has meant blasting through Netflix's Queen Charlotte, which is a Bridgerton prequel.  I never miss Bridgerton content because I have a long and happy history of reading Julia Quinn's work.  In fact, one of her novels, An Offer From a Gentleman, is one of my top Cinderella stories of all time.  Why am I saying all of this?  Because I want to put something out there, just in case any of the big doll companies happen to visit (Mattel?): could we have some 1:6 Bridgerton fashion dolls, please?  With all of those beautiful gowns and decadent hair--and all of the wonderful diversity?  Pretty please?  I will buy all of them.

But I'm not here to talk about Bridgerton, even though it's been on my mind lately.  The past week has been a whirlwind, with a few trips keeping me busy, and so I thought I'd review something short and sweet to get back into the groove.  I also wanted to review something relatively uncomplicated because Tears of the Kingdom comes out tomorrow and I need to clear my weekend for that.  I'll make you the same promise that I made my husband: I'll try not to completely drop off the face of the Earth as I re-enter Hyrule.  Mind you, I said "try."  So, anyway, what review topic is short, sweet, and relatively uncomplicated?  One of my all-time favorite brands, of course: Monster High.

I recently joined Mattel's Fang Club, and it's been very damaging for my budget.  It feels like every other week the company releases another limited Monster High doll.  And not only that, but now I get emails notifying me of other special releases, too.  So, last week I bought the new Barbie and Ken set, the week before that it was Monster High's Chucky and Tiffany, and in mid April it was fang-favorite Rochelle Goyle.  But the ghoul who started it all, way back in March, is the star of today's review: Ghouluxe Ghoulia Yelps.

Monster High Ghouluxe Ghoulia Yelps by Mattel, $50.

Endless Hair Kingdom Barbie by Mattel

I've been going to Toys R Us every week for the past month, trying to find something new and exciting to review.  This is often a slow time of year (after the holidays but before summer) for new doll releases.  In fact, I've been noticing absences from the shelves more than additions: Bratz dolls have been discontinued and are gradually disappearing, the Journey Girls have been replaced by American Girl, Winx Club dolls--and their Make it Pop imitators--are gone, and although Cabbage Patch Kids are still around, they look really different under the Wicked Cool Toys label.

Amidst all of these changes, evidence suggests that Mattel might be doing well--recovering from their multi-year financial slump.  I don't have a lot of data to support this, but the Toys R Us doll section in South Portland is certainly dominated by Mattel these days: there's Barbie, Ever After High, Monster High, My Mini MixieQ, DC Super Hero Girls, Loving Family...and of course the whole American Girl mini-store.  The only chink in Mattel's armor seems to be the fact that Hasbro scored the Disney Princess license.

Mattel's dominance doesn't bother me the way it used to.  I think this company is starting to make a lot of great changes.  While I've all but lost interest in Monster High and Ever After High, I'm very excited about some of American Girl's new releases: the WellieWishers, Melody, Gabriella, Logan, Z and Nanea.  The Barbie aisle is more exciting to me now than it's ever been, too, with the brilliantly-articulated Made to Move characters and the diversity of body types and skin tones in the Fashionista line.  In fact, the most interesting doll I found at Toys R Us last week is a Barbie doll.  This doll is from Mattel's Endless Hair Kingdom collection.  She caught my eye because of her size (about 17 inches), her great articulation, and her very long hair:

Endless Hair Kingdom Barbie, $24.99.

The Beatrix Girls "Lark" by Popstar Club

The Beatrix Girls are 12 inch dolls that represent a group of four (teenaged?) friends who are in a band together.  Each character sings, plays an instrument, and writes music.  The girls are designed to be role models for young kids because of the talent, determination and hard work that have made their band a huge success.  The Beatrix Girls are manufactured by Popstar Club LLC, a new California-based company that plans to focus on cross-platform products.  The dolls are part of a multi-media world that includes short (live action) webisodes and tracks of pop music.

When I first saw the Beatrix Girls dolls on the shelves at Toys R Us last year, I was turned off by the huge heads and facial expressions on these characters.  Frankly, the combination of wide eyes, angrily-slanted eyebrows and large smiles made these dolls look sinister to me.  However, the body proportions on the Beatrix Girls reminded me of Pullip and Blythe dolls, and I couldn't help but wonder if this brand might be an interesting and inexpensive alternative to some popular large-headed collector dolls.

Over the past year, many of you have encouraged me to take a second look at The Beatrix Girls.  I took your advice, and will admit that by the third or fourth time I saw these dolls in the store, the faces started to seem less angry and more appealing.  However, I was still bothered by the fact that the first release dolls did not come with their instruments (nor were the instruments originally available for separate purchase).  This was an oversight for a doll brand designed around music.  Last May, however, I was able to find a Justice exclusive version of the redheaded character, "Lark," who actually came with her bass guitar.  I decided to purchase this doll for review and paid $24.99 for her through Amazon (where she's now on sale for $20).  Incidentally, all of the newest Beatrix Girl dolls come with instruments, and the instruments have also recently been released in separate accessory sets.  Here's my Lark:

Beatrix Girls "Lark" $24.99.

The My Twinn Project Conclusion

Here, at long last, is the finale of the My Twinn Project!  Amidst back-to-school pandemonium, an emergency bathroom renovation and adventures with a sick parakeet, I finally found a free morning to take the My Twinn crew to a nearby state park for their final photo shoot.

My original intention was to re-publish all of the installments of this project as one big post--so you wouldn't have to click back and forth.  However, since the installments ended up being longer than I intended (big surprise), I will just link back to part one and part two for those who would like to see all of the details.  For anyone who has been following along, I'll simply supplement today's post with little reminders of what I've already done.

This project has been an incredible amount of fun. I gained a new appreciation for the My Twinn brand of dolls (at least the older ones) and learned a lot of restoration and cleaning skills along the way.  I feel like I had varied success with my results, though, and I'll talk about that in some detail today.  Are you ready?  I certainly am!  I'll jump right in with a sneak peek of my favorite (and the most dramatically improved) doll, Miss Tasha:

Restored Denver era My Twinn Tasha doll.

The Lammily Doll

Lammily is a unique new fashion doll who was released at the end of December.  The mainstream media is very interested in this doll, and has been since her conception in early 2013.  In fact, I didn't learn about Lammily through the usual doll collecting channels, but rather from my brother-in-law, who saw an article about her in The Atlantic last May.

Lammily was designed by graphic artist Nickolay Lamm, and the reason that she has captured such widespread attention is that she was designed to have the body proportions of a typical American teenager.  Unlike Barbie (and most other 12-inch fashion dolls) Lammily does not have an impossibly tiny waist, large chest, oversized head or spindly legs.  Mr. Lamm used body measurements published by the Center for Disease Control to ensure that his doll would not only be realistic...but would be average.  The word "average" does not tend to conjure visions of loveliness, but Mr. Lamm challenged this preconception and branded his doll with the inspiring logo, "Average is Beautiful."

I pre-ordered two Lammily dolls immediately after reading the article in The Atlantic (the dolls are $25 each).  This is exactly the kind of crowd-funded, vision-driven project that I love to see in the doll world.  I was inherently enthusiastic about the Lammily concept, but an email I received from Nickolay Lamm last May added to my excitement.  Mr. Lamm wrote seeking some advice about the doll's articulation--and you guys can probably guess that I, uh, had a fair amount to say on that subject.  Conversations back and forth with Mr. Lamm over the past few months have given me a fascinating glimpse into the creative process behind this unique new doll.  I have been on pins and needles to see how all of Mr. Lamm's ideas came together in the debut doll, and am beyond excited to share my initial impressions with all of you:

The Lammily doll makes her entrance.

Mermaid High by Spin Master

I'm back with the second post in the mermaid series!  I learned so much from your comments on the Mermaze Mermaidz review.  As I've said before, the comments are always a hugely valuable (and humorous...) part of this blog.  Thank you so much for all of your contributions.  I'll single out a few mermaid-related things that were mentioned: first of all, Lurkins noted that I never tested Jordie's color change feature, which is embarrassingly true.  I went back and did that and added in some pictures of the results.  It's pretty cool!  Séverine's tip that one of the dolls (Riviera) has bad hair is very helpful, too, especially since I was so pleased with the hair on Orra and Jordie.  Last of all, I had no idea about the alleged backstory of the Mermaidz or which body parts were taken from other MGA lines.  I should have at least recognized the Project Mc² eyes!  Thank you to Alé for those tidbits.

But today is all about Spin Master's Mermaid High dolls.  The first wave of these fishy friends has been out since late 2021, and the second wave of dolls hit the market this spring.  I've been waffling back and forth about whether to write about this brand for several months now, mostly waiting to see if the high original price (around $27) would come down at all.  The dolls never struck me as being worth quite that much.  I guess I waited a good amount of time, because the first wave characters recently went on sale at Target.  They were around $5 for a while, which was insane, but are now $19.99, which is a reasonable price for this brand.  I purchased first wave Finly at full price a few weeks ago, and then added Searra during the $5 sale.  This review got too long to include Searra, though, so I'll put those photos over on Patreon.

I'm going to feature Finly today because when I was looking at all of the characters in the store, she's the one who impressed me the most.  I love her rainbow-themed outfit and her cute green-eyed, freckle-filled face.  In this review, I'll contrast first wave Finly to the newer version of the same character:

Mermaid High Finly by Spin Master, $26.99.

Monster High Haunt Couture Clawdeen Wolf

Monster High dolls were among the very first things that I reviewed ten years ago when this blog was brand-new, so they will always have a special place in my heart.  I delighted in their strange body proportions, excellent articulation, outstanding design, intricate accessories (those shoes!), and refreshing originality.  I've reviewed a lot of characters from this line over the years, both on my own and with the help of some wonderful guest reviewers.  When the brand was retired in 2017, I had mixed feelings.  In the year or two leading up to the cancellation, I had begun to grow weary of the overabundance of dolls on the toy store shelves.  The sheer number of characters made each individual doll feel less special.  And the dolls themselves were literally less special; the quality and attention to detail had begun to decline.  For the most part, the later dolls have simpler outfits, fewer accessories, more basic painted features, and lots of trouble with gluey heads and arms (or tails!) that fall off too easily.

After the dolls were gone, though, I missed them more than I thought I would.  Specifically, I missed the anticipation and excitement that surrounded the release of new characters.  There was always the chance that one of the new dolls would stand out from the pack.  Because the thing is, even as the overall quality and originality of the brand was declining, there were little bursts of brilliance.  Avea Trotter, for example, is still one of my favorite dolls of all time.  I also thought the Inner Monster series was a huge amount of fun.  There was a limited edition Draculaura released in 2015 who is beautiful (I owned her briefly), and the 2017 special edition of Zomby Gaga is incredible, too.  She's one of the rare dolls that I'll never sell.  So even though I coveted fewer and fewer Monster High dolls towards the end of their original run, the brand still had the ability to create some absolute treasures.

Over the last few years, mostly while I wasn't paying attention, hints started to swirl around that Monster High might reboot.  For example, in 2020, Mattel released a small series of movie-themed dolls (Pennywise and the Grady twins...covet!).  There was some buzz about a new animated television show and a new movie, too.  Then, finally, the official announcement came: new dolls would be released in 2022.  Despite the mixed feelings I'd had in previous years, I got very excited about this news; it was a chance to find some new treasures!  And the reboot wave looked like it might have some gems among it.  This group includes three collector's edition dolls; Draculaura, Frankie Stein, and Clawdeen Wolf.  Clawdeen has always been one of my favorite characters, so she's the one I chose:

Monster High Haunt Couture Clawdeen Wolf, $75.

A Review of the Create-a-Monster Design Lab for Monster High

First of all, big congratulations to Dailey_Star for winning the caption contest!  Fantastic job--what a fun story and a well-earned prize!  Now you can continue the adventures of Daniela and her time machine at home with all of the dolls in the photo. :)

Last week was tough, and so this weekend I really wanted to play.  I have some great dolls in my review queue, but the toy that was calling out to me the most, promising a few hours of creative fun, was the Create-a-Monster Design Lab.  The fact that I even bought this set might surprise some of you, considering how disappointed I was with my last Create-a-Monster set.  The thing is, this toy was on clearance at Target (already) and seems to offer something very different from the other Create-a-Monster sets, and so I thought it was worth a look.  I also still have the Novi Star dolls on my mind, particularly the pictures of their heads on Monster High bodies from My Dolls Are My Models' flickr photostream. The Design Lab has a green-bodied Monster High doll and my Alie Lectric is green, so an added bonus of this set is that it gives me the perfect opportunity to see how easily a Novi Star head can fit on a different body.

Creation from the Monster High Create-a-Monster Design Lab.

Holiday Shopping at Target and Toys R Us

With Hanukkah almost over and the Christmas season kicking into full swing, this is a special, hectic time of year.  I love seeing our Main Street come to life with lights, and hearing my kids sing carols out in the cold.  Of course another integral part of this season is shopping, and I am thinking hard about donations and gifts--especially presents for the amazing children in my life.

I hope that the content of this blog is helpful to those of you who are looking for a special doll for someone you love, but many of the dolls I review are hard to find, discontinued, or expensive.  I thought that in honor of this bustling shopping season, I would head out to a few local stores and see what is available for those of us who are just getting started with our gift-hunting now.  I'll show you what I found and give you my top ten list of what I would buy.  I also really hope that you will chime in with what you've found in your part of the world and what you think the best dolls and toys of the season are.  There is also a poll on the right side of the page where you can vote for the doll that you'd most like to see reviewed in more depth.

Today, I am going to focus on Target because it is one of my favorite places to shop and it tends to be well-stocked.  I will also add some comparisons to Toys R Us, my other most frequented big box toy store.  Next week I will visit a smaller, privately-owned toy store.  I'll get things started by showing you one doll I actually did buy: Monster High's new Jane Boolittle, who has the most awesome pet accessory ever:

Monster High "Jane Boolittle" and her pet sloth (Toys R Us, $21.99)

Cave Club Dolls by Mattel

Well, I guess it's clear at this point that the blog migration didn't work.  It worked in the sense that all of the data (including the comments and links!) got transferred from here to WordPress.  That seemed pretty magical to me.  But it didn't work because none of the pictures were aligned correctly, any picture with a caption was huge, I couldn't edit photos in old posts anymore, new photos took ten years to upload...and the list goes on.  I could tell you the whole story some day if you're interested.  The upshot is that it would have taken me literally over a year to correct all ~43,000 images by hand, so I bailed and came back to Blogger where it's safe and familiar, and (most) things work.

However, the commenting problems here are real and I'm trying to fix that.  I've found a workaround for myself that might help some of you--especially if you're using Safari: if you go to your Safari settings, select Preferences, then select Privacy, you should see a way to change the "cross-site tracking" configuration.  When I did this, I was suddenly able to comment again--and lots of other little things about the site are working better for me, too.  So give that a try if you feel like it, and please let me know if you have any success.

One of the reasons that the migration was so frustrating to me is that it took several full days away from my time with dolls.  I have a huge list of interesting things that I want to share with you, and I hate falling behind.  So let's forget about technical stuff as much as possible for right now and get back to the fun!  Today's fun is in the form of a quirky little collection of dolls that I discovered about two months ago.  The line is called Cave Club and is made by Mattel:

Mattel's Cave Club doll, Lumina ($14.99).

Rainbow High's Day of the Dead Doll: Maria Garcia

I can't believe that a big chunk of November is already gone!  Ack!  For anyone who noticed the announcement on my Virtual Garage Sale page, my plan has been to hold two big sales events during the year: one in May and one in November.  November is looking very crowded at the moment, though, thanks to Larvie swanning in and bumping other dolls from their scheduled slots.  Also, I'll have a full house for the holidays...including a foster dog and two foster kittens, so not much will get accomplished then.  Being realistic, at this point I'll probably have to shift the sale until after Thanksgiving, but I'll keep you posted.

Today I want to rewind and pretend it's November 2nd again: the Day of the Dead.  The Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, is a multi-day celebration to remember and re-connect with those who have died.  The basic idea of this holiday can be traced back to old Aztec customs, which were adopted by Spanish settlers and merged with the Christian All Soul's Day.  Currently, the Day of the Dead is celebrated mostly in Mexico, with colorful, joyful festivities that have attracted increasing attention from tourists in recent years.  The broadening fascination with this holiday is probably also responsible for several new Day of the Dead dolls, like MGA's Maria Garcia, who is the subject of today's review:

Rainbow High's Maria Garcia, by MGA Entertainment, $124.99.

Catwalk Kitties by Lanard

And now for something completely different!  Today I'm going to share the wacky world of Catwalk Kitties with you!  This is a discontinued brand of anthropomorphic play dolls that was introduced in 2005 by the Hong Kong-based company, Lanard.  

The Catwalk Kitties were not very popular in their time, judging by the fact that they were released in 2005 and discontinued in 2006.  I'm interested in the Kitties because there's speculation online that these fashion felines might have been Mattel's inspiration for Monster High, which debuted a few years later in 2010.  However, Mattel explored cat fashion themselves back in 2003 when they released the Lounge Kitties--a group of Barbie dolls clad in cat suits.  Regardless of who was inspired by whom, there have been some fascinating animal-themed play dolls in the past few decades.  In this review I'll focus mainly on the Catwalk Kitties, but I'll also do short comparisons to a Monster High cat and a Lounge Kitties doll--and I'll throw in a little Pinkie Cooper to keep the dog lovers happy.

Before I get started, I want to acknowledge two good friends and their roles in this review.  First of all, even though I mentioned the Catwalk Kitties briefly in my Pinkie Cooper review, I never would have remembered them if it wasn't for Katrina.  She sent me an excited message through Patreon when she found one of these dolls on eBay, and that's what got the ball of yarn rolling.  I also want to thank Darcy, who suggested that I review something vintage and strange.  What could be more vintage and strange than a big-headed fashion cat from 2006?  Also, Darcy loves cats more than anyone I know, so--Darc et al., this one's for you:

Catwalk Kitties Sienna, by Lanard ($114 on the secondary market).

The Saskia Project

It's time for another project series!  I'm looking forward to this particular project because it addresses my very earliest adult doll interest: babies.  When I began to pay attention to dolls in my early twenties, it was the realistic baby dolls (from companies like Lee Middleton, Gotz and Zapf) that grabbed my heart--probably because I was ready to have real babies of my own.  I collected vinyl art baby dolls for many years, and even accumulated a few precious one-of-a-kind clay babies.

Right around the time that my doll preferences started shifting towards child and fashion dolls, the "reborn" phenomenon emerged.  The process of "reborning" (terrible word, if you ask me) originally involved taking an inexpensive play baby, like a Berenguer, and making it over to look more realistic.  The makeover could include a new coat of paint, new eyes, new hair, or even a new weighted body--many of the things I attempted in the My Twinn Project.  However, as reborning became more and more popular, several well-known artists and doll companies began offering unpainted doll kits (basically just vinyl heads and limbs) to replace play dolls as the starting point for this process.  I've re-painted and re-wigged a few $15 Berenguer play dolls in my day, but I've never purchased one of these premium doll kits...until now!

My mission in this series is to complete a popular doll kit--the "Saskia" sculpt by Bonnie Brown.  I will attempt to paint this doll, find her some nice eyes, micro-root her hair (ahh!  I am so nervous about this part!), assemble her onto a weighted body, and dress her to look cute (that part will be fun).   I can tell you already, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

"Saskia" by Bonnie Brown.

Cinderella

As you might have heard or noticed in the stores, Disney recently released Cinderella from the vault...in Blu-Ray DVD.  I already own the movie, but this is still a pretty exciting time for me.  It's not so much the Blu-Ray version of the movie that I find exciting, but the fact that many stores have new Cinderella displays with all kinds of dolls and outfits and sparkly blue decorations.  These gaudy displays brighten my day and put a child-like smile on my face every time I see them.  I absolutely love Cinderella.

Why do I love Cinderella so much?  Well, first of all, to be clear, it's the general story that I love, not just the 1950s Disney movie version of the story.  I like the Disney movie a lot, but it's the plot that has always captivated me--in all of its incarnations.  I guess I just enjoy the rags-to-riches fantasy, mixed with fairy tale love.  I also cling to the notion that kindness, generosity and hard work will prevail over selfishness, greed and vanity.  Ever since I was a child, my imaginary stories have all revolved around some version of this tale...usually with lots of horses added into the mix.  I have two favorite versions of the story.  One is the 1998 movie Ever After, starring Drew Barrymore and Dougray Scott.  I love Barrymore's spunky interpretation of Cinderella and Scott's petulant prince.   My other favorite Cinderella story is Julia Quinn's intelligently written romance novel, An Offer From a Gentleman.  It's a bit of a guilty pleasure, but I find the book completely charming. It is a relaxing, Austin-esque escape from reality.

Anyway, I have many Cinderella dolls in my collection, and I thought that I'd quickly share some of these beauties with you to celebrate the DVD release and also to mark the arrival of Disney's limited edition 18" Cinderella doll:

Disney Store 18" Limited Edition Cinderella.

The Animators' Mini Elsa Playset from The Disney Store

I'd like to thank Emma for her suggestion that I take a look at the new Disney Store mini Animators' doll playsets.  Not only is this a perfect suggestion for me (I love minis!) but it would have taken me ages to notice these new dolls on my own.  I actually saw the mini dolls during one of my routine browsing days at Disney online, but passed them over because I assumed they were the larger 16-inch versions of the Animators' dolls--just with more accessories.  Wrong!  These little 5-inch dolls are a whole new thing completely, and they are definitely worth a look.

The first release of Animators' mini dolls includes Anna, Elsa, Cinderella, Ariel and Jasmine.  All of these characters come with several cute movie-themed accessories.  For example, Cinderella comes with a flocked Bruno (as a puppy), Gus and Jack the mice, and several smaller accessories.  Ariel comes with Flounder, Sebastian, a glittery starfish, and a seahorse pulling a carriage.  I was tempted by all of these sets, but ended up purchasing Elsa.  I didn't intend to review yet another Frozen doll, but I found the mini Anna and Elsa to be the most appealing of these newcomers.

Animators' mini Elsa doll from the Disney Store playset ($19.95).

Barbie Extra Minis and Extra Mini Minis by Mattel

Spring is in full bloom here in New Jersey, which is always a spectacular sight to behold.  The number of flowering trees and bushes in this area is something that never ceases to amaze me.  Some days I feel like I'm walking through a fairy tale world.  The warm weather and beautiful scenery is not great for my productivity, though, since I'd almost always rather be outside!

Still, Lena insisted that I buckle down and finally write my Barbie Extra Mini review.  And she's not wrong to pester: I've been talking about this review since way back in December when I wrote about MGA's equivalent dolls, the Extra Iconic Minis.  The nice thing is, between December and now, Mattel came out with Barbie Extra Mini Minis, so I'll be able to include those dolls in today's review, too.  And before you panic, despite having a lot of miniature dolls to share with you today, I've done my best to keep this post from being insanely long.

Barbie Extra Mini doll #2 by Mattel, $16.99.