Magic Mixies Pixlings by Moose Toys

As a habit, I try not to disrupt my review queue for a brand-new doll line.  That's mostly because the frequency (and length!) of my reviews is not compatible with keeping up-to-speed with the ever-changing doll market.  But also, there are so many video reviewers out there these days who deliver quickly on all of the hot new releases, I don't need to fill that niche.

However, I made an exception this week because so many of you emailed or messaged me asking about Moose Toys' brand new Magic Mixies Pixlings!  I had one of the dolls sitting on a shelf waiting to be added to the queue, but your enthusiasm inspired me to buy two more dolls and move the review to the top of my list!  So let's see what these popular little Pixlings are all about:

Magic Mixies Pixlings by Moose Toys, $17.99 each.

Monster High's G3 Abbey Bominable--A Guest Review!

In an attempt to balance out the novella-like Enchantimals post from last week, this week I'm going to feature two short and sweet posts, one of which is a guest review!  I've been getting a lot of guest review requests recently, and I love guest reviews!  I feel like it's refreshing to have new voices and opinions here on the blog.  But for my own time management reasons, I have to limit the number of guest authors.  So at least for now, I'm only accepting guest reviews from my Patrons, with the exception of anyone who has already contacted me (you know who you are).  My wonderful Patrons don't get enough thanks for their support, so this is another small thing I can do.

Today's author, Morgan, is a long-time TBP reader and Monster High enthusiast.  Morgan offered to do a quick review of G3 Abbey Bominable, which was music to my ears!  Abbey has been super-popular and very hard to find at retail price, and so she feels like a doll that I should feature.  But I have so many other dolls that I want to talk about, I don't have much time for another G3 Monster High character.  I will say, for anyone who's interested in purchasing Abbey, that she can be pre-ordered at Entertainment Earth for $24.99, so don't get sucked into the sky-high prices on eBay and Amazon.

Morgan needed some de-boxing photos for this review, so I took my own Abbey out of her box, which was really fun.  I'll chime in at the end with a few quick thoughts and pictures, but for the most part this review is all in Morgan's hands.  Take it away, Morgan!

Monster High G3 Abbey Bominable, $24.99.

Barbie's Expanding Inclusivity

Writing two smaller reviews in one week didn't work out as well as I'd hoped.  Some family stuff came up, and everything always takes longer than I expect.  Another part of the problem was that I kept adding dolls to this review, and the dolls were too much fun!  I had a really great time with them and didn't want to stop playing.  That's been a bit of a theme for Barbie Month as a whole, though, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise.  But I managed to get everything ready for you before the opening night of the Barbie movie, and that was my goal, so it's all good.  Once I've seen the movie, I can start talking about the dolls that it inspired.

The idea for today's post was not to review anything in-depth, but rather to showcase and celebrate Barbie's growing acknowledgement of diversity, equity, and inclusivity over the years.  And for this, I decided to focus most of my attention on the Fashionistas--a group of dolls that I seldom talk about on this blog.  It's a pretty wonderful group:

A collection of inclusive Barbie dolls.

My First Barbie by Mattel

Happy July!  I decided that since the movie, Barbie, is coming out on the 21st of this month (I can hardly wait!!), I would make this Barbie Month here on the blog!  I'm not sure if every single review in July will be Barbie-themed (that'll depend on how fast I work), but I'll definitely have a few Barbie features and will round out the month with a look at some of the dolls that are specifically based on the movie.

To start things off, I figured that on the first day of the month, the first Barbie that I review should be My First Barbie!  Makes sense, right?  Besides, I teased a review of this doll during a Tea With Lena post way back in January, so it's high time we finally get to meet her:

My First Barbie by Mattel, $19.99.

G3 Draculaura and a Mini History--a Guest Review!

Hello everyone!  My name is Ariel and I'm a toy and figure collector/enthusiast and an avid reader of this blog.  I'm here today thanks to Emily giving me the opportunity to talk all about my favourite ghoul, Draculaura.  While I don't have the most extensive collection of her, I still have several dolls that represent interesting points in Monster High's history.  I'll introduce Draculaura and go through some of her pre-reboot dolls so that you guys can get a feel for her before I show you the newest Drac.  So, without further ado, here we go!

A decade of Draculaura!

Live Action The Little Mermaid Ariel by Disney

Okay, so I know that Disney live action remake movies are not everyone's cup of tea.  I have a few of the naysayers in my own family--and I agree with some of their points.  For example, I'll happily admit that some of the autotune singing in Beauty and the Beast is cringey.  Still, I can't help but get wrapped up in the excitement of seeing these beloved stories re-told.  I mean, there could be a new movie version of Cinderella every year and I would not object.  But because of my mixed feelings about re-makes, as the release date for the live action Little Mermaid came closer and closer, I wasn't sure how excited I would be.  Finally, last week, I took a minute to find a trailer online.  I watched it, riveted, with tears in my eyes.  When I heard the snippet from Halle Bailey's rendition of Part of Your World, I straight-up cried...and I knew exactly how excited I was about this movie: very excited.  Very.

I wasn't quite excited enough to head to the theaters on Friday night, release day, but I was there first thing Saturday morning.  The movie is incredible.  In fact, I think it's the best live action re-make so far (even considering my Cinderella bias).  Halle Bailey is luminous, Melissa McCarthy is brilliant as Ursula, and I love Daveed Diggs' take on Sebastian.  In addition, the hair animation is mind-boggling, and the underwater scenes are immersive...and breathtaking.  I think my husband will love this movie simply because of the diversity of sea life that's depicted during Under the Sea.  I feel like the end dragged on for too long and was a bit awkward, but that's a small complaint.  The movie as a whole was magical and I can't wait to see it again.

Unfortunately, even when Disney has a hit with these remake movies, the accompanying dolls aren't necessarily good.  The Disney Store's interpretations of Belle and Cinderella were strange, and ultimately disappointing.  This time around, both Mattel and Disney have released a collection of The Little Mermaid dolls, and the promotional photos look very promising.  So, today I'll review the Disney Store's version of Ariel, and next time I'll compare and contrast her to Mattel's deluxe Ariel doll.  And I'll tell you right up front: I am even more excited about these dolls than I was about the movie trailer:

Live Action The Little Mermaid Ariel doll by Disney, $34.99.

Vintage Space-Themed dolls! Spectra by Mattel and Lustra by Tonka

I feel like there are tons of new dolls coming out these days.  There's the constant stream of new Monster High releases that I was talking about last time, but also all of the live action Little Mermaid dolls (many of which look awesome!), new Barbie dolls in anticipation of that movie, some Jakks Pacific ily 4EVER characters, new My Little Pony figures...and that's not even mentioning the higher-priced offerings like the new Integrity dolls, the new Carpatina girl, the new American Girl of the Year, or the articulated Maru and Friends Mini Pals (who I fear have the same body as my Biggers Marilyn).  And that's just what I could think of off the top of my head!

When I get overwhelmed by trying to keep up with new releases, it can be calming to take a break and look to the past--which is what I decided to do this week.  I discovered Mattel's Spectra dolls during one of my random eBay hunts about a year ago, and was immediately captivated by their metallic-looking bodies and wacky hair and outfits.  These space-themed dolls were produced for only one year starting in late 1986, so they can't have been very popular in their time.  However, they were apparently popular enough to attract a copycat, which was Tonka's 1987 Aurora line.  In this review, I'll take a look at Mattel's Spectra and then compare her to Lustra, who is one of the dolls from the Aurora lineup.

Spectra doll by Mattel, 1986.

Sindy, Then and Now

Before I get started today, I want to let you know that I have an Instagram account (finally).  It was easy to set up, in the end, but unfortunately I'm not able to include hyperlinks to individual reviews.  Still, in general, when I post on Instagram, it'll mean that I have a new review published.  Thank you to everybody who has followed so far, and please forgive me while I learn the ropes!

Today's review has been a long time coming.  Sindy is an icon of doll history, and has gone through several fascinating transformations since her debut by the Pedigree company in 1963.  I've been getting requests to review Sindy for almost ten years now, starting in 2014 when Robert Tonner was selling his version of the character.  And I've been meaning to purchase some of these dolls for almost that long, but you know how it goes: the budget is limited, new things are always coming out, and other dolls keep stealing my attention.  Also, the Sindy story is a big one to delve into, especially for a newcomer like me.

But a few weeks ago I was reading on Facebook that the most recent incarnation of Sindy, manufactured by Kid Kreations, has been discontinued.  So I figured I should jump down this rabbit hole and try to get up to speed before a whole new version of Sindy changes the landscape yet again.

Kid Kreations Sindy from 2022 (left) and Marx Sindy from 1978 (right).

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.

Doll-a-Day Collection One

I was going on a walk two weekends ago when for some reason the idea popped into my head to start a Doll-a-Day feature.  This idea appealed to me because it seemed like a good way to tell you a bit about dolls that for one reason or another aren't likely to get full-length reviews of their own--or to share dolls that have been in my collection for a while and have never been showcased here on the blog.  So, for the past week, I've posted a single photograph of a different doll every day, both on Twitter and on Patreon.  These photos did not include any information about the dolls, and people had the opportunity to guess the brand.  There were a lot of accurate guesses!  Now that the week is over, I'm going to reveal what all of the dolls are, and share a bit of information about each--like a mini review.

I have to confess that this idea got a little out-of-control, though--as my ideas often do.  The problem is that even if I share a reduced amount of information on each of the seven dolls, that still adds up to a very long blog post!  So maybe next time I'll only choose five dolls, from Monday through Friday, and then publish the overview on the weekend?  You might have other ideas for how to improve on this concept, too, so please feel free to share your thoughts!

But for now, let's take a closer look at this week's eclectic group of seven dolls:

Doll-a-Day group for April 3-9, 2023.

Unique Eyes Dolls by Giochi Preziosi

Okay, so have you ever looked at a realistic painting of a person, and felt like that person was watching you?  Like their eyes were actually following you as you moved around the room?  The Mona Lisa is a classic example of this; her knowing gaze follows wherever you go.  Well, that's usually a feature of two-dimensional objects.  Our brains perceive the realistic shadows and reflections in the painting as actual near and far points, even though they're only flat on paper.  This means that no matter from what angle we view the painted face, the near and far points remain the same--and so the direction of the gaze remains the same.  Pretty neat, right?

Well, it's much harder to do this kind of thing in three dimensions, since the near and far points of a rounded eye actually do change as we move, but the Italian toy giant Giochi Preziosi appears to have figured it out.  Their Unique Eyes doll line features eyes that actually follow you around the room!  

I'm always on the lookout for something truly new and different in the doll world, and I feel like this brand definitely fits the bill.  I want to throw out a big "thank you" to gothielle, who alerted me to the presence of these fascinating dolls.  Gothielle, you know me well; I've become completely obsessed.

Unique Eyes Amy (left) and Sophia (right) by Giochi Preziosi, variable price.

Spring Break with Lena: B-Kind Mini Dolls by Jada Toys

In the ongoing saga of TBP mobile, I found a fix for the logo and have reverted back to a more mobile-friendly view.  I've also added a search feature to the drop-down menu.  The blog was designed using a laptop view, so it's heavily optimized for that, but it's not 2012 anymore, is it?  Since I'm always on my computer, I've been remiss in making the mobile experience better--sorry.  I will continue to investigate ways to improve.  Thank you for the input--keep it coming!

Anyway, here we are, already on day three of the spring break celebration!  Thank you to everyone who is joining the fun in the comments section--I always love reading what you have to say.  This review will be on the shorter side, since I know the middle of the week can get hectic--or at least it gets hectic around here!

Nothing felt hectic on St. John, though, as Lena and I spent the week welcoming various doll guests to join us for a little chat and some time at the pool.  The guest list has been fairly diverse so far: yesterday Lena got fooled by a Cutie Reveal Chelsea in a toucan suit, and today she's going to meet a young girl named Turquoise Ann who is passionate about saving the ocean.  The face of today's guest might look familiar to you, if you read my earlier B-Kind review, but her size is quite different!

B-Kind mini doll Turquoise Ann by Jada Toys, $9.97.

Spring Break with Lena: Cutie Reveal Chelsea by Mattel

Welcome back!  First things first, I have a quick question to ask: for those of you who read the blog on your phones, how terrible is the new layout?  I haven't been able to find a way to make the new header work with mobile view, so when you see the blog on your phone, you're seeing the laptop view...but small.  I can usually hack my way into getting Blogger to do what I want, but this time I'm stumped.  So I need to figure out which is worse: mobile view with a tiny, pixelated header, or laptop view with smaller text.  Thank you for any input.

But enough about that!  As promised, Lena and I are back for the second day of our spring break celebration!  As some of you know, we visited the beautiful island of St. John back in February, and this week we're going to share four mini reviews from that trip with you!

Our first guest in St. John was the Cutie Reveal Chelsea toucan by Mattel:

Cutie Reveal Chelsea toucan by Mattel, $17.99.

Tea with Lena: Penny's Box Street Series Adou

Before anything else is said, check out the beautiful new logo that Angelica Nyneave made for me!  It took half a day of wrangling with Blogger to figure out how to add this gorgeous art in high-resolution to the header (and I'm still working on the mobile view...) but it was so worth it!  Thank you, Angelica--you are a treasure.

Today, proud to be under such a fancy new header, Lena is back with the second installment of her new series!  In fact, she's going to be working with me all week as we host a little spring break celebration here on the blog.  So, be sure to check in every day to see what's new.

To start things off, Lena invited a guest over to her house who, um, caused a little bit of trouble.  He's from the Penny's Box series of blind box BJDs that I chatted about back in December:

Lena with Penny's Box Adou from the Street Series, $24.99.

Shadow High (And More Rainbow High) Dolls by MGA Entertainment

I did a big review of MGA's Rainbow High line back in November of 2021, with a second part that featured Vanessa Tempo.  And then I did an articulation update with Jett Dawson in early 2022.  So it would seem like I've said enough about the brand at this point, right?  But the thing is, even though I haven't been planning or even thinking about additional Rainbow High reviews, somehow there always seems to be a new doll on the shelf that catches my attention--usually because they're offering something quite different from the dolls I've already reviewed.  And since apparently I'm an incurable doll collector, when I see a new doll that interests me, I buy it.

As you can imagine, this kind of behavior playing out over an entire year has led to a pretty big stack of unopened Rainbow High dolls.  And so today I figured I would finally open up some of those boxes and share four of the new and wonderful characters that this brand has produced:

Rainbow High dolls, clockwise from left: Shanelle Onyx, Zooey Electra, Victoria Whitman, and Meena Fleur.

Healthy Roots Gaiana

I've had my eye on the Healthy Roots company since way back in October of 2021 when I started to think about blogging again.  I saw the original Healthy Roots doll, Zoe, at Target and really wanted to buy her, but at that time the $80 price tag was daunting.  Now, a year or so later, and with the help of my generous Patrons, this kind of doll is something I can review.  The great thing is that since I waited for so long, by the time I was ready to buy my doll, there were two new characters in the Healthy Roots lineup: Gaïana and Marisol.

Healthy Roots are 18-inch play dolls with wigged hair in three different realistic curly textures.  The line was created by artist Yelitsa Jean-Charles as a way to help young Black girls feel great about their curls.  The dolls all feature synthetic hair that supposedly looks and behaves just like real hair.  It's even possible to use standard hair care products on these dolls.  I don't have a great track record for dealing with curly doll hair, so I was a little nervous about investigating this brand, but I was also very curious to see if the impressive claims about the hair fiber are true.

The dolls are for sale on the Healthy Roots website for $84.99 plus $15 shipping, or at Target for $79 and free shipping.  I pre-ordered Gaïana from Healthy Roots back in October, and my first impression of her was so good that I immediately grabbed Marisol from Target.  I'll show you a few pictures of Marisol today, but the review will be mostly about Gaïana.  

It might look like Gaïana's photo shoot was in the Caribbean, like the mermaids in my last review, but this is actually back home at the Jersey Shore:

Healthy Roots doll, Gaïana, $84.99.

Mattel Mermaids

I've been missing in action for a while because my husband and I finally took an honest-to-goodness, week-long, have-to-get-on-an-airplane vacation.  We haven't taken any significant trips with just the two of us since our honeymoon, so we felt like it was past time.  We decided to visit St. John, in the United States Virgin Islands.  This is the place that we visited ten years ago, with our kids and parents.  It's where I photographed the Rapunzel and Mother Gothel review, and also the underwater Lala-Oopsie sea horse review.

This time around, we rented a small house in a remote location and had an amazing time snorkeling, cooking, and trying to catch up on sleep.  Wild goats kept us from sleeping through most nights (in a charming, goat-like way, for sure) but everything else was magical.  I'm so glad that we finally took the plunge.  I'll confess that we weren't the only ones who had a good time on this trip, though.  Lena managed to convince us that she should come along, too--you know, to chaperone the other dolls.  She made a good point; I always like to bring along several doll companions when I travel, and things can get rowdy.  And anyway, I have a hard time saying no to Lena.  She had her own agenda for the trip, of course, and you'll hear more about that in future posts.

It's always tough to decide which dolls should be included in special trips like this, but since I knew I was going to be doing a lot of swimming and snorkeling, I figured it was the perfect time to continue with my mini series of mermaid doll reviews.  I've already looked at MGA's Mermaze Mermaidz and Spin Master's Mermaid High (both now discontinued, by the way), so this time I decided to showcase two of Mattel's mermaid creations: a Barbie Dreamtopia mermaid, and Monster High's mermaid hybrid, Sirena Von Boo:

Monster High's Freaky Fusion Sirena Von Boo by Mattel, MSRP $24.99.

Glo-Up Girls by Far Out Toys

Ever since I wrote the FailFix review back in November (which feels like yesterday in my head...), I have been wanting to take a look at the Glo-Up Girls.  Both types of doll have a makeover theme, and both come with their real faces hidden, so that you can't see exactly what features each doll has.  While the FailFix girls came with mask-like, silly faces to cover their permanent features, the Glo-Up Girls come with a fabric sleep mask that conceals their eyes, nose, and cheeks.  It's a little risky to buy a doll when you can't see their whole face, as we saw with some of the wonky eyes on the FailFix girls, but it's also pretty exciting!

The Glo-Up line of dolls is based on glo-up culture, a social media sensation that involves people sharing photos of their personal transformation over time.  The transformation is usually physical (an improvement in style or appearance), but can also relate to changes in attitude, confidence, and lifestyle.  The term "glo up" originates from a Chief Keef song, Gotta Glo Up, which is inspired by the name of his label, the Glory Gang--or Glo Gang for short.

As is often the case, I came upon the Glo-Up Girls only by chance, during one of my expeditions to Target.  The first wave dolls were released in July of 2021, so by the time I saw them in the store late last summer, they were on clearance to make way for a second wave.  In this review I'll take a look at the redheaded character, Rose, and see how she--and the Glo-Up Girls concept--changed from the first wave to the second wave.  Here's first wave Rose before I even knew what her face looked like:

Glo-Up Girl, Rose, by Far Out Toys, $19.99.

Tea with Lena: The Rainbow High Doll House

Most of you have probably met my beautiful assistant at this point.  She's the Barbie Signature Looks #1 model from 2021, and she has a face mold called Lina.  I've always assumed that the name Lina is pronounced "Leena," and so I often make the mistake of typing Lina's name with an "e" instead of an "i."  I actually prefer the Lena spelling, and so from now on I'm going to use that.  Lena says she wants to be distinguished from all of the other Linas in some way, too, and I can't blame her.

In any case, Lena works hard around here, offering size comparisons for almost every single review, so a few weeks ago, when she asked me for a favor, I was eager to please.  What Lena wanted was to be more involved with some of the reviews.  She suggested starting a new series called Tea with Lena, where she could address a variety of topics that I might ignore because they don't warrant a full-blown review.  And, she thinks she can bring a unique perspective as someone with a very personal connection to the doll world.

So, today the tables are turned, and I'm gong to be Lena's assistant as she launches this new series.  She'd like to start things off by showing you around her new house, which she purchased in December from a Rainbow High family.  Other topics might come up along the way--something that I suspect will be common with these interludes.  Are you ready for some Tea with Lena?  She tidied up and bought a brand-new tea set just for you:

Lena relaxing in the kitchen of her Rainbow High House ($199.99).

Ily 4EVER Fashion Dolls by Disney

Many of you (and most of Twitter) have been excited about the new Disney ily 4EVER dolls for a few weeks now, but it's taken me this long to produce a review.  Sorry!  I'm not good at doing things quickly.  I'm especially not good at writing reviews quickly, and I fear that I'm getting slower over time.  I think this is mostly because I obsess over photographs more than I ever used to, which can be a huge time suck.  Ordinarily, my slow pace is not much of a concern; it suits my life, and the reviews get done eventually.  However, when there's a hot new doll, a slow response can be incredibly frustrating.  I want to give you information as quickly as possible, so you can decide which dolls (if any) to buy!

I can totally understand the hype and anticipation over these dolls.  This new collection of 11-inch fashion dolls follows the same idea as the 18-inch ily 4EVER dolls that have been gracing the shelves of Target for a while now.  Namely, they are styled as Disney fangirls who wear modern clothing that is based on color schemes and thematic designs inspired by the classic Disney Princesses.  It's a very cool concept--especially for an 11-inch fashion doll.

The larger 18-inch ily dolls are adorable, and I've admired them at Target frequently, but they never managed to make it to the top of my review queue.  In contrast, these smaller dolls grabbed my attention instantly because of their manageable size, inset eyes, normal-sized heads, lovely faces, and what looks like great articulation.  They struck me as something that could be revolutionary for the play doll market, and also for the Disney Store which, as you know, has fallen out of my favor more often than not over the years.  I purchased all of the new ily 4EVER dolls (and a few of the accessories) and will share them in one way or another over the next few weeks.  The star of today's review is the Tiana-inspired character who was the winner of a Patreon poll.  I've named her Tia:

ily 4EVER Tiana doll by Disney, $29.99.