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.

The My Twinn Princess Makeovers

I have a complicated and long-term history with My Twinn dolls at this point, which isn't something I would have predicted ten years ago.  In March of 2013, I purchased and reviewed my very first My Twinns.  I had a decent opinion of the dolls back then, but a lot of that had to do with the fact that I found them on a great sale.  I didn't learn much about the history of the brand during that review, nor about the wide range in quality.  My deep dive came a few years later in 2016, when I started the My Twinn Project series.  In those posts, I chronicled my experience with fixing up old, high-quality Denver-era My Twinns, which are much nicer than the dolls I bought in 2013.

My passion for fixing up My Twinns escalated quickly after that, and the dolls started to make more frequent appearances here on the blog...and also started to fill up my house.  I became obsessed with seeking out old dolls with rare faces and skin tones, and the more beat-up they were, the better!  When I decided to take a break from reviewing dolls in 2018, I continued to work on the My Twinns, and even started a separate blog, The My Twin Project Shop, to chronicle my endeavors.  That blog kept me connected to the online doll world, and the dolls gave me a creative outlet and escape during the early, dark days of the pandemic.  It was a bit of a lifeline, frankly.

One of the hardest things about starting this blog up again has been that I no longer have much time to work on My Twinns.  Worse yet, I stopped doing Twinn makeovers before I'd even finished a princess series that was a lot of fun!  So, today I decided to share an overview of my princess project with all of you, and present the last two dolls in the group: the Cinderellas.

Future Cinderella: a Denver-era My Twinn doll with the Lenora face.

Mini Amigas by Paola Reina

The Doll-a-Day project (and also tax season...) kept me from starting a new full-length review this week, so I decided to take the opportunity to pull out the last of my photos from St. John and see if I could make a short post from those.  I took quite a few dolls with me on that trip, most of them for Lena's Spring Break series or the Mermaid reviews, but there were two more stowaways that I've been meaning to share with you.  They are both 8-inch Mini Amigas from Paola Reina, who I purchased last July when I wrote my Las Amigas update.

Mini Amigas David, by Paola Reina, $40.

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.

#SNAPSTAR Dolls by YULU

As an adult, one of the very first play dolls to catch my attention was Spin Master's Liv.  Liv dolls were produced between 2009 and 2012, and have made a lot of appearances here on the blog.  I fell in love with this line because the dolls have great articulation, inset eyes, diverse wardrobes and accessories (including horses!), and a well-designed interchangeable wig system with nice hair fiber.  I still have a large collection of beloved Liv characters in my house, and am always on the lookout for new dolls that remind me of these old favorites.

That's why, when I stumbled upon the SnapStar line during one of my aimless Amazon hunts last summer, I got pretty excited.  At first glance, the SnapStar crew have a lot of similarities to Liv, including inset eyes, good articulation, and interchangeable wigs.  The head shape and face design even bear a striking resemblance to Liv--or they do from a distance, anyway.  

The resemblance to Liv was more than enough to tempt me, but SnapStar dolls also have a photo-editing gimmick that sounded really fun.  The dolls come with a green screen backdrop that can be used in conjunction with a special phone app to create enhanced and altered pictures.  Since I spend all of my time photographing dolls, I was very eager to try out this feature!  In fact, there were so many things that appealed to me about the SnapStar brand, I showed no restraint whatsoever and purchased all of the characters.

#SNAPSTAR Yuki by YULU, $14.99

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: Cheap Little AliExpress Knockoff Dolls

Welcome to the last day of virtual spring break here on the blog!  I'm going to end the week by looking at some cute, strange little dolls that are sold on AliExpress.  A lot (but certainly not all) of the products on AliExpress are knockoffs of one kind or another, and today's dolls are no exception.  However, some of the original, copied products still remain a mystery to me.  The nice thing is that you guys make the collective knowledge on this blog impressive, so maybe we'll be able to solve a few mysteries together before the day is over!

I first learned about these dolls last summer when we had a silly doll contest over on Patreon.  The idea was for everyone to submit photos of the funniest or most unusual dolls that they could find.  It was an entertaining contest, and a surprising number of the entries were things that I actually wanted to buy!  Case in point, when Amy sent me a photo of these big-eyed AliExpress kids, I knew I wouldn't be able to resist:

Plastic character dolls from AliExpress, $4.95 each.