L.O.L. Surprise Series 2: Let's Be Friends Lil Sisters!

As promised, I'm back with another surprise post...and it's not even Sunday!  Today I'm going to look at the Lil Sisters balls from the new series of Lil Outrageous Littles (L.O.L.).

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:

Series 1 L.O.L. Surprise doll, "Center Stage" ($9.99), and a Series 2 Li'l Sisters ball ($6.99).

It's probably important to point out that the first series of L.O.L. dolls included some smaller babies, too.  There were only four of these little ones, though, and they were all ultra-rare.

Each of the four Series 1 babies coordinates with one of the larger Series 1 dolls.  For example, Center Stage has a mini version called Lil Center Stage:

Center Stage and Lil Center Stage from Series 1.

The other Series 1 babies are Lil Roller Sk8er, Lil M.C. Swag and Lil Cheer Captain.  So, the Lil Sister collection is basically an expansion of this Series 1 concept.

Okay!  Before I open the Lil Sisters ball, I have to complain about something.  When these mermaid balls appeared in stores back in early 2017:

I assumed they were the Series 2 dolls.  I thought they might even contain mermaid-themed dolls.  However, they're just the same as the wave 1 dolls, but with different wrapping.  To be fair, it is pretty clear on the packaging that these are still Series 1 dolls:

Same toy, different wrapping.

Maybe the specific dolls that were actually in the balls shifted from wave 1 to wave 2, but all of the dolls are from the same collector's catalog.  That's all I know.

For anyone who's curious, this is the doll that came in that mermaid ball:

She's called Sis Swing and is really cute.

Sis Swing's outfit is even more ill-fitting than Hoops MVP's outfit, though.  I really don't like the design of these vinyl clothes:

If MGA had given the dolls colorful molded underwear, that would've helped a lot.

Anyway--moving on!  The Lil Sisters balls are quite a bit smaller than the original L.O.L. balls--about half as big, from just eyeballing the two volumes:

Regular L.O.L. ball from Series 1 (left), Lil Sisters ball from Series 2 (right).

The new balls have a very similar design to the old ones, though, with a mix of bold text and bright cartoons:

And these balls clearly state that they're part of Series 2:

The Lil Sisters boast 5 different surprises, which is less than the standard dolls' 7 surprises.

The five surprises are a picture phrase (or secret message):

A collectible sticker:

An accessory:

Another accessory:

And the actual doll:

The larger L.O.L. dolls have two additional surprises: a bottle and an outfit.  All of the dolls have some sort mystery feature that involves water.  MGA could certainly have advertised this as yet another surprise!

The Lil Sisters balls have a cute bottle-shaped UPC code and a clever perforated zipper that runs down one side of the first layer of wrapping:

Right underneath the zipper, my doll's first surprise was already visible!

The piece of paper stuck to the ball as I peeled away the outer layer of plastic...

It's the secret message!  I'll let you guys have a crack at figuring out what it means:

Any guesses?  The answers are way too obvious on these little messages, so I couldn't really make a guess myself.  I wish they'd conceal the answer somehow.  Maybe with a little flap at the edge of the paper?

Anyway, here's the answer:

It says "future star."  Was this one easy?  Like I said, it's hard for me to tell.

The second layer of wrapping is also a minty green color, but this layer isn't as heavily decorated as the first.  It has a few doll heads floating around...

...and a lot of empty space.  The holes at the edges of this wrap reveal some bright pictures in the next layer, though!

I unzipped the green wrapping...

And uncovered a bright pink layer:

There's another paper surprise stuck to the edge of this layer:

It's the sticker, which proclaims that if I bathe my doll, she will reveal a color change surprise:

I love this purple-haired character with huge glasses:

The pink layer has yet another zipper...

Which unzips to reveal the plastic ball.  The ball I got is a medium pink color:

The ball has a bunch of molded designs on it, and these can be aligned by matching two arrows along the midline seam:

Unlike the larger L.O.L. balls, this ball does not have any secret compartments that are revealed as the layers of wrapping are removed.  It's just a simple, hollow sphere.  

It's packed full of stuff, though!

Inside the ball, I found a catalog, some directions, and four brought pink plastic bags:

The directions show how to attach a keychain to the ball (that's new!) and describe how bathing the doll (in ice water...) will cause a color change to appear:

The catalog is a little strange.  One of the sides has all of the regularly-sized L.O.L. dolls in Series 2, but many of the characters are shaded out:

Here's a closer look at one of the groups, the Chill Out Club:

These two dolls both look great!

Two of the dolls are basically missing, with the letters "OMW" underneath.  I gather that means "On My Way."

This might shed some light on the seemingly similar waves of the first series.  Perhaps there really were certain dolls in the Series 1 catalog that didn't appear until wave 2, and MGA found a clearer way of communicating this for Series 2?  If that's true, it was a good decision.

I like the redheaded Jitterbug character in this series:

The other side of the catalog has all of the Lil Sisters--again, with many of the pictures missing:

The Lil Sister themes match the themes of the larger dolls, so, for example, there's a Chill Out Club on this side, too--with baby versions of those two characters:

I love the winking eye!

There's a baby version of my favorite Jitterbug, too:

There's one more important thing to note about this catalog.  Some of the Lil Sisters do not have a matching character in Series 2.  Take the Lil Sister version of Hoops MVP as an example:

Lil Hoops.

Lil Hoops is in the Athletic Club group, but she has no matching character in the Athletic Club section on the other side of the catalog.  The larger dolls in this category are Ice Sk8er and Kicks:

Series 2 Athletic Club.

Of course I know where Lil Hoops' match is, because this was the only doll I reviewed from Series 1.  Here she is in the Series 1 catalog:

Series 1 Athletic Club.

So, the Lil Sisters sometimes match the large dolls from Series 2...but they also sometimes match the dolls from Series 1.  This is excellent news because even though I don't own any of the large Series 2 dolls, I might still find a match!

Ok!  Let's see what's in the first plastic bag:

Actually, I could feel that this was the keychain even before I opened the bag, so I didn't bother to take suspenseful pictures.  Here it is:

The plastic chain snaps right into the top of the ball...

...and makes an interesting (heavy) keychain:

The ol' ball and chain.

The inside of the ball has a molded chair--a simpler design, thankfully, than the strange chair and tray that accompanied the Series 1 dolls.

Time for the second bag!  

This must be one of the accessories:

I cut one end open and immediately saw a flash of gold!

Oooh.  It looks like a very tall crown or tiara:

The crown has an elaborate scrolling pattern and is covered in metallic gold paint:

The back side is flat and not as fancy:

Ok, well, it's a really big crown for what must be a small baby, but we'll see how it fits in a sec!

For now, let's see what the next accessory is:

I cut this bag open and two small blue things tumbled out...

It's a pair of shoes!

They're little blue shoes with bows in front and attached white socks:

They even have miniature wedge heels!

I'm grateful that the shoes are marked on the bottom to tell me which foot they fit.  I find that extremely helpful on shoes this small:

I knew the doll was in this last bag because it's the biggest and heaviest, but also because it's the only bag with different words on the front:

I carefully cut one end of the bag and peeked in...

It is dark in there!

Then I pushed the baby towards the front of the bag and caught a glimpse of brown hair:

The brown hair is an an elaborate up-do...

And the baby herself has brown skin and a light blue diaper!  I bet some of you know who she is by now...

...I flipped her over and saw some very distinct eyes!

Happy kid!

It's Lil Miss Baby!

She has a hard plastic body and a vinyl head.  She only has one point of articulation (her neck).  The larger L.O.L. dolls have neck articulation and rotating joints in their shoulders and hips.

The heads on these dolls pop right off to reveal the ball-jointed neck:

It's a little hard to get Lil Miss Baby to stand up on her own.  If her head is tipped to either side, she falls right over.

My doll has a lot of lint stuck in the paint of her hair, which makes it look textured on top towards the front:

She has a cute little squinty-eyed expression, and I think her tongue is supposed to be sticking out, but it just looks like she's laughing:

She and my laughing Colleggtible zebra, Hector, get along very well!

Hatchimal Colleggtible and L.O.L. Lil Sister.

Lil Miss Baby is the only Lil Sister in the Glam Club:

The only large Series 2 L.O.L. doll in the Glam Club is It Baby...

...who has a similar hairstyle to Lil Miss Baby, but that's where the resemblance ends.  

Lil Miss Baby's match must be in Series 1.  I got the Series 1 catalog out and searched the Glam Club...yep!  Here she is:

The original Miss Baby.

Unfortunately, I don't have Miss Baby.  The closest I can get is Fancy, who has a similar hair color with an up-do style:

Lil Miss Baby and Fancy.

Fancy's eyes kinda match Lil Miss Baby's diaper, so I guess that's something.

One thing I noticed right away is that the accessories are not necessarily meant for Lil Miss Baby:

The shoes are clearly for a larger L.O.L. doll, and the crown took me a while to figure out.  

The crown doesn't balance on Baby's head very well.  I got it to stay in place like this for a few seconds...

...but then Baby toppled over.

The thing is, the crown doesn't seem meant for the larger dolls, either.  It doesn't balance on Fancy's head any better than it balances on Baby's head:

Finally, I figured out that if I wedge it around the top of Baby's head, it will stay nicely in place:

It's still a ridiculously large crown for such a small baby, though!

So maybe each Lil Sister comes with an accessory for herself and an accessory for her big sister?  Than would be nice.  Fancy has decided to be Lil Miss Baby's big sister, and she certainly enjoys her new blue shoes: 

The last surprise with Lil Miss Baby was what would happen when I dunked her in cold water.

The bottom of the plastic ball has bubbles and a duck molded into it, suggesting that it could be used as a bathtub...

...but the holes made me nervous about leaks, so I opted for a regular glass instead.

Here's Lil Miss Baby soaking in a cup of melted ice:

I didn't see any changes at first.  There's certainly nothing obvious.

But then, I noticed way down on the very bottom of her diaper, there's a little something:

It's a super-faint white fleur-de-lis:

Talk about subtle.

Nothing about Baby's face is supposed to change, I don't think, but she does have a small splash of color-change paint on the right side of her forehead:

I did one more double-check of Baby before (left) and after (right) the icy bath, but I don't see any other changes:

My impression with this toy is that the L.O.L. brand's unique layering of surprises has been simplified to the point where you almost have to have seen one of the original toys to understand the Lil Sisters packaging.

The Lil Sisters have fewer surprises overall, and most of them are clustered together inside the plastic ball--not hidden in the layers of wrapping.  Only the two paper items are placed so that they'll be discovered as the ball is unwrapped...and even then, these two items are very easy to miss.

This change is ok with me in general, but if there aren't layers of surprises, what is the point of the elaborate packaging?  I wouldn't mind if MGA eliminated the paper surprises completely and just wrapped the balls in plastic once.

The dolls are really cute, though, and I love the idea of matching an older sister to a younger one.  In fact, I was so keen to do this that I bought a few more Lil Sisters:

This time, I'll skip through the less-than-exciting unwrapping process and just show you the two paper surprises I got:

The sticker is exactly the same as Lil Miss Baby's sticker, but the plastic ball is neon pink (it hurts my eyes!) and the mystery phrase is new...but very similar to the first one:

I erased the answer so that you guys can guess again if you want to.

I actually forgot what this one was and so I was guessing, too.  I assumed it was "basketball star,"  which makes a lot of sense.  

I was close:

Sportsball!

Here's where all of the real surprises are hidden:

I opened the predictable keyring chain first:

And then dug right in to see what the accessories might be.  The first one is much bigger and heavier than Lil Miss Baby's tiara:

It's a big, pink, vinyl something...

It's a purse!  A basketball purse!

Sportspurse!

The vinyl is pretty stiff, and so the handles are bent together in the middle and don't stay separated after I pull them apart:

It's an ok purse, but it's way too big for the Lil Sister babies.  That debunks my theory about each ball containing an accessory for a big and a little sister.  Oh, well.

What's really great about this purse is that it makes me think of a certain character...

Hoops!

Could I have gotten Hoops' little sister??  Oooh!  I hope so!

I quickly opened up the other bag...

Which looks like another pair of shoes for the larger dolls...

Yes!  It's a pair of sneakers that happen to match Hoops' outfit!

Here's my Hoops doll (Alia), wearing her new shoes:

That's a match!

They look great!  I like them even better than the shoes that came with Alia.

So...moment of truth.  Do the accessories indicate which Lil Sister doll is going to be in that last bag?  At this point, I hope so!

The hair looks promising...

Lots of curls!!

Yay!  It's her!  I got a match!

Meet Lil Hoops MVP:

She may not have as many points of articulation as the big Hoops, but I think she's even cuter than her older sister!

Look at her little belly:

She even has dimples on the backs of her chubby elbows:

Here's her catalog picture again:

I dunked Lil Hoops into the icy water, and she developed dark lines underneath her eyes:

Isn't that something football players do?  What do I know.  At least I can see something changing color when I put her into the water!

Here are the two sisters together:

Lil Hoops MVP (Series 2) and Hoops MVP (Series 1).

I really wish that the full-sized Hoops doll had something decent to wear.  All other differences aside, the molded diaper on Lil Hoops makes her my favorite of these two:

I also prefer the painted mouth on Lil Hoops to the unexpressive open mouth on big Hoops.  The presence of the baby sisters makes it seems really strange that the larger dolls--the big sisters--drink from bottles.

I enjoyed opening Lil Miss Baby, but opening Lil Hoops was even better.  MGA is very clever to have set up all of these potential matches between big and little sisters.

I'll share one more of my favorite pictures of Lil Hoops:

The basketball purse might be too big for her to carry, but she sure looks cute being carried inside it!

Ok, so I have one more Lil Sister ball to open:

Actually, that's a picture of Lil Hoops's ball again, but I did have another new ball to open, and I have a new mystery phrase to prove it!  

I bet you can't guess this one (I would never be able to):

Dance cool without looking!

Pose like peek-a-boo!

Keep the beat like you can't see?

Strike a pose then hitchhike, and you'll disappear!

Tap your foot and chain up your little sister?

Dancing chains you up, but only if you don't see it!

I give up.  Here you go:

If anyone out there guessed correctly, you should be given the award for Best Mystery Phrase Decoder Of All Time.

The layers of wrapping on this ball were stuck to each other in a weird way.  A thin film of plastic from one layer was stuck to the underlying layer:

This ball contained the same stickers as all of the others.  That's not much of a surprise anymore:

This ball is also neon pink...

I can't wait to see what will be inside those bags!

I won't even bother with the keychain this time--it looks exactly like the one that came with Lil Hoops.

I started by opening the largest accessory bag:

It looks like another purse, but definitely not a duplicate...

Oh, cool!  Look:

It's a pink and black rock 'n roll purse.

The other accessory didn't feel like shoes, so I knew I was going to get something different...

A pair of glasses!

Oh--and they're fun retro glasses with pink frames!

These are awesome:

The back looks funny, though, because the soft vinyl ear pieces are bent inwards:

Hey...wait a minute.  Pink retro accessories?  Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

I might have gotten another match!  Remember Sis Swing?  The color and style of the glasses match her outfit!

I think these are clearly her accessories!  Hurrah!

Sis Swing (Series 1) with accessories from Series 2 Lil Sisters.

I could hardly wait to open the last bag at this point.  I guess I love getting matches!

Out came a pink diaper and some blonde hair...

How cute!

It's definitely Lil Sis Swing.

This figure is in a sitting position with her arms raised.  She has some sloppy paint around her diaper and hairline, though:

And a gash on her jawline, too:

I could see right away that her color change surprise was going to involve parts of her hair turning blue:

Indeed, when I dunked her in ice water, half of her hair turned blue:

But the paint job here is really messy, with patches of blue on the side of her face and over her ear.

The blue only lasted for seconds after she was out of the water, though.  I could barely take a picture fast enough to capture any of the lingering color:

Lil Sis Swing has more flaws than the other figures, but I like the position she's in.  She's easy to pose because she doesn't tip over, and her outstretched arms make it look like she wants to get picked up and cuddled.  She has a lot of personality:

Here are my two sisters together:

Lil Sis Swing and Sis Swing.

Lil Sis Swing and Sis Swing.

Well, those are all of the Lil Sister balls that I bought, but I had so much fun matching sisters, I didn't want the fun to end.  

Then I had a thought.  Remember the Series 1 L.O.L. ball that I showed you at the beginning of the review?  The one that I used as a size reference:

Well, I figured I could open up that ball (finally!) and see if maybe there was a match for my Lil Miss Baby!  I was feeling pretty lucky, after all.

I'll tell you right now that I didn't get Miss Baby, but I did get something pretty exciting--and relevant to this review.

My first hint that there was something rare inside the ball was that the ball itself was gold-colored.  That's never happened to me before!

And sure enough...the ball had one of the ultra-rare baby dolls from Series 1!

Actually, it had two of the ultra-rare baby dolls from Series 1!

Series 1 babies.

The pink-haired baby reminds me of Maggie Simpson.

Series 1 babies.

These two are called Lil Roller Sk8er:

And Lil M.C. Swag:

I could not believe my luck here.  I mean, I'd been hoping to compare these Series 1 babies to the new Lil Sisters, but I wasn't willing to buy a pile of $10 L.O.L. balls in the hopes of getting something ultra-rare.

Everything in this review happened in the order that I presented it, too, by the way.  No tricks.  It was just a super-lucky blind bag day!  Woo-hoo!

Here's a closer look at Lil M.C. Swag:

Her pale blond hair is molded into two cornrow braids that run down the back of her head:

When Lil Swag is dunked in water, all of her hair turns pinkish-red:

Her hollow head makes her float high in the water, though, so the top of her head loses its red color quickly when she's not pushed under water:

Lil Roller Sk8er's pink hair is molded into lots of little buns:

She also comes with a permanently-attached pacifier (again, kinda like Maggie Simpson):

I love the crawling pose of this doll.  She balances really well and looks like she's on the move:

Lil Sk8er has several water change features.  Her pacifier and diaper turn deep purple, and she develops a pink star around her right eye!

The color change surprises on these two are way better than those on the Lil Sisters--at least from what I can tell.

Here's my Lil Sis Swing alongside Lil M.C. Swag:

Series 2 Lil Sis Swing (left) and Series 1 Lil M.C. Swag (right).

Both babies are sitting, but they have different body molds.  Lil M.C. has a shorter neck than Lil Sis.

They both have plastic bodies and vinyl heads, but Lil M.C.'s head is a bit more compressible than Lil Sis' head.  They can trade heads.

I like that all of the L.O.L. babies are the same size and scale, but I also appreciate that MGA didn't just re-use the body and head molds from the rare Series 1 cuties.

Wanna swap heads?

 Here are all five of my Lil L.O.L. dolls together!

From left: Lil M.C. Swag (Series 1), Lil Miss Baby, Lil Hoops MVP, Lil Sis Swing, and Lil Roller Sk8er (Series 1).

And...just for fun, here they all are with their heads swapped around:

I discovered that it's easier to compare skin tones when the heads and bodies are separated.  I think there are three skin tones represented here, but there are also some mild variations within the medium skin tone:

Don't they look like faceless babies with tiny heads??

Looking at all of the heads on their own, it's a little clearer that Lil M.C., Lil Sis and Lil Hoops have the same skin color:

So these three can swap heads without it looking ridiculous:

Lil Sisters wearing different heads.

Speaking of ridiculous, I couldn't resist...

Anyway, let's get back to the three dolls featured in this review--the Series 2 Lil Sisters:

From left: Lil Hoops MVP, Lil Sis Swing and Lil Miss Baby.

I like the variety here.  I happened to get two different body molds, two different eye shapes, two different skin tones, and three different hair and diaper colors.  It's a fun mix with no duplicates.

I'm also thrilled that I got to match a few big and little sister pairs, although MGA made this as likely as possible by coordinating Lil Sisters to both Series 1 and Series 2 dolls.

Bottom line?  The surprise-revealing fun in the layers of packaging is what made the L.O.L. brand distinct from the start.  With the new Lil Sisters, I feel like this excitement has been reduced to a level where I don't really see the point anymore.  The Sisters are basically regular blind bag toys with all of the good surprises packed into the center of a ball-shaped container.

The $7 price seems high for such tiny figures, but considering how popular the brand is right now, the price doesn't surprise me.  However, some of the babies I got are riddled with paint flaws, and all of the color change surprises were completely underwhelming.  I had some fun with the mystery picture messages, but the answers are printed so clearly on the paper that there's no chance to guess what the phrase might say.  All three of my dolls had the exact same "surprise" sticker.  The only accessories that have lasting value are the two items that coordinate with the regular L.O.L. dolls.  The extra pairs of shoes are very useful (especially if you've lost a few!) and the pink retro glasses that came with Lil Sis Swing are especially great.  I'd be just as pleased with these Lil Sisters--probably even more pleased--if they came with only their two main accessory surprises and none of the unwrapping drama...especially if those changes brought the price down under $5.

I like the Lil Sisters dolls themselves quite a bit.  They're cute and tiny and the collection has great variety.  It's also fun to mix and match the small dolls with the larger L.O.L. characters.  The Lil Sisters don't have as much articulation as their older siblings, but they have cuter faces with closed mouths.  They also have colorful molded diapers that I find far superior to the awkward vinyl clothing on the larger girls.

My quibbles with the Lil Sisters didn't stop me from swinging by Toys R Us again yesterday, you know, just to see which of the Series 2 L.O.L. dolls were in stock.  And guess what?  They're already completely sold out.  It seems that MGA has done it again.

Let me see if I can round up my entire crew for one last picture...

That Lil Roller Sk8er is trouble!

Here they are!  Flaws and all, this is an undeniably fun collection.

In back: Hoops MVP, Fancy, Sis Swing and Center Stage.
In front: Lil Hoops MVP, Lil Miss Baby, Lil M.C. Swag, Lil Sis Swing and Lil Roller Sk8er.