Sweet Sisters and Cotti Motti by Orange Toys

It was a tough winter, wasn't it?  I'm struck by that as I sit here in the sun, with signs of spring finally bursting out all around.  It's easier to be optimistic in the spring, I think, and there's a lot that I'm grateful for, despite all of the chaos and evil in the world right now.  Most notably, I forgot to tell you that one of my kids got married last month!  So now we have a wonderful new daughter-in-law.  And we have a new dog in the mix, too: a twelve-year-old deaf Maltese named Norman.  I also dodged a possible cancer diagnosis, so I'm feeling thankful for my health.  On the doll front, I have a very special baby doll that I ordered five months ago who's finally on her way to me...and a whole project series that I have in mind to complement that doll.  So that's all pretty exciting.

I'm excited about the dolls that I have to share with you today, too, although there were some disappointments that I didn't anticipate.  You might remember back during my Lucky Doggy review, I was browsing the Orange Toys website and fell in love with their Sweet Sisters line of cloth dolls.  I ordered way too many of those dolls, and in the process discovered the Cotti Motti plush animals, also from Orange Toys, who can share clothing with the Sweet Sisters!  So I had to buy a few Cotti Motti characters, too.  Obviously.

In today's review, I'll focus mostly on the Sweet Sisters dolls, but I'll also take a peek at two Cotti Motti animals:

Sweet Sisters Sunny (left) and Cotti Motti Daphne (right) by Orange Toys.

Tea with Lena: Mini Brands Fill the Fridge vs. Miniverse Real Brands

This review might feel a little repetitive with the last one (Miniverse Spaces), but maybe we can think of it as a companion piece or something?  I'm including it because while I was looking at the Spaces sets, Lena got interested...and a little irritated that I hadn't included her.  She doesn't fit into the Spaces or Rolife rooms, obviously, but she likes talking about anything food or kitchen-related, so she felt like I was invading her turf.  Fair enough.

By way of an apology, I offered to let Lena talk about another group of food-themed toys that have been on my radar.  In fact, she gets to talk about two different food-themed toys today: Zuru's Mini Brands Fill the Fridge sets and MGA Entertainment's Miniverse Real Brands.  The two are extremely similar--in name and in concept.  Both brands have surprise balls with brand-name food miniatures inside.  Zuru's Fill the Fridge line also has an actual fridge that Lena will be looking at.

Lena's goal here will be to see which group of surprise ball food items is best at actually filling a fridge!  I've said too much already at this point, so I'll turn things over to Lena:

Lena with Mini Brands Fill the Fridge and Miniverse Real Brands items.

Miniverse Make it Mini Spaces by MGA Entertainment

It was so nice to hear your reactions to the My Twinn repaints that I've been working on!  Thank you so much for the encouragement.  Bolstered by your kind words, I've launched into another restoration.  I'll probably list the dolls on eBay at some point, since my Etsy store is hard to maintain.  Or, rather, it's hard to keep my Etsy store stocked, and there's nothing more depressing than an empty storefront!

I've definitely been in a project mood lately, though.  Perhaps it's because I have leftover energy from thinking that we'd be moving?  That was certainly taking up a lot of my creative brain.  So now I'm filling the void with any little project that I can get my hands on.  That's been fun, I guess, but it interferes with me actually sitting down at my computer and typing up a review.  But here I am doing it, finally.

Today's review was inspired by my recent project-seeking behavior.  I've reviewed Miniverse Make it Mini items several times on this blog, so they don't necessarily need any more commentary.  However, the new Spaces line is very similar to the Rolife Super Creator kits that I enjoy, in that both products are diorama-like rooms that need to be assembled.  There are also surprise Spaces capsules with furniture that needs to be built.  I was definitely in the mood for some building, so I decided to check it all out.

Chelsea in a Miniverse Make it Mini Spaces room ($19.99).

Quick Look: Some Doll Restorations

I know I published a review recently, but I wanted to squeeze in one more little thing before the end of the month.  This'll give me a chance to slow down and chat a little, which feels hard during a conventional review.  Those get long enough as it is.

First of all, as I'm sure you noticed, I'm back to the grey backdrop.  White was interesting.  The photos I took of Cupid Asteria look nice and clean for the most part, but I had to turn the exposure on my camera way up to keep everything from being dark and drab.  Even then, the background looks light grey in most pictures.  Light grey is fine, but I don't understand how professional photographers get that super-white background!  I couldn't do it with my current set-up.  Another thing is that I feel like colors don't pop against white like they do with grey.  Furthermore, every single piece of dust and glitter was really obvious.  So while the grey gives me headaches sometimes, I guess it's the best option for now...so I'll stop complaining.

Also, for whatever it's worth, we've put the house hunt on hold.  It feels like a bad time to move for many reasons--mostly because everything is so expensive.  It's safer to hunker down and appreciate the roof over our heads and all of the good things that New Jersey has to offer.  It'll certainly be easier to keep blogging if I'm not packing up my entire house again!  And I've gotten back into painting dolls, so it'd be a shame to uproot that operation just as I'm gaining some traction.  

In fact, painting dolls is what I want to talk about today!  There are four dolls that I've been working on for the last few weeks, and I'd love to share them with you.  Everybody loves a good makeover, right?

My Twinn Kate from 2011...who desperately needs a makeover.

Blythe Float Away Dream by Good Smile Company

This review is getting close to four years overdue!  That could be a new record for me.  You might remember that way back in 2022, I started a Blythe series that was meant to have three parts: an analysis of the imitation Blythe world, a review of a Takara/TOMY Blythe doll, and a review of a Good Smile Company Blythe doll.  But I haven't done the Good Smile Company review...until now.  I got the idea for this series in 2022 because Good Smile Company had recently taken over the manufacturing of Blythe dolls from Takara/TOMY, and there was some concern about whether the new dolls would be as good as the old ones.  That's not really a pressing question anymore.  However, I still wanted to see one of the newer dolls for myself, and I don't like leaving things unfinished.  So I'm going to wrap up the series today.  Better late than never, right?

I was reminded of this series last week because I got a fresh round of threats from This is Blythe, the shop where I purchased my first imitation Blythe doll.  They're back to their email harassment tactics, threatening to sue me for factually relaying my experience.  As far as I know, the First Amendment is still a thing, so I'll hold firm.  But it's depressing because I have never, in my 20+ years of blogging and collecting, encountered such a nasty, vindictive person in the doll world.  Nothing even close.  It's just not who we are as a community.

But I don't want to dwell on that unpleasantness right now.  Dolls are meant to bring joy and amusement--not anger and frustration.  And you've already waited long enough to meet my turquoise-haired Blythe beauty from Good Smile Company, so here she is:

Blythe "Float Away Dream" by Good Smile Company, ~$120.

Cupid Asteria from Monster High

Happy Valentine's Day!  I don't usually write a special post for this particular holiday (not sure why?) but I got a comment on my Lucky Doggy review with a few suggestions for Valentine-themed dolls, and that inspired me!  Besides, I feel a lot of love and gratitude for all of you, so what better way to show it?

I did a big review of the new G3 Monster High dolls when they first came out in 2022, but haven't done a great job of keeping up with all of the subsequent releases.  However, I've enjoyed several of the G3 character interpretations enough to purchase the dolls--with vague intent to review them, but also simply to enjoy them.  My favorites so far have been Venus McFlytrap, Catty Noir, Jinafire Long, and Cupid Asteria.  Can you guess which one from that list gets her time in the spotlight today?

G3 Monster High Cupid Asteria ($24.99)

Shopkins Li'l Secrets by Moose Toys

Thank you so much for all of the words of comfort and affirmation in the last review.  I love this community.  You guys keep me sane.  As if things in the world weren't explosive enough already, Andy and I spent the last week thinking about whether or not we should move to another state.  We'd like to be closer to our kids, and as nice as New Jersey is, it doesn't really feel like home.  So that's a whole thing.  I'm actually on a train right now, headed back to New Jersey after looking at a house that we're considering.

Being on the train gives me an excellent chance to finish up this review, though!  It's been in the works for too long.  Back in November, when I reviewed Polly Pocket, I got an anonymous comment encouraging me to look at the Shopkins Li'l Secrets.  These are discontinued miniature playset toys with the same basic idea as the Polly Pocket compacts--but with a locking mechanism feature on the cover.  Sounds pretty cool, right?  I thought so.  I purchased a few Li'l Secrets sets right after reading that comment, and have been eager to investigate ever since!

Shopkins Li'l Secrets by Moose Toys, 2018.