Photo Mission! (With a Mini Review of Posea Reef)

It's been a bit of a rocky start to the new year for me.  Family distractions caused me to take a step back and look closely at the blog.  When I first started blogging, I read an article describing how it can take, on average, five years of hard work before it's clear whether or not a new blog will be successful.  That seemed reasonable, and so I promised myself that I'd get to work and not worry too much about success (whatever that means) until at least four years had passed.  Now, four years later, I find myself wondering about the success of my blogging approach.

There are so many things I love about this blog--things that I consider a huge success.  First of all, I love to photograph dolls and write about them.  And, there's an incredible selection of amazing dolls out there to review.  I feel like the proverbial kid in a candy shop most days.  In addition, I get a lot of visitors or "page hits" (the brass rings of blogging) and am about to hit the 6,000,000 mark, which is unbelievable.  I also love you guys.  I'd wager that few blogs have such an amazing, kind, insightful audience.  But the bottom line is really all about...well, the bottom line.  The harsh reality is that this blog is losing money.  Lots of money.  Breaking even would be one thing, but losing money is starting to be bad.  This could be my fault, or just the way blogs are these days.  I don't know.  But I can no longer pretend that this is my job.  It's kind-of the opposite.

I like blogging too much to give it up completely, but my approach definitely has to change.  While I figure out what all of this means, I thought I would publish the wonderful contributions from the last Photo Mission.  I asked to see pictures of the interesting dolls for sale in your part of the world.  I added my own photographs to this post and will also include two short reviews.  One of the reviews is of a doll that I found during the Photo Mission: Monster High's new mermaid, Posea Reef. Snapping pictures of Posea on the store shelf was not enough--I wanted to get a closer look at her:

Monster High Posea Reef, $19.99.

Posea's review will actually be at the very end of the post.  I'd like to start out by sharing the four wonderful pictures I got for the last Photo Mission.  Incidentally, this will also be the final Photo Mission.  The contributions I received are wonderful and exactly what I was looking for, but I don't think the idea was quite as engaging as I'd hoped.  Also, when I started to look for ways to reduce the time I spend on the blog, checking my email was the first thing to go.  I'm bad at email to begin with, and my inbox is mostly spam, scams and solicitations at this point.

Ok, but enough complaining!  Here we go with the Photo Mission.  This first picture is from Sumax--a regular visitor and commenter here on the blog.  She writes:

I am from Australia and regularly visit Target, Toys R us and Kmart (and any other shop that has anything vaguely resembling a doll in it) with my daughter. We read your blog together and have made many purchases based on your reviews. One item we looked for and only found very expensively online was the Our Generation Kitchen set you reviewed in 2013. We didn’t buy it and just accepted the fact that this was one gorgeous item we would never own (like the Liv Horse *sob*). Well, we visited our regular Kmart store last week and lo’ and behold we spotted one casually idling on the shelves as if it were no big deal or nuthin':

Our Generation Kitchen set.

But! We didn’t buy it. It retails at $89 Australian ($62 USD) and I just don’t have that kind of money to fritter at the moment. I might nip back in and see if I can lay-by (layaway) it because I’m sure our Journey Girls, Bjd’s, Paula Reina, and various hand made and random dolls would like to have fun in this kitchen. Oooh, I wonder what the frightfully tall ghouls would think of it?

Thank you for the picture, Sumax!  That's a really great kitchen (especially in red) and I love the way it's so tantalizingly displayed in this packaging.  The box I bought included a doll (Jenny) but the presentation was not as elaborate.  It's so fun to look at all of the little details.  I hope you can bring one of these kitchens home soon!

This next picture is from Farrah in upstate New York.  Farrah writes:

I've always been a fan of Fluttershy, but not so much the Equestria Girl dolls in particular.  When I saw this one at Walmart from the new Friendship Games, I started to become convinced that I need one!  Her sweet face and super archery skills may have sold me!

Equestrian Girls Fluttershy.

I totally agree, Farrah!  I lost interest after my initial Equestria Girl review, but have recently found myself lingering in the aisle to check out these dolls again.  It looks to me like many of the new dolls have the higher level of articulation.  I think Zecora is my current favorite...although she has limited articulation.

This next photo is all of the way from Singapore!  Many thanks to Esther for sharing a type of doll that I have never seen here in the United States.  Esther writes:

Hello from Singapore! A British toy shop (Hamleys) just opened a new flagship store here and brought in a doll line I've never seen or heard of before. The name is Fashion'z (pretty lame I know) but from the back of the box what I can kind of make out is that they originate from Germany, but I haven't really managed to find anything much about them at all. Interestingly when I searched for them on the British website, the black-haired girl appears to be much darker in skin colour compared to the one we have here. I don't know if that's a regional difference they made to appeal to an Asian market or just bad promo pictures. I forgot to check on their price, which is totally my bad, but they do seem to have decent articulation (if I squint I think I can make out ankle joints, and they definetly have wrist joints, I just don't know which way they pivot):

Fashion'z dolls.

Thank you, Esther!  These are intriguing.  I zoomed in on each character for anyone who wants to peer more closely at them:

I like how there are "Winter Style" dolls (my favorites), "Summer Style" dolls...and one "Hair Style doll.  That's pretty clever.  I might try to get my hands on one of these for a review!

The last picture is from Kristen (whose Flickr account you can view here.  Kristen has some wonderful doll and craft pictures that are definitely worth a trip!).  She writes:

I've just started collecting dolls as an adult, and all of the information [on this blog] has really helped me to choose the ones that I want. I especially liked your review of the Loft to Love dollhouse by Our Generation. I was looking for a dollhouse this size. When I saw the review, I was able to buy it at Target just a few days later, and I've been really happy with it ever since! 

I wanted to give back as a thank you by submitting a picture for your photo mission. I took a lot of pictures, so it was hard to choose just one. But this one is my favorite because it's a display of the five new doll sets that are coming soon from the Disney Fairytale Designer collection. This collection is called "Heroes and Villains." I'm really excited for the release of these dolls because of the level of detail, and some of the characters are not available as other dolls currently (for example, Peter Pan and Captain Hook). The Disney Store where I took it is dark, but I hope the picture turned out well enough to be useful for your blog:

Disney Store Heroes and Villains.

Thank you so much, Kristen!  The picture is wonderful.  I like the Peter Pan set a lot, too, especially because Peter looks really well-articulated.  It took me so long to post your picture, though, that I missed out on all of the dolls!  As with Esther's picture, above, I separated each set and zoomed in:

I did some of my own covert picture-taking around the holidays, and will share a few of the most eye-catching toys I found.

I've mentioned the Mega Bloks Monster High sets before, but here are some of the ones that are available in my area:

The sets are pricey ($40 for the bigger sets and $30 for these smaller sets), and I'm not much of a Mega Bloks fan in general.  The themes from this company are great, but the ease of construction is nothing like Lego.

As with the Mega Bloks Barbie sets, the best thing to me about this new line is the mini figures.  I showed a mini Clawdeen briefly in my Monster High knockoff post, but I'll review Purrsephone in a bit more detail today.

I like the coffin-shaped blister packs that these dolls come in.  They're very appealing to look at (if you ignore the pink rubber band holding this particular box together...):

The front cardboard panel on these boxes does not stay glued down, though.  All of the figures I've bought look like this now:

There's plenty of glue...it's just not doing its job for some reason.

The package is really easy to open.  The front panel was already loose, so all I had to do was pull the plastic off the cardboard backing.  Purrsephone comes with a stand, a phone, a bracelet and a leaflet:

The leaflet shows the other available figures in this series:

Ghoulia and Clawdeen are my favorites.

Here's Purrsephone on her stand with all of her accessories:

I could not get her to balance upright without the stand.

Purrsephone's coffin-shaped phone has a sticker on one side and a molded Skullette on the other:

These Monster High figures are much taller than the Lego Friends characters:

Lego Friends figure, Mega Bloks Monster High figure.

But shorter than dolls like Polly Pocket:

Mega Bloks Monster High figure, Polly Pocket doll.

Purrsephone's outfit includes a shirt, a jacket, a skirt, and boots.  Her jacket is removable (as is her hair).  Her pink mini skirt is not removable, but it's made out of flexible vinyl that is separate from her legs.  The rest of the clothes are painted.

Here's Purrsephone with her hair and vest removed (the bracelet also comes off, but I left it on for this picture):

Purrsephone has a groove in the back of her head to hold (or try to hold...) her hair in place.  Her tail is unarticulated, but is made out of very flexible, rubbery vinyl.

My figure's facial features are a little crooked, and some of the paint is cracked or smudged, but it looks fine from a distance:

Purrsephone has eight (!) points of articulation.  That's a lot for a tiny doll.  Her head is ball-jointed and can move up, down and all around.  Her arms can only rotate at the shoulders:

Her legs are ball-jointed at the hip and have rotating hinged knees, so she has a fantastic range of leg movement.

Purrsephone also has a rotating joint at her waist...which I didn't discover until I'd been playing with her for quite a while.

Here she is with her hair back on:

Purrsephone is a really fun little figure to pose and play with.  As with the Mega Bloks Barbie figures, I'll probably have to glue this doll's hair on to keep it from falling off and moving around, but overall she's well worth $2.99.

This next toy would have fit right into my What Were They Thinking? post.  I only noticed it on one (of my many) Toys R Us visits, though, so it must be popular.  

It's the "Potty Surprise" Lalaloopsy Baby:

For only $30 (on sale for $25!), you can buy a baby that magically poops surprises.  "Again and again." 'Cause what's more fun than poop?  More poop.

Real babies magically poop surprises, too.  So do small dogs.

The baby is kind-of cute, but I don't really think the rag doll concept mixes well with bathroom play.  I don't picture rag dolls eating, let alone dealing with the consequences of eating.  If they do eat, it should be things like cookies made of gingham, cotton ball ice cream...or maybe a delicate afternoon tea.

Perhaps if this baby pooped buttons it would be cute and thematic?  But she already has buttons for eyes, and I don't want to explore that particular train of thought any further.

I mean, this takes the jewel-pooping mystique of the Poopsie Pets to a whole new level.  This baby apparently poops a different surprise every time.

She also magically talks with her pacifier in her mouth.

I don't think jewels mix particularly well with bathroom play, either.  I mean, eew...but also, there's a disturbing subtext here.  Is the baby a jewel smuggler? 

The most unsettling thing to me about this toy is the glee with which the little girl is peering into the potty--you know, as if we all expect the next big sparkly trinket in our lives to come from the toilet:

But honestly, I laughed pretty hard in the store and I remain a little fascinated by what exactly happens with this toy.  I mean, if the doll just...ah, expels the same charms that she's being fed, how is that a surprise?  Does the food somehow turn into jewels?  Also, is the baby using the potty right through her red diaper or does the diaper come off?  Is it really endless potty time fun, or does the fun, the food--or the surprise--eventually run out?  I have so many questions that I almost wish I'd bought this set.  Perhaps MGA Entertainment is on the right track here after all.

What I was very tempted to buy was this cool Ever After High set from Dragon Games:

The set includes Apple White and her dragon, Braebyrn:

The dragon's name is clever because it sounds authentically dragon-like, but it's also a re-spelling of braeburn (a type of apple).

The other Ever After High doll that stood out to me was Rosabella Beauty.  I think she's especially pretty--partly because of her red-streaked hair, but also because she has a different face shape than many of the other Ever After High dolls:

Her face is much less round than the original Ever After High face.  She even has a shapely chin:

That particular doll's eyes were wonky, though, so I did not purchase her.

A newcomer in the Ever After High aisle of Walmart was this little cutie, Harelow:

Harelow is also from Dragon Games.  I didn't buy her, either, because she has practically no articulation...and because her name reminds me of the word "harelip."  Harelip is antiquated slang for a cleft lip and palate.

Down the aisle from Harelow were these little imps...who completely disappeared a few weeks before Christmas.  I still don't think they're back in stock at most of the stores here in Maine:

These Shopkins Shoppies are cute, but I don't really like the way their tongues stick out.  If I had bought one, I would have chosen the blonde Popette character because I like her theme best and she has fun hair:

There's a third character named Jessacake in the first wave of Shoppies (she has blue hair), and at least two new dolls coming up in January: Peppa-mint (also blue-haired) and Donatina (red-haired).  I'm considering a review of Donatina.

This next set caught my eye because it mirrors a set that was available at the Disney Store for a short period of time.  It includes Anna and Kristoff from the movie Frozen, but they're dressed in the troll wedding costumes:

These two are nowhere near as cute as the Disney Store duo, but their price ($40) is more affordable.

The last group of dolls that I photographed on my mission were the new Monster High Great Scarrier Reef sea creatures.  There were only two of the three dolls at my Toys R Us during the holidays: Kala Mer'ri and Posea Reef.  Of the two, Kala Mer'ri didn't look quite as interesting to me as Posea--despite the fact that she has four arms (Wydowna and Webarella do this better, I think).

My biggest complaint of her is that her tail looks fairly plain compared to Posea's tail.  The articulation of the two tails might be the same (with one chunky hinge at the hips and some movement down in the octopus-like tentacles), but the design looks more intricate and elegant on Posea.

Her tentacles look appropriately squid-like.

Posea's tail is decorated with seaweed and sea critters (or the bones of sea critters...) and so her seaweed-shaped tentacles look like a natural extension of the rest of the tail:

She represents the entire reef!

The back of the box describes Posea as the daughter of Poseidon.  It also has a brief bio and a description of the Great Scarrier Reef story:

The bottom of the box has tiny photographs of the other dolls in the series, and of course the hydra (Peri and Pearl) was the most interesting to me since I hadn't seen it/them in the store.  Not sure how I feel about the double heads, though...they freak me out a little!

Here's Posea with the plastic from her box removed:

The backdrop is very colorful and shows the doll off nicely.  Posea comes with a diary (well-hidden in the backdrop) and apparently she glows in the dark!  Cool.

The bio in the diary has a little more detail than what is shown on the back of the box:

The biology teacher in me can't help but point out that most aquatic plants live in freshwater, not in the ocean.  Plant-like things in the ocean (kelp and other seaweed) are algae, not plants.  In addition, algae is a sign of an unhealthy reef.  Too much algae keeps the sun away from the coral (coral are animals).  Posea might want to re-think her gardening hobby.

Another thing that stands out to me is that Posea's BFFs are the Sea-Mares.  Who are the Sea-Mares??  Are they the same as the Fright-Mares, I wonder?  Like Bay Tidechaser?  I hope they're really awesome new water centaurs!  That would be fun.

Posea describes herself as "going with the flow," in fashion as well as in attitude.  She certainly has a flowing look about her, with her long hair and graceful tail:

I immediately wanted to investigate the tail mechanism.  This is very different from what the Freaky Fusion mermaid, Sirena, has:

The tail has three main parts, each attached to a central stalk with ball joints:

 

The center area looks like it will spin around, too!  Very exciting:

The appendages have great movement and the doll can balance solidly on them with no need for a stand.  She can stand up tall like this:

Or sink down a little lower, like this:

The "legs" also rotate around.  I'll come back and look at the tail in more detail once I remove the ornamentation.

Posea has blue skin and green-streaked magenta hair.  She seems very tropical with her bright, striking mix of colors:

Posea has a narrow face with a lot of detail in her makeup.  Her eyes are outlined mostly in blue--not black.  This gives her face a bit of a faded appearance, but I assume that this is an intentional effect because of the underwater theme.  

I'm always a bit unsettled when a doll's pupils aren't black.  The pupil is just a hole...and it should be black--unless there's light reflecting out from the tapetum or the blood vessels at the back of the eye.  

Anyway, Posea also has faint freckles across her cheeks and nose, but also some dotted areas just under her eyes. I'm not exactly sure what these dots are supposed to represent, but the effect is interesting:

There's a lot of color in Posea's face, but I wish the distribution was different....and that some of the colors were bold enough to match the hair and outfit.

I don't have a lot of color-editing power in my photo processing program, but I tried out a few different alterations and like this one the best:

Modified Posea Reef face.

Posea has a smiling mouth with sparkly red-pink lipstick:  

The hair around Posea's face is pulled back into a small ponytail.  The ponytail is decorated with a black plastic headpiece that's held in place with a section of hair:

My doll's ponytail was not set perfectly at the factory.

The headpiece is molded to look like coral with a dead sea urchin (or maybe a shield?) in the center:

Apparently the headpiece also needs two plastic ties to keep it in place.

Posea has a widow's peak hairline and nice, thick hair.  The hair on the top of her head is pushed forward a little so it poofs out over her forehead.

I did not take the hair down from its original style.  I think it would be hard to get the headpiece back on.  It's not designed very well for play.

Posea is wearing long, electric blue, fan coral earrings:

I love the color and shape of these earrings, but they interfere with Posea's shirt decoration and head movement.  One of the earrings is developing a white stress mark at the top, too.  I'm worried it will break.

With the earrings out of the way, I tied Posea's hair back into a single ponytail:

She has really unusual ears:

Posea is wearing a fabric tank top, but this is covered with a pink bendable vinyl decoration that's molded to look like coral.  Her tail is covered by a separate green vinyl skirt molded to look like seaweed:

I really like how the coral fans out to the right side of Posea's face:

The coral fastens in back with two peg-and-hole attachment sites:

Here's the coral top on its own:

Under the coral, Posea is wearing a bright sleeveless top with an asymmetrical hem:

The colorful print includes small shell designs and an upside-down sea horse or sea dragon:

The shirt opens all of the way down the back with a velcro seam.  It's easy to remove.

Posea is left wearing only the green seaweed arm bands that match her skirt.  These can be removed when the doll's hands are off.

The seaweed skirt has several different animals tied into it.  There are three fish skeletons, one sea horse, one crab, and a snake:

The skirt detaches in back with the same style of peg-and-hole closure that's on the coral top.

It's strange to me that all of the skirt's decorations are tied on with clear rubber bands.  I left all of these in place because I don't see how I would get everything back on if I cut the rubber bands.  Again, this doesn't seem like a very good design for kids who want to play with the doll.

I wish that the animal decorations had little pegs on the back that would insert into holes on the skirt.  Then, not only would the decorations be easily re-usable, but they could be re-positioned into various designs.

Here's what Posea looks like without any of her clothing:

She has an impressive thirteen points of articulation.

The top of Posea's body is articulated like the top of Avea Trotter's body.  Her torso is covered in little spines, though, just like an echinoderm:

Echinoderms are animals like sea urchins, sand dollars, sea cucumbers and starfish.  All of these animals have spikes on their skin to some degree--some spikes (like those on a sea urchin) are much larger than others (like those on a sea cucumber).  The name echinoderm actually means "spiny skin."

The pattern on Posea's back reminds me of the pattern on a sea urchin skeleton or a sand dollar:

Sea urchin skeleton or "test."

Living sand dollar.

The spine pattern continues all of the way down Posea's arms and onto her webbed fingers:

Posea's tail has a seaweed pattern molded into it:

The top of Posea's body bends in the same way as other Monster High bodies.  She even has rotation in her torso joint--just like Avea Trotter:

The joint at the top of Posea's tail is a simple hinge.  It allows Posea to bend forwards, but not backwards.

She can also sit on the ground using this joint:

Each of the tentacles on Posea's tail have restricted ball-jointed movement.  As I mentioned earlier, this allows her to sink down close to the ground...

...or stand up tall:

Because all of the tentacles move separately, Posea can also bend in one direction, like this:

Or like this:

She has remarkably good balance in a number of different positions, and the tail is really fun to manipulate.  My Posea has very stiff arm movement, though, which interferes with posing and play. 

The joint at the bottom of the tail (just above the seaweed tentacles) does, in fact, rotate, but the movement of this joint is stiff, too.

I didn't read the box very carefully, so I thought Posea's body would glow in the dark.  It doesn't.

Posea in the light...Posea in the dark.

I did get this cool over-exposed picture of her non-glowing body in the dark, though:

The box (and the directions) are pretty clear about which parts of each doll are supposed to glow in the dark:

For Posea, this is just the decorations on her tail:

Radioactive fish skeleton.

Posea's blue body looks like it should glow, so I was a little disappointed that only these tiny decorations have the glow-in-the-dark feature.

Posea has a very large presence, so I was surprised to see that she's actually a bit shorter than a traditional Monster High doll like First Wave Clawdeen:

Posea Reef, First Wave Clawdeen Wolf.

Clawdeen is wearing her tall boots, though, so maybe it isn't a fair comparison.

Here are a few more pictures of this interesting creature:

Bottom line? I like this doll quite a lot.  Her articulated tail is very fun to play with and her ocean-themed outfit looks dramatic and has great detail.  Her spiny, patterned blue skin and webbed fingers are amazing.  My criticisms of this doll are that her arm movement is restrictively stiff and several of her accessories (like her headpiece and the decorations on her skirt) are not designed to be easily removed and re-used.  Overall, though, she is a colorful, dramatic and unique new addition to the Monster High collection.  She really stood out to me in the store.

Many thanks again to Sumax, Farrah, Esther and Kristen for your contributions to the Photo Mission!  I really loved seeing pictures from across the country...and across the world!  And thank you to everyone who reads this blog for being patient with me as I figure out how to approach my beloved hobby in the upcoming year.