Tea with Lena: Barbieland Miniatures and Zuru Mini Brands Create

I was going through the blog archive the other day and noticed that it's coming up on three years since I started reviewing again.  Three years!  The time has flown by for me.  I also noticed that I'm posting way less often than I used to, which is a little depressing.  At this point I have an enormous backlog of dolls that I'm dying to look at!  I always set the goal of writing shorter reviews more frequently, but don't seem to be very good at following through on that--and this week is no exception.

This week is a little different, though.  About a month after I re-started the blog, I asked Lena (Barbie Signature Looks Lina) to join me as an assistant.  Her job was fairly simple back then: stand in and act as a size and body comparison for every doll that I review.  She's done very well with this task, I think, but has started to complain that she's not being used to her full potential.  So, back in January of last year, we dreamed up the Tea with Lena series so that Lena could invite guests into her home and add a new perspective to certain reviews.  This week, rather than hosting a review in her home, Lena asked if she could be on set to help me show off some smaller items that I've been meaning to review for a while: an assortment of BarbieLand mini dolls and two new Zuru Mini Brands toys:

Mini Brands Series 5 ($7.49), Mini Brands Create ($9.99), BarbieLand Cutie Reveal ($2.89), and BarbieLand Color Reveal ($2.99).

Of course I agreed to Lena's suggestion.  She and I have become pretty good friends over the years, and it's hard to say no to her.

We hauled the kitchen island from her house over to the studio and set it up against the backdrop:

I feel like I'm hosting a cooking show or something.

I think the island looks fine, but I may need to invest in a new table if we decide to do this kind of review again.

The first thing that we wanted to look at is a BarbieLand mini Cutie Reveal.  Lena met the full-sized Chelsea toucan Cutie Reveal and the Barbie unicorn Cutie Reveal on her spring break last year.

For anyone unfamiliar with the Cutie Reveal dolls, these are Barbies who come dressed in animal suits:

I was excited about the BarbieLand toys because they look like perfect miniatures of the standard Cutie Reveal dolls:

BarbieLand mini Cutie Reveal doll, $2.89.

Each mini costs about three dollars and comes in a small plastic shell surrounded by cardboard.

The cardboard on the back has a picture of the six possible Cutie Reveal characters:

They all look very cute, but it's not clear from this picture if the animal heads come off:

If the heads weren't removable, I'd be much less excited about this toy.

Fortunately, on the front of the package, there's a tiny picture that makes it clear that the heads definitely come off:

I ripped away the cardboard on the front of the package in order to get a better look at the backdrop.  It's a cheerful BarbieLand scene, complete with a rainbow, a pink car, and a Dreamhouse:

I took the toy out and handed it over to Lena for closer inspection:

Oh!  It looks just like the bigger sets, doesn't it?

Well, kind-of.  The larger sets have that cardboard piece on the side, and the decorations are different:

Okay, fine, but it's definitely the right size for me.

That's true!  It looks to be 1:6 scale.

Here are all of the possible characters.

Including the unicorn!  We met the large version of her.

Yes, we did!  She's still lurking around here somewhere, I think.

This part of the package has some info about what's inside, but I can't see it very well.

So let's just open up the container, shall we?

Absolutely.

Oh, look!  There's a breathing hole in the top.

Um...I think that's so you can reach in and pet the doll's fur, but okay.

Which one did we get...

The suspense is killing me!

It's the pink bunny!

Just like what's shown on the package.

Let me get her out of this plastic bag.

She comes with a little pet bunny, too!

And they can both stand on their own.  That should make you happy, Emily.

That does make me very happy, yes.  Here's a closer look:

The soft vinyl bunny head doesn't quite match the plastic body, but it's close.

Also, the little bunny's face paint is askew, but it's hard to tell without a zoom lens:

I didn't notice that.

From the back, you can see Barbie's hair hanging down below the bunny mask:

I like her colorful highlights.

Can you get that mask off, Lena?

I think so, yeah.  Just a sec.

The head feels like squishy Polly Pocket clothing.

Now we can see her face:

Her eyes look shifty.  Like she doesn't have pupils or something.

Yeah you're right.  Is she crosseyed?  It's hard to tell.  Here's a zoomed in version of that last picture:

No pupils.  And her mouth is too big.

The face paint works better from a distance, that's for sure.

Here she is from the back:

I like those highlights, though.

I agree with Lena that the colorful highlights are fun.  I wonder if the larger bunny doll has those, too?

Well, go look and see if we have the big bunny.  You have so much crap around here, who knows what you'll find.

I don't actually think I have the large bunny, but I found this promotional photo of her:

Sure enough, she has almost the exact same colors in her hair!  Love it.  The larger dolls also have color change areas on their face, but the minis don't have that feature.

Look!  She can sit.

Even one point of articulation is impressive for a doll this small.

How tall is she, anyway?

She's just over 1.5 inches without her mask, and 2 inches tall with those big ears.  So, she's taller than the World's Smallest Barbie, but shorter than mini reproduction Barbie:

From left: mini reproduction Barbie, BarbieLand Cutie Reveal, World's Smallest Barbie.

What a fun little doll!  And for only three bucks.

Should we open another one?

Of course!

I have one right here...

I hope it's not a repeat.

I wonder if I can see anything through the breathing hole?

No luck.  Can you see anything?

Nope.  Open her up!

Okay, okay.  Let's see here...

Oh my gosh!

We got the unicorn!!

See?

Oh, wow!  That's awesome.

I know how much you like unicorns, Emily.

I do.  Both she and the little unicorn are really sweet.

Dibs on the little unicorn.

Here's the doll without her mask:

Her face is better than the bunny doll.

Yes, but does she have pupils?

No pupils and no sclera.  But it almost works with her dark eyes.

She definitely looks like the big version of the unicorn.

I know the big unicorn is around here somewhere.  Why don't you go find her?

It took me a minute, but I finally found the unicorn hanging out in a corner with a few of my horses.

Hi, welcome.  I remember you from last year.

Look at this awesome miniature version of you.

Not quite as colorful, but still pretty cute, right?

Can you take off the unicorn masks for a quick comparison, please?

Sure, no problem.

There we go.

The costumes are quite different, and the mini doll has fewer colors in her hair:

Yeah, and the big unicorn has purple eyes with pupils.  And scleras.

I still like having both the original and the mini version of this character, though.

Yes, we know you like miniature versions of things.

Shall we move on and look at one of the Color Reveal minis now?  I'm pretty excited about those.  I've never opened a regular Barbie Color Reveal doll, but I reviewed one of the mermaids over on Patreon:

Barbie Color Reveal mermaid.

The mermaids only have color reveal tails, while some of the other Color Reveal dolls come completely concealed behind a coating of paint that rinses off in water:

She's a little creepy.

From what I can tell, the fully-coated dolls are rare at this point and can be expensive (~$50), but the minis are only $3!

The mini packaging has great detail:

But, again, the instructions are hard to read because they're so small:

And all of the decoration on the package is printed onto a plastic covering that has to be removed in order to access the doll:

Without the decorative plastic, the package is quite plain:

But the doll is fully-coated in color!

I was nervous about getting water on the backdrop, but Lena insisted on doing the color reveal herself.

First you have to fill the plastic container up to the molded water line.

Then drop the doll into the water.

Be careful not to splash!

Oh, look!  The color is already coming off!

See the glittery pink stuff pooling at the bottom?

I shook the container to speed things along...

Now I can't even see the doll!

This reveal reminds me a bit of the Magic Mixies Pixlings...but way simpler.

I rinsed the doll off, and here she is:

Her paint has a lot of pixelation, but it's hard to see this in real life.

No pupils or scleras again.

She's really cute, and has a lot of detail in her outfit.

I wish her hair and dress didn't match exactly.

Despite some little imperfections, I'm pretty obsessed with the mini Color Reveal dolls.  What a fun idea!

At this point, I was starting to get more interested in the BarbieLand line as a whole.  I noticed on Mattel's website that you can buy a mini Dreamhouse that's based on the Barbie movie:

That was such a good movie.

This comes with a mini Barbie doll in the iconic pink gingham dress, but it costs a whopping $50.  That's a lot, although I'm dangerously tempted by Ken's Mojo Dojo Casa House version:

For anyone else balking at the price of these mini houses, Lena found a more affordable option on Amazon.  This is the $10 version of the Dreamhouse:

$40 cheaper than the big one, and it also comes with a doll.

From what I've seen, there are two mini houses in the $10 price category, the one Lena found and this one:

The one I found is better.

Okay, fine.  Let's look at the one you found.  It certainly looks bigger than the other option:

BarbieLand mini Dreamhouse, $9.99.

The back of the package shows some of the details, like a bed, a water slide, and working doors:

Here's everything that was in the box:

The house itself has two floors, with one ladder leading to the second floor and another ladder leading to a rooftop balcony that accesses the water slide:

For anyone averse to ladders, there's an elevator on the left side of the house that actually moves up and down:

Just like my house!

The opposite side of the house has molded details that include a gardening shed area, a lounge chair, and some recycling bins:

The detail here is not hugely impressive, but I like that the purple front doors swing open and shut:

There's a removable bed and a fixed toilet...but no shower:

I wouldn't live anywhere without a shower.

In lieu of a shower, I guess the mini Barbies can go swimming in the tiny pool:

Hot tub, more like.

And there's a molded kitchen area that looks fairly well appointed:

I don't see a dishwasher.

One exciting thing about this set is that it comes with a mystery doll, which I'll let Lena unpack:

Thank you.  I felt like you were trying to take over the review there for a minute.

Sorry.  Old habits.

Looks like we got...

Oh, haha.  I can't see the doll yet!  There's a big flap covering everything.

Way to build suspense, Lena.

Now I can see.

Huh.

It's the same exact doll that's shown on the packaging.

Oh, you're right.  Not much of a surprise, in the end:

Here's a closer look at the doll and her pet bird:

That bird is way too big for that girl.

But her eyes look really good.

Here they are from the back:

Lena has a point.  I'm not sure what kind of bird this is meant to be (canary, probably), but it's chicken-sized in relationship to the doll.

A canicken?

The bird and its perch can be placed anywhere in the house, but the doll has specific heart-shaped holes where her stand fits.  The hole in the kitchen is hard to access, but the others are pretty easy to use.

That looks fun.  Can I play with it for a minute?

Of course.

It's a nice little house, especially for $10.  And it offers a fun backdrop for games or displays involving the miniature dolls.

And there's a third version of the house that I found more recently:

This one has a really fancy slide and a tropical-looking patio on the second floor.  It'd be tempting to collect all three houses and have a mini village.  All for less money than one big movie-themed Dreamhouse.  Although I'll confess to coveting the movie house now that I've grown to appreciate the mini dolls so much.

This is a good example of how I could do better at editing my reviews.  I mean, Lena and I could have stopped here, right?  But it turns out that neither one of us is good at knowing when to wrap things up.  We were both eager to get a look at some of Zuru's new surprise mini foods.

I've included a few of Zuru's surprise toys both here and on Patreon over the years, and the scale is hit-or-miss.  For example, the Mini Brands purses are really great for 1:6 scale characters:

Lena with a Mini Brands purse.

But some of the mini toys are too big...

Lena holding a Toy Mini Brands glue bottle (from an old Patreon review).

And some are too small:

Lena with Toy Mini Brands on a tiny shelf (from an old Patreon review).

But Lena and I were excited about the Mini Brands Series 5 food sets because I read that they were supposed to be more reliably 1:6 scale.  

Let's see if that's true.

I don't want food that won't fit in my fridge.

There are a few rare "frozen moment" minis in these balls that look pretty great:

Mm.  I like tacos.

I also like that the capsules are made out of recycled plastic.

Me too, Lena.

The balls look like they're going to be easy to open, with a perforated strip down one side:

This is very easy.

But about half way down, the strip stopped working.  After that, the only choice was random ripping at the plastic, which didn't go well:

This is not easy at all!

Can you go get some scissors, please?

With the help of the scissors, we were able to get the covering off.  But it was an ordeal.

All right.  This looks easier to manage.

I'll just lift this lid off...

That's a lot of paper bags!

The inside of the ball was stuffed with five paper bags and a small collector's sheet.  Lena had to spread everything out on the floor to get a better look:

I hope we get the tacos.

Lena tore open the first bag:

This feels like a can of something.

It's tomato soup.

This is a huge can, though.

The can has great details, including nutritional information on the back, but the size feels off for Lena.

It's more the size of a big tub of oatmeal than a can of tomato soup.

Moving on.

This looks like fruit juice.

Zero sugar fruit juice.  How is that possible?

They must mean zero added sugar, I guess.  

The size on this item is pretty good, as is the detail:

In her unrelenting search for tacos, Lena hurried on:

This one is too light to be tacos.

It's candy of some sort.

It's jelly beans!  You might like these, Emily.

Those aren't normal jelly beans, though, Lena.  Take a closer look:

They're Jelly Belly Bean Boozled candies, with flavors like rotten egg and barf:

Oh, that's disgusting.  Put those away.

Maybe this one is better.

Is it tacos?

Uh, oh, SpaghettiOs.

Again, that can looks a little big for Lena.  Although it's better than the tomato soup.

There's only one bag left.

This is my last hope for tacos.

Hm...nope.

It's Fruit-tella fruit snacks.

Those look believably 1:6 scale, although I'm not familiar with the brand.

Lena and I scanned the collector's sheet to see what some of the other options are.  I like the office supply section with things like tape, a glue gun, and an adorable stapler:

I want the stapler.  And tacos.

The money also looks realistic:

What currency is that?

And then, of course, there are the dramatic frozen moments items:

With tacos.

Here are all five of the foods that we got together:

I'm only interested in the juice.

It's a little underwhelming, honestly.  The juice and the candies are the only things that really work for Lena.  I find the Jelly Bellies humorous, and love to read all of the little details on all of the products, but the whole group doesn't feel worth $7.50.

I secretly opened up another ball of Mini Brands, just to see if I could find Lena some tacos.  Unfortunately, there were no frozen moment items at all.  However, we did get a better assortment this time around:

We got cash!

Indeed, we got several of the items that I was admiring most, including the glue gun, tape roll, and money:

And most of these things are a good fit for Lena.

Can we set this up in my spare room?

The glue gun is an actual three dimensional plastic item that comes in highly-detailed cardboard packaging:

Look at all of the writing on the back!

The cash is also about the right size for Lena:

Four, five, six...

And I think it's a variation on the yen:

That's odd because Zuru was originally a New Zealand company and is now headquartered in Hong Kong.

Looking more closely at the collector's sheet, there are actually six different currencies from all around the world:

From top left: yen, euro, pound, pesos, francs, and Canadian dollar.

Anyway, the second ball was definitely worth the price and has a lot of stuff that we can use.

Out of the two sets, which together cost $14.99, here are the six items that Lena can take back with her to the house:

But I'll need to exchange these yen for dollars.

The last product that Lena and I wanted to look at is the new Create series form Mini Brands.  This seems like a direct copy of MGA's Make it Minis:

Each set has ingredients that you can combine to make mini MasterChef dishes.

A rip-off of Make it Mini but with the MasterChef name attached.

I'll be interested to see if these kits involve uncured resin.  I think they do.  And the strange thing about that is that many (all?) of MGA's resin kits were recalled for being unsafe.  No surprise there, given that resin can be an irritant.

The head-scratcher here is that the Make it Mini sets are still available to buy online.  How can recalled items still be offered for sale?  And how does Zuru think they will avoid the same fate?  Maybe something about the packaging had to be changed to reflect the hazard.

In any case, I was eager to see how Zuru's take on this concept compares to the original.

There's more recycled plastic, which is good.

This ball was also a lot easier to open than the Mini Brands balls.

Oh, my.

There's too much stuff for my small table again.

This ball came with four paper bags and an item wrapped in tissue paper:

Voilà.

What could this be?

It looks like a chef's hat:

But it won't fit on my head.

There's a blue light on the bottom, with a little on-off switch.

That's pretty interesting.  I'm betting that the light is ultraviolet, and will be used to help cure the resin.

The hat has the MasterChef logo on the front:

Gordon Ramsay is cute.

If you say so, Lena.

Here's a closer look at the underside:

Lena and I opened up all of the paper bags, and this is what we found:

Lots of ingredients!

I guess I'm hosting a cooking show after all.

I arranged all of the ingredients on the table for a clearer photo:

It looks like we'll be making chocolate profiteroles:

That looks so good.

We opened up a second ball, too, for variety, and got this assortment:

Which makes pork belly ramen:

And, as I suspected, the chef's hat is the tool that will cure the resin:

While Lena was cleaning up the mess of paper in the studio, I took all of the ingredients up to my kitchen and got to work making some profiteroles!

The basic concept here is identical to the Make it Mini kits, where you add elements one by one, occasionally stopping to pour and cure some resin:

The presentation is slightly different from the Make it Minis, though.  A lot of the Mini Brands ingredients come in paper packaging decorated with the MasterChef logo and real photographs of food:

The actual food items are not quite as realistic as the photos:

Here's a closer look at the choux pastry:

I arranged the pastries in the bowl:

And then poured the "cream" over them:

As with the Make it Minis, the cream is nowhere near opaque enough to look like cream.  It looks more like a sugary glaze:

The pictures in the instruction book make the cream look much better than it is:

Once the cream was in place, I added some strawberry slices:

At this point, the dish needed to cure for 5-10 minutes under the light or 10-20 minutes in the sun.  I didn't want to sit and hold a light for 10 minutes, so I put the profiteroles outside while I worked on the other dish.

After the cream had cured in the sun, I got ready to add the chocolate sauce, almonds, and mint:

The chocolate sauce has a very basic warning on the back indicating that it should not be consumed:

Could also mean: do not pull a chunk of flesh out of your head.

The chocolate looks better than the cream:

And the almond slices are so tiny!

Here's the completed dish:

The ramen construction was very similar:

The first step was to add the noodles and nori to the bowl:

The sheets of nori seemed big to me, so I cut them into quarters.

The next step was to add the pork belly and eggs:

This is what the actual pieces look like:

And here's everything assembled in the bowl:

The last step was to add green onions:

But these do not look realistic at all:

I added some resin sauce, and then debated back and forth about whether or not to include the onions:

I caved and added them.  They're not great, but a bit more sauce on top made them look slightly less fake:

For some reason I found these kits to be more fun than the Make it Mini sets.  The resin smell was not bad, and I was able to contain the mess.  This might have a lot to do with the fact that I've had practice with resin kits at this point, so I'm better prepared.  Or perhaps Zuru has a better resin formula than MGA.

One downside to Create is that there are fewer ingredients that can be used long-term on their own.  The Make it Mini toys had a bunch of great stuff that still lingers in Lena's kitchen, like mini ice cubes, cartons of berries, and containers of whipped cream and sprinkles.  Most of the Mini Brand ingredients came in paper packaging that I had to rip to open, and there were not any extra pieces.  So after doing the kit, I'm left with just the one main dish.

Another difference between the two products is that the Create recipes don't all involve resin.  A third kit, that I purchased more recently, had this strawberry cake that uses an air-drying glue-like substance for the cream instead of resin:

This substance looks a lot more like real cream than the resin does.  It was also easier to use than the resin, but I'm not sure if it will be as durable as resin over time.

I took the completed food back down to Lena as she was finishing up in the studio.

I'm packing up some stuff for my house.

I think the MasterChef food looked good to her?  She didn't leave it behind.

Okay, I'm heading out.  Thanks to everyone who came to read my review!

When Lena got back to her house, she was surprised to be greeted not just by Bruno--but by Riker, too!

Woof.

Hi buddy, how're you doing?

Then it dawned on her:

Oh, wait.  If Riker is here, than means...

Lena raced upstairs and found...

Oh my gosh!  Ian!

Surprise!

I knew you had your big review today, and I wanted to celebrate.

These are for you.

They smell so nice, Ian.  Thank you.

You are so thoughtful.

As they hugged, Ian whispered into Lena's ear:

That's not all.  I have another surprise.

What is it?

I booked us a few nights at a house in the country.  I thought you might want to get away.

That's amazing!  But who will take care of Bruno and Riker?

I already called you sister, and she's coming to pet sit.

You thought of everything.

Oh, and I can bring the food from my review for our dinner tonight!

That night, Lena and Ian sat outside in the gorgeous country setting, with a pretty impressive looking spread of MasterChef delicacies:

This looks amazing.

So, how'd the review go?

It was so good!  I was happy to get a break from naked size comparisons.

Uh *cough* naked size comparisons?

Yeah, I do a lot of that, but I'm trying to branch out.

Your body is beautiful, but I think Emily should be more focused on your intelligence and review skills.

You know what?  You're right.  I'm actually better at doing reviews than Emily is.

Um...

I agree.

What's happening here?

How about you?  How's your job going?

The company is really excited about AI, so I'm building a deep learning convolutional neural network model.

...

Do you worry that you'll encounter fundamental limits associated with variance or resolution scaling laws?

Oh, gosh.  That's a great question.  I don't even know how to answer!

You are astonishing, Lena.

Thank you, Ian.

But hey, we should eat!  Look at all of this food.

The ramen looks delicious.

Hm, something's wrong though.

It's very hard.

Is this fake food?

It's okay, Lena.  The kitchen is stocked, and I hear there's even a hot tub around somewhere.

Ooh!  A hot tub?  I could wear my bikini.

Shall we?

I love you, Ian.

I love you, too.

And so the two lovebirds spent the rest of the evening in the hot tub, with empty stomachs but full hearts.

Bottom line?  I don't want to interrupt Lena, so I'll summarize a few thoughts about the toys in this review.

When I first saw the BarbieLand mini items, I wasn't very enthusiastic.  Even the Dreamhouse from the movie didn't tempt me; it seemed too small and lacking the type of intricate detail that draws me in.  However, when I learned about the mini Cutie Reveal and Color Reveal dolls, I couldn't order them fast enough.  I love miniature versions of things, and these are really excellent 1:6 scale minis of the original products.  Of the two variations in this review, I prefer the Cutie Reveal dolls' reusable and detailed packaging, but I like that the dolls in the Color Reveal line aren't permanently dressed in animal suits.  It's also amazing to me that the fun color reveal feature was so perfectly replicated in this tiny scale.  Once I had a few of the mini dolls in my collection, I could begin to see the value in some of the houses and other accessories.  The mini dolls are a bit small to be easily played with, at least for my big hands, but they look very cute on display and make excellent accessories for any sixth scale character.

I had mixed feelings about the two Series 5 Mini Brands balls that we opened.  I'd really hoped that the food would be more consistently 1:6 scale, but this was not the case.  In the first ball, only one or two of the items can be used in Lena's house.  The second ball was much more rewarding, with a glue gun, tape roll, pasta sauce jar, and stack of money that are all to scale and look great.  So while I'm happy to have those particular items, I'm not likely to purchase any more Series 5 sets.

The Mini Brands Create balls were unexpectedly fun.  Having come away from my experience with the Make it Minis disappointed by the smell and the mess of resin kits, I had low expectations.  However, because of my past experience or maybe because of Zuru's better approach to the concept, I had more fun with the Create kits.  The resin smell didn't bother me, and I was able to complete three dishes without washing my hands in alcohol once.  I also like that not all of the kits contain resin.  The completed food looks really good, too, although the resin cream is not opaque enough to look believable.  The big disappointment with the Create sets is that while the ingredients all look great in their original packaging, the packaging is not designed to be re-used.  I wasn't left with an assortment of extra ingredients and durable containers, which was my favorite thing about the Make it Mini toys.  I'm still not sure how either of these resin-based products are still on the market, given the massive recalls that MGA experienced, but I'm happy to have had the chance to re-visit this type of activity.

Now, I guess I'd better go start the process of hiring somebody new to do my naked size comparisons.

Smart choice.