Sunday Surprise: Mommy-to-be Judith Dolls!

I realized yesterday that there are only two Sundays left until Christmas.  Two.  Can you believe that?  It took me totally by surprise.  It's much more typical that I'm waiting and waiting for Christmas, moping around the house because I feel like the big day will never come.  Things seem to be happening faster than usual this year for some reason.  Anyway, this realization threw me into a panic because I have a bunch of different Sunday Surprise toys that I wanted to chat about before the holidays, and now I can only look at two of them!

Today I want to show you something called the Mommy-to-be Judith doll.  This doll was developed in Europe (I think?) and introduced into the United States in 1991 (back when I was a kid).  There's not much information about these dolls on the internet, but there's a Chicago Tribune article from 1992 that's been archived online.  This article states that Judith is believed to be the first pregnant play doll distributed in the United States.  That's pretty cool!  Of course Mattel came along a decade later with their pregnant Midge doll, but the Judith Corporation was apparently first on the scene.

So why is Judith a good doll for the Sunday Surprise?  Well, because the gender and appearance of her little baby is a mystery!  And, what makes this doll unusually fun is that the company put boy babies in half of their dolls and girls in the other half (according to the Tribune article).  So I have an actual 50:50 chance of getting a little boy today!  Better yet, I'm going to de-box two Judith dolls, and while this won't change the odds of either baby being a boy...at least I have two chances.

Mommy-to-be Judith doll (1991).

Life in the Dreamhouse "Raquelle"--A Guest Review!

Back when I reviewed Life in the Dreamhouse Midge, I mentioned that my second favorite doll in this series is Raquelle.  Raquelle has a smirky half-smile that gives her a unique (strong!) personality among the Barbie lineup.  My fondness for Raquelle made me especially happy to hear from Kayleigh, a fellow doll collector who was interested in writing a guest review of this doll.

Kayleigh has a wide range of doll interests--most of which overlap with my own.  She enjoys Barbie, Monster High, Ever After High, Disney Store dolls, Bratzillaz, J-Dolls, and Moxie Teenz.  Life in the Dreamhouse Raquelle is her all-time favorite doll.

Kayleigh's wonderfully thorough review of Raquelle includes a comparison to the 2012 Raquelle "Clutch" Fashionista doll.  I'd like to thank Kayleigh for all of her hard work and enthusiasm, and turn the rest of the post over to her!

Life in the Dreamhouse "Raquelle" (redressed).

Anna and Elsa Knockoff Dolls From China

I have to admit that I am still obsessed with the global Frozen doll shortage, and I spend a certain amount of time every week checking the Disney Store inventory and browsing secondary market sales online.  EBay prices on these dolls have come down a little bit since my last Frozen doll review, but it can still cost $40 for the Disney Store Classic Elsa doll, and closer to $70 for an Anna and Elsa pair.  

While I was browsing eBay a few weeks ago, I noticed a two-doll set of Anna and Elsa selling for $18 with free shipping.  This is actually lower than the original Disney Store retail price for this sister set.  On closer inspection of the dolls, however, I realized that they are not authentic Disney Store dolls, but rather knockoffs selling directly from China.  They did look like reasonable imitations, though, complete with a high level of articulation.  Because I am inexplicably fascinated by cheap knockoffs, and because I noticed that a lot of people seem to be purchasing and bidding on these dolls, I figured it might be a good idea to do a quick review.

Counterfeit Elsa and Anna dolls from China.

"Life in the Dreamhouse" Midge and "Happy Family" Midge by Mattel

Midge is one of a series of seven new Barbie dolls based on characters from the Life in the Dreamhouse online computer animated series.  The show is in its fifth season and can be watched free of charge at Barbie.com.  I watched several episodes before I started writing this review.  The frantic pace of the show took a little while for me to get used to, and the plots are hit or miss, but I found the series surprisingly entertaining.  For me, Midge and Raquelle are especially fun to watch (I love Midge's snorting giggle!).  What's funny is that even before I watched any Life in the Dreamhouse webisodes, Midge and Raquelle were the two dolls that appealed to me the most.

Mattel introduced the Midge Hadley character in 1963 as a way to offset Barbie's sexy image and give her a more well-rounded personal life.  Midge is Barbie's best friend from their fictional hometown of Willows, Wisconsin.  The first Midge doll was introduced over 50 years ago, but versions of this character have been relatively scarce through those years.  There were several reproduction vintage Midge dolls made during the last decade, but Life in the Dreamhouse Midge is the first modern version of this character to be offered since the controversial (often pregnant) Happy Family Midge was discontinued 10 years ago.  A fun, picture-heavy history of Midge dolls can be found here.

In this review, I will look at the new Life in the Dreamhouse Midge doll, but I'll also take a trip back in time to de-box the 2003 pregnant Happy Family Midge so that we can see how both the appearance and the backstory of this endearing character have changed.

Life in the Dreamhouse Midge (2013), Happy Family Midge with baby (2003).