Sunday Surprise: A Few Loose Ends!

This week's Sunday Surprise is a mixed bag of goodies.  First of all, I promised that I would find a way to share my remaining Toy Box Monthly subscription boxes with you, so I'll start things off by quickly (?) revealing those items.

The second part of the surprise will be a revisit of Magic Nursery dolls.  The Magic Nursery poll is over, and it was a very close race!  In the end, 211 of you guessed that the blue doll would be a girl while 179 bet on another boy.  I'll de-box that baby at the end of the post, and also share another little Magic Nursery cutie who will help get us into the holiday spirit:

Magic Nursery Holiday Baby (discontinued).

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wish I had a new review to offer today.  I have three things in the works--none of them quite finished yet.  Despite that, I didn't want to let the day pass without expressing my heartfelt thanks to all of you.  You've kept this blog alive with your encouragement and suggestions, and you make this a special place for me with your kind, cheerful, knowledgeable contributions.  Thank you.

I'm visiting my family in Boston (and making lots of pie!) but did manage to sneak out and get a single photograph for you. This is my Pullip Eos doll.  She's from the 2010 Steampunk collection.  She's a doll with a lot of flaws (squeaky legs, fragile outfit, arms that fall out, terrible hair) but I still love her.  I've actually kept her in the box for many years, but needed to get her out so that she could be in a comparison lineup for my next review.  That's a little hint at what's coming...

I hope all of you have a relaxing, happy, safe Thanksgiving!

Pullip Eos (discontinued).

Willa and the WellieWishers from American Girl

I've gotten sidetracked by a lot of different things--good and bad--over the last few weeks and haven't had nearly enough time for dolls.  Most recently, the local high school's fall musical has taken a lot of my attention...in a good way.  Every year I'm awed by the range of talents that teenaged kids possess--not just their skill in singing, acting, dancing and playing instruments, but also their aptitude with the intricacies of set design, lighting effects and sound engineering.  It's amazing to watch.

Anyway, in the midst of this flurry of fall activity, I realized that American Girl had released a new line of play dolls: the WellieWishers.  Before this discovery, I'd been feeling like I was probably done with American Girl dolls.  My mini Kaya and my new diabetic Lea are wonderful, and I didn't feel the need for any new additions or reviews.  But then I saw Melody (a new character in the Historical line) and her Recording Studio.  Wow.  She's incredible.  Her introductory statement is, "Fairness and equality for all people sound like music to my ears."  Indeed.  Needless to say, Melody's 1960s world sucked me right back in.  All of a sudden I was pouring over the catalog and searching the online store again, wishing I could try out Melody's piano or play with her detailed studio.  And that's when I discovered the WellieWishers.

I would love to purchase Melody some day, although I'm not sure that a review of her would add much to what I've already said about American Girl dolls.  I knew immediately that I wanted to review the WellieWishers, though.  Why?  Well, first and foremost, the dolls are completely new.  They resemble regular American Girl dolls in some ways, but do not share any body components with them.  Also, there's a great mix of characters, all of whom are wearing colorful, quirky outfit pieces.  To top it off, the dolls cost $60--half as much as regular American Girls--and are available in stores like Toys R Us.  And, of course, they're irresistibly cute:

Wellie Wishers "Kendall" from American Girl ($60).

Sunday Surprise: A Mystery Reborn Baby!

I mentioned last week in my Saskia Project post that I've been anticipating the arrival of a surprise reborn baby for the past month.  I ordered this baby because I adore surprises, of course, but also because I was curious to see another reborn doll up-close.  I thought it might be helpful for me to see a reborn artist's work as I struggle with Saskia's paint.  This mystery baby arrived a few weeks ago and I finally opened the box on Wednesday.  It has definitely been helpful to look at how this baby was completed.  I'm also very grateful for the tips and encouragement from all of you!  I feel re-energized in my efforts to make Saskia as nice as possible.  Thank you.

For anyone arriving late to this party, I'll quickly explain what a surprise reborn doll is.  A reborn doll is a made-over play doll or a doll assembled from a kit.  Typical reborn kits include a blank vinyl head and limbs and perhaps an unfilled cloth body.  That's it.  Artists and collectors paint these kits, add eyes and hair, and assemble the parts onto stuffed, weighted bodies.  A surprise reborn baby is a completed doll offered for sale by a reborn artist, but all of the characteristics of the doll are left up to the artist to decide.  These qualities are kept secret from the buyer...to add a fun element of mystery.  So, I did not know this baby's gender, size or appearance until I opened the box!

I searched high and low for just the right surprise reborn doll.  There are many different options out there--both on eBay and on Etsy.  I spent a lot of time looking at artists' past work and reading their customer reviews.  I finally found a shop with good prices, good reviews, and a light-handed painting technique that I admire: Brenda's Reborns over on Etsy (Brendasreborns).  Brenda charges $130 for her surprise reborn babies, and also offers a large selection of custom dolls ranging from $130 to $300 (for a set of twins).  I told Brenda that there was no hurry, but I still received my baby quickly--about three weeks after I placed the order.

Surprise reborn doll by Brenda's Reborns ($130).

The Saskia Project

It's time for another project series!  I'm looking forward to this particular project because it addresses my very earliest adult doll interest: babies.  When I began to pay attention to dolls in my early twenties, it was the realistic baby dolls (from companies like Lee Middleton, Gotz and Zapf) that grabbed my heart--probably because I was ready to have real babies of my own.  I collected vinyl art baby dolls for many years, and even accumulated a few precious one-of-a-kind clay babies.

Right around the time that my doll preferences started shifting towards child and fashion dolls, the "reborn" phenomenon emerged.  The process of "reborning" (terrible word, if you ask me) originally involved taking an inexpensive play baby, like a Berenguer, and making it over to look more realistic.  The makeover could include a new coat of paint, new eyes, new hair, or even a new weighted body--many of the things I attempted in the My Twinn Project.  However, as reborning became more and more popular, several well-known artists and doll companies began offering unpainted doll kits (basically just vinyl heads and limbs) to replace play dolls as the starting point for this process.  I've re-painted and re-wigged a few $15 Berenguer play dolls in my day, but I've never purchased one of these premium doll kits...until now!

My mission in this series is to complete a popular doll kit--the "Saskia" sculpt by Bonnie Brown.  I will attempt to paint this doll, find her some nice eyes, micro-root her hair (ahh!  I am so nervous about this part!), assemble her onto a weighted body, and dress her to look cute (that part will be fun).   I can tell you already, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

"Saskia" by Bonnie Brown.

Sunday Surprise: Magic Nursery Toddlers by Mattel!

My goodness, Sundays come around quickly, don't they?  This used to feel like a bad thing because Sunday symbolizes the dwindling weekend.  While Saturday morning is filled with possibilities, Sunday morning is time to clean the bird cages, vacuum the dog hair, and get ready for another week of work.  Sundays have transformed a bit in my mind recently, though.  I have a new-found appreciation for Sunday because this is the day when my son calls home from college...and also because it's the day when I get to look at another surprise doll!

The Sweet e.Baby that I reviewed during the last Sunday Surprise had a secret gender and a secret name hidden with a CD...technology that was new enough in 1999 to feel magical.  In 1990, about a decade before the Sweet e.Baby, Mattel came up with a doll whose gender was hidden within another seemingly-magical concoction: a dissolving hospital gown.  Yes, that's right--a gown that completely disintegrates in water to reveal the gender announcement (and a new outfit).  Mattel called these babies Magic Nursery dolls.

The idea might sound far-fetched, but it was wildly popular.  My parents should thank their lucky stars that I was not a child of the 90s, because this kind of toy would have been completely irresistible to me.  It's even irresistible to me now, almost thirty years later, when unopened Magic Nursery dolls--with all of their surprises still hidden--can cost a small fortune.

Magic Nursery Toddler doll by Mattel (1990).

Star Wars: The Force Awakens 1:6 "Jakku Rey" by Hot Toys

I was nervous about watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens, as I imagine many children of the 80s were.  The original Star Wars trilogy was such an important part of my childhood, I needed this continuation of the story to be good.  And it was good, I thought.  A bit predictable, certainly, but an awful lot of fun.  I laughed and cheered and even gasped a few times.  The thing on my mind as I was walking out of the theater had little to do with the plot or the well-loved older characters, though.  I was focused primarily on Rey, the new female protagonist.  She is awesome.  I think Daisy Ridley's  spunky and intelligent interpretation of this mysterious girl from Jakku transformed Force Awakens into much more than the simple nostalgia-ridden adventure than it might easily have been.  Because of Rey, I'm impatiently eager to find out what happens next in this new saga.

My reaction to the Rey character might be exaggerated, but it compelled me to immediately start scouring the internet for Rey paraphernalia.  I bought several of the less-expensive action figures (a few of which I'll show at the end of the post), but found their resemblance to Ms. Ridley disappointing.  When I saw the promotional pictures of Hot Toys' Rey online at Sideshow Collectibles, I wasn't convinced that she was the perfect tribute to the character, either.  However, after a few days' reflection, I decided that she was easily the best option out there, and so I placed my pre-order.  I ordered Rey in January--a few weeks after I saw the movie--and she arrived in mid September.

Let's dig in and see if she was worth the wait...and the price:

1:6 scale Star Wars: The Force Awakens "Jakku Rey" from Hot Toys, $224.