Keeping Up With Kurhn

It's been a few weeks since I've posted anything, mostly because my job uses up a lot of energy, but also because I've been taking some actual time off to relax and do silly things like hang with my dogs or play Tears of the Kingdom.  It's been nice.

Time off gives me a chance to reflect, too, and one of the things I realized is that I've been reviewing dolls for so long, some of the brands I looked at early on have changed and expanded significantly since my last check-in.  Kurhn dolls are a great example of this.  I first reviewed the Kurhn brand way back in 2013 with a two-part mini series that featured a basic Kurhn playset and a more expensive Glamorous Kurhn girl.  I was impressed with the brand back then, and planned a few follow-up posts, but got distracted by other things.

I was reminded of Kurhn dolls as I was packing up to move from Maine to New Jersey in 2020. I found a second Glamorous Kurhn that I'd apparently purchased at one point...and then completely forgotten about.  I was surprised by how nice she looked, and so instead of selling her, I brought her with me to the new house.  Then, about a year ago, I took some time to investigate the current Kurhn market.  That research led to several more purchases (of course) not all of which will fit into today's review.  Today I'll look at the new-ish Kurhn fashion dolls that caught my eye, like this adorable panda-themed Anniversary doll:

Little Panda 17th Anniversary Edition Kurhn doll, $21.50.

Kitchen Littles by Tyco

Happy New Year!  2024 is off to a good start around here.  At work, my heart is constantly warmed by the number of wonderful people who come in looking to adopt an adult cat.  I think five long-term residents of the shelter found their forever homes the other day, which is truly remarkable.  I'm also excited about the blog, even though I have less time to write.  There are some new dolls that I'm eager to look at, plus an assortment of vintage items--some of which were inspired by your excellent suggestions.

In fact, today's review was also inspired by a suggestion.  Back in October, when I reviewed MGA's Miniverse resin food kits, Becky'sTwinn asked in a comment if I'd ever heard of Tyco's Kitchen Littles--a series of 1:6 scale kitchen appliances, accessories, and food that were released in the mid 1990s.  I hadn't heard of the brand before, and so Lena and I immediately went to eBay to browse the offerings.  I'm a sucker for kitchen-themed toys, and Lena is eager to upgrade her kitchen, so before long we'd amassed an impressive Kitchen Littles collection:

Lena with an assortment of Kitchen Littles toys by Tyco (1995).

Style Bae by Just Play

Happy New Year's Eve eve!  The December Virtual Garage Sale event was a great success, so thank you to everyone who made a purchase and helped support the blog.  Now I feel ready for 2024!  There are a few higher-priced dolls that didn't sell, understandably, and so I'll probably move those to eBay at some point.  For now, I'm enjoying a break from packing and shipping so that I can do some writing and animal wrangling.

This will be my last review of 2023, and I had a hard time figuring out which doll should hold that special place.  I contemplated some rarer, more expensive goodies, but in the end opted for a relatively simple and affordable playline doll.  It's been a month since I've written a review, so I figured this would be a good way to ease back into things.  Also, the doll I'm going to talk about today is unlike anything I've ever owned.  She's from a line called Style Bae, and is made by Just Play:

Style Bae Harper by Just Play, $19.99.

More Sale Dolls

My Priority Mail boxes finally arrived (both sets!) and I found a few more dolls to add to the sale.  However, I realized that I have to be careful: if I create a huge inventory, I'll never get back to writing reviews!  So this batch is much smaller than the previous one.

I also finalized the timing for the sale itself.  I have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off work, so I'll list all of the dolls for sale next Monday, December 11th, with the idea that maybe I'll have time to pack and ship any sold items on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I know that I won't have time to ship items on any other days;  I barely have time to eat.

I had to dig deep to think about parting with a few of these next dolls, but I have only a very tiny display area, and it makes no sense to have a doll collection that's stored away in boxes.  This girl is especially beautiful and rare, and I wish I had a better place to show her off:

22-inch Princess Aurora by Robert Tonner, LE 100.

November Sale Dolls

Things are going slowly but surely with my November sales event...which will probably occur in December at this point.  The biggest problem is that I ordered tons of Priority Mail boxes on the 16th, but they still haven't arrived.  They're in Trenton, which is super-close to me, but have not made any progress since the 18th.  I ordered another batch yesterday, but don't really expect a different result.

I can't ship anything until I have boxes, but I figured I might as well get started posting some of the dolls that will be for sale eventually.  I'll probably try to collect a second batch of offerings before the sale, since I have a zillion dolls, but let's start with these!

Sybarite Couture Swallow by Superdoll.

Monster High's Day of the Dead Doll: Howliday Skelita Calaveras

I'm back, as promised, with the second Day of the Dead doll, but first I want to outline my plans for the first Virtual Garage Sale event.  At this point, nothing will happen until after Thanksgiving.  But sometime during the week of November 27th, I'll start posting dolls for sale in the shop.  These will either be dolls that I've already reviewed, dolls that I'm realizing I don't have time to review, or dolls that are kicking around my house for some random reason.  I'll probably create short blog posts with groups of dolls as I list them for sale.

At this point I have no idea which dolls will be for sale, since I've had zero time to organize all of that, but there will be a lot of bundled, loose dolls from old reviews, including Rainbow High's Maria Garcia, who we met last week, and the beauty from this review: Howliday Skelita Calaveras.

Monster High's Howliday Skelita Calaveras, $45.

Rainbow High's Day of the Dead Doll: Maria Garcia

I can't believe that a big chunk of November is already gone!  Ack!  For anyone who noticed the announcement on my Virtual Garage Sale page, my plan has been to hold two big sales events during the year: one in May and one in November.  November is looking very crowded at the moment, though, thanks to Larvie swanning in and bumping other dolls from their scheduled slots.  Also, I'll have a full house for the holidays...including a foster dog and two foster kittens, so not much will get accomplished then.  Being realistic, at this point I'll probably have to shift the sale until after Thanksgiving, but I'll keep you posted.

Today I want to rewind and pretend it's November 2nd again: the Day of the Dead.  The Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, is a multi-day celebration to remember and re-connect with those who have died.  The basic idea of this holiday can be traced back to old Aztec customs, which were adopted by Spanish settlers and merged with the Christian All Soul's Day.  Currently, the Day of the Dead is celebrated mostly in Mexico, with colorful, joyful festivities that have attracted increasing attention from tourists in recent years.  The broadening fascination with this holiday is probably also responsible for several new Day of the Dead dolls, like MGA's Maria Garcia, who is the subject of today's review:

Rainbow High's Maria Garcia, by MGA Entertainment, $124.99.