Extra Special Dolls

There has been a lot of talk lately about the new Girl of the Year from American Girl.  Isabelle is a fair-skinned, blonde, hazel-eyed ballerina who likes to design clothing.  There's certainly nothing wrong with any of these traits (or with the doll--she's very cute), but there's also nothing at all exciting or new about Isabelle.  At first glance, she seems an awful lot like McKenna.  As a consumer, this doesn't bother me.  Since I only have one American Girl doll, I'm not relying on the Girl of the Year to add something new to my collection.  As an impassioned observer of the doll world, however, Isabelle is disappointing.  The Girl of the Year series seems like a wonderful opportunity to introduce a character that is surprising, timely or unique in some way.  Mattel could have done something to represent the incredible diversity of this country--while keeping the popular ballet theme.  I mean, just watch the wonderful documentary, First Position, and pick almost any of those amazing young women as an inspiration.

Anyway, I am bringing up this topic not because I want to upset people or spark a debate, but simply because I want to draw a contrast and explain my rationale for this review.  Discussions about the lack of diversity in the Girl of the Year series made me think about doll diversity on a larger scale.  This thought process led me to discover a new 18 inch play doll that represents a minority I have never seen portrayed in the doll world before.

Meet Gracie, a doll designed to resemble a child with Down syndrome:

"Grace" by Extra Special Dolls.

Soy Tu "Amor" by Paola Reina

When my lovely 23.6" Las Reinas de Paola doll, Marta, arrived from Spain last March, she actually had a small traveling companion.  Making the intercontinental journey with Marta was "Amor," my favorite doll from Paola Reina's 15.7" Soy Tu play doll collection.

Many things have happened since Amor's arrival in March, including the grand opening of the Paola Reina America online store.  Now a wonderful variety of Paola Reina dolls are readily available in the United States and Canada.  The other thing that has happened--mostly in the last two weeks, is that I've gotten the first glimpse of new leaves and blooming flowers here in Maine.  After months of patient waiting, Amor is finally ready for her introduction amidst the vibrant colors of early spring:

Soy Tu doll "Amor" by Paola Reina, $79.99

Barbie Fashionista "In the Spotlight" Artsy Doll by Mattel

I don't collect Barbie dolls, so I don't know a whole lot about them.  In fact, I never had a single Barbie doll when I was growing up.  I think this was because my mom didn't approve of them, skinny waists and all.  One other possible explanation for my lack of Barbies is that whenever I was given a doll with rooted hair, I would gradually cut off all the hair until it was just a wreckage of uneven spikes (and then I would poke the spikey ends into the head with a pencil).  So, yeah.  That could be it, too.

For one reason or another, I have mostly avoided the Barbie aisle for my entire life.  However, when Mattel released the "Fashionista" line and I learned that the dolls have exchangeable heads, I was interested.  Actually, on these dolls the whole head and shoulder unit comes off, and you can buy extra head attachments to change the look of your doll.  This means that stores have extra heads for sale on the shelves.  Picture it: rows and rows of disembodied Barbie heads smiling out at you from shiny plastic boxes.  It's a little weird.  I had to get one and try it out.  The trouble is, I know so little about Barbies that I bought the wrong thing.  I bought a doll that said "Fashionista" on the box, and I bought a head that matched her skin tone and also said "Fashionista," but when I got everything home and tried to get the doll's head off, it simply would not come off.  So, the first thing I learned about the Fashionista line is that not all of the dolls have interchangeable heads.  Watch out for that.

About a week ago, I got an email asking me if I had ever considered reviewing the Barbie Fashionistas.  Well, I have to admit that I had been waiting for an excuse to give the head-swapping adventure another try.  I mean, I still have the head I bought sitting here in its box with no body to put it on.  Armed with new determination, I headed out to Toys R Us and bought this:

Fashionista Artsy

Advent Calendar #1: Mini Brands by Zuru

It's December!  So now I can dig in and start this advent calendar feature that I've been dreaming about.  I have about ten calendars that I'd like to open throughout the month, but with the way I ramble on and the number of pictures I insisted on taking, I can't promise that I'll get through all of them before the 31st, let alone the 25th.  But I'm sure going to try!

I stumbled onto this idea when a Patreon friend, Lurkins, linked me to an eBay auction for the Bratz mini calendar.  Lurkins thought that Lena might appreciate the minis for her doll collection, and the price was excellent at around $15.  So, I purchased the Bratz calendar and then got curious and searched around to see what other doll and toy-themed advent calendars I could find.  Turns out, there are a lot!

So this month, I'm going to walk you through as many of the calendars as I can, starting with the Zuru Mini Brands advent from 2024:

Lena with a toy from the Zuru Mini Brands advent calendar.

Surprise Swap Tweens (and Tots!) by MGA Entertainment

I'm in the middle of another mini series right now, and this time it's all about dolls with swappable heads.  I started the series by talking about Mattel's Swappin' Styles Fashionistas, and today I'll be looking at MGA's Surprise Swap Tweens line.  There's no rational order to these reviews, unfortunately.  I probably should have approached the dolls chronologically, but I'm always tweaking what's in each review and waiting for things to arrive in the mail, so broad scale organization doesn't tend to work for me.

Also, several of you had excellent suggestions for head-swapping doll lines that weren't on my radar (thank you!), so I might have to slot in a few more reviews than I'd originally planned.  I love the unpredictability of this type of series, though.  It's like a chose your own adventure novel or something.

Today's review is a good example of the chaos, because only when I was uploading pictures of the Tweens dolls did I discover that there are Surprise Swap Tots as well.  These are versions of the classic 3-inch L.O.L. Surprise dolls, and they look interesting.  So I had to hustle to include them at the last minute.  But most of this review will focus on the head-swapping Tweens:

Surprise Swap Tweens by MGA Entertainment, $29.99.

Barbie Swappin' Styles Fashionistas by Mattel

I've been thinking about dolls with swappable heads for a few weeks.  It's a strange thing to think about, granted, but I feel like I have some good reasons.  First and foremost, Lena is getting married at some point this year (they haven't chosen a date yet), and I know she'll want some fancy up-do for that occasion.  Frankly, I wish I could just swap her head with one that already has a fancy up-do.  Don't tell her I said that, though!

The other reason I have swappable heads on my mind is that they keep popping up in my life.  For example, as I was getting some of my older dolls out of storage, I found a My Scene Swappin' Styles set that I never took out of the box.  I should probably do that.  Also, MGA recently came out with a line of Tweens dolls with interchangeable heads, and those reminded me of the Moxie Girlz Magic Hair dolls and their predecessors, the Bratz Head Gamez crew from 2005.  And of course there are the Swappin' Styles Fashionistas from 2010.  I've already done a brief review of these Fashionistas, but something popped up on eBay a month or two ago that got me excited about them all over again.  More about that in a sec.

With all of these thoughts of head-swappers on my mind, I figured I'd do a mini series to highlight each of the four types of doll that are on my radar: My Scene Swappin' Styles, Tweens Surprise Swap, Bratz Head Gamez, and the stars of today's review, the Swappin' Styles Fashionistas:

Swappin' Styles Fashionista Sweetie...with an extra head (2010).

A Review of Lorifina (Discontinued) by Hasbro

Lorifina is a 20" articulated plastic and vinyl fashion doll line that was made by Hasbro a few years ago and is now discontinued.  These dolls have inset acrylic eyes and long changeable wigs.  When it was first introduced, the Lorifina line was special because you could design the appearance of your doll online and then she'd be shipped to your house from the factory.  There were at least two skin tones, three eye colors and many wigs to choose from.  The dolls came in two-piece sleepwear, but you could select additional outfits from three city-themed collections: London, New York and Tokyo.

When Hasbro unveiled this line in 2009, I got caught up in the excitement for a little while.  I spent some time on the website, designing various dolls and seeing how they looked in all of the outfits.  I don't know why I never hit the checkout button.  Perhaps it was the $98 price tag, or the fact that together with all of the cool clothes and shoes I had also added to my cart, the price was discouragingly higher than $98.  I can't remember exactly.

Last year, I saw a picture of a Lorifina doll's beautiful face on Flickr and went in search of these girls on the secondary market.  Nothing.  Maybe there was one on Amazon for close to $200, but again, I can't remember the specifics.  What I do remember is seeing another picture of these dolls on Flickr just recently and feeling compelled to start the search again.  This time, I was well-rewarded.  There is a bounty of these dolls on eBay right now, and (with some patience) they can be won for around $50...often with many accessories included.  I figured this was a good time to do a review.  Here's the one I got (this combination of hair and skin color was the most common on eBay during my hunt):

Lorifina: light skin tone, green eyes and a blonde wig.

Dream Ella Extra Iconic Mini Dolls by MGA Entertainment

Well!  This has been an interesting few weeks.  Unfortunately, when life gets interesting around here, there are longer breaks between posts--sorry.  The biggest thing that happened was that I had to move my youngest to the opposite coast (I'm trying not to take it personally that Washington is about the farthest you can get from New Jersey while still being in the same country).  That was both physically and emotionally exhausting, as you might imagine.  But then when I got home, I was so tired that my brain stopped functioning and I managed to get conned by an online scam (the kind of thing I thought I'd never in a million years fall for), and so I had to cancel all of my credit cards, shut down PayPal, and do ten other things that I don't even remember.  All I can say is that if anyone tells you to download software onto your computer in order to fix a PayPal problem (or any other problem)...don't do it.  Duh.  Big mistake.

What wasn't a big mistake was deciding to investigate a new mini doll that I found during one of my random online searches about a month ago.  The dolls are from MGA Entertainment's Dream Ella line and are called Extra Iconic Minis.  Despite the fact that MGA dolls take up about 20% of the toy aisle space at stores like my local Target, I have yet to see the Iconic Minis anywhere in person--only online.  But they've only been out since October.

I've been meaning to review Mattel's new Barbie Extra mini dolls, and so my grand plan here is to look at the Iconic Minis today, and then compare them to Mattel's minis in a future review.  I love mini dolls, so I'm pretty excited about this little series!

Dream Ella Extra Iconic Mini doll by MGA Entertainment, $14.99.

Cutie Pops Fashion Pups Doll, "Coletta"

This is the third and final review in a series highlighting the new Cutie Pops dolls.  I reviewed the Crown Cutie doll Crystalina first, then the Hattitude doll Dakota, and now I will end by looking at one of the dolls in the third group of fall releases: the Fashion Pups.  These dolls are more like the traditional Cutie Pops: they each have a two-ponytail hairstyle, extra hair, an extra pair of (closed) eyes, and plenty of pop decorations.  The Fashion Pup dolls also come with a pair of small vinyl dogs.

There are only two Fashion Pup characters, Coletta and Dalia.  These dolls sell for $24.99 (I have only seen them at Toys R Us so far), making them the most expensive of the new dolls.  I am holding on to some hope that they'll be less expensive when (if?) they arrive at other stores.  I bought both of these sets and decided to review Coletta:

Cutie Pops Fashion Pups "Coletta."

Another My Twinn Update and Some Random Things

I've been making a bit of progress in clearing out my dolls.  So far, I've focused mostly on larger play dolls because they take up a lot of space.  It's really hard to figure out who to keep and who to sell, though.  They all seem to be special to me for one reason or another.

So far, the dolls in this size range who are the most difficult for me to think about selling are the My Twinns.  This is partly because I had so much fun fixing several of them up (the My Twinn Project series was one of my favorite things to write about on this blog) but also because I'm really impressed with the quality and charm of the older Denver dolls.  I love the diversity of face molds, the poseable bodies, and of course the beautiful eyes.

Today, I'll mostly be catching you up on what I've been doing with a few My Twinn dolls, but I also have two other tangentially-related things to chat about briefly.  I'll start by tying up a loose end.  Do you remember the girl I showed you at the very end of the My Twinn Project?  She's a bedraggled Denver-era Caitie doll who I re-named Phoebe:

Well-loved My Twinn Caitie doll from the Denver era.

Articulation Update: Rainbow High Jett Dawson

Happy New Year!  Cheers!  Here's hoping that the first few hours of 2022 have treated you well.  For me, the year is starting with an attempted migration to WordPress.  As some of you might have noticed, I suddenly stopped being able to comment on this blog about a week ago and can only manage to comment if I'm using Chrome (I typically use Safari).  I'd love to know how many other people are having this problem--but of course, if you are, you can't tell me because you can't comment!  In any case, WordPress is a superior blog platform for many reasons, and I've been meaning to migrate for years.  So please excuse any issues over the coming weeks as I figure out how to move this behemoth.  It shouldn't cause any change or disruption to how you access the site.

The best thing about 2022 for me so far is that, because of you, I managed to reach my end-of-year goal of 30 Patrons over on Patreon!  Woo hoo!  Thank you so much!  I'm incredibly grateful for all of the support and enthusiasm, and it's been fun to connect with more people over on that site.

The beginning of a new year is a great time to tie up loose ends, so I figured in the next week or so I'd deliver on some of the update reviews that I promised in previous posts.  In my first Rainbow High review, I mentioned that Jett Dawson has more points of articulation than the other Rainbow High dolls.  Today I'm going take a quick look at Jett and see how much those extra joints add to the appeal of this brand.

Rainbow High Jett Dawson, $57.99.

Bratz Head Gamez by MGA Entertainment

If you've been tuning in since the beginning of this head-swapping saga, you might remember that I originally planned to review the Moxie Girlz Magic Hair dolls from 2009, but then discovered that there was an even earlier (and more famous) MGA line with removable heads: the Bratz Head Gamez girls.

I considered doing a review that included both Bratz and Moxie Girlz, but decided to keep things simple and just focus on Bratz.  The Moxie Girlz were never super tempting to me, but I did enjoy Kellen and her pooping unicorn and the tiny, adorable $3 Moxie Girlz Friends (a few of which I still have).  I much prefer the larger and more articulated Moxie Teenz.  Too bad those dolls never had a head-swapping variant!

I might do a really quick post on the Magic Hair Moxie Girlz at some point in the future, especially if there's interest, but today's going to be all about Bratz:

Bratz Head Gamez Yasmin by MGA Entertainment (2005).

Revisiting Mattel's Enchantimals

You might be surprised to see an Enchantimal review here today, since I reviewed the line when they first came out in 2017.  But I have a few reasons for revisiting this brand.  First of all, I've been reminiscing a lot about dolls from the early days of this blog--especially my older Monster High and Ever After High characters.  I blame this nostalgia on the re-emergence of Monster High and the rumors that occasionally swirl around about an Ever After High re-boot.  As I was searching the internet for photos of my Ever After High favorites (like Holly O'Hair and Ashlynn Ella) I came across Enchantimal pictures, too.  I'd forgotten how similar the Enchantimal and Ever After High faces are!

Seeing those photos sent me into a deep-dive on Amazon and eBay, where I was amazed to see how much the Enchantimal brand has expanded over the last six years.  Not only are there a ton of different animals now, but there are also male characters, larger animal companions, a few eight-inch and twelve-inch dolls, some smaller four-inch dolls, and even a few surprise-themed sets.  

My internet searches also revealed that the Enchantimals are still being made.  I assumed that they were discontinued at this point, but no: there are new dolls for 2023.  Can you believe that Ever After High only lasted four years, and yet the little Enchantimals have been around for six years and counting?  It's crazy!  My initial review didn't make me think that they had much staying power, but I was clearly wrong.  So it's time to take a second look.  I'm very curious to see how the brand has changed since my last assessment.

Enchantimals Felicity and Feana Fox by Mattel, $16.99.

Cutie Pops "Cookie" Doll by Jada Toys, Inc.

*You can find newer reviews of the Cutie Pops here, here, here and here. :)

I had a few much-appreciated tips about a new doll line that has hit the shelves at some of the big chain stores.  The dolls are called "Cutie Pops" and they are made by a toy company called Jada that I had honestly never heard of before.  It's nice to see another competitor enter the ring with MGA Entertainment, Mattel and Spin Master.  Jada Toys, Inc. is a California-based company that, since their establishment in 1999, has produced mostly die-cast cars, radio control toys and model kits.  While Jada has a line of Hello Kitty toys, Cutie Pops seem to be their first foray into the doll world.

At first glance, the Cutie Pops look a lot like La Dee Da dolls.  They have tiny bodies and huge heads with wide, elaborate eyes.  Their outfits are bursting with colors and glitter and decoration.  In person, these dolls have the proportions of a Pullip doll with some traits that remind me of the Lalaloopsy line.  I might have ignored them completely if it weren't for Jessica telling me that they have interchangeable eyes and hair.  This was more than enough to get my attention.  I have long thought that it would be wonderful to bring the customizing potential of Pullips and Blythes to young children.  Everyone likes to be able to change a doll to suit their own personality.

At the moment, there are three different Cutie Pops dolls to choose from (Cookie, Chiffon and Candi). My Target had Cookie and Chiffon for $19.99 each when I went last week.  Don't pay the crazy online prices.  There's also a fourth doll named Carmel who isn't in stores yet, and an exclusive doll named Starr who has made some appearances on eBay.  My choice was mercifully easy because the Chiffon at my Target had a lip paint defect...so I got Cookie:

Cutie Pops "Cookie" doll.

Patron Post: Kidz 'n' Cats Jennet by Sonja Hartmann

One of the interesting things about blogging for a decade is monitoring which dolls have endured that expanse of time and which have been discontinued.  For example, it doesn't surprise me that American Girl is still alive, thriving, and pretty much unchanged from 2013.  And it's great that some smaller 18-inch doll companies, like A Girl for All Time, Carpatina, Maru and Friends, and even My Salon Doll are still making their products.  Other brands have not been as fortunate.  My Twinn dolls, which are close to my heart, were discontinued in 2016--possibly because of widespread eye problems.  The Extra Special Dolls met a similar fate.  But another casualty of the last decade, and one that took me by surprise, was the Kidz n Cats line by Sonja Hartmann.

I've actually written two reviews of Kidz n Cats dolls in the past: a comprehensive review of Evita in 2013, and a shorter look at two Henriettes in 2018.  And I guess we can count the brief review of the mini doll, Annie, too.  In all of those cases, there were a lot of quality issues and design disappointments that prevented me from thoroughly enjoying the dolls.  Frankly, I struggled to see why the brand was so popular.

But then my lovely new patron, Lillian, suggested that I take one more look at the Kidz.  She even suggested a specific doll, Jennet, who happens to be a character that I remember admiring a great deal back when she first came out in 2016.  So, because of some pangs of nostalgia over the loss of the Kidz n Cats brand, and because I cherish my patrons, today I'll be talking about Jennet:

Kidz 'n' Cats Jennet, by Sonja Hartmann (discontinued).

18-Inch Savannah by Maru and Friends

Maru and Friends offers a small collection of 20 inch, high-quality, all-vinyl play dolls.  The dolls were created by Maritza Gutierrez with the idea of putting beautiful, realistic, culturally diverse dolls into the hands of children.  The central character, Maru, is described as a Latina girl who moved to America in search of a better life.  Maru has found some wonderful new friends to give her support and help ease the transition into her new situation.  These friends (Jamie, Savanna, Raven and Tanya) make up the rest of the doll collection.  Maru and Friends dolls can be purchased for $115 at the company's online store or at the Aventura Mall in Miami.  These dolls can also be found online for £109 at the lovely My Doll Best Friend shop in the United Kingdom.

I purchased my Maru and Friends doll almost a year ago and she has been waiting all of this time for her review.  I was tempted by all of the Maru and Friends characters, especially Maru herself, but I ended up (predictably) choosing the redheaded, blue-eyed Savannah:

Maru and Friends Savannah, $115.

Curvy Barbie Meets The New Lammily

I'm so happy that my project idea sounds fun to some of you!  I'm certainly having a great time with the Twinns.  The big girls have their wigs and the smaller girls have new eyes (for better or worse!). They should be ready for a quick update in a few days. In the meantime, there's a fun pair of fashion dolls that I'd love to talk about.

In addition to the new line of DC Super Hero Girls, Mattel has recently premiered a wider range of body types for the Fashionista Barbies.  There are now Petite, Tall and Curvy characters.  I was especially interested in the Curvy dolls because of my fascination with Lammily--the first fashion doll that attempted to represent realistic body proportions.  The original Lammily doll made huge waves when she entered the market in late 2014, and I feel pretty certain that Mattel introduced their new Barbie bodies as a direct result of the popularity of Lammily.  And there's nothing wrong with that--in fact, the more inclusive the fashion doll market becomes, the better.

The Lammily company has also been super-busy lately.  They've introduced a wonderful line of fashions (including Olympic gear and some exclusive handmade dresses).  There's even a bee keeper outfit!  Their second female character, Photographer, was introduced for pre-order about a year ago and started shipping in early June.  The first male Lammily doll (a young man who spends his time helping animals in need) is expected to arrive this November.

Since I've been away from the blog for so long, I figured I would try to catch up a bit by looking at Curvy Barbie and the Lammily Photographer in the same post.  This might not be wise, but here it goes.

"So Sporty" Barbie, $19.99 (left), and Lammily "Photographer," $25.00 (right).

Erin by Carpatina

My review inspiration comes from unexpected places.   For example, we were sitting around chatting about stuff in Panama, and my brother-in-law mentioned a play doll catalogue that had recently arrived in the mail at his house.  He couldn’t remember the name of the line, but it had clearly made an impression on him.  He described the girl dolls as being cute and wearing nice-looking historical costumes, but he described the boy dolls as being (and I quote) “grotesque.”  That got my attention.  Grotesque?  Really?  Definitely worth investigating.  He elaborated to explain that while the male dolls have child-like bodies, they’re burdened with large heads and angular man-features.  The problem was, I had absolutely no idea what dolls he was talking about.  I thought maybe he meant Ellowyne Wilde?  But Rufus isn’t grotesque, really, just comical.  I literally had no idea where to start my search for these mystery dolls.  Googling "grotesque male doll" didn't get me anywhere I wanted to be.  Fortunately, my mom came to the rescue.  She used her Google superpowers and tracked down the Carpatina line in under twenty minutes.

Carpatina LLC is a privately owned New Hampshire-based company that has been making play dolls since 2002.  The company name could be derived from the Latin word carpatinus which means "made of hide."  The Carpatina company got its start in 1998 selling medieval Romanian clothing for people.  Their cloaks are amazing and can be bought directly from the Carpatina website or on Amazon.  The company also makes several lines of doll clothing with an emphasis on medieval and fantasy pieces.  The Carpatina website is really fun to browse.  After a few days of deliberation, I settled on the following purchase:

Erin doll wearing the Guinevere fashion.

Tea with Lena: Skiing Dolls and Wedding Plans

It was really fun to chat with you about different kinds of head-swapping dolls.  And since my You Create kit arrived just today (!),  I'll be back to re-visit that concept soon.  Based on my experiences with the head-swapping series, and also Barbie Month back in 2023 and the advent calendar focus last December, I'm finding that I enjoy writing groups of themed reviews.  They allow me to immerse myself in one subject matter for a relatively long period of time, and tend to make each individual review shorter than average.  I wonder if this is something that works for you as readers?  If so, I have a few ideas for future series that I think could be interesting.

The problem with these grouped reviews, though, is that they can take a month or more to complete, and so I get pulled away from other things--like Lena.  She's been frustrated with me lately because I haven't had a lot of time to check in with her.  So, in an effort to mend some bridges, I'm going take a little break from serious reviewing and turn today's post almost entirely over to Lena and Ian--with a few mini reviews tucked in for good measure.

Lena with the Pink Passport Made to Move Winter Sports equipment.

Holiday Shopping at Target and Toys R Us

With Hanukkah almost over and the Christmas season kicking into full swing, this is a special, hectic time of year.  I love seeing our Main Street come to life with lights, and hearing my kids sing carols out in the cold.  Of course another integral part of this season is shopping, and I am thinking hard about donations and gifts--especially presents for the amazing children in my life.

I hope that the content of this blog is helpful to those of you who are looking for a special doll for someone you love, but many of the dolls I review are hard to find, discontinued, or expensive.  I thought that in honor of this bustling shopping season, I would head out to a few local stores and see what is available for those of us who are just getting started with our gift-hunting now.  I'll show you what I found and give you my top ten list of what I would buy.  I also really hope that you will chime in with what you've found in your part of the world and what you think the best dolls and toys of the season are.  There is also a poll on the right side of the page where you can vote for the doll that you'd most like to see reviewed in more depth.

Today, I am going to focus on Target because it is one of my favorite places to shop and it tends to be well-stocked.  I will also add some comparisons to Toys R Us, my other most frequented big box toy store.  Next week I will visit a smaller, privately-owned toy store.  I'll get things started by showing you one doll I actually did buy: Monster High's new Jane Boolittle, who has the most awesome pet accessory ever:

Monster High "Jane Boolittle" and her pet sloth (Toys R Us, $21.99)