Mini Mooshkas

I wasn't really planning on putting Mooshkas on the blog, but then I saw this review of the new Mooshka Fairy Tales Minis by Toy Box Philosopher.  I'd seen the cloth Mooshkas before, but didn't know there were 3.5" (9cm) tinies out there now.

Turns out I had to go to Target anyway this week, so I decided to check out the Mooshkas while waiting to fill a prescription.  Target had the Mooshka dolls on an endcap, with three hanging spots where the mini Mooshkas were supposed to be.  They were all sold out with the exception of two!   Just two left.  It seems these little things are popular in my area. 

I bought this pumpkin-haired one, thinking she'd look really cute for photography with other dolls.  This one is Casia the Ballerina.  She's obviously meant to mimic an old-fashioned wooden doll.  Her articulation is pretty much limited to the poses you see here.  She can raise her arms up and down and they'll stay in position, but she can't spread her arms outward.  She can raise her legs up and down (and they'll also stay in position), but you can't swing her legs outward.  Her head moves side-to-side.

I did a search online to see if I could find pictures of the rest of the set, since I couldn't see them in person.  I discovered there are a few on eBay, and the prices on eBay are insane!  Target had them for $8, and they're on eBay right now for $17 and $25?  Whaaaa???  I think it's because the online web stores for Toys R Us and Target don't sell them yet, so if you can't go in person to these stores to buy them, you might be out of luck.  If they start flying off the shelves, I'm sure the online TRU and Target web sites will start listing them eventually, and eBay prices will drop.  I don't even see them on Amazon yet.

 

 

What the heck is going on with the prices on eBay?

I like the side-glancing eyes.  She comes with the bunny.  It's super cute, but would be way too tiny to give to a toddler who puts things in his mouth.  I don't think these minis are intended for very young children in the same way the large cloth dolls are.  They're really cute collectibles for an older child, though, and would be SO CUTE as a doll for a doll.  I can imagine a child posing the Mooshka minis with an American Girl or Journey Girls doll.  

I posed Casia next to a Zelf (medium size), a mini Lalaloopsy and a My Little Pony mini so you can better judge her size.  Can you tell I like tiny cute things? 

Hanging out with Fluttershy.

As always, please click on the pictures to make them bigger. 

Review of Wonder Woman 52 by Tonner

This is the newest Wonder Woman by the Tonner Doll Company, and she's amazing.  She came out in 2013, and uses one of my favorite Tonner sculpts of all time:  the Tyler 2.0 face sculpt.  I actually had a raven basic Tyler once years ago with this same face, and stupidly sold it one year when I'd decided I didn't want to collect 16" girls any more.  Ha!  Boy, was I fooling myself.  At the time, I was thinking 16" dolls were taking up too much room in my modest home, so I decided I'd only get 12" dolls from then on.  LOL.  That resolve didn't last long.  So I ended up regretting selling such a lovely doll, and feel very fortunate that I was finally able to acquire another raven-haired lady with this face sculpt. 

I got her in a trade with a very nice lady in Texas.  Thanks, Jaye!

 

Anyway, I wanted this doll not only for the face sculpt, but also because she represents one of my favorite heroines.  I was a huge Wonder Woman fan growing up.  I think Tonner did a really nice job with the costume.  WW's costume has changed over the years, and this is its newest incarnation.  The traditional star-spangled panties now only have a single large star on each hip, and her boots are now dark blue instead of red.

This doll uses the busty "heroic" body.  I wanted to go into detail about how this body differs from other Tonner doll bodies, but I realize I don't know enough about the different Tonner fashion doll bodies to make a concrete statement about it.  I find all the different bodies confusing.  There's the starlet body, the pin-up body, the curvaceous body (may or may not be the same as the pin-up body), the athletic body and the Tyler body.  One day I'll learn the differences between all these bodies.  One day!  *Shakes fist into the air.* 

In any case, I love the arms on this body!  Doll arms don't always have to look like skinny sticks.  You can actually see some muscle definition, there.  Love that.

I was surprised to discover the corset and panties are all one piece!  I wish the corset had been separate, but oh, well.  No big deal.  The whole outfit fastens in the back with snaps, with a hook at the top.  I think the detail on the corset is wonderful.  It looks like it's made from a leather-look vinyl fabric.  The silver parts of her costume are made from a similar type of fabric, and actually work quite nicely.  Sure, real metal accessories (or plastic that looked like metal) would have been great, but this is the next best thing.

I discovered this doll has high-heel feet, which means she'll probably fit into regular Tyler Wentworth shoes.  The boots are not high heeled, but probably should have been.  I unzipped them to peek at her feet, and saw that the inside of the boot had a high heel-shaped insert to accomodate her arched feet inside the flat boot shape.  I'm not sure I love this, because it makes the boots look a little clunky and unflattering when you view them from the side, but otherwise, the boots are nice.  I think they would have looked better with an arch and a bit of a heel.

Her tiara is on an elastic band that goes around her head.  Her choker has a single snap in back so it can be taken off easily.

The only thing I found awkward about Wonder Woman 52's costume was the lariat/lasso.  On mine, the whole lariat sticks up at a hilarious angle when I don't have her arm pressing down on it.  Ack!  Yup.  The thing defies gravity.  I'm guessing they aren't all like this.  I may have to sew it down, or something. 

Her hair is thick and wavy, as you can tell.  It looks shorter than the hair on some of the other Tonner Wonder Woman dolls the company has produced in the past.  I think it looks amazing. I didn't style the hair for these pictures, by the way.  This is how it looked right out of the box.

I love her facial expression, too: intelligent and thoughtful.   The face paint is nicely applied. 

I think she is definitely an "A," if not an "A+".

Snow day! Plus, Kidz 'n' Cats news

I live in a part of Alabama where it only snows once a year.  Sometimes it will skip a year.  Anyway, we just got our once-yearly snowfall, so I of course had to take some snow pictures!

These are the Kidz 'n' Cats dolls "Galina" and "Henriette."  It's my first time photographing Henriette for the blog.  She was a special limited edition of 300, and was signed by artist Sonja Hartmann on the back of her neck.  The Henriettes came in three different eye colors and three different hair colors.  My girl has the "mid-brown" hair and the "grey-green" eyes (really more of a turquoise, but very pretty).

Henriette.

Speaking of Kidz 'n' Cats dolls, the artist has just released photos of her new 2014 collection.  You can find pictures of the 2014 dolls here.  The first seven on that page are all new for this year.  Gorgeous!  Jodie, Paulette and Julia all have the same face sculpt as my Henriette.

Galina.

On Feb. 8, Ms. Hartmann will be showing the first pictures of a brand new sculpt for the Kidz line!  The new sculpt will be another limited edition like Henriette.

So excited!  Can't wait to see the new sculpt.  You can find the Hartmanns' web site here.  EDIT: Sorry, it turned out to not be a new sculpt at all, but instead uses the Henriette sculpt.  She is still very cute, though!

By the way, Galina's hair looks redder now because I was trying out a new wig on her.  I love the color, but the quality of the wig is not quite as nice as her original.  It's a bit frizzy and dry.  I think I may put her original wig back on her.  :) 

I probably could have posed these girls better, but I was freezing my butt off and didn't want to stay outside any longer than I had to.  LOL!  So, they're looking in random directions, here.  I'm sure Galina was just wishing I'd had an extra pair of boots to put on her.


Later.

Trying Nu Mood hands on my Deja Vu

Her new look.

I told you I was going to do it, and I did it.  LOL!  I transformed my Deja Vu Emma Basic into a punk chick.  I painted her lips darker and more Gothy, and repainted her fingernails to match.  She already had some bold black eyeliner, so I left her wonderful eye paint alone.  The lips were done with the darkest metallic red acrylic I could find mixed with a touch of black.  

I like her in this white wig.  It's the Monique Gold Collection "Jojo" wig that was in her Christmas picture.   Monique wigs drive me crazy because they have a million flyaway hairs that are nearly impossible to tame for photo shoots.  People attempt to cure these flyaway hairs in various ways.  Sometimes rubbing a dryer sheet over the hair works; other people wet the hair slightly, or even use gel on it.  I'd rather just buy a different brand of wig.  Ha!

The polka-dotted dress is from an old Gene Marshall outfit.  It fits the Deja Vu body perfectly.

Held in the box with string.  A couple of snips, and they're out.

I'd heard Tonner's Nu Mood hands would work on his Deja Vu dolls, so I waited 'til there was a good sale and got a set.  These hands were made for his Tyler Wentworth Nu Mood doll series.  Each set comes with three types of hands:  relaxed hands, curved "holding" hands and a set of fists.  The hands are interchangeable.  I thought this would be a whole lot of fun!  These are the Nu Mood Hands "C" (for Caucasian, I assume).

Original hands.

Original hands.

The Deja Vu dolls have hands that you can pull out. (Gently!)   The Nu Mood hands fit quite well in the arm socket.  Not too loose and not too tight.  The fit was pretty perfect; they fit snugly and won't fall out.  In the photos, the hands that have painted fingernails are her original hands.  The Nu Mood hands don't have painted nails.  I mixed-and-matched the Nu Mood parts a bit so you can see what they look like.  I quite like the curved "holding" hands.  The fists were interesting, but not quite as nice. 

Nu Mood "holding" hand.

Nu Mood holding and fist hands.

Nu Mood holding and relaxed hands.

The only issue I saw was that the Nu Mood hands' skintone was slightly less pink than my Deja Vu Emma.  This was apparent in low light conditions, but in the sunlight, the skintones looked like they matched just fine.  You can probably see the skintone difference in these photos.  The camera always seems to pick up things like this better than the naked eye. 

Nu Mood relaxed hand.

In any case, the hands are still a lot of fun, especially considering how much I love doll photography. 

And here are a couple more pictures, just because I felt like photographing her.  :)