Sent wrong doll ... twice. Oh, dear ...

This is the doll I've attempted to get twice now.  Sigh.

Urg.  Remember I told you I'd ordered a lavender-haired "I Love Minnie" doll from Amazon.com and was sent the wrong doll?  Well, I re-ordered the same doll from the same site, and was sent the wrong doll AGAIN.  LOL. 

When I was sent the wrong doll the first time, Amazon's customer service was great.  They refunded me for the wrong doll, and said if I re-ordered, they'd pay for the shipping.  That was awesome.  I was thinking they must be the best company ever.  So I re-ordered it.  The replacement doll came today and it's the wrong doll AGAIN.  Double sigh.  Not only is it the wrong doll again, but it's the SAME wrong doll. ... the black-haired one in the red outfit pictured in my last post.  Apparently they have some problems with how their shipping department fills the orders for that type of doll. 

So, now I have two of the black-haired Minnie dolls in red (their "Rainy Days" doll), and I STILL don't have the lavender-haired one me and my daughter wanted (the "Pajama Party" doll).  I have to laugh. 

So, maybe I should probably try eBay instead?  Heh heh.

Review of Famosa's I Love Minnie dolls

With urging from my 5-year-old daughter, three of these darling little "I Love Minnie" dolls were adopted into my house.  I picked up two at my local Toys R Us.  They only had a very small selection, but at least they had a few.  I ended up ordering the one in red from Amazon.com.  I'd ordered one with lavender hair, and they sent the wrong doll.  She was so cute, though, my daughter fell in love with her anyway and didn't want me to send her back.  So, tomorrow we'll try Attempt #2 to get the lavender-haired one. 

Since these dolls aren't terribly common in the United States, I thought I'd do a review.

I like Disney movies, but I don't normally gobble up Disney merchandise.  I really like the faces on these dolls, however.  They remind me of the original Strawberry Shortcake dolls that were around when I was a kid, and a little Holly Hobbie doll I owned (and loved, and made clothes for) from the same time period.  Basically, the faces look a lot like the kinds of dolls that were around in the '70s.  I love that. 

THE SPECIFICS
The height on these is barely over 6" (16cm). Their Minnie Mouse ears, clothes and shoes are removable, but their white gloves are not.  They come with cloth underwear.  The shoes are nicely fitted:  Just loose enough that they're easy to get off, but not so loose they'll fall off and get lost.

The arms and legs are a soft plastic and move at the shoulders and hips, but they don't have bending elbows and knees.  The hair is a great quality and seems to be saran, and it's nicely rooted.  My only issue with them is that the mouse ears headband is attached to their heads via tiny plastic ties.  Once you snip off the plastic ties, the headbands don't stay on the head very well.

I have zero interest that the dolls represent Minnie Mouse and Disney.  Really, I'd PREFER if Minnie's face wasn't on all their clothes, but eh, I guess I can deal with it.  They're definitely cute little dolls, though, and the prices are great.  Generally they go for $8-$13 USD, but I've seen them on some sites for prices that have been jacked up to TWICE retail or more.  If you buy these dolls, comparison-shop for prices first.  I saw one normally $8 doll being sold for $25 on one site! 

The dolls are made by the Spanish company Famosa, who licensed the Disney name.  Although they're centered in Spain, they sell all over the world and have bases in several different countries (including New Jersey in the USA).  Famosa is the same company that makes the Pinypons, reviewed here and here.

 

Tranquil Antoinette

Another Antoinette doll has made it to my house.  It would be silly of me to do a complete review of Tranquil Antoinette since she's an older doll. ... She's from 2010.  I did want to show her off, though.  I got her for a great price, since she'd been sitting on a virtual shelf for the past two years at Two Daydreamers.  Love her!

For some reason it had never occurred to me before to use the blue wall in my husband's computer room as a photography background.  It worked perfectly for these photos.  Awesome. 

FYI:  The beading at the neck is actually a part of her blouse, and not a separate necklace.  The blouse under the jacket is sleeveless.




 
After I took these pictures, I undressed her, terrified there would be staining from the blue clothes.  The Tonner Doll Company had taken some precautions against staining.  Her body was partially wrapped in plastic underneath the clothing, and there was a separate pair of nude pantyhose underneath the navy blue hose.  She still ended up being stained on her feet, although the rest of her managed to escape staining.  Sigh.  Blue splotches on her feet.   I'm not upset, because I expected it with a doll dressed in dark blue.  There should have been plastic wrapping on her feet as well. 

I guess I'll try to get the stains off with Remove-Zit or something.

EDIT:  Yes, Remove-Zit worked quite nicely.  I was able to get the stains off her feet and she's perfect now.  Yay!

The secret past of the "I Love Minnie" dolls

So ... These sweet little "I Love Minnie" dolls by the Spanish company Famosa caught my eye recently, so I decided to research them a bit. 


I discovered the Toys R Us web site sells them, so I was browsing through their listings. ...

And discovered something really funny in the ads on the side of the page. 

LOL.

Snow!

I live in the middle of Alabama, where it only snows once a year.  Ya blink and you'd miss it!  LOL.  We just got our yearly snowfall, and I was totally unprepared for it.  I only had one doll in my entire house that looked like she was dressed for winter, so I grabbed her and threw her outside to get a couple of pictures.  I wish I'd had a few Poppy Parkers already dressed in sweaters, but as it is, I ended up taking pictures of my Ruby Red Galleria "The Jade City" Sugilite.  Hey, she's a cutie, so the pictures ended up being cute, anyway.  So, here she is in the one centimeter of snow that fell on the ground! 

It's really rare here for it to snow more than once a year, so it'll probably be another entire year before I can get another snow picture. 

January in Alabama is awesome.

Made a doll dress

It came out a little tight over her bum, but other than that, I'm pleased with it.  It's not for sale.  I just wanted to show it to everyone here.  Poor girl came to me cold and nearly naked.  She needed something to wear!  LOL.  (Literally cold. ... The box sat on my freezing porch for a couple hours before I found it.)  Since I spend way too much money on dolls, I need to save money here and there by making their clothing sometimes.

As much as I love 12-inch dolls, I hate sewing for them.  Too tiny!  I vastly prefer sewing for the 16-inchers like Antoinette, here. 

Her earrings are from a Fashion Royalty doll, but I forget which one.  I love that the 12-inch and 16-inch dolls can share earrings.  ;)

My on-again, off-again love affair with Antoinette

When Tonner's Antoinette doll first debuted, I was intrigued.  She came with a lovely new body sculpt that was both highly-articulated and gorgeous.  He's used the Antoinette body for several other dolls since.  I ended up getting two of the original "basic" Antoinettes the first year they debuted.  A couple years later I started getting more into 12-inch dolls and felt I didn't want any larger dolls any longer, so I sold them.  BIG MISTAKE!  I'm regretting it, now.  This past year I was really wishing I had those Antoinettes back, so I decided to finally just buy another one.

This time, though, I ended up getting a 2012 Antoinette Basic Brunette (L.E. 500, cameo skintone).  I love dark-haired dolls, and this one had my all-time favorite hair color.  I also thought this one had a nice face screening, with a serene, sweet expression.  The biggest draw these girls have for me is the tranquil, serene and/or thoughtful facial expressions most Antoinettes have.  ... And those who don't look tranquil usually sport a bit of attitude.  In other words, they all have personality.

I love the combination of the gray eyes with the almost-black hair.  I probably should have gotten a dressed doll instead of a basic, though, because I'm starting to run out of clothes, here.  Hee hee!  I'm going to have to recycle some of my older 16-inch clothes on her until I can make or procure something new for her.  Right now I'm planning on making her something purple.  Wish me luck. 

By the way, the 2012 Basic Antoinettes did NOT come with shoes.  Mildly disappointing.  The Basic Cami dolls all came with shoes (but they were also a little more expensive). 

The coat in the pictures is from Tonner's "Winter Whisper" Sydney.  I made the leopard print dress for my FR:16s, but this one happened to fit Antoinette perfectly. 

I guess she's here to stay, because I know if I sold her I'd just regret it again.  Now on with the pictures!

Her arms seem to have disappeared in this photo.  They're there somewhere, under all that hair. 

Tokidoki Unicorns, Lalaloopsy and My Little Pony

I've finally had a chance to photograph what I got in my Christmas stocking a couple of weeks ago!  Tokidoki unicorns and a Lalaloopsy.  Thanks, Santa!  The unicorns are interesting, but I'm not sure I love them so much that I'll be wanting any more of them.  They're very, very strange!  In a good way, of course.  Usually I LOVE strange.  But these are strange even for me.  LOL.  The boxes were so cute I had to put one of them in the photograph, too.  Very colorful and interesting.

I've stopped buying Lalaloopsies.  I swear.  Any day now.  I've already forgotten this one's name, but I adore the blue hair and white outfit!  She's darling. 

 

The My Little Pony toys (below) weren't in my stocking, but I thought I'd include them in this post anyway, since I'm showing toys.  I love the colors, and their happy little cute faces.  My 5-year-old has a MILLION of these.  (My baby turned 5 last month!)  The biggest problem with them is their hair tangles really easily, so if they're just tossed in a drawer their hair will be a tangled mess in about three seconds.  If you just keep them neatly on a shelf, though, they'll stay nice. 

The ponies below are Hasbro's version of a unicorn.  The horn is too short and phallic for my taste, and I think the eyes could have been done nicer.  I suppose they have their own sort of charm, though. I prefer the winged ponies and the regular (non-winged, non-horned) ponies. 

See ya.