Play-line doll report, August 2015

A look at some of the new 2015 dolls. 

2015 Retro Strawberry Shortcake

First off, let me show you something I discovered in the toy aisle at Target yesterday.  A retro Strawberry Shortcake!  My eyes bugged out of my head when I saw it, and I couldn't leave the store without.  The Bridge Direct has produced a completely accurate retro version of the original 1980 doll. 

There's no indication on the box that they'll be making the other characters, though.  I'm guessing either they won't make them at all, or else they're seeing how well this one sells before making the decision.  Anyway, I was stoked.  She's perfect in every way except she doesn't smell like Dad's cigarette smoke.  (LOL.)  Her tights are fabric, not painted-on, and the whole doll is a nice quality.  She has a really wonderful strawberry scent.

I saw that Bridge Direct has also done a retro Raggedy Ann and Andy.  Meh.  I didn't even like those two when I was a little kid.

Of course, I had to debox mine.

Harry Potter Funko Pop 

The first series of Harry Potter Funko Pop Figures has just been released.  Guess which one I got first?  He's so wonderful, I'm not sure I even want to debox.  I got him at Books-a-Million.  My entire Funko Pop collection consists of three figures now:  Glenn from "The Walking Dead" (a Christmas present from my husband), Stitch from that Lilo movie (for my daughter, but he now lives with Glenn), and now Harry Potter.  A bit of a motley assortment, there.

Maybe one day I'll debox Harry, but for right now, I'm enjoying looking at him in his packaging. 

Project Mc² dolls

I was really enchanted by these 11" dolls from the first time I saw them, particularly the freckled girl in the hat, McKeyla.  I love the eyes!  These are by MGA Entertainment.  There are two sets of these dolls.  The more expensive have bending elbows, wrists and knees and come with science-y type projects; and the cheaper are simply basic dolls with no articulation except at the typical shoulders, hips and neck.  These dolls are science and technology-themed, and emphasize learning and using your brain.  I can totally get behind a theme like that!  My metallurgical engineer grandmother would have loved these.

But I seldom buy a doll based on the theme or back-story.  I mainly care about how they look, and whether they'd be fun to play with (or display).  I think these fit the bill.

The Toy Box Philosopher just posted a detailed review of them, here, so you may want to head over there to see what The Philosopher has to say.  I really like them, personally.  As you can see, I bought two.  My 7-year-old is now playing with them.

You can see the rest of the line here.  

Bratz dolls


And now for some brief negativity.  I just saw the new 2015 Bratz on store shelves, and didn't like them enough to buy.  I still like their faces (particularly their eye screenings), but the bodies are oddly-proportioned, to say the least.  They have unnaturally short and small torsos, with insanely long, skinny legs.  I know this was always their aesthetic, but it seems like these proportions are now even MORE exaggerated than they were in previous years (unless it's just my imagination), which is not the direction they needed to go in.  Bleah.  I think I'll be missing these this year.  It's just my personal opinion, though.  Maybe other people will like them. 

Later!

Mood Changers Poppy Parker Gift Set

Mood Changers was the first Poppy Parker W Club exclusive doll for 2015.  I just got the set yesterday, and I was blown away by it!  It's a gift set of one doll with two extra heads, and three '60s-style outfits.  I'm so glad I was able to get it.  I actually totally missed out on all of the main-line Poppy Parkers this year, because the dealer I usually buy them from went out of business, and the few that I wanted this year all sold out before I could get them.  Just as well, I suppose.  It meant more money I could allot to other dolls and assorted awesomeness. 

Anyway, I had to get two extra bodies so I could have all the heads together, because there was no way those extra two gorgeous heads were going to stay in a box.  I think my favorite is the raven. 

Although the dolls themselves are fantastic, the clothes are ... not to my taste.  I usually love Integrity Toys' doll clothes, but these styles just don't suit me.  They're very '60s, at least, just not the types of '60s styles I would have worn or liked if I'd been a young woman back then.  I have to say, I think that pink dress is downright ugly.  If I saw it in human size on a supermodel, I'd still say it was ugly.  Sorry!  I can't be positive all the time.  In its defense, though, the designer was going for a very specific 1960s look, and succeeded quite wonderfully.  My thoughts on the dress are more a statement about my distaste for that type of mod minidress, not the talent of the doll's designer.  I think he's enormously talented.

But besides that, this is a set of really awesome girls!  They each have their own personality, which I love.  Integrity Toys is absolutely one of the industry leaders in facial expression. What's amazing to me is that all three have the same face sculpt, yet have such differing and lively personalities. 

The set came with two sets of earrings, two pairs of shoes, three bracelets, two pairs of pantyhose and a silver clutch purse that pretty much went with everything.

 I love that one has lavender hair.  It was very fun and unexpected.

I hope you enjoy my pictures.  Please click on the pictures to make them bigger. 

 

 

A few notes on Ten Ping's clothing and size

This fabric reminded me of Lilo and Stitch, so this photo had to happen.

I thought I'd return to talk about what clothes and shoes fit Ten Ping by Ruby Red Galleria.  First, she's the same size as their Strawberina doll, so any clothes or shoes made for Strawberina will fit Ten Ping and the Four Kindergartners girls. 

She's close in her chest size to the 8" Ginny dolls, so I thought I'd try a Ginny outfit on her.  The socks, panties and even the shoes fit!  (Although the shoes were tight.)  The dress fit perfectly in the chest area, but as you can see below, the dress was short on her.  A dress that is long on Ginny might work perfectly for Ten Ping, but most of the clothes are going to be short. This cute red dress might work if I put a petticoat underneath it that peaked out below the hem of the skirt.

Oh, by the way, I could barely get her hands through those cuffs!  It was a tight squeeze. Ginny must have skinnier hands.

Ten Ping in a Ginny dress and shoes.

Any panties, bloomers or socks made for 8" Ginny will be perfect for Ten Ping, though, so my girl managed to get quite a nice undergarment and sock collection gleaned from Ginny eBay listings.  Tights for Ginny would be too short in the leg for Ten Ping, unfortunately.

I searched the internet for patterns for Ten Ping, but the only ones I could find were from the delightful Etsy seller jenwrenne.  She has several Ten Ping patterns.  I bought two of them, and they were pretty nice.  She sells them as PDF patterns only (which means you have to have a printer to print them out), but includes lots of detailed and illustrated instructions for the garments.  I was pleased.


Shoes were surprisingly easy to find.  She wears 30mm shoes, but could go up to a 32mm and it would still work.  Those sizes work nicely either with socks or without.  I found two sellers in the United States that sell this size shoe.  (There may be more, but I haven't discovered them yet.)  The first one on this list has both 30mm and 31mms and a much wider selection.  She even has some cute sneakers in the 31mm size.

The Elegant Ankle Strap shoes sold by Audrey's Doll Gallery are perfect.  The picture on their web site shows them as glitter shoes, but the 30mm size doesn't have glitter. I already posted these links in a previous post, but here they are again so that all the Ten Ping clothing information can stay on one page.

Juju's Dolly Mall 30mm
Juju's Dolly Mall 31mm
Audrey's Doll Gallery 30mm Elegant Ankle Strap Shoes


By the way, Ruby Red Galleria does sell clothes and shoes for Ten Ping, but I thought I'd give you a few alternatives as well.

Later,