New clothes for Blossom Flowerpot??? Maybe!

Frankly, I don't know why I bother to go to the toy section of the local Wal-Marts anymore.  The one in my hometown doesn't usually have much, and the one in the town north of here always has stuff I can't afford.  Thus I come away with a serious case of the gimmie-gimmies and drive my mom nuts on the trip home with idle dolly chatter.  This afternoon was no different; we went to the north town to eat and get some odds and ends.  Or rather, I went in; my mom's arthritis is acting up.  But I went in and saw the usual stuff that I salivate over (except for the Bratzillaz, which were sold out).  I also managed to knock over a row of Novi Stars and spent ten minutes playing fifty-two pickup.  On my way out, I saw something else that I hadn't noticed before.  New clothes for Lalaloopsy dolls!!!

Time for a slightly off-topic story.  This is my Lalaloopsy, Blossom Flowerpot.  She and the other Lalaloopsy dolls are advertised as being "for ages 4 to 104," but are dominantly marketed towards young girls.  In spite of that, a fair amount of non-children folks have taken to these dolls, including me.

My problem is this:  my favorite thing is to buy one doll from a series and then buy a ton of new clothes for her (or less often, him).  MGA has tons of clothes for Lalaloopsies, including party dresses, pajamas, costumes, and even swimwear.  Really cute clothes.  So how come my Blossom isn't wearing one of the extra outfits?  Well...I can't afford 'em, first of all.  Okay, I take that back; I can afford 'em.  But I'm saving my money for another very special doll.  The other thing is that there weren't a lot of options.  Of all the outfits MGA has to offer, I've only seen the swimsuit, one set of pajamas, and this cute little gingham party dress.  I still want that party dress, by the way.  But therein lies problem number three, my most hated problem ever in the doll world:  the clothes, ALL of 'em, are getting hard to locate.  Earlier this fall I went into Wal-Mart and saw no clothes, and only two dolls.  I thought "oh crap, the Lalaloopsy dolls have been discontinued," even though I'd heard no news saying that.

Apparently I was wrong!  The new clothes that I saw today weren't a new shipment of the same old thing (even though that would've suited me fine), but honest-to-God NEW OUTFITS!!!  There were only two of them, another party dress and another swimsuit, but they follow the usual Lalaloopsy trend of being super-cute and super-colorful.

Here's the party dress:

It's yellow, pink, and red, with white polka dots and white stripes on the trim.  Hmmm...interesting color combo.  I never have been a huge fan of red with pink, but this isn't so bad.  Anyway, the dress is shiny all over, and judging from this picture there may be a red petticoat underneath.  The thing I love the most about this dress is that it's polka dotted.  Just like Blossom Flowerpot's original dress.  The thing I like the least about this outfit is that there's no orange in it; Blossom has painted stockings that are orange and white, and they peep out from under her dress.  Maybe this one will cover that.  No biggie, I'd still put her in this dress even if it doesn't cover up Blossom's leggings.

And here's the swimsuit:

It's a pink and white outfit with horizontal stripes, and a polka dotted inner tube.  The material on the inner tube looks a lot like the material used on Coral Seashells' swimsuit, so I love the connection to another character there.  I also like the polka dots, of course!  In addition, check out those shoes!  Jelly sandals!!!  Firstly, jelly sandals were my favorite shoes when I was a kid (and unfortunately for me, also the most verboten).  Also...THEY'RE ORANGE!!!  They match Blossom's stockings easily.  They look yellow in the image, but trust me...in real life, they're orange.

Also the new swimsuit appears to be a huge improvement of the old one.  Here's what the old swimsuit looks like:

Now you may be scratching your head and asking, "What's wrong with that?"  Or, you may be a parent who bought this one and had to put up with those ribbons constantly coming unlaced and untied.  Apparently the ribbons are that skinny satin stuff that a lot of doll companies use, and they are very, VERY tricky for children to manipulate.  According to the reviews on Amazon, even some of the parents were too fumble-fingered to tie those laces!  In addition, the water wings were apparently very difficult to fit over a Lalaloopsy doll's hands; a few reviews on Amazon addressed that issue as well.  Now...I think the outfit is fine.  But I am not a parent, and I've always been good at tying ribbons into bows, so I WOULD like it!  

But then again, I may end up wanting BOTH of the swimsuits, because look what else I saw:

Charlotte Charades is in the building!!!

When I received Blossom Flowerpot (she was a gift), I promised myself that she'd be my only big Lalaloopsy doll.  If I got any more, they would be the little ones and serve as props for Daniela and my Monster High dolls to hold.  Looks like I may be about to eat my words!!!

And now my dog is whining, so I've got to let her out.

Hugs, kisses, and chocolate chip cookies,

RagingMoon1987