Stuff for Christmas (early again!)

Ah, the joys of holiday shopping!  I say "holiday" in this case because most of the shoppers I ran into today were Thanksgiving shoppers, with some Christmas early birds thrown in.  I swear, it was almost as bad as Black Friday today, with the amount of people that apparently waited until the last minute to gather everything they needed for a decent Thanksgiving dinner.  Granted, there were not crowds of people pushing in on me from all sides, there weren't lines of goofballs sitting in the isles waiting for things to go on sale, and I didn't have to swear at or push anyone like I usually do if I have to partake in Black Friday.  Hey, if they're pushing me I'm going to push back, and if they use dirty language with me I'm going to throw it right back at them.  Sigh...I think I can understand now why some people refuse to celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving at all now, because it's all so cotton-pickin' commercialized.

Now, time for me to be a hypocrite!  One paragraph I'm moaning about over-commercialization and the next I'm showing off some of the neat stuff I saw.  Yep, it's not even time to put up the Christmas trees yet (my family always waited until the first Saturday in December to put our tree up), and the local Super Wal-Mart has some new stuff already.  Not a ton, but enough that I took some pictures.  I saw these My Life dolls before I even got to the toy section.

These are pretty impressive, though I have to say that looking at their bare little arms makes me shiver.  Just a faux fur wrap wouldn't be enough for me.  That shade of blue though!  Christmas-themed dresses tend to be red, green, gold, or silver, so seeing this pale blue is a pleasant change.

Funville seems to be having more fun with the Sparkle Girlz, as when I went by their shelf there were more interesting hair and eye colors to be seen.  Clothes aren't as interesting though, as this young lady reveals.

Apologies for the glare on her eye, as I was in a hurry to get that picture.  This doll has green eyes, interesting bicolored hair...and (sigh) a painted on top.  Her skirt is a separate piece, and the top can be easily concealed by any of the numerous Sparkle Girlz fashions, but I do hope this doesn't mean that Funville is cutting quality to cut costs.  This was the cutest of the current Sparkle Girlz, by the way, and I was sorely tempted to take her with me.  However, I already have a storage problem at home so I decided against it.  I've already got three Sparkle Girlz anyway.

Meanwhile Hasbro appears to be ripping another page out of Mattel's book with these larger dolls.  I only saw Mal from the Descendants line, but she may be only the first.

Notice that the box says "fully posable."  I wonder if that's some sort of advertising ploy to put these larger Descendants over those jumbo Barbies, which are NOT fully posable.  Maybe so and maybe not, but it's interesting to see Mal in a larger size.  I won't be bringing one home because I like my Barbie-sized Coronation Lonnie too much, but Big Mal was still an interesting find.

Meanwhile, what's Mattel been up to?  Well, they've been focusing on their cash cow Barbie again, with some new sets that appear to be an attempt to compete with MC² dolls.  The first Barbie puts a heavy emphasis on building rather than STEM/STEAM projects...

...but check this next set out!  Astronaut and space scientist!

Great, the return of the blandly painted Asha head, though this Asha probably wouldn't wear much makeup to work anyway.  Scientists usually have more important things to worry about than makeup.  How do y'all like that, though???  I was smitten with space and astronauts when I was a little girl, and I would've dug this set!  I'd have loved the builder set too, since I loved Legos.  I wonder if the building blocks that come with the builder are Mega-Blox, by the way?  That would be fabulous if they did, since there were Mega-Blox Barbie figures once upon a time.  I also can't help wondering how well these will sell.  The builder set might do well since it's got some add-ons...but as awesome as I think the concept of the space set is, I have my doubts about it.  As much as I love the concept, it appears to be just a pair of dolls with some plastic add-ons.

Mattel does have something else to tickle my fancy though, and I did come home with some of these.  They're Hello Kitty-themed clothes!

Well okay, those top two are just Barbie skirts, but look at those cute little tops!  Two have Hello Kitty on them and the one on the left has My Melody, who was a special part of my childhood thanks to a small book entitled My Melody's New Bike.  I'm not sure if the rightmost piece is a top, or if it's really a dress.

It looks eerily like something Sailor Moon would wear.  I may have to get Ami in on this when I finally get around to discussing these outfits; yep, I plan on doing a Dolly Dress Discussion for these.  I advise caution when seeking these out, as they're pricey:  I paid a little over two bucks a pop for each piece.  Why Mattel wants to charge that much for a little piece of clothing is beyond me, but part of me is fairly certain it has something to do with that danged box.  This packaging is WAY fancier than that of the other Barbie separates currently available, and that may not be a wise move on Mattel's part.

With that out of the way...I have no idea what plans we have for Thanksgiving this year.  Mama, after years of cooking the food, has flatly told Second Uncle that she is not under any circumstances cooking this year unless it's something simple.  So it looks like we'll be eating out...but where is still up in the air.  Mama has laid two options before us:  go to Ryan's, or haul Grouchy Great Aunt over to the nursing home and eat with Grandma.  I don't have many problems with either option, except that Option Two involves fetching Grouchy Great Aunt and listening to her harp about how the car smells like dog, how Mama and I have both gained weight, how Mama and I need to get our hair out of our faces, sit up straight, take small bites of food, and wear long skirts, how Second Uncle needs to gain weight and get a job (which he does), and...y'all get the point.  Grouchy Great Aunt is not pleasant to be around, so I'm half-hoping she'll say no and we can eat at the nursing home without her.  Since this Thursday IS Thanksgiving I'll probably postpone this week's Throwback Thursday blog (it's not ready yet anyway) and do it next week.  That'll give me some time to throw it into shape.

Happy Thanksgiving,
RagingMoon1987