Sorry, it's another Bratz post, LOL!

Happy Friday the 13th, ladies and germs!  Xanadu correctly predicted that more Bratz dolls were to visit the blog.  I know they're not everyone's thing, so you're welcome to NOT read if you wish.  That said, I learned a somewhat-painful lesson this past week during an eBay browsing session:  if you see a Bratz doll or a Monster High doll you like, get it.  My searches for Dynamite Nevra and Haunted Kiyomi Haunterly ended in disappointment, as in-box examples go for a hundred bucks (or so), and out-of-box dolls are inevitably missing pieces.  Case in point:  Welcome to Fabulous Tiana can go for THREE hundred dollars MIB.  My doll is a very close match to her, and she's available RIGHT NOW, so I got her.

Yep, Tiana, not to be confused with the Frog Princess.  Tiana reminds me of my childhood favorites Jade and Kumi, and also of Maci, who was a young adult favorite.  I love the red streaks in her black hair.

Fun fact:  Felicia and Tiana do indeed have nylon hair.  Thanks to Bailey Maria for pointing this out.  The days of fishing wire nylon are apparently long over, because both Felicia and Tiana have soft, smooth, manageable hair.  A far cry from Meygana Broomstix's eternally tangled mane and Jade J'adore's short-but-still-coarse bob.  I wonder what MGA Entertainment was thinking, saddling their dolls with that crap?  No, no, don't tell me!  It was cheaper than decent hair.

In the time that's elapsed since Felicia made her debut, the temperature has dropped significantly.  It was ninety at the very beginning of October, then lows bottomed out around 42-fahrenheit on the seventh of the month, then after a brief rally temps are in the low seventies again.  Felicia has an outfit that will fit the season, but Tiana...hmmm.

A fur jacket and a crop top!  Yep, makes total sense!  Yeah, yeah, I know that the Welcome to Fabulous line was supposed to be dressed up for a night at Las Vegas during God-knows-when in the year, not for an autumn afternoon in the Missouri Delta.  But the juxtaposition between crop top and jacket still makes me giggle.  The jacket is partially lined, by the way, and I love the fabric MGA used.

In true Bratz fashion Tiana also comes with another outfit that shows a copious amount of skin.  Pardon Tiana's slightly unkempt ponytail; I need to wash some gel out of her hair.

I have to admit that I'm growing less and less accepting of revealing clothes as I grow older.  As a teenager I'd have shrugged at Tiana's skimpy outfit and said "She's going out to party, no big deal."  Now I know that sixteen-year-old girls almost NEVER dress like that unless their parents just don't give a crap what they do.  Goodness knows my parents wouldn't have let me out of the house dressed like Tiana, OR Felicia when Felicia is wearing her skimpier outfit.  But as I've said before, that's real life, and Tiana and Felicia are not real life.  Still, I understand more and more why some parents were concerned about these back in the day.  My dad didn't mind me playing with the Bratz, but then again I was a teenager and understood fully that dolls are make-believe.  Little girls sometimes don't know where that line between real and not real lies.  Whatever, strike a pose, girls!

It's worth noting that it takes a fair amount of hand strength to bend these dolls' knees, just as it initially did when the first wave came out.  I was about fourteen when I received my first-wave Jade, and I didn't learn that her knees could bend until...I think I was reviewing May Lin when I figured out that Jade could indeed bend her knees.

So far I like all the dolls from this current Bratz line, but I'm gonna try to show SOME self-control and wait for the Pretty 'N' Punk revamp to come out.  Jade, Yasmin, and Eitan are my favorites from that line, but if I have to get just one I'll flip a coin between Yasmin and Eitan.  Yasmin is underrepresented in my collection, and I have exactly ONE boy (Cameron, from way back in the first wave).  I am a little sad though that the revamp doesn't come with dogs like the original line did.  I liked the dogs because they all named after musicians that I either liked or knew of:  Elton John, Ozzy Osbourne, Ronan Keating, and Gavin...Gavin Rossdale, was it?  Bush was modern, and even now I can't name a single song they performed.  Interestingly, the Boyz from this line had cats, christened Nigel, Ian, and Sherlock.  LOL, I love the name "Sherlock" for a cat!  I did think it was a shame that Elton (Jade's dog, wouldn't y'all know) was a Scottie rather than a cocker spaniel, since Elton John owned a cocker spaniel at the time, but then how many of us knew that???  Besides, Scotties are awesome.  The rerelease doesn't include these pets, but pets or no they make me hopeful for others that I let slip away.  Maybe Dynamite Nevra will show up, or Design Your Own (that one was freaky!), or iCandy, or oooh, oooh, everyone loves the Funk 'n' Glow lines!  The Funk 'n' Glow dolls had clothes that lit up, and the first two waves came with two outfits.  By the time the third wave rolled around extra outfits had been phased out, but they were still a cute bunch.  So I dunno.  Take that back, I DO know that walking down the doll isle makes me giddy with excitement, just like it did when I was a teenager.  Bratz are just part of it, just like they were then, but once again they're a pretty big part.  They've got a LOT more competition now, mostly from their own "cousins" (Rainbow High, Shadow High, and O.M.G., all fellow MGA Entertainment dolls), as well as good ol' Barbie and the Disney Princesses.  But still, it's lovely to see these bratty, goofy-looking dolls back, if even for a short while.  I plan on making the best of it.  Heck, there's even minis!

These dolls and accessories are small enuff to be dolls for Felicia and Tiana.  Kumi is one of the options and I was hoping to get her...

...but I got Cloe from the Rock Angelz line, and Sasha from the Wintertime Collection.  I don't hate that result!  Indeed, I liked the Wintertime Collection, because that group of dolls made dressing for cold weather look fun.  But...but the Wintertime Collection Sasha I found is dressed in gold, not green and blue.  The Sasha I have is from the Wintertime Wonderland line, which I do remember and do love.  Their clothes were warm and practical, but also colorful and stylish, very much like I tried to be during the bleak winter months that I hate so terribly.  As for the Rock Angelz, they were okay, and I liked the belly tattoos, but they didn't wow me like other lines did.  These are nice little figures, though.  Sasha looks particularly fierce.

Cloe's package is elliptical, so she's harder to photograph.  However, her two-tone hair can be faintly seen near her shoulders.  This Cloe was one of the few with dark hair (Cloe is usually the token blonde).

As far as I know the rest of the paint is spot on, though her jeans probably should've been darker.  The full-sized Cloe wore dark-wash jeans...I think.  It's been a long time since I saw these dolls in person.  Maybe the Rock Angelz will see another release just like the Pretty 'N' Punk bunch is.  So far all of the new Bratz have been reproductions...with a few exceptions.  This is the one that popped up in the local Wal-Mart.

Kylie Jenner.  I try to avoid anything associated with the Kardashian and Jenner families, but I do like this doll's dark hair and soft makeup.  The fancier doll even has her dog with her.  Bratz have been collaborating with several high-end designers lately, but I'm not sure I'd call Kylie a high-end designer.  But then I know very little about high-end fashion.  Kylie in the little black dress will eventually make her way to the Moon House, but it'll have to be at a later date because I just got paid.

But then again, I don't guess I should be shopping for more dolls when I have a box full of stuff at home that hasn't seen daylight in a couple'a years.  Felicia and Tiana left me feeling nostalgic, so I grubbed out my box of Bratz, mostly old stuff that's anywhere from ten to twenty years old.  It's just a cardboard box that's seen better days, but guess who was right on top?  My beloved old Jade, a little worse for wear but still looking saucy and sweet.

As I said before, for a long time Jade was my only one.  The Christmas after I got her she was joined by Cameron...

...then by my sister's Meygan...

...and finally by Sasha, who is not wearing her original outfit ATM.

She's still clad in one of those ensembles from a few years back, the ones that had shoes that wouldn't click onto the old Bratz' feet.  Said ensemble doesn't even fit the old Bratz, really.  Instead they're sized for the noodly, flimsy bodies that accompanied Raya and her friends from...well, THAT time frame.

I don't hate Raya, but I definitely don't like her as much as I do my old Jade, or the new reproductions.  She doesn't pose well, and she doesn't have anywhere near the 'tude that Jade and Tiana do.  This was a problem with some, but not all, of the 2015 Bratz.

They're BRATZ, folks.  They're gonna look...well, bratty!  There is a bit of a continuum regarding expressions, though.  For example, in this lineup Jade looks sultry but approachable, Tiana looks like she knows a dirty little secret, and Cloe looks like a bitch.

Not all Cloe dolls look like little Karens, but even so Cloe was never my favorite of the Bratz.  She was blonde, blue-eyed, same-o-same-o.  I DO like her first wave self, though.  Admittedly, if I hadn't been so smitten with Jade Cloe would've been my pick.  Her stock outfit was dominantly blue and brought out her eyes.  But Jade was my pick, as I've established ad nauseam.

I wanna give Cameron some love too, since he's my only boy.  He was the one who introduced me to the concept of the man purse. 

Cameron's wiki has him romantically linked to Cloe (because of course), while Jade dated Dylan, Koby, Iden, and for a brief spell a guy named Matt.  But in the Moon House, Jade and Cameron are an item and always have been.

As of right now Cameron remains my only male representative of the trendy fashion dolls.  I never got any of the male Monster High characters, and so far I don't own any of the male Rainbow High and Shadow High characters.  Rexx McQueen and Oliver Ocean are tempting, though.

Then there were the spinoffs.  I only have one of the Bratz Kidz because I never really cared for those.  Here's Yasmin; she's popped into the blog briefly in the past.

I'll admit to liking Sasha, because she had a long, beautiful skirt like I like to wear...kinda like Yasmin has got now!

That outfit is actually designed for Sasha, but Yasmin works it just fine.  She was lucky enuff to come with her own shoes, shoes that go with everything.  But for the most part I avoid these and Etsy seems to do the same; a perusal of the site turned up no new clothes for Yasmin.

The Bratzillaz, on the other hand, developed...a cult following, maybe?  I liked 'em, even though they seemed like flagrant ripoffs of both the Monster High squad and the LIV dolls.  It was WAAAAY back in the early days of the blog when I reviewed Meygana.  The Who were always on my mind back then, and here Meygana is chanelling Pete Townshend.

Gonna show you why they call me lightning!  Oh, Meygana is still around, but she's in...guess where?  Storage!  Anyway, I always loved these dolls' eyes...AND their lips.  The lips remind me of Skittles, and y'all may or may not remember that I love Skittles.

Drat, I'll have to reuse another picture from Meygana's review!  She had Skittles lips too, and SPARKLY blue eyes!  Meygana's hair was and still is a disaster, but she's still a pretty little doll.  

Midnight Beach Jade J'adore is also worth a closer look, for reasons that should probably be obvious.

Oh, those beach-themed Bratzillaz were so weird!  I love the glow-in-the-dark gimmick, but it makes Jade look...a little unalive and undead at the same time.  Doesn't stop Jade from hamming it up for the camera, though.  The elastic that allowed her to hold her cape has long since disintegrated, but oh well.

Miss Emily noted that the only character who could effectively pull off this greenish-white tone was Fianna Fins, largely because she was a mermaid (and also a witch).  Hair, on the other hand...well, that was back in the days when MGA was in love with that cheap nylon crap.  Jade's silvery bob isn't as gross as Meygana's tangled pall, but it's not great either.

I read that the first wave Jade J'adore's hair was even worse!  Bratzillaz hair did get better, but eee-yucko, why did MGA use that sh!t in the first place?  No wait, I know why!  I think we've rehashed that once.

Okay, okay, I'll stop now!  When I dig into a box of my old things I tend to get carried away.  So yeah, I know Bratz aren't for everyone, but I personally am glad to see these chicks back on shelves.  I hope that maybe the reproductions will become popular again, and maybe MGA can take up where they left off...before the nylon hair and the fish lips!  If not, well...we've still got Rainbow High and Shadow High!

Bratzy love,
RagingMoon1987