The end?

Well, I can't say as this is a great surprise, but I'm still saddened to see this line go.  According to a link shared by my buddy Alyssia, the one who painted my lovely custom Ever After High doll, the Monster High line has been axed...or at the very least put on hiatus.  Here's the link to this unfortunate news.

Of course this is all strictly conjecture as I've heard nothing official, but the fact that there were no Monster High dolls at the Toy Fair speaks volumes.  Also telling was the declining quality of the dolls (which I griped about in the past), the ill-advised and unwanted reboot, and the complete absence of any new MH dolls on store shelves.  What saddens me is that there are still young fans of this line; just today I spoke to an eight-year-old in a tank top emblazoned with Frankie Stein, Draculaura, and Lagoona Blue, and when I asked "Do you like Monster High dolls?" she responded with an enthusiastic "YES!!!"  Of course it wasn't just the dolls that she liked, but it was an ice-breaker.

Earlier this year I had seen some awesome stock photos of ballerinas and hoodie-themed ghouls, but right now it looks like my hopes of catching one or the other in stores will come to naught since the local stores are not getting a restock.  Not that I need any more Monster High dolls, since I've got so many already, but dang, those hoodies were cute!!!  I guess I'll just have to settle for nude dolls on eBay (which are nice anyway), and with the clothes that Etsy supplies.  I do hope that the apparent demise of this line won't mean that my favorite Etsy shops will close, because I still have those poor eBay dolls to clothe!  Check this!

Okay, I admit that I just shared that picture because I didn't want this post to be all words.  All of my girls have shoes that match their ensembles now, so I'll need to update this picture.  Anyway, Cleo, Catty, and Catrine are all clad in dresses from a shop that I've spoken of in the past, HauntCoutureAtelier.  I can't crow enough about the proprietor's customer service, or the quality of her items.  I just hope that she'll stick around after Monster High's demise, so that those of us with dolls can clothe them in her colorful threads.

If I hear anything official I'll pass it along.

Much love,
RaginMoon1987

Third blind bag post

This should be my final blind bag posts for awhile, for reasons that I'll soon make clear.  Today was another rough day; after a lot of bullying Second Uncle and I finally convinced Grandma to go to "that damn hospital," as she put it.  She's stable now, but she's in bad enough shape that the hospital admitted her as a patient.  I had hoped that Grandma wouldn't go the way Grandpa did (he slowly withered away and worried us half to death), but unfortunately that appears to be the case.  So I bought more blind bags.

I got another box of My Mini MixieQ's, a new box from the Animal Jam line, and three Monster High Minis.  I'm still hoping to get a chalkboard Mini, thus why I got three.  In an unusual twist, I'm going to go from right to left and start with the MixieQ's.  I'm also not going to bother showing the box, as y'all have seen that already.  Here are my two new MixieQ's.

This time my MixieQ's look enough alike that they could be siblings.  The one on the left is Surf's Up, an everyday figure from the Adventurous category, and the one on the right is Purple Stars 2, a special figure from the Wild category.  I love Purple's exuberant smile, by the way.  Like Golden Girl and Strawberry, these two can swap clothes and wigs with the greatest of ease.  Once again, the paint job is spot on.  Perhaps I'm a bit biased, but I think Mattel may have a real hit with these goofy little figurines, because as tiny as they are they can still be played with.  I definitely will be getting more of these in the future, at least enough to fill the smallest display case.  There's a case that comes with one figure and holds eight more, so that may be the direction that I go in with these MixieQ's. 

The next blind bag (box?) is a new one, one called Animal Jam.  To give y'all an idea of how little attention I pay to some things, I had no idea that these toys were tied into an online gaming site.  Animal Jam has apparently been around since 2010 and is in close affiliation with National Geographic, but that's all I know.  My box is from Series 2...

...and the box is shaped like an igloo, per the label's description.

Somehow I have a sneaking suspicion that the critter inside is not going to be an Arctic dweller.  And...

...yikes, it's a spider!  I've never been a huge spider fan to begin with, and having found another brown recluse in my bathtub (the third in a month), my patience with spiders is currently at an all-time low.  This little guy is cute, though; he's blue and lavender with big black eyes, and he looks a lot like a jumping spider, a kind of spider that I do like.  Scientists think that jumping spiders possess something that not many creatures that size do:  a rudimentary ability to reason.  But I digress.  According to the checklist my spider's name is Pointyfrost 2-30, and he's a common figure.  That strange name makes me wonder if this little guy is based on a real player's avatar!  How cool would that be?

As promised, Pointyfrost came with two small accessories.  He came with this teensy pink rocket that fits into a hole on his back...

...and...I originally thought this was a water dish, but now I'm wondering if it's not a reference to in-game currency.  It's hollow like a water dish, so that's what I'm going with for now.

There's also a little code that can be used online, which I assume would mean that it's for the game.  I haven't tried that yet, but I may pretty soon.  I'm way beyond the target age for the game, but Pointyfrost's simple design and quirky accessories have certainly piqued my curiosity.  Pointyfrost himself is nothing special, but he'd be a good little trinket for a young fan of the game.

Now for the Monster High Minis.  As I said above, I got three this time.  The odds are increasing that I'll end up with a duplicate figure, but these are pretty cute so I can't say that I'll cry too much over duplicate figures.  I do hope that one of these three is a chalkboard figure.  And...

SHA-ZOWIE!!!  I got one!  I didn't get any duplicates either so that's two good things.  The first little figure, the one on the right, is Catrine de Mew, a "Fangtastic Find" from the Sporty Monsters set.  In the center is Catty Noir, a "Frightfully Uncommon" Teddy Bear Ghoul.  And lastly, my much-desired Chalkboard Ghoul.  She's Clawdeen Wolf again, and she's common.  I absolutely love these; they're just so original, just like the dolls themselves used to be!  I'm not sure if I want to get any more of these, though; I could try for a Skelita Calaveras figure, but finding her may be tricky given the fact that there's only one Skelita figure and she's not a common one.  So I may just call it quits with these Monster High Minis for now and wait for Series Three to come out.

Of the blind bags that I've ripped open over the past week, Monster High Minis and My Mini MixieQ's tie for my favorite, with Kitty in My Pocket getting honorable mention because...well, because CATS, that's why!  Monster High Minis are original and creative, while MixieQ's are both collectible and play-able.  The Hatchimal is the loser of the bunch; my little squirrel is cute, but he's not very original.  Most of the fun with those comes from hatching the egg that the figure comes in.  I'd stay away from those unless you or someone you know is a die-hard fan of the larger Hatchimals.  I'd only recommend Animal Jam figures to those who actually play the game...and given the popularity of the game, that would apply to a lot of kids out there!

I'll keep y'all posted on anything that may go down with Grandma.  Please pray, light candles, send good vibes, whatever you do when someone needs a little luck.

Always yours,
RagingMoon1987

Playing Dolly Doctor: Catrine, Mulan, and Lagoona

Once again I find myself pushing back reviews to do something that sprung up.  What sprung up this time?  Well, my best friend has a daughter who had a ton of dolls.  This weekend she sacked up a bunch of them and gave them to me.  My job was to comb through the sack, pick out what I wanted, and then...well, she told me to throw what I didn't want away.  I didn't, and now the items in the sack are waiting to be trundled off to the local Goodwill.

Since these dolls were playthings, you can probably imagine what they look like.  Yep, their hair's a mess, their clothing is gone for the most part, and they look like they just walked into the teeth of an F4 tornado.  Anywho, I picked out what I wanted, and hereafter will be a series of posts showing before and after images of these dolls.  I kept about sixteen of the dolls, so this will take awhile.  

My first three victims for THE PLASTIC BAG OF DOOM are first-wave Catrine De Mew, Mulan, and second-wave Lagoona Blue.

The three dolls are in good shape for the most part, though Lagoona is missing part of one arm and her leg fins.  No worries, it'll just give her character!  I can say she got her arm bitten off by a moray eel during her last foray into the sea.  No, these girls just need some spa treatment, which is what THE PLASTIC BAG OF DOOM is.  THE BAG is a large Ziploc bag.  What I do is I take a doll, wash her hair with whatever I have on hand.  Since doll hair is usually plastic my choice of soap is dish soap like Dawn.  I wash their hair and bodies and I comb out the tangles.  If the tangles are bad I use a salad fork, and if they're just regular tangles I use a doll brush.  These dolls' tangles fell into the regular group, so crisis averted.  After that I put in some conditioner.  Never use the leave-in stuff; it just goms up over time and you have another mess on your hands.  After the conditioner I put the dolls inside the Ziploc bag and leave them for a few hours.  According to Doll Reader this creates a sauna-like environment so the kinks can straighten out.

Since I got a late start on this little project I left these ladies in THE PLASTIC BAG OF DOOM overnight.  After taking the dolls out of the bag I rinsed the conditioner out of their hair, dried them off, and combed their hair.  Air-drying took awhile, as usual.  

Mulan's hair is tied back because it's still kinked from the original style it was in, and Lagoona, like all dolls of her character, has some flyaways that I'm going to have to play with in order to control.  But for the most part that was simple and fun.  Pretty easy, right?  Well, these three weren't so bad, but the next group may not be as much fun.  I've got Rapunzel, Merida, and a Bratzillaz waiting in the wings, and all three of them will be nightmares.  Thank God that Bratzillaz doll has short hair!  LOL

Yours truly,

RagingMoon1987