Happy Easter!

Ah yes, it is Easter and Resurrection Day.  This day and Christmas are the reason followers of Christ have hope even after we're off this mortal coil.  And if you're not religious, Easter egg hunts are still a heckuva lotta fun.  I love watching the children prowl the grass for brightly-colored plastic eggs and have some innocent fun, and when I was young I always liked watching my friends at church dress up.  We almost always had something nice and new to wear if the weather wasn't too rough.  That said, I never have liked it when Easter comes early.  When I was little an early Easter usually meant a rainy and/or cold Easter.  That will not be the case today; it's cloudy, but the high is predicted to be around eighty.  Not that a little rain would've stopped Idalia Gale and Kory Aryan from having fun.  The muddy front yard kept them inside, but they still managed to have an Easter egg hunt.

Both dolls are wearing new clothes, of course.  Idalia's outfit came from crawford176 (an Etsy shop) and Kory's came from 77CabbagePatchLane (another Etsy shop).  LOL, I learned very quickly after discovering Etsy that Barbie and American Girls could be fun to dress, but I didn't really learn until last fall that Cabbage Patch Kids could be fun to dress too.  Since there are quite a few boy Cabbies out there it's a little easier to find nice options for boys.

This getup would've been good for St. Pat's, but I ordered it the day before St. Pat's so that's that.  It's got Oscar the Grouch on it!

Oscar the Grouch is my fellow!  He's delightfully blunt like I can be, and he's green like I like, AND he's a slob like I am.  I've always loved Oscar the Grouch.

Kory's getup is good for just about any part of the year except the dead of winter, but Idalia's clothes are strictly Easter.

The getup came with two little bows, but Idalia only has one thick ponytail so I...crammed both the bows over said ponytail.  I dread getting them out again.

As usual, Idalia is ready to stuff her face.  Cabbies with #11 heads are always ready to eat.

Idalia and I are two of a kind in that respect; I freaking love Easter candy.  Heck, I like candy, period.  The carrot contains one of my favorite candies, Reese's Pieces.

The plastic eggs are not candy, but rather poppers.

They're full of those little white things that you throw down and they make snapping sounds.  I loved those growing up.  One Independence Day I even threw them at my sister!  Interestingly, the backs of the eggs have...this.

Mmkay...I guess they mean that the egg can't be sold if it's opened?  Seems like a goofy thing for any label to say.  Maybe "DO NOT EAT" would've been better, since these little snappers can look like tiny, wrapped candies...at least to a dumb kid.  Smart kids know better, LOL.

Happy Easter,
RagingMoon1987

Another one bites the dust? Apparently so

Happy Easter and Happy Resurrection Day to you, my dear followers!  I don't know about y'all, but I've had a superb weekend.  There was much shopping and antique store-hopping, and my sister tied the knot with her fiancé on Saturday.  So now I have a brother-in-law and I'm very happy!

Unfortunately, the dolly news that I bear is not good.  It's likely also old to some of you, but it's new to me so here goes.  I hope you're in the mood to read!  Six days ago (heavens, doesn't seem like it was that long!) I put up a post regarding the demise of the La Dee Da and Pinkie Cooper lines.  At the end of that post I made some comments about the future of the Cutie Pops series, wondering if they would be discontinued as well.  You remember those, right?  These dolls?

I own and have reviewed Candi, in the center, and Miss Emily reviewed Cookie, on the right.  The Cutie Pops are not perfect, but they are creative enough that Miss Emily and I both rated them fairly high.  Like Pinkie Cooper, I originally thought that these dolls would be cute and original enough to stand up to the test of time, but after Pinkie and the La Dee Da dolls were both axed I began to doubt the longevity of the Cutie Pops.

I had my reasons for this doubt, of course:
*There was a complete absence of Cutie Pops in stores.
*Nothing new had been released in some months.  Last fall there were three new lines available simultaneously, but since then, nothing.
*The Cutie Pops' last Facebook post was on New Years' Day which isn't good, particularly when compared to more successful dolls like Barbie, the Bratz, and Lalaloopsy, each of whom have very active Facebook pages.  Keep in mind that these days social media can make you or break you; if you get a lot of coverage on Facebook or Twitter, voila!  Instant success (or shame, if the news happens to be bad).  But as always, I digress.

Intrigued by these clues, I dug around on Google tonight and a post on Tumblr which contained some disturbing news.  Doll News had this very brief but very telling conversation which attests that the Cutie Pops are indeed being discontinued.  One of the participants of the conversation , a person named Cutie Club, insists that she/he heard the news from a reliable source and even posted directly on her page about it (look very closely at the top of her screen).

So that's not a good sign!  However, I've learned from bitter experience not to believe everything one reads on the internet (yes, I admit that I did at one time), so I dug deeper and found a post from paperdollmom here on Blogspot.  She apparently has heard the same thing that I did, and she reveals that this is apparently old news because her post regarding the Cutie Pops is from April first!  She also reveals a possible reason for the discontinuation:  while her daughter has and loves her Cutie Pops doll, paperdollmom herself finds the doll mildly creepy, particularly when the eyes are removed.  Miss Emily echoed that sentiment, though she herself is a fan of these dolls (she has five separate posts, one for five of the six waves released).

I also found a conversation on Monster High Arena (big forum for Monster High fans), that not only adds further confirms the Cutie Pops discontinuation, but also offers up some ideas as to why they and Pinkie Cooper are no more.  One person suggested that they may have been shouted down by Monster High, Barbie, and the semi-new Ever After High line, all three of which are constantly putting something new out and keeping the image alive.  I think this idea makes perfect sense, because in the two years that Cutie Pops were in existence Jada Toys released six waves, with three being released at the same time.  So if one wanted to really nitpick that COULD count as only four waves.  Compare that to Monster High and Lalaloopsy.  The initial MH release had six characters...

...and the first wave of Lalaloopsy dolls had eight.

This means that Mattel and MGA Entertainment released more dolls in one single wave than Jada Toys did during one doll's entire run.

So I still haven't seen anything official, but that's the buzz online among doll circles.  The discontinuation of Cutie Pops, Pinkie Cooper, and La Dee Da dolls, and the Bratz dolls' hiatus suggests a very dark year for those of us who like playline dolls.  Sure, we have Barbie, Lalaloopsy, and the revival of Moxie Girlz (some of which are downright freaky) but dang it, I was looking forward to seeing where these doll lines would go!  Looks like it's back to browsing the internet for what information on the Novi Stars.  No, I STILL have not figured out if they're going to be gone for good or not.  I've seen multiple sources with multiple responses (yeses, nos, and maybes), but my last trip to Wal-Mart turned up exactly ONE Novi Star:  a lone Sila Clops in the discount isle.  Perhaps they will be getting a mass revamp and being rereleased in the fall alongside the Bratz...but I doubt it somehow.

And before I sign off, I think I should mention yet ANOTHER tidbit of nasty news.  Remember this gal?

Bratzillaz Meygana Broomstix, whom I have reviewed.  My source is Wikipedia, not the most reliable source.  They heard from Bratz Boulevard (a much better source) that while there was information available about international Bratz releases for 2014, NOTHING was said about the Bratzillaz.  This could mean that either they will not be released internationally, or they have just been done away with entirely.  This possibility surprises me because I think the Bratzillaz are a better product than the Bratz.  They have joints and inset eyes, and while the early ones did not have the best hair that problem has since been rectified.  Just more testament to the dynamics and the fickleness of the doll world.

Oh well, life goes on, yes?  All this reminds me that one cannot live through material possessions, even though they are a lot of fun.  Besides, these spaces on shelves will make room for more new creations.  Who knows?  Maybe some obscure little toy company out there will create the impossible:  a doll that purges Barbie from her role as Queen of the Dolls.  When and if that does happen, Yours Truly will be there to see it, munching popcorn, drinking Snapple, and trying to stop her head from spinning.  LOL

Happy Easter/Resurrection Day,
RagingMoon1987