Zelfs Elfa review

First of all, let me say that I'm just a hair behind on my blog.  Yeah, I've gotten more posts out this month than I usually do (Selah), but I'm still running behind schedule.  My intention was to get Malie Tasker, my new Create-a-Monster set, this Zelf, and an additional doll reviewed before November 20th.  Well, here it is December fifth and I'm...well, I'm halfway through that list.  As I mentioned yesterday my area is in the crosshairs of a violent winter storm, so now I've got time on my hands.  That being said, I want to introduce you to my new Zelf, Elfa.

First though, a bit of info on Zelfs.  Zelfs are little troll-like creatures created by Moose Toys, a company that I'm not familiar with.  They are relatively new things; I think they've just been released this year.  Beastsbelle has reviewed these in recent posts, but I initally wasn't sold on them.  Beastsbelle's daughter's Elfa doll was what won me over (you can see her in Beastbelle's Super Mermalade review).  Elfa is green and yellow, which happen to be my old high school's colors.  But anyway, Zelfs live in a far-away, super-secret garden called Zardinia.  Each Zelf has his or her own personality and strength, a strength which the owner can supposedly also have if they believe enough in themselves (or theirzelfs, as the Zelfs put it).  Zelfs come in three different sizes:  super, medium, and small (or Lil').  Super Zelfs are four inches tall, Medium Zelfs are about two and a quarter inches, and Lil' Zelfs appear to be an inch and a half tall.  My Elfa is a Medium Zelf.

Before I get into the doll herself I'm going to address the collectors' leaflet that comes with her.  The leaflet is cute too, by the way...it's a leaflet of paper and it's in the shape of a leaf (thank you Beastsbelle, for pointing this out!)

When I reviewed Sila Clops and Malie Tasker I left their personalities until the end of the review, which doesn't make sense now that I think of it.  So I'm going to share this first.

According to the leaflet, Elfa is an "Elf Zelf" and her Zelf Power is laughter.  "Laugh at yourself, LOL!" she says, and I think it's good advice.  I love to laugh.  In addition to the love of laughter, Elfa is a prankster who shirks off her chores to play pranks on people!  Her hovel, or "fabitat" is a zelk tree, whatever that is, and her birthday is the last day of Fall.

Now, Elfa herself!  She has lemon yellow vinyl and painted features.

She has an adorable face with molded eyebrows, a little nose, and a cheerful little smile.

Her eyes are inset orange marbles.  They appear to move as I change her position, and this effect allows her personality to shift.  From above she looks shy, vulnerable, almost sad.

Looks can be deceiving, though.  From the side she looks a trifle mischievous.

From below she looks downright goofy!

Elfa's nose is sprinkled with orange freckles, and her cheeks have some pale blush and pink leaves.  She has cute pointed ears that remind me of Novi Star ears.  The packaging said that Elfa is supposed to be an Elf Zelf and these ears add a touch of elfishness to her.  Pointed ears are not exclusive to Elf Zelfs, however; most of the other Zelfs have pointed ears as well (see Angelala the Angel Zelf for an example of this).

On top of Elfa's head is...well, hair!  She has dark green and light green hair that stands straight up.

I'm not sure what this fiber is.  It doesn't feel like saran, and it sure as heck isn't that nylon crap that a lot of MGA dolls use.  It's very soft and smooth, and it doesn't tangle or shed.  One can't make too many styles with it, so keep that in mind if you have a budding stylist in your household.

Elfa's body is jointed at the neck, shoulders, and hips.  She has only rotational motion at these joints.  This cuts down on posability quite a bit, but she can still strike a few cute poses.  She can sit:

walk:

and hold her arms up like this:

Malie:  "Want a hug, small earthling?"

Elfa's build is chubby.  She has a thick little torso and a tummy that sticks out a bit.

Her hands have four stubby little fingers:

And her feet have four stubby little toes:

Like the other Zelfs, Elfa has a design painted on her body.  Her paint scheme is not as elaborate as that of other Zelfs, but it's still cute.  Her tummy has green leaves and red blossoms painted on it, her legs have green vines, and her feet are solid green all the way around.

The shading on Elfa's feet is well-done, by the way.  The green on her feet shifts smoothly into the yellow on the rest of her body, which I love.

Oh yes, Elfa also has a Zelf mark painted on her tushie.

Word of warning to parents:  these dolls do come nude and have a well-defined gluteal cleft.  These dolls are NOT sexualized; I wouldn't have known Elfa was a girl if not for that leaflet she came with!  But keep that bare keyster in mind if nudity is an issue for you.

Elfa came with a couple of other accessories in addition to that leaflet.  She came with a cute leaf-shaped comb:

This little leaf charm:

And three rubber bands.  The rubber bands are being used in another doll's hair so you won't be seeing those.  They're in shades of pink and are quite nice.  Regarding the comb, I've learned from very reliable sources to eschew plastic doll brushes, so it won't be used unless I use it as a prop.  And the leaf charm...well, the cord is too small to go around my wrist, and it's too long to go around Elfa's neck.  It's also too long for my Monster High dolls...

...but it looks okay on my La Dee Da doll, Cyanne.

I also tried it as a bracelet on my Our Generation doll, Sadie.  But it only looped around her wrist once.

It would need to go around twice in order to stay on, but the cord is not elasticized so there's that idea out.  Oh well, the charm did look halfway decent on Cyanne, so she will probably be the one who wears it.  It looks cute with her leaf earrings.

I'm not going to do a good news/bad news section on Elfa, because there's very little to say about her that's bad.  The only thing I found that might be an issue for some folks would be her nudity.  But as I stated above, she's not really showing anything off that's inappropriate; her little tushie is more cute than anything.  Oh yes, she's also a hair stiff, but she's got more joints than the average troll doll does.  Aside from those things Elfa is a simple but delightful addition to my doll family.  She's colorful, she's cute, she's expressive, and she's surprisingly versatile.  As small as she is, I can even use her as a prop for my other dolls.

Long story short, I highly recommend Elfa and her colorful little friends.  If they can win over adults like Beastsbelle and me, then they sure as heck can win over a child.  Give a doll like Elfa to an imaginative child and she will no doubt have a field day.

God bless y'all,
RagingMoon1987

On winter weather and geckos (not really doll-related)

I hope those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving had a good one.  I certainly did; we had family to see, food to make, and oddly enough, houses to sit!  Yep, I've been house-sitting, thus why I did not get any of the reviews I had planned finished.  At the moment it looks like I may have ample time to complete them this week...because the weather is going to be downright NASTY.  Here's what our Special Weather Statement looks like (it's not pretty):

...SIGNIFICANT ICE STORM BECOMING INCREASINGLY LIKELY THURSDAY
NIGHT INTO FRIDAY NIGHT...

AN ARCTIC COLD FRONT WILL SURGE THROUGH THE MIDSOUTH LATE
WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND INTO THURSDAY MORNING. ABOVE NORMAL
TEMPERATURES AHEAD OF THE FRONT WILL FALL THROUGHOUT THE DAY AND
NIGHT THURSDAY WITH PERIODS OF MODERATE RAIN AND A FEW CRACKS OF
THUNDER. BY MID EVENING FREEZING TEMPERATURES WILL MOVE INTO
NORTHEAST ARKANSAS WITH RAIN CHANGING OVER TO FREEZING RAIN. BY
FRIDAY MORNING FREEZING TEMPERATURES WILL HAVE MADE THEIR WAY TO
JUST NORTH OF I-40...AND BY EARLY AFTERNOON INTO NORTH
MISSISSIPPI. FREEZING RAIN AND SOME SLEET WILL SPREAD SOUTH AND
EAST ON FRIDAY WITH ACTIVITY TAPERING OFF ACROSS THE WEST BY
FRIDAY EVENING...AND EVENTUALLY ACROSS THE EAST EARLY SATURDAY
MORNING.

THE HEAVIEST ICE ACCUMULATION FOR NOW APPEARS TO BE NORTH OF I-40
AND COULD EASILY EXCEED A HALF OF AN INCH...AFFECTING THE CITIES
OF JONESBORO...KENNETT...DYERSBURG AND BLYTHEVILLE. ICE ACCUMULATIONS
EXCEEDING A QUARTER OF AN INCH ARE PROBABLE IN THE I-40 CORRIDOR
AFFECTING THE MEMPHIS METRO...JACKSON...AND FORREST CITY. BUT
THESE EARLY DETERMINATIONS ARE BY NO MEANS SET IN STONE.
ADDITIONAL FREEZING RAIN AND ICE ACCUMULATIONS WILL BE POSSIBLE
SATURDAY NIGHT AND INTO SUNDAY AS A SECOND STORM PASSES THROUGH.

PLEASE STAY TUNED OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS ON THIS UNFOLDING
WINTER STORM. MIDSOUTHERNERS SHOULD PREPARE FOR TRAVEL
DIFFICULTIES AND POTENTIAL POWER OUTAGES WITH THIS STORM.

I think I should point out that Malden, Missouri, where I currently live, is twenty-six miles north of Kennett.  In a widespread storm such as this Kennett and Malden usually get the same thing.  That was the case the last time we had an ice storm like this, back in 2009.  I was in Cape Girardeau then, which got maybe an inch of ice and eight inches of snow on top of that.  It was enough to prompt SEMO to call off classes for the rest of the week, but it was nothing compared to what areas to the south got.  I think Malden got six and a half inches of ice, an additional foot of snow, then another half inch of ice on top of the snow.  Power was out for a month in some parts of the area, which meant that the houseplants I'd had to leave at home all froze to death.  Every major tree in the area was either destroyed or badly damaged, including my grandmother's crab apple tree, which was split down the middle under the weight of so much ice.  I'll spare you my thoughts on that as they're quite lengthy, but let me just say that it's the first and only time that I've gone hippie-level crazy over a tree.  I was grief-stricken.  No lie.

Now it's 2013 and I have another reason to worry.

This is Horatio, my crested gecko.  I obtained him from a friend who wasn't really sure how to care for him (long, complicated story).  He'd been all but starved to death before she got him, and he wouldn't eat the food that she had, so I ended up with him.  He's come a long way since I got him in January, and I'm very fond of him.  Today Mama and I are going out to fetch some provisions, and I'm trying to think of something that will keep him warm without costing us an arm and a leg.  There's no guarantee that we'll lose power, but I'm not taking any chances.  Whatever goes down, I'll keep you posted.

Yours somewhat-nervously,
RagingMoon1987

Novi Stars Malie Tasker review

At the end of my recent review of Sila Clops I promised a follow-up.  Well, this is it...sort of!  It's not a Mimi Merize review...nope, still haven't found her yet.  But my search for Mimi has yielded fruit of another sort.  During my regular searches of the local Wal-Marts (and finding nothing but the same old first, second, and third-wave Novi Stars) I fell in love with one of Sila's shelfmates, Malie Tasker.

If you read the Sila Clops review then you may recall that during the good news/bad news segment the "bad" list was fairly long.  Oh sure, Sila's a nice little doll, but she's got some pitfalls that a twenty-dollar doll shouldn't have.  Well!  Almost everything that I DIDN'T like about Sila has been remedied in Malie.  Almost, that is; she still has nylon hair.  It's straight like Sila's, but it's still nylon hair.  Blah.

And she was held to the box by those hateful little plastic tacks, causing her hair to be squashed.

I never will understand why MGA tacks their dolls in so tightly; it seems just a tad unnecessary.  Oh yes, you may have noticed one crucial difference between Sila and Malie already:  Malie has rooted hair.  The rows are widely spaced, but the plugs are nice and thick so Malie's hair looks decent.  Of course, this does mean that Sila STILL doesn't have anyone to swap wigs with, but I'm working on that.

One thing Malie DOES have in common with Sila is two-toned hair.  

Malie's base hair is black like Moxie Teenz Tristen's, and the highlights are a pale greenish-yellow.  They are much brighter on the actual doll than they are on the doll in the promo pics.  Regarding style Malie's hair is similar to Sila's, but there are some slight differences.  She wears her hair long like Sila does, but it is the same length all the way around (Sila's is cut at an angle).

Malie's bangs also are cut differently.  Sila's are cut straight across and are (in my opinion) too long.  Malie's are cut in a rounded shape; they are long in the center and short at the sides.  I prefer Malie's bangs to Sila's because one can see more of Malie's face that way.

Sprouting out of Malie's head are the silver antennae common to Novi Stars.

They are a different shape but are otherwise similar to Sila's antennae.  They fit into holes on Malie's head and don't come out easily.  In fact, I don't think they come out at all!  I've pulled and they don't budge, so I just leave them alone.  Malie's antennae are plain on the back, by the way.  They don't look as good when twisted around like Sila's do, so I won't be twisting them around much.

Now...underneath those shapely bangs is...well, this is strictly my opinion, but this is one of the most lovely color schemes I've ever seen on a doll.  I like how Sila's dark, bold coloring makes her stand out from the other Novis, but I also like Malie's sparkly skin and soft makeup.  So...let's break this down.  Malie has inset eyes like the majority of all Novi Stars.

Her eyes are bright blue and pink, and the pupils have cute little spirals in them.  They're not as spacey as the ambiguous supernova-explosion-looking thing in Sila's eyes, but the color combination makes up for that; they look eerily like the colors of the Rosette Nebula.  As an aside, if you are in the mood to look at something beautiful, go to Google Images and type in "nebula."  God has the art of tie-dying down pat.

LOL, where are we?  Oh yes, we're still on eyes.  The eyelids are fringed with long eyelashes, which are a mainstay in the Novi Star world.  

Malie's eyelashes are bare for the most part, but at the very base the lashes are painted silver.

Above the eyelashes are molded upper eyelids with light pink and pale lavender eyeshadow.

And above that are the polka-dot cyberpunky-looking eyebrows, rendered in two shades of light greenish-blue.

Malie's mouth is the same shade of green as her eyebrows.  It's wider than Sila's mouth and has a bit of a smile to it.  It's also rubbed off a smidge in the center.  Bummer.

The cheeks are subtly blushed.  This didn't photograph well, but trust me:  it's there.  The rest of Malie's head is rendered in hard white vinyl with a pearly sheen on it.  Note that she has cute little pointed ears like Sila's...and most of the other Novi Stars.

When Miss Emily reviewed her first-wave Alie Lectric she reported that Alie's head had a similar pearly coating, and that it appeared to be painted on.  I wondered if the same was true with Malie and attempted to scratch the back of her head.  Nothing came off, so I assume that the color is molded into Malie's vinyl.  Either that or the paint that MGA Entertainment used is made out of Teflon.  

Moving right along, Malie's body.  Her body is white hard plastic with subtle, molded-in sparkles.  Her build is identical to Sila's.

Well...almost identical.  There are these to be seen.

This is Malie's gimmick, and it also explains her name (a play on the term "multi-tasker").  Her arms are made of flexible rubber and according to the package, they're supposed to stretch.  When I read that on the package I was thinking of something like this.

You've probably seen those in vending machines, and you may have even driven your mother bats with one, like I did (LOL).  They are made of this soft, almost snot-like rubber, stretch to insane lengths...and are VERY sticky.  I was expecting Malie's arms to be like this, only without the stickiness, but SURPRISE!!!  The arms aren't sticky, but they're also not stretchy.  They also do not come off like Sila's arms, and they are not poseable.  No joints at the shoulder, no internal wires, nothing.  They do glow in the dark as advertised, and I'm a sap for anything that glows or lights up so I love this little attribute.  It does make me wonder, though:  why not just make the whole doll glow in the dark?  Malie looks a little peculiar with just her arms glowing like that, almost like she had some sort of mishap with glow-in-the-dark paint...or nuclear waste.  Ewww...anyway, one arm is decked out with this green bracelet.  It's easier to remove than Sila's but it doesn't match her outfit as well.

Before I move on to the rest of the clothes I want to show you one other way that Malie is different from Sila.  Remember Sila's hips and how awkward the joint mobility was?  Well, Mallie doesn't have that problem.  Here's what her hip joints look like:

No elastic anywhere!!!  Selah!  These are constructed similarly to Skelita Calaveras's hip joints and have a great range of movement, much better than Sila's.  Malie can sit without her legs spreading apart like a bimbo on Quaaludes.

And she can do the splits WAY better than Sila can.

Malie's clothing is a fusion of spacey and earthly.  She's got a green kimono-style dress with a pleather belt and a huge yellow bow in the back.  The bottom has a tulle ruffle which adds to the length of the skirt and makes Malie look slightly less bimbo-ized.

The sleeves are unhemmed, which makes me concerned for their longevity.  If I don't pull on it it'll probably be fine, but if you're a parent keep this little tidbit in mind.

Malie's shoes are fairly simple.  They're black high heels with round toes and yellow bands around the soles.  The heel has a notch molded into it.

The soles have holes in them, for a reason that I'll reveal shortly.

As I predicted, dressing and undressing Malie is more of an undertaking.  I have to thread her arms through the holes one...at...a...time.  The armholes in her dress are bigger so they can accommodate both arms, but it's still a dodgy little task.  Her shoes pop off more easily though.  They don't fall off but they do come off with a reasonable amount of force.  As a bonus I don't have to worry about chipping the finish off Malie's heels.

Regarding accessories, Malie has the same stuff that Sila does.  She has a pet, a stand, a brush, and a card that has her info.  The stand is particularly noteworthy.

At first glance it appears to be the same as Sila's; it glows in the dark and has holes that accommodate the shoes.  However, look closer.

The holes that hold the shoes have pegs inside.  Each of these pegs fits a shoe, and these help Malie stay on the stand better.  This is head and shoulders above Sila's stand, which will only hold her if she's positioned just so.

Malie's brush is teal plastic.  I won't be using it on her because plastic brushes do a number on doll hair.

Then there's the pet.  Malie's pet is named 4.0.  She is very grouchy looking and reminds me a little of Tardar Sauce.  Her head swivels just like 1-Eye's head does.

I like 4.0 better than 1-Eye because her face has more character, but for the most part she's another unnecessary little add-on.

Lastly, the info card.

According to the card, Malie is an uber-organized multitasker who wants to hug everyone who needs it.  That little burst of positive energy again made me again think of Sila.  Remember when Sila said she wanted to be a source of light for earth people and extraterrestrials?  Maybe she and Malie are sort of a tag team.

Malie:  "You offer your words of wisdom and I'll provide moral support."

Sila:  "Done deal."

The Novi Stars Wiki offers some extra info which was no doubt on the back of the box.  According to them Malie loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (like me), is good at gymnastics, doesn't understand why mittens only come in pairs, and wants to learn how to juggle.  With four arms, juggling would be a breeze!

Of course, part of the card gives an age.  We went through this little ring-around-the-rosie with Sila, so let's take a look at Malie's age.

Uh-oh.  What on God's green earth is a zettasecond???  Again I turned to Google for help, and I learned that a zettasecond is a real unit of time, with one zettasecond being equivalent about 32 trillion years.  Malie is 11.3 million zettaseconds old, which equals this amount of normal years:  3.5808304 x 10²³.  10²³ is in the sextillion range and contains at least twenty-three zeros...I think.  Math has never been my strong point.  Basically the card says that Malie is extremely old, older even than Sila.

Okay, so far I've loved almost everything about Malie.  Unfortunately, the party ends with the extra outfits.  I did complain about Sila's stand being unable to accommodate certain styles of shoe, and Malie's stand is the same way.  Oh, if only that were the end of the story!  But no, the problem goes further than that.  Sila may not be able to fit into her stand when wearing the extra outfits, but she can at least wear them!  Malie cannot.

The blue gown looks like it works, but in truth I couldn't get it to fasten in back.  The nightie and the coat won't even fit over Malie's arms, so those options are out.  Basically Malie is unable to wear anything but her stock outfit...and maybe something that someone customizes for her!  That takes us to the good news and the bad news.

BAD
*Nylon hair.  That's almost always a negative.
*Stretchy arms don't do much stretching.  They glow as advertised, but they don't stretch, nor do they hold a pose.
*Arms don't come off, either.  Because the arms are stiff and don't come off, Malie can't wear any of the extra outfits available for Novi Stars.
*4.0 has more character than 1-Eye does, but I still don't see the necessity of these pets.  Why not just give Malie an extra outfit, one that she can actually wear?
*Face paint is rubbed off a bit.

GOOD
*Not wigged.  As much as I'd love for Sila to have someone to share wigs with, I'm thankful for Malie's rooted hair.  It's not constantly falling off or slipping down in her face.
*Lovely colors, especially in the eyes.  The sparkles in Malie's skin don't have the risk of flaking off like Sila's do.
*Hip joint is improved.
*I didn't touch on this in the review, but Malie's head does not come off as easily as Sila's.  It twists, tilts, and turns, but will only come off if you pull hard.
*The stand fits much better.
*Antennae don't come off as easily, so there is less of a risk that they may be lost or swallowed.
*She has the same potential versatility as Sila.  She can be repainted, rebodied, and get some new hair for a completely customized look, like the folks in this blog did.

In short, I think Malie is a much better doll than Sila.  I still wouldn't subject her to my throw-her-across-the-yard-and-see-what-happens test, but she feels more sturdy.  Her hair is rooted and thus I can brush it and just let it go.  She's not constantly falling out of her stand.  She has a lovely color palate and glorious eyes.  As far as I can see, Malie's only major shortcoming is her arms...which unfortunately are her main gimmick.  Yes, they do glow, but they don't stretch much and they can't accommodate any of the other outfits without a battle.  In fact, she can't wear two of those three extra outfits at all because of those arms!  If they came off like Sila's that probably would not be much of a problem, but they don't come off at all and that's a disappointment.  Not much, but if you or your child likes changing a doll's clothes, keep this tidbit in mind.  That said, I still recommend Malie, and I recommend her above Sila and any of the other dolls with frozen legs.  If you have your heart set on a Novi Star and can't find any of the new Super Novas yet, Malie can tide you over.  She may satisfy you enough that you won't want to bother searching for another Novi.  Or, if you're a glutton like me, she'll tide you over until you can find one more to review...yes, I am seeking out yet another Novi Star to review.  I want to see if one with frozen legs can still make a satisfying plaything.  Tula Toned may be the one I choose, just so I can round out the second wave.

Cheers!
RagingMoon1987