Monday, April 14, 2014

Saying goodbye...

This is likely old news since I tend to spend a fair amount of time with my head in the clouds, but the spring of 2014 brings some bad news for a couple of fairly young doll lines.  In March Bridge Direct announced the discontinuation of Pinkie Cooper.
This trio of canine cuties made their debut last year.  Each doll had an extra outfit and a pet available, and Pinkie had three additional city-themed variations (London, Paris, and Beverly Hills).  Their cuteness won Miss Emily over, and her review convinced me to grab one as well.  I own Pepper and her pet dog Saltine, but not any of the extra outfits that were available.
I didn't review Pepper because of Miss Emily's review; she reviewed Pinkie here, and Pinkie's pet here, and I can't really say anything that she hasn't already said.  She and I agree though, that Pinkie and her puppy pals are extremely cute.  Apparently that cuteness wasn't enough to save this little doggie trio.  According to Ashley's blog on Wordpress these dolls were discontinued in March and will only be carried through the rest of the spring.  They'll be replaced by...another Strawberry Shortcake line.  Now, I like Strawberry Shortcake.  She's adorable, she's vintage, she's appropriate for kids...but WHY ANOTHER LINE OF THOSE DOLLS???  Oh well, maybe it'll be something that I can add to my collection.  If they're little dolls they'll make great props for my LIV dolls.

Okay, so I made that unfortunate little discovery yesterday, and today Ashley (yep, same page, same blogger) revealed that the La Dee Da dolls, which Spin Masters had as the LIV dolls' successors, have also been discontinued.  This didn't surprise me as much as Pinkie Cooper's discontinuation did.  The La Dee Da dolls had some tremendous shoes to fill, coming in immediately after the LIV dolls.  The La Dee Da dolls gave it the old college try, but in my opinion they couldn't measure up to their predecessors.  Their poseability was lacking, their joints were flimsy, and not all the dolls came with stands.  For example, Sunflower Burst Cyanne (left) came with a stand, but Fairytale Dance Sloane did not. 
La Dee Da dolls are so top-heavy that they can't stand without some sort of support, so the omission of stands wasn't the brightest idea in the world.  Not that it mattered; my Cyanne can barely stand even with support (see my review of Cyanne here for more details on that).  In spite of the problems I gave Cyanne a fairly good review, and I likely would with Sloane too if I chose to review her.  Miss Emily's feelings were mixed; she wasn't thrilled with Runway Vacay Cyanne or the overpriced Fairytale Dance Dee and Prancie set, but loved Dots of Style Dee and the art-themed line that was released.  Still, I thought that these dolls would have enough pizzazz to last at least until Christmas.  Heck, I even saw some rip-off La Dee Da dolls in stores and took that as a sign of success!  I was wrong, though; Dee and her rowdy, shouty, chic friends will not be staying through the year.  According to Ashley, Spin Masters is putting them in the vault and letting the idea die.  Rather sad; I got a kick out of the dolls' colorful hair, eyes, and clothes, and I loved how their extra outfits had options that one could change around and customize.  Looks like I'm going to have to hit those sale shelves and scrounge up what pieces I'm missing!
Given the lack of success of these two doll lines, plus the lack of new outfits and accessories for Cutie Pops dolls, I wonder if they will be the next ones to be axed?  I certainly hope not, because I like them a lot!!!

Yours somewhat-sadly,
RagingMoon1987

No comments:

Post a Comment