On UglyDolls and Baby Born Surprises

Ah yes, May 11th.  If you're a tornado buff like I am it's a date that will live in semi-infamy (Waco and Lubbock, Texas both got hit on this date, but in different years).  If you reside in Minnesota, it's Statehood Day; Minnesota was admitted to the Union in 1858, which helps explain American Girl Kirsten Larson's backstory a bit more.  Now, if you belong to neither of those groups, then it's...Saturday!  Bloviating over, I should probably inform y'all that this is one of my more disjointed posts.  It starts off with an enthusiastic endorsement of one product and ends with an enthusiastic endorsement of a completely different product.  You've been warned.

Now then, on a recent foray into the local Wal-Mart I saw this poster, just inside the door.

Heckyeah, it's the UglyDolls!  I first got acquainted with these guys in Doll Reader, first with a brief blurb in the For Young Collectors section, and then a couple of months later when someone got a picture of Nicole Richie and Tray together.  I never was a big fan of Nicole Richie or her famous father, but I thought "If UglyDolls are good enough for her they're good enough for me."  I found Wage at Hastings and made him my BFF during my first semester at SEMO campus.  Here's how he compares to the current Wage.

The new Wage has decal eyes and a slight smile on his face, and his fabric is this soft, fuzzy stuff that I love to touch.  By contrast, my old Wage is made out of distressed fleece in a more faded shade of orange, and he wears a blank expression with stitched-on eyes.  He and his cronies all had a card that listed a personality, and the personalities...well, let me just say that I wish I could've been a fly on the wall when these personalities were being written out.  For example, Tray has three brains (one for each eye) and loves blueberry pie, OX loves to give hugs and kisses and is also something of a thief, Babo is dumb, loving, curious, and mischievous, and Wage is a friendly workaholic who hides a happy spirit behind his empty expression.  The new dolls come with envelopes, as y'all probably saw in the new Wage's lap, but I have no idea what that's all about.  The new dolls also come in several different sizes (as did the old ones), and these two here can talk.

I thought Ugly Dog used to be orange!  Either way, I'm pleased as punch that the UglyDolls are back in town.  Maybe they never went away and I just didn't realize it, LOL.  Anyway, these guys are apparently so popular now that they even made it onto some clothes for little kids.  See?

I wish that set came in Kissy's size!  Anyway, the surge in UglyDoll popularity appears to be related to a movie that's coming out soon, so I think now would be a good time to say...THAT I LIKED THE UGLYDOLLS BEFORE THEY WERE COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  LOL, gotta get my hipster moment in there somewhere!  LOL, these guys were probably more popular than I realized, because they have popped in and out of other media in the past.  Ice Bat appears to be particularly popular, as he had cameos in The Smurfs and a couple of other movies that I know nothing about.  There's even a blog, entitled Adventures in Uglyworld, which I'm going to have to read a little closer.  But just the same, I hadn't been seeing the UglyDolls anywhere and thus seeing their appearance in Wal-Mart came as a pleasant surprise.  I was so tickled about this that I bought one of the blind bags.

Oh yeah, I also got a Baby Born Surprise.  I saw a review for one of those...uh, somewhere and thought "Yep, gotta have one!"  But let's look at the UglyDoll first, since that blind bag is a lot simpler and since I made such a hooplah about them.  I see my old buddy Wage in there!

I like this package, as it appears to have been modelled like a paper bag.  The front has a perforation across it, like so.

What the heck, let's tear this open!  When one opens blind bags one usually finds the item wrapped in another bag, but not this time!

I got Wage's best friend, loyal and not-so-bright Babo, whom I also saw in stuffed form at Wal-Mart.  He was one of the biggest ones, about my Wage's size.  I also got a collector's sheet and a couple of other little paper bobs.  The slip with Babo's image on it shows what happens when Babo eats certain foods.

Notice that he's rainbow-colored at the end.  THAT would make a cute limited edition figure, if Hasbro decides to go that direction.  Now this other little bob, according to the collector's sheet, can also vary from character to character.  I happened to get a blue envelope with what appears to be a chocolate cookie on the tag.

My other options look like this.

Included inside that envelope is...I guess some sort of sticker with a foodstuff?  That's what the collector's sheet appears to imply.

If y'all looked closely at the image of Babo above then you'll know I got the milk carton.  The milk carton with...I guess that's supposed to be Ugly Cow on the front.

Mmmm, looks like it's chocolate milk too!  I do wonder though, what exactly the point of that sticker is.  Am I supposed to stick it to Babo and make it look like he's holding the milk carton?

That works okay, and Babo looks like he's pleased with the idea, but the sticker is already wanting to peel off.  Frankly I think the sticker could've been left out, but I like the figure.  Babo has a nice weight to him, instead of just being HOLLOW like some blind bag figures are, and he's got a cute expression.  I'm also glad I got a character I'm not so familiar with, though I could've done that with any of the figures.  Look very closely at the available characters.

Wage got left out!  He's on the front of the package, but he's not included in this first wave of figures.  That's kind of a bummer, because I'll always have a soft spot for my goofy-looking orange comrade.  I do like Babo, though!  He'll fit in nicely with my collection of other blind bag bobbles.

I think Babo could get along pretty well with Chalkboard Clawdeen and Pointyfrost 2-30, as odd as they all are.  But then again I reckon he'll make fast friends with Sonny Angel too, as Sonny's main goal in life is to make people happy.  And what makes someone happier than making a nice new friend?

Right then, on to the Baby Born Surprise pod.  I'm particularly excited about this doll because boys and girls are both an option.

HOWEVER, I'll bet y'all twenty bucks American that I've got a girl.  Dolls like this are almost always girls.  All of Miss Emily's Magic Nursery dolls were girls, for example (posts are visible HERE and HERE), as was her Sweet e.Baby.  She did get one boy in her Cabbage Patch Kids Surprise Newborn set though, so maybe I'll get lucky.  I do like boy dolls, as they're not the easiest to find.  I also retain a soft spot for boy baby dolls because my father surprised me with one when I was little.  He was all-vinyl and came dressed in a diaper and a bathrobe, PERFECT for bathing.  He smelled of talcum powder and had an adorable little face, and I just loved him.  I wish I knew what kind of doll he was, because I wouldn't mind having one.  He MIGHT have been a Zapf doll, as he was highly similar to the current dolls in the My Little Baby Born line.

Anywho, let's get this baby born.  I'm not looking forward to this because the package is one of those that you have to cut open and possibly cut yourself on sharp plastic.  Dammit.

*****

Alright, there's that part done, and I'll add that I managed to do this without cutting myself.  Remove that blankety-blank plastic shell, and you've got a pink bundle.

Nuts, if both boys and girls are supposed to be in there then why didn't Zapf pick yellow or green for this blanket?  I still am solidly a member of the "blue for boys, pink for girls" camp, even though I myself grew weary of pink when I was small.  Anyway, the top of the bundle is held closed with a blue satin ribbon, and the ribbon is in turn held in place with...a danged plastic tack!

I know why that's there, but it still annoys me some.  Luckily the tack wasn't too tight, and one snip was all it took to undo that bow.  The blanket then unwraps (notice that it's quite cute)...

...and inside the blanket is...what appears to be a thin plastic egg.  Zapf took ZERO chances with this kid, keeping the identity hidden to the bitter end.

The back of this egg-thing slips off easily, and there within is my new baby and his/her extras.

I'm getting strong girl vibes with this little poppet, but let's take a look at her collector's sheet first.  The first side shows the twelve swaddle options that are available (I got the berry ice cream cone), the options on the diapers (which change color in water), the boy and girl bottles, and the various hairstyles that are all super-cute.

The back has the birth certificate, a list of gender-neutral names that are determined by eye and hair color, and the ways to determine the doll's birthday and favorite food. 

Alrighty, so eye color and hair color determine what this child's name will be.  S/he has a...somewhat boyish 'do, sort of like the topknot hair on a Kewpie doll.

I'll have to wash that cark off this doll's eyes to get the eye color, but first let's look at that bottle.  I said above that I was getting strong girl vibes with this doll, and...

...indeed it is a little girl.  A little girl with light brown hair and eyes that are still covered.  MGA Entertainment did this secret eye thing once before with their Bratz Li'l Angelz Secret Surprises, and even though the gimmick had a few problems then I'm glad to see it revived.

The main issue with this stuff is that if left in place for too long it leaves the eyes muddy in appearance, as was the case with Miss Emily's Secret Surprises doll.  In fact, some of the current Zapf dolls already have this problem.  I think this baby's eyes look a little strange like this anyway, so let's get that gom off of there.  This is a one time thing, by the way; once the eyes are open they stay open.

*****

Now!  Now she looks okay!  She's got pretty amber eyes and dainty little lips with pretty translucent pink paint.

 Light brown hair and light brown eyes equals the name...

...Riley!!!  I can dig that!  Washing the stuff off Riley's eyes was a cinch, by the way.  I didn't even have to rub hard.  Wetting Riley's face also meant that I got her diaper wet, and that in turn revealed her favorite food.

I thought that those were little grapes, but they turned out to be purple flowers that look like grapes.  Either way that proved to be fitting, because purple flowers on Riley's diaper mean that her favorite food is...

...grapes!  I can dig that too since I love grapes.  The temperature of the water doesn't affect the color change, by the way.  Sometimes things change color with warm or cold water, but in Riley's case it doesn't appear to matter.  The only thing left to do now is determine when this child's birthday, and I get to help choose that.  Recall that Riley came swaddled in the ice cream cone, which dictates that she is a June baby.

The day, now...I get to choose that.  The slip suggests that I use my favorite number.  The number four symbolizes completeness in my life, so June fourth it shall be.  This in turn means that Riley is...

...the first person to start singing "Gemini Dream" dies, plain and simple.  John Lodge was not on his A-game when he wrote that one.  Musical jokes aside, my Riley is a Gemini.  I was kind of hoping she'd be a Libra like her "mommy," but can't have everything!  For the record, though, October babies always come swaddled in a UNICORN!!!  Unicorns rule.  I like ice cream cones, I like rabbits, I like bumblebees and flowers and hot dogs, but that unicorn swaddler is my favorite of the bunch.

Regarding size, Riley is a good size for a blind bag doll, being quite a bit bigger than Sonny Angel.

Sonny isn't letting this size difference stop him from making another new friend, though!

Final thoughts???  Well, despite the fit that I threw about the return of the UglyDolls I think the Zapf package is the winner here.  Unless the next wave of UglyDolls has Wage involved I probably won't bother with any more of those.  Babo himself is a fine little figure, but the two other surprises that come with him are mere slips of paper that could do to be left out.  I think I'll stick to the plushies from now on, because they're what I'm familiar with.  Riley, though?  Oh my, I like her and her tiny Zapf friends better than L.O.L. Surprises, and that's saying something because I'm quite fond of those.  I'll probably get a few more of these, partly because I'd like to have a boy and partly because they're just cute.  They're also of decent quality, maybe not as nice as Sonny Angel is, but decent enough that they won't come apart during playtime.  Apparently there's already a second wave of these surprise babies out, so hopefully Zapf has another hit on their hands.

The next couple'a weeks look to be quite busy here at the blog, so y'all keep your eyes peeled!

Peace, love, and cherry bombs,
RagingMoon1987