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Thursday, April 16, 2020

Modern crap, part 2: L.O.L. O.M.G.

Part two of my "modern crap" series.  I guess I shouldn't really call these dolls crap since they've been pretty nice so far, but...well, I do have a reputation as a smart-a$$ to uphold!  Anywho, MGA Entertainment has produced a number of hit toys over the years (along with a few flops), and the L.O.L. Surprise line is still going strong despite them being overpriced (just like the Na! Na! Na! Surprises are).  It's old news now that the L.O.L.s have branched into the full-sized doll category, but...but nothing, I guess.  Being old news doesn't stop one from being eye candy, or I.Candy, as three of O.M.G.'s Bratzy little forerunners put it.  Regarding these O.M.G.s I've got Neonlicious (left) and Groovy Babe.
Neon is from the first wave, and Groovy is from the "Lights" line that incorporates glow-under-blacklight features.  Angles seems to be the It Girl from the Lights series, and her Piet Mondrian-inspired style caught my eye as well, but everyone and their dog has reviewed Angles so I chose Groovy instead.  Hey, when's the last time y'all saw a beatnik doll???  I've seen other groups and countercultures of the fifties and sixties represented, stuff like hippies and mods and sock-hoppers, but I can only name three beatnik dolls.  In addition to Groovy Babe there's her L.O.L. sister Beatnik Babe, and an obscure Mattel entity named Scooba-Doo.  Yes, Scooba-Doo, NOT Scooby-Doo!  Scoob talked, sang, and dressed in stereotypical beatnik style, and finding her in an affordable and intact state has proven even harder than finding an affordable Simon and Halbig doll (which, as I insinuated in a past post, isn't super-duper hard).

Right, let's jump in.  Neon and Groovy are average-sized dolls, being shorter than Barbie and Monster High dolls.
The O.M.G.s are taller than old-school Bratz and Moxie Girlz, but shorter than "Psst, I'm Taller" Bratz.
They're taller than Candy Cub by a decent span.  Once again, Candy is less than pleased about this.
Lastly, O.M.G.s are WAAAAAY taller than their L.O.L. sisters.  Indeed, the Li'l Sisters look like they could be dolls or in-arms children for the O.M.G.s.  Li'l Boogie Babe looks like she's alright with that!
Let's face it, Li'l Boogie Babe is alright with anything.  Some dolls just are that way!  Anyway, normally I prefer rooted hair to molded hair like Candi's and Candy's, but with MGA's track record I'll make exceptions.  Neon's hair does not look promising, although I do like the colors and the style.
LOL, I wore pink and orange hairspray on my hair once.  I think I told y'all that.  It was back in college, and the spray went EVERYWHERE.  On my neck, on my face, up my nose (I'll admit it), everywhere.  The bedsheets I used in my dorm room were pink and orange, and I joked to everyone that my bedspread had thrown up on me.  Then I learned that the hairspray was the cheap crap with formaldehyde in it, and so that was the end of that.  No loss, because I looked ridiculous anyway.  Luckily Neon's hair is a professional "dye job," so she looks a little less nuts.  Let's see what color her scalp is!
I don't know if y'all can see Neon's scalp very well, but it's orange and pink just like mine was after I used that God-forsaken hairspray.  The plugs are thick and are copious enough that I had a hard time finding a place to expose her scalp.  Now the style.  Neon's hair is short and I'm glad, because the fibers feel like good ol' nylon.  They're crimped and have a mind of their own, and so they've been shellacked into submission by a copious amount of hair gel.  I've brushed the worst of that out, but her hair is still pretty gommy and will need a wash in the future.  Neon's hair is blunt-cut at the shoulder, except for a lock on each side of her face that is a little longer.
Her bangs are blunt-cut as well, but due to the amount of gel in them they look uneven.
With this kind of fiber in this kind of style I can see why MGA put this much gel in the hair, but dang, is it making a mess!  It doesn't feel very nice to touch either, though that may change after I wash Neon's hair.  MGA hair has improved some since the days of the Bratzillaz and the 10-10-10 Bratz, as we'll see with Groovy's hair.  Hers is Cruella De Vil-colored and quite long.
Okay, I said it was Cruella de Vil-colored, but from the back Groovy's floor-length hair looks all white.  The black areas are visible when she's viewed from the front.
Ugh, long hair on an MGA doll.  Usually a story with enough horror to rival Jeepers Creepers.  BUT...butbutbut, this hair is also soft and smooth like Study Abroad Raya's hair was/is.  It has some hair gel in it, enough to keep the hair looking nice while the doll was in the package, and enough that Groovy will need a hairwash.  But she's not in as dire a hair gel situation as Neon is.  Groovy has bangs like Neon does, and like Neon, her bangs are uneven.
However, this was because of the way I had her positioned in storage.  Best not to store your dolls facedown when they have bangs, kiddies.  Some warm water and a night or two with a rubber band will get those to lie flat again.  Now...according to advertisements parts of Groovy's hair should glow under blacklight, and since Groovy came with a small battery-operated blacklight I can test this.
Well, the effect isn't as striking IRL as it is in the advertisements, but the white parts of Groovy's hair do glow.  Most likely MGA was using a much bigger blacklight for their advertisements, hence why Groovy's whole body fluoresces in the stock pictures.  Just for shizzles, let's see if Neon's hair glows.
Overall I'm pretty impressed with the hair on these dolls, especially on Groovy.  Both dolls have easily squashed bangs, but I can overlook that since it's a fixable problem.  I may be even more impressed with this hair after I wash Neon's mane, but that will have to wait for now because it's time for faces.  Like the other L.O.L.s, O.M.G.s have highly stylized faces with huge eyes and huge lips.  Typical of an MGA doll, in other words.  Since Neon is...well, NEON-colored I'm expecting some fairly garish paint, and she does not disappoint.
Neon's eyebrows are fuschia and are...worm-shaped???  Can't say as I'm a huge fan of that shape; they remind me of a faceup I saw on a ball-jointed doll that I found just a hair creepy.
The eyes, surprisingly enough, are a normal color, though they are highlighted with plenty of tripped-out makeup.
Her eyeshadow is buttercup yellow on the top and bubblegum pink on the bottom, and she has both heavy eyelashes and winged eyeliner.  The eyes have some added gloss, which I like the gloss makes the eyes sparkle and look less lifeless.  No paint gaffes are present in the eyes, which is more than I can say for other parts of Neon's face.  For starters, she's got a pink smudge on her nose.  Must be an errant fleck of hairspray (LOL).

Now here's the lower part of her face.  Glossy raspberry lips with a slight smile, and Day-Glo yellow stars on each cheek.
The stars on Neon's right cheek are misaligned and look quite blurry as a result.
The stars on Neon's left cheek are also poorly aligned, though they don't look as bad from a normal distance.
The blurry stars wouldn't have terribly bothered me as a kid, but I feel like it's worth noting since a lot of my recent dolls have had paint futz-ups.  I love how eye-catching Neon's overall paint scheme is, though; it's a lot brighter than Groovy's muted paint.
In Groovy's defense this color palette appears to be normal for a beatnik girl...or it is if Scooba-Doo's  heavy black eyeshadow and natural lips were typical beatnik makeup.  Her eyebrows are straight and thin and black, which I much prefer to Neon's vermiform eyebrows.  In the past I've derided black eyebrows as harsh, but Groovy has escaped this problem.
Groovy's eyes are a lovely shade of violet, one of my favorite eye colors.  She sports the same black eyelashes as Scooba-Doo and Neon, with the addition of two-toned blue winged shadow.  Groovy's eyes are glossy just like Neon's are.
Her lips are the same shape as Neon's, but they're matte and a natural shade of pink, and she has some very subtle blush.  The errant black marks on her face are dust and pet hair (LOL).
In the past I've griped about pale pink lips looking washed out under the flash of my phone's camera, but again Groovy has dodged this bullet.  She has also dodged the paint foible bullet, as she has no errant spots of paint and no misaligned areas...that I can see.  According to online sources Groovy should have areas of paint that glow under blacklight, so...time to whip out her blacklight again!
Groovy has spirals painted in her eyes!  Sort of like one of the last Novi Stars, Mimi Merize!  Parts of Neon's makeup glow under the light too, namely her stars.
Neon's glowing paint is purely coincidental, by the way, as she is not from the Lights line like Groovy is.  Anywho, I like Neon's bright, over-the-top paint scheme, and I especially like her little stars, but Groovy's paint is on straight, and her eyebrows aren't weird like Neon's are, AND she's got beautiful eyes.  Since these dolls are blind-bag dolls it's impossible to make sure one is getting a doll with flawless paint, and that's a big pitfall for these dolls.  Indeed, it's a pitfall for any blind-bag item. 

Now let's look at these bodies.  Warning:  some of these pictures are going to look a little...wrong, shall we say.  Proceed with caution.
I solemnly swear that I did not pose them with their butts sticking out; that is legitimately how these dolls are molded.  From the back they look a little like the cover art of a 2 Live Crew album.  For someone who supposedly hates rap, I seem to have plenty of  references!  Anyway, I'll admit that I like how these doll companies are making more varied body sizes without making a huge to-do about it (like Barbie and Lammily did), but it does make clothes sharing a pain in the posterior.  But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.  I'm going to largely focus on Neon since these dolls' bodies are the same, though I will drag Groovy in to show coloring differences.  Y'all have probably figured out by now that Neon is darker than Groovy.
MGA Entertainment has always been pretty good at representing a wide range of ethnicities, and the O.M.G. dolls are no exception.  Anyway, the O.M.G. bodies are curvy with short torsos, curvy legs of average length, and slender arms.  The arms are jointed at the shoulder, the elbow, and the wrist.
In addition, the hands can detach, just like Monster High hands can.
The molding is super-nice on these hands, with little creases and dimples at the joints, but Lord have mercy, look at those fingernails!  I've heard of dolls with long fingernails like this (some Little Miss Revlon dolls have them), but I have never seen them except on...you guessed it, Monster High dolls!  Neon's nails are painted (imperfectly) and oddly don't match a thing that she's wearing; her ensemble consists of black, white, yellow, and orange, but her nails are teal.  Groovy's nails are painted white and are also missing a little paint.  I'll let that slide since these nails are so tiny.
These hands are made of soft vinyl and flex easily, but despite the flexibility the fingers still catch like mad on seams and sleeves.  I'm glad they can detach, but as with Monster High hands these could easily get lost, swallowed, chewed up, or choked on.  I unfortunately did not catch the recommended age range for these dolls, but I'd assume it would be five and up, maybe a little higher.

The legs are about as different from the arms as night is from day.  The arms are dainty and have multiple joints, while the legs are thick and only have one joint, located at the hip.  Please ignore Neon's painted on underpants, which are just a hair naughty.
Typical of an MGA product, LOL!  But these hips are jointed and these knees are not, no click joints, no nothing.  That will be of some importance later on, but before I get to that let's look at the motion in these hips.  The joints swivel, enabling Neon and Groovy to sit and do full front-back splits.
However, there almost ZERO lateral motion!  Here's Neon, attempting a side split, and ready to put her clothes on.
Nope, side splits are not happenin', sister!  Neon has more lateral motion than Groovy does, but she still can't do a split.  These dolls can touch their faces though, which is more than I can say for some dolls.  Neon's hands are too tiny to fully cover her huge eyes, but she can give it the old college try.
Since I like dolly feet, let's look at O.M.G. feet.
These aren't elephant feet like Vi and Va feet were, but they're unusual enough!  They've got high arches like MGA feet often do, and as such they can only wear high heels.  The metatarsal area is pulled pert-near vertical.
Yee-OUCH!!!  I've tried wearing shoes with a heel that high, and I don't recommend it!  The toes are nicely molded, by the way, just like the hands are.
The neck joint is pretty poor, as it turns and tips but doesn't look up or down.  Weird.  Anyway, I find these bodies quite comical and borderline inappropriate for kids' toys, though in their defense they only look inappropriate without clothes (hence the point of clothes).  The proportions are fairly healthy, and the joints are nice, especially in the arms.  The lack of knee joints is disappointing, especially since the arms have multiple joints.  The legs are a lot thicker than the arms, and thus I doubt knee joints would've been hard to put in.  And as I noted above, the detachable hands are a choking hazard for small children.  These bodies feel much more robust than Monster High bodies, though.  Sturdy construction is always a good thing when you're a child's toy, as we all know how rough kids can be with their things!

Now let's talk about the clothes that cover those "Baby Got Back" derrieres.
The difference in color scheme is quite striking, but we already knew that!  Neon is clad in layers, with the base layer being this crop top and pair of shorts.
These remind me a little of an old Mattel outfit that I reviewed a couple'a summers back, only that jumpsuit was in one piece.  Anyway, both of these pieces are made of Day-Glo yellow Spandex-like fabric with this wavy pattern printed in.
The top is sleeveless and cropped but also has a turtleneck (strange combo indeed) along with a peephole in the middle of the chest.
Notice that everything is hemmed.  I make note of this because my first Wild Hearts Crew doll also has a cutout in her blouse like this...but her cutout is not hemmed.  The shorts are just bicycle shorts, probably included to help preserve Neon's modesty.
She needs those bad boys, because her dress is completely transparent.
Reminds me a little of the vinyl raincoats that accompanied Amazing Nails Barbie and her colleagues.  Neon's dress is a jumper-type dress, made entirely out of hot pink vinyl.  I don't need to guess if this item will glow under Groovy's blacklight, because the hem is already glowing under regular light.
Even though "fabric" like this doesn't need too many hems, the straps of the jumper are hemmed anyway.
Good thing, because the straps of a doll's dress can take a fair amount of punishment during a game of Dolly Dress Shuffle.  It's never a good idea to pull on a doll's dress straps to get the dress pulled into place, but kids do it anyway (as have I, I'll admit it).  The bib of the dress has a couple'a cute little details:  a pocket and two silver studs that simulate buttons.
Details like that remind me of the Bratz' heyday, when their jackets were made of real denim and any buttons that existed were simulated with real little studs.  Nowadays details like that are often printed on.  As an aside, all three of these garments, shorts, top, and dress, fasten in the back with Velcro.
Velcro isn't a huge deal when combined with vinyl, but it always has the potential to snag on fabrics like the Spandex-stuff that make up the top and shorts.  I'll have to keep that in mind when I dress Neon again.

On top of her dress Neon wears a black and white checkered jacket that looks like something Sir Elton John would've worn back in the 90's.
Indeed, Sir Elt DID wear a jacket like this once, but I can't find a picture of him in it (dang it).  I remember he was at a show with the late, great George Michael, but that's all I remember.  Anyway, Neon's jacket is quite nice, though the material feels suspiciously like pleather.  I'm not going to rehash my opinions on pleather!  The outside has a vaguely papery feel to it, but the inside gives this stuff away as fabric of some sort, pleather or no.
No lining, which is a bit of a bummer since the seams look kind of yucky, but the seams don't show on the doll so I'll let that slide.
Like the jumper, the jacket has several little details to make it a bit special, stuff like a belt (it doesn't really work, but it looks cute)...
...a zipper (this doesn't work either)...
...and more little rivets that look like buttons.  Each lapel has two of these.
In the past I've harped about collars and lapels not wanting to stay in place, but I won't have to worry about that with Neon's jacket.  I can't really show the stitches holding the lapels in place since they're pretty tiny, but the lapels are sewn down.  These are balm of Gilead on my perfectionist sensibilities.  This is a nice little jacket, not terribly unlike something the Bratz would've worn once.  LOL, I b'lieve I said that with the jumper!  <glances up> Yep, I did!  Maybe MGA is trying to get back to their roots a little with these O.M.G. dolls?  Neon's accessories seem to suggest that; the early Bratz waves were fairly heavily accessorized.
Neon's hat is unusual, as it doesn't match a thing she's wearing, but it doesn't really clash terribly either.  It's made of gray knitted material with a vague leopard print and a black ribbon loop.  I never have figured out what those loops on the top of berets are for, by the way.
The brim of the hat doesn't usually show when it's on Neon's head, but it's slightly stretchy and has a ring of silver studs.
I'm not a huge fan of studs on my own hats, as my hair tends to get caught in them, but this is a nice little touch.  If I get Neon's hat placed just right the studs add a nice bit of sparkle.

Not all O.M.G.s come with glasses, but Neon does and her shades (once again) look like something Sir Elton John would've worn in his heyday.  They remind me a little of the weird shades Kanye West used to wear...maybe he still wears them???  I was never a Kanye West fan.  Anyway, here's Neon's specs.
Somebody please explain how these would be practical on a sunshiney day???  I've worn sunglasses with cutouts like this and they are NOT effective!  Either way these glasses are made of zig-zaggy translucent yellow plastic and have pink rims.  The pink paint is a little sloppy in places.
They fit over Neon's ears and face with no fuss, though.  Not all doll glasses do.  Neon's glasses glow nicely under the blacklight.
Neon's earrings are a spin on the old hoops; instead of being hoops, they're wavy diamonds.  These don't glow under blacklight, to my surprise.
These are huge in comparison to Neon's head, but not as big as the earrings on one of next week's dolls!

Neon's purse is my favorite of her accessories, as it's done up to look like another MGA product, What's In My Purse.
Neon's WIMP...oh my, that's an unfortunate acronym!  But Neon's WIMP is a tiny version of Miss Pawsitive.  It didn't have the little trinkets that WIMPs have, but it IS open on the top.  I could slide Neon's earrings in there if I wanted.
Full-size What's In My Purse sets are sadly too large to be used as props for my larger dolls (I wanted Sadie to carry one, darn it), but their contents are cute.  I got three little bracelets in one of the add-on sets...and I wear 'em, too!  Markers and stickers are also options, if my memory serves me right.  I got a set of markers in another package, which I use as highlighters.

Right, next accessory.  On her wrist Neon wears a simple, wavy bangle made of hot pink plastic (it glows, but I forgot to show that)...
...and her shoes are...high-heeled SNEAKERS???
No, no, NOOOOOOO, those do not look comfortable at all!!!  They're nicely molded and painted though, with little seams and shoelaces molded in.
I did find one blop of paint on the back of one heel, and it didn't come off when I scratched at it.  I guess I can be glad that this paint is durable!
Neonlicious has a fun little ensemble, kids!  Lots of parts that can be added or taken away, and lots of eye-catching colors.  I think the glasses are ridiculous, and the What's In My Purse figure seems a bit shameless (trying to sell a product with a product, are we?), but overall this is a cute outfit.  And shameless cash-grab or no, the What's In My Purse figure is still my favorite part.

That's a lot to think about, and I haven't even touched Groovy Babe's outfit yet.  Here's what it looks like, or as I sometimes say to my mother, "herezit."
LOL, sometimes when I try to say "Here it is," my tongue gets tied and "Herezit" is all I can spit out.  Regarding Groovy's ensemble, I know for a fact that beatniks didn't run around in black and white 100% of the time (once again I use Scooba-Doo as an example), and they didn't all wear berets either!  Beatnik Babe does, but Scooba-Doo did not and neither does Groovy Babe.  Here's what Groovy's minidress looks like.
Very mod, just like I like it.  I love mod fashion!  Unlike the base of Neon's ensemble, Groovy's dress is all one piece.  It appears to be an A-line dress, though the cutouts on the sides make it had to tell.  Like the cutout on Neon's blouse, these cutouts are hemmed.
The cut and design of Groovy's dress remind me of the cute dress that my Hip 2 Be Square Barbie wears, except that this dress has short sleeves (the Hip 2 Be Square dress has no sleeves at all).
The dress has a wavy black and white pattern printed on, and if I get the lighting just right y'all can see that some of the stripes are not quite as sharp around the edges.  This is caused by more blacklight paint; IRL these stripes are a little yellower than the ones that are not painted.
BRRRRRRRRR!!!!  This is a tornado warning, a tornado warning.  BRRRRRRRRR!!!!  LOL, how's that for retro severe weather warnings???  Yep, even the weather warnings were trippy back in the day, just like the clothes!  Vintage tornado warnings aside, these stripes react strongly to the blacklight.
Like Neon's blouse and shorts, this dress is hemmed completely...and unfortunately, it also closes with Velcro.
Groovy's dress doesn't appear to be as big of a snagging risk as Neon's shorts and top do.  Groovy's tights, though...those might be a different story.
One of Scooba-Doo's phrases is "Dig my crazy black stockings!"  Such a phrase could fit Groovy too, except that her tights have white polka dots on them.  These react to the blacklight as well.
These stretch to fit Groovy's curvaceous legs, so they didn't need much shaping.  They're just cute little tights, no more, no less.

Like Neon, Groovy has a black and white jacket.
Unlike Neon's jacket, Groovy's jacket has a marbled pattern that looks a little like the irregular little ripples that form on a pond during a breezy (but not windy) day.  The collar, sleeve cuffs, and sides of the dress are all black, and the sides have little faux pockets that have studs to simulate buttons.
The front of the jacket has more of these studs, though they're just for show.
To my delight, the interior of the jacket is partially lined...
...as is the collar, though this likes to fold upwards and drive me nuts.
Oh, if only an obstinate collar were the only thing wrong with this jacket.  Alas, the right shoulder seam has a hole.
The seam didn't tear apart, thank goodness.  It simply didn't get sewed!  This is easily repairable, but it annoys me that I have to do it at all.  That whole seam is sloppily done, in fact.
I guess I should be glad that that's the only sewing flaw that I've found, but I still don't like the fact that it's there at all.  As with the white parts of Groovy's jacket, the white parts of this jacket fluoresce under the blacklight.
Groovy's accessories are fewer than Neon's, just earrings and sunglasses...and shoes.  I guess shoes count as accessories?
I much prefer Groovy's sunglasses to Neon's, as they actually LOOK like functional sunglasses.
They don't cover all of Groovy's eye area, mostly because the lenses are narrow and her eyes are huge.
The frames react strongly to the blacklight.
These earrings...LOL, these earrings are fun.  They remind me of the plastic bangles I bought from the mall many years ago.
I still wear my bangles (LOL again).  Anyway, these are swirly black and white disks on zig-zag posts, and the spiral parts spin if flicked lightly with a finger.  And guess what?  The white parts react to the blacklight.
Lastly, the boots.
These are plain black boots that come to the middle of Groovy's calf.  They have stacked black and white heels, and unsurprisingly the white glows under the blacklight.
Oh yes, both of these dolls came with stands, as was obvious in the earlier pictures.
The interesting thing is that these can be stands or seats, like so.
The seat part detaches and fits on the bottom of the stand like so.
The seat function is a good idea...or it would've been if the dolls could actually sit!
I was eventually able to get Neon properly seated, but I had to use the waist grip to hold her in place.  Even then Neon looks silly because her legs jut straight out.
This is why I made such a big deal about Neon and Groovy not having bendy knees, as they kinda, sorta NEED bendy knees to make sitting in these seats more believable.  I usually just stand them up, but that is also a pain in the posterior because the stands don't fit neatly around or under the dolls' jackets.  I either have to hike up their jackets or cram the stand on around the jacket.  Neither option is particularly attractive, but at least these dolls have stands (neither of them can stand on their own).  In terms of clothes both Neon and Groovy have eye-catching ensembles that are well-made for the most part, but I think Neon has the better fashion.  This is largely my own preference since I love all that is garish and gaudy, but Neon also has more accessories and her jacket doesn't have a hole in it like Groovy's does.  I also love Neon's purse, even if it does seem like a shill for another MGA product.  The boxes, unfortunately, are largely just throwaways, though they do come in handy for storage if needed (this is what I'm doing, but only with one of the boxes, LOL).

I can't name any dolls that can share clothes with the O.M.G. dolls at the moment, so time to wrap this up.

BAD
*Overpriced, as MGA dolls often are.
*Hair is...so-so in Neon's case.  It probably will be better after it's washed.
*Neon has some paint foibles that are a little distracting, and since the dolls are hidden in opaque boxes it's impossible to hand-pick a well-painted doll.
*Groovy has a hole in her jacket!!!  Infuriating.
*Knees aren't jointed, making using the included stand almost impossible.
*Stands don't always fit nicely under or over the clothes.
*Not recommended for small children due to small parts.

GOOD
*Eye-catching, just like their younger siblings.
*Hair is better than so-so in Groovy's case, and as I noted above, Neon's will probably be alright too after it's washed.
*Strictly my opinion, but I love how the eyes on these dolls shine.  Not all dolls have glossy eyes.
*Paint job appears to have improved with time, as Groovy has no mistakes.
*Clothes are well-made for the most part (making the seam on Groovy's jacket even more frustrating) with small details added in.
*Jointed arms are always a plus.
*Both dolls come with accessories, though the earlier dolls seem to have more of them.
*Not twigs.  The body shape is a hair risque, but it's not ridiculously skinny either.
*Came with stands.  Though these don't accommodate the clothes well, they're better than nothing.

I'm going to further boil down those lists to this:  the O.M.G. dolls are a fun spin-off from the original line, but their prices are a little (a lot?) outrageous, and the blind bag gimmick falls flat.  With there only being four dolls per wave, and with everyone knowing which doll is in which box, I believe the blind bag/box can be abandoned and the dolls can just be displayed in regular clear-window boxes.  That would certainly make it easier to pick a doll with good facepaint.  Oh, Neon's paint is alright, but it does have some smudges here and there that I could've avoided if I'd had a clear view of the doll.  The "reuse the box" gimmick also falls a little flat, as there's very little play value in the box.  It has a paper runway and a dressing room, and it's good for storage, but that's about all.  Get past that though, and the O.M.G. dolls are...okay.  Not high, not low.  They're eye-catching and they retain the bug-eyed aesthetic of their smaller sisters, but with the prices being what they are I'd be extremely cautious about buying these, ESPECIALLY if you can't see inside the box.  They also don't have the play value that Candy Cub and her Lotta Looks sisters do.  Lotta Looks can keep a kid busy on a long afternoon in quarantine, while O.M.G. just stands there, pretty much.  Some extra clothes would increase play value a bit, but right now Etsy is the only place to find extra clothes.  You can't be a fashion doll without FASHION, for heaven's sake!  So these dolls are okay for games of Make-Believe, and they make a shelf or a bedside table look good, but I see more potential for play with their smaller sisters.

I like Groovy Babe's blacklight feature, though!  Both she and Neonlicious look pretty great under the light.
I need to try this on some of my other dolls and see what they do.

Stay healthy,
RagingMoon1987

10 comments:

  1. I know these are super popular with collectors right now, but I'm just a fan of them myself. Their proportions are just so odd looking to me, and I just don't like the faces personally. I've also had staining issue with the one I have, Uptown Girl, as her black tights have basically covered her legs in black dots and lines. I also think that a 30 dollar+ doll that's playing should have articulated knees at the very least. I mean Mattel can do it for 15 dollars for god sake. Anyway, sorry for the tangent. Great review!

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    1. Don't apologize for tangents, as I write plenty of 'em myself! Thanks for the information on staining; my dolls lucked out in that respect so I rather foolishly assumed that staining would not be a problem. I agree with you about the knees, especially since a seat is one of the accessories for these dolls!

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  2. See, I find this weird. The fact that your two, Groovy and Neon, don't have any knee articulation. Because I own Angles, from the Lights line just like Groovy, and she does have...albeit a little bit hard to work at first...click snap knees a la Bratz/80s-2000s Barbie.
    I mean, it's not full on made to move articulation but it makes sitting less awkward when you have them wearing an outfit that allows for it. I won't have Angles sit at all because her outfit has pleather bits and pleather bits tend to peel over time...I figure not bending her about much will help preserve it as long as possible.

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    1. Oh yes, our old buddy pleather! I'm glad now that I didn't pick Angles because of all that, even though she's my favorite of the current wave. I'll admit that I didn't learn my old Bratz doll had bendy knees until fourteen years after she'd been given to me. So it's entirely possible that Groovy and Neon DO have bendy knees and I just didn't try to bend them hard enough. Didn't want to break their legs, after all. Thanks for the info!

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  3. I am so curious to see what one of these dolls would look like under the blacklight (since that'd show all the germs and bodily fluids and grossness) after a week or two of kiddy hands all over it. I'm sure it would be super foul and I am tempted to buy my kids one just to see! I won't though because I suspect that would make me want to set fire to everything my kids have touched.

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    1. Oh gross, I didn't even think about that, LOL! I'd recommend getting a stronger light, since the one included with Groovy isn't very big or very powerful. Shudder.

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  4. There's something I keep meaning to ask you about and I keep forgetting. There were two posts from this blog that I was really interested in reading when they showed up in my reading list, but when I clicked on them I was told by Blogger that they didn't exist. I was just wondering what happened. Were the posts unfinished and they got posted by accident? Did Blogger take them down for some reason? The posts I'm referring to are:
    Kyle, an American Boy
    and
    Eva's saga continues.
    Please get back to me on this, thank you.
    Signed, Treesa

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    1. Unfinished, yep! I mistakenly posted those before I was ready and had to take them down myself. Eventually I had to scrap Eva's post since her problem is not yet resolved (still haven't found a good body for her), but I'll happily put together a post for you about Kyle if you wish.

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    2. I wouldn't want to pressure you into posting something just for me. I was just wondering what happened, and since it happened twice I wanted to make sure it was something you did and not something Blogger did without your knowledge.
      Signed, Treesa

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    3. I appreciate you being concerned for the well-being of the blog. Nope, so far Blogger has not done anything to me like Facebook has. I took those posts down on my own free will because they weren't ready.

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