I don't like the looks of this

I've not talked...well, not too often about Rainbow High and Shadow High, but one could definitely call me a fan.  I've got eight of the dolls.  Ruby Anderson, Sunny Madison, Skyler Bradshaw, and Violet Willow go to Rainbow High...

...while Monique Verbena, Natasha Zima, Zooey Electric, and Shanelle Onyx attend Shadow High.  I plan on adding Oliver Ocean before fall is over.

Dang, Monique Verbena stands out from both groups.  She's unnaturally colored all over like her Shadow High classmates, but she's brightly colored like the kids at Rainbow High.  Very unusual, the Shadow High lot.  Anyway, I'm incredibly pleased with my bunch.  They're not without their flaws; their clothes can be tight and their joints can be stiff, and Skyler Bradshaw has some chips in her eyes.  But they're a fun lot.  They helped me learn that nylon hair can be fun.

Okay, okay, the Paola Reina bunch helped me learn to love nylon, but my point stands:  Rainbow High and Shadow High have what Bratzillaz could've had.

Then there's the joints.  These brightly colored kids aren't as limber as my G1 Monster High dolls, but they pose pretty well.  Monique has a little bit of a weak spot, as her heavy braids pull her head back.  She's kinda a dreamer.

Miss Emily also had trouble with a couple'a her dolls bending at the knees...I think it was Meena Fleur who was extremely stiff, and that may be because she had two sets of legs (one flat-footed and one high-heeled).  My girls don't have a lot of trouble with their leg joints.

Now.  <dramatic pause>  Here's where the lighting dims and the music darkens.  Recently...I'm not sure when exactly, but recently the Rainbow High bunch delved into the slime fad.  Now I positively hate slime-themed toys, because slime is very messy and it dries up after awhile.  But anyway, the Rainbow High girls had this gimmick anyway.  That in and of itself is not a big deal since some kids like slime, but look closely at Violet Willow here.  And I mean CLOSE, particularly at her wrists and hands.

She's got the same inset eyes and the same pretty little face, but she's missing her wrist joints.  All my other girls have those (dig Natasha's nails, by the way!).

Then there's a basic bunch.  A swim line, consisting of Ruby, Sunny, Skyler, and Violet.  Miss Emily reviewed these.  They have NO JOINTS AT ALL except for shoulders and hips, and Emily reports that her Ruby and Violet both have bad hair.  Yeah...Violet's hair is straight, but apparently it doesn't handle well at all.

They're meant to be played with in water, which I guess was MGA's excuse for leaving out joints.  Now...is not having joints a bad thing?  Of course not.  My Bratz dolls have the same joints that an average Barbie doll does, and they can still strut their stuff.  So too can the Swim and Style dolls.  But when a doll line takes a jointed doll and makes it not-so-jointed...that doesn't bode well for the line overall.  Further, Bailey Maria noted in the comments for Emily's post that joints don't always interfere with water play. The changes to these dolls concern me because they're similar to the changes Spin Masters made to the LIV dolls before LIV got the axe.  As far as I know the Brites and the LIV For Color lines had the same hair as past LIV dolls, but the articulation that made LIV such a great line was gone.  The clothes had gotten a lot simpler too.  I fear that this may be the same direction that the Rainbow High and Shadow High dolls are headed.  Jeez, I hope not!  The rerelease of Monster High has made the doll isle a little more fun to walk down, but for me seeing the new Rainbow High releases has been most fun.  I keep hoping to see a bright green one.

On the other hand I've heard through the grapevine that new little outfits are being released for these dolls, and that pleases me.  Miss Emily didn't seem too impressed by the way her little outfit looked in the package (it admittedly does look cheap), but I'm glad there are some options that don't involve paying shipping and handling to Etsy.  That said...big sigh.  I don't like the direction that this line is going in, and I don't think I'm the only one.  Doll Nerd noted that her Berrie Skies doll had lots of little details that none of the budget dolls have...but NONE of her accessories fit in her hands.  Monique Verbena has the same problem, and that's a tremendous shame because her accessories are makeup brushes.

It would've been great if she could've held those to do her friends' makeup.  Or better yet, leave off the extraneous plastic crap and start putting the extra outfits in again.  All four of my Rainbow High girls, as well as Natasha Zima and Shanelle Onyx, came with two outfits.  Zooey Electric and Monique Verbena did not.  Zooey makes up for it a little bit by having multiple pieces to her outfit.  Taking that jacket of hers off can sort of make two different looks, but I wish she had a second outfit to call her own.  I wish Monique did too; her purple dress is pretty, but she'd have looked nice in something form-fitting too.  Good thing Etsy's got stuff.

Okay, I've made my point and I'm rambling.  Probably if I did this with my dolls more often I wouldn't be constantly buying more of them.  I gotta ask y'all, though:  are you more of a rainbow, or are you more of a shadow type?  Discuss.

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987

So random, part five

Back again, you lucky people!  I've been doing a lot with the Cabbage Patch lately, so these first few pictures will be of them.  My friend from Newfoundland (and probably the other admins of that Cabbie group) introduced themes for the days of the week, so a lot of my pictures this time will be from those.  That said, this first doll is definitely NOT a Cabbage Patch Kid.  August 5th.

Little Maya got a new raincoat and boots with frogs on them.  There was no rain in the forecast at the time, but I threw the outfit on her anyway to see how it looked.  It fits over her sewn clothes pretty well, and she looks adorable...if you like Baby Alive dolls with their flat heads, LOL.

August 6th.  I DIDN'T share this one on the Cabbie group, but it's how I imagine Beryl June would look if she were taking a selfie.

Beryl June became extremely popular in the Cabbie group for reasons I've yet to establish.  My friend from Newfoundland has already said that if we meet I may not get Beryl back!  I offered to trade her...for Newfoundland's favorite Cabbie, a violet-eyed brunette named after Sarah Jane Smith.  Of course that offer was a hard NO, LOL.  We all have our special Cabbies; Beryl June is mine, and Sarah Jane is hers.  More on that at eleven.

August 8th.  Toybox Thursdays are for Cabbies and their toys.  I don't have much in the way of toys for my Kids, but Valencia Rose does have Titania Rosalind.

Treesa, if you're out there, I've gotten more mileage out of that little Playmate, and I thank you kindly.  She's not a dead ringer for Val (their eyes are different), but most folks don't care about that.  I notice hair before I notice eyes, and Titania's eyes are a lovely shade of blue.

Also on August 8th, I got this random picture of Matthew Tommie, Lucey Dena, and Ginger.

I got in the mood to change Lucey's clothes that evening, but y'all will get a better look at that in a bit.  Usually Lucey wears her blue and pink dress, but she and I were both in the mood for a change.  When it gets closer to fall I'll put Matt in something new too.  Mama got a cute plaid hoodie set, and the colors will look nice on him.

August 11th, Failbook memory from 2021.  After foolishly not buying her the first time she was available, I bought Dot Starlight.  Here she is in her box...

...and out.

I'm bitterly disappointed that the Lalaloopsy revival didn't last long, but it did allow me to grab Dot without having to pay a ridiculous price on eBay.  Dot's garish yellow hair doesn't geehaw well with the rest of her coloring, and that was why I initially eschewed her.  I still don't love it...yeah, actually, now I do.  Dot stands out in a crowd. 

Also August 11th.  This is an outtake from Kiara's review. 

Carrie can do what Kiara can't:  flop around adorably.  But Kiara can sit up if braced from the back, so it's all good. 

August 12th.  Bae Day Monday was for lemon-haired Cabbies.  I have two, Alexandra Claire and Poppy Elizabeth. 

Poppy is a reroot, if I recall correctly, but that doesn't bother me.  Reroots are embraced in that group.  As for Alexandra Claire...maybe she's more lemoncello than lemon, but that didn't matter to my friends.  In the future though, I may class her as golden-haired and pair her with Candela Laura.

August 13th.  Take-Me-Home Tuesdays are for Cabbies that one obtained locally, which for me is easy since I only have one.

Found Andrea Doria at Dexter about seven years ago.  Someone took pretty good care of her since she has her original outfit, ponytail holder and all.  But as I've said before her hair was pretty tortured, and she looked like she'd literally been plucked from a lifeboat.  So I gave her a hug, asked "How much for this one?", was told...maybe it was two bucks.  I know I got one doll for free from that shop, but now that I think about it I think Penny Brite was the one I got for free.  Andrea Doria cost me two bucks.  Two.  There was another Cabbie there, a little boy with a sweet face, but he had pox pretty bad so I didn't take him.  Poor thing, maybe I should've.  Pox can't be fixed, but it can be concealed or lightened.  Besides, it's not like Andrea doesn't have flaws of her own.  See?

Andrea fell victim to someone with a pen, just like Idalia Gale did.  I don't know why some little kids think it's alright to mark on their toys with a stinkin' pen!  It wasn't like Cabbies were cheap back in the day, and even if they WERE cheap toys aren't for marking on!

August 14th.  Wednesday Wearables, or Cabbies modelling a new or cute outfit.  Three of my girls are wearing new threads.

LOL, three of my blue-eyed blondes!  Allie Kathleen's favorite color is yellow, and I got her a new dress in that color scheme since the Velcro gave out on her old one.  The Etsy shop is one of my favorite go-tos for Cabbie clothes, pac44.  Poppy Elizabeth is a big doll and can wear baby clothes, so her stuff is Garanimals in size 0-3 months.  Frankly, I think even that is a bit big, especially in the shirt.  As for Lucey Dena, her little outfit is...more for fall, but fall isn't that far off.  It's a tagged Cabbage Patch getup, and Mama got it for me.  

August 17th.  I had my Rainbow High and Shadow High dolls out in preparation for another post, and Mama took a liking to Natasha Zima and Shanelle Onyx.

Mama says she likes the Shadow High bunch enuff to put them on display in the front room.  She likes my Monster High bunch too.  I think putting them up front sounds like a plan!

August 19th was another Bae Day Monday, this time for brunettes.  At the time I had five of them on hand and two tinies back at Casa del Luna. 

The big ones are Julie Emmalee, Beryl June, and Lesley Emily.  The small ones are Carol Kasey and Skye Kitty.  Skye was hanging out behind Little Honeymoon in my last post, and sharp-eyed Treesa saw her.

I love the jewel-toned eyes on these Mattel Kids!  Carol Kasey's eyes are a lovely shade of green, while Lucey Dena and Skye Kitty have blue eyes.  

Brown Mattel eyes look like chocolate milk.  Mmmmm, I love chocolate milk.  Recently Treesa has been showing me some of her childhood Cabbies, and that's only cemented my fondness for Mattel Kids.  Hers are freaking adorable (one of 'em has chocolate milk eyes), and it's a tremendous treat to see them.  

August 20th, memory from last year.

The doll on the left is a Sekiguchi La Cheri doll that I named Olivia, and the doll on the right is my beloved Sasha.  I had planned on reviewing Olivia and was running down the similarities that she has with Sasha, but I realized that Olivia is very similar in function and in body type to my Munecas Geli, Renata.  Both are lapsitter types with soft bodies and vinyl limbs, and there's just not a lot to say about them.  Olivia is sweet, though.  She has brown eyes and blonde hair, a combo my mama loves.

August 22nd.  Another Failbook memory from last year. 

Crissy, Look Around Velvet, Sasha, and Aimee.  My ham-handed attempts to rid Crissy and Velvet of mold ended up wrecking their eyes, so it'll be a long time before they appear in the blog again.  The Talky Velvet that Tam sent me remains healthy, and for some weird reason, so does Aimee.  Even though she's from the same era as Crissy and Velvet, she doesn't get mold.  Or at least mine hasn't.  As for Sasha, I think it would take a nuke to kill her.  She's tough as nails.

And now for the eleven o'clock news.  August 24th.  Meet Elisabeth Clara, another brunette.

When I saw this girl on eBay she reminded me of the aforementioned Sarah Jane.  Indeed, the two dolls are almost exactly the same except for head molds.  As I said above, Newfoundland named Sarah Jane after the one and only Sarah Jane Smith, so I named Elisabeth after Sarah Jane's actress, Elisabeth Clara Sladen.  Neither doll looks much like Ms. Sladen (she had dark eyes and and reddish brown hair, and I thought she was quite pretty), but...oh well.  Elisabeth hails from Taiwan's UT2 factory and has the uber-rosy cheeks that UT factories are known for.  She's also a little yellowed (again a hallmark of a UT doll), but Valencia Rose is yellowed too.  See?  Some Cabbies just age like that.

Actually, they don't look too bad after all!  They're certainly not as bad off as my drooled-on pillow, LOL.  Elisabeth is just a sweet little doll.  It tickled the snot out of my friend to see a Sarah Jane lookalike.  Elisabeth is only my second violet-eyed Cabbie, by the way; Andrea Doria was the first.

August 26th.  Bae Day Monday's theme that week was wheat and champagne hair.  I have three of those.  From left, Idalia Gale, Kitrick Randolph Fergus, and Allie Kathleen.  This picture was taken before Allie got her new dress.

I guess Randolph would count as a subcategory of wheat (his hair is a rusty shade).  As I noted in Randolph's introduction, the foreign factories tended to march to the beat of their own drums, and a lot of unusual hair colors came from Spain, from Japan, from Mexico and South Africa.  Not ugly colors, mind y'all, just kinda different.  

Later that same evening I caught Morgan and Elisabeth Clara getting to know each other. 

I think Elisabeth envies Morgan's bows.  She'll have her own soon enuff.

I apologize for the glut of cabbage, y'all.  I don't want good pictures to go to waste, so...here they are!  Maybe I should call these posts "Cabbage Clippings!"

Love,

RagingMoon1987 

Eye candy!

When I was a teenager Bratz were in their heyday.  I know some of y'all aren't Bratz fans, but I loved strolling down the Isle of the Dolls, as I called it then, and looking at their garish makeup and their colorful clothes.  It was the break from the eternally pink Barbie that I appreciated, though Barbie did have some interesting things to offer back then.  Those days were twenty-some-odd years ago now and a lot has changed, and after Monster High went away the Isle of the Dolls was "downright dull," as Pongo would put it.  Now...not so much!  Things got a little less boring when the O.M.G. dolls came out, got a lot less boring with Rainbow High, got even LESS boring with Shadow High.  Admittedly Rainbow High and Shadow High aren't everyone's cuppa either, but I enjoy them.  I have an in-depth review of a couple of the Shadow High girls waiting in the wings, but God only knows when that'll be done.  So instead I'll show y'all what I saw at the local Wally World the other day.  Apparently both students from both Rainbow High and Shadow High are attending a costume bash, and...well, I'll let y'all see for yourselves.  This first girl is a fairy.

I love her makeup!  It reminds me of the aurora borealis.

The somewhat dark expression gives this young lady away as a student of Shadow High, and given her stark white body and hair I was expecting this to be Natasha Zima in costume.  Surprise, she's a new character!

McFee.  I wonder if that's a play on "fae," another term for "fairy."  Eliza claims that her wings are special effects, but if there truly is some word play in that name then maybe she's fibbing.

I have no idea what this next gal is supposed to be dressed up as, though maybe her headband gives some sort of hint (they look like lacy cat ears).  She's pink, but she's a lovely raspberry shade so I can live with it and even dig it.

Look at her freckles!  I love dolly freckles!

Claws and a name like "Wilde"...yep, she'd have to be a cat.  Nail art isn't the most important thing in the world, but it IS art!  I've got friends with the skills to prove it.  A closer look at Lola in the box shows that she does indeed have crazy-long nails.

There's one other Rainbow High student attending this soiree, a purple vampire named Demi Batista, but she wasn't at my Wal-Mart.  I got to see boring Bella Parker instead.

Bella is a witch, a good witch, I presume.  Only bad witches are ugly.  Bella certainly wouldn't fall under the "ugly" category, but I don't find her costume or paint anywhere near as interesting as her Shadow High shelfmates.

Here's her story.  I'm pretty sure a pink witch won't cut it against an ice-blue fairy and a raspberry pussycat, my dear.

Bella also will not be alone at the ball; she's accompanied by Violet Willow (also a cat-girl) and by my old favorite Robin Sterling (a spider!).  I'm going to respectfully disagree with Lori and say that I prefer Slumber Party Robin to Spider Robin (she prefers the spider), but I'm very pleased to see Robin getting a second doll.  Strangely though, I find the Shadow High dolls to be more interesting.  Shadows are usually gray and black like the first wave of dolls was, and yet MGA is finding more ways to incorporate colors into that bunch, first with Neon Shadow, and now with the new Costume Ball trio.  I hope they'll continue to think outside the box; if they do, then these dolls could have a bright future in store.

Rainbows and shadows,
RagingMoon1987

That's life

I am NOT, nor will I ever be a big Frank Sinatra fan, as his voice was flat much of the time.  However, for much of the past week I've gone around humming "That's Life."  Why?  Because life happened again.  Mama's pain came back with a vengeance early Monday morning, and after much ado and some wasted time she finally got to a hospital that could diagnose her properly.  The gallbladder was the problem and the gallbladder came out, and as of writing Mama is at Southeast Hospital in Cape Girardeau with a drain in her side.  The gallbladder was severely inflamed, parts of it had turned necrotic, and an infection had set in.  In addition Mama's blood pressure was bottoming out, and that suggests to me that she was dangerously close to going septic by the time the hospital got her treated.  Right now she's where she needs to be, and she's in a lot of pain but staying...well, relatively positive, considering the circumstances.  She says she's been treated very well, and if I know her like I do then she's trying to be nice to everyone in return.

To kill some time I'm gonna talk about two dolls that I saw at Wal-Mart yesterday.  Neither of them are super-unique, but they caught my eye.  The first one is this My Life doll, the Dream Team Captain.

I don't know how well y'all can see, but her hair is this unusual mix of purple, green and blue.  The rest of her is typical My Life fodder, no different from Airy, and since I have too many dolls in this size as it is I didn't get her.  There are better images of her hair on Wal-Mart's website.

I didn't get a picture of the other doll, but she's one of the new Shadow High dolls.  Here's an idea of what they're like; the one available at my local store is Heather Grayson, second from left.

I love the idea of Rainbow High's rivals being in grayscale!  Hey, gray has its place in the color world too!  I used to hate wearing gray, by the way, as it reminded me of surgical tools and the walls of the hospital where I spent much of the summer of 2004.  I've since grown to love wearing gray, but I digress.  As noted above, Shadow High is Rainbow High's rival school, since every good school has a rival (Malden's archrival is Kennett, for example).  These kids are fine art students like the Rainbow kids are, and....that's all I know.  From left, their names are Natasha Zima, Heather Grayson, Ash Silverstone, Nicole Steel, Sunny Madison's antithesis Luna Madison, and Shanelle Onyx.  Betcha a dollar to a doughnut that Sunny and Luna are related.  Their hair is exactly the same style, and their names are both a play on celestial objects (the sun and the moon).  The two extremes, uber-pale Natasha and very dark Shanelle are my favorites, and I'm excited to see these kids moving into Wal-Mart.  Too bad they're thirty bucks a pop.

Speaking of black and white, bird crap is black and white, and I've been seeing a lot of it lately because Mama's carport has swallows again.  Only one baby bird is visible, but this morning I watched the parents visiting and I saw three little mouths begging for food.

Last year there were five babies.  There was so little room in the nest that one bird had to sit on the ledge...but then again those babies were very close to fledging by the time I took the picture.  The current babies are nowhere near big enuff, but they're healthy and the parents are taking good care of them.  I love swallows; they can be ornery, and like all birds they produce a lot of droppings, but as wet as this year is we're going to need as many swallows as we can get.  We'll need swallows to SWALLOW the mosquitoes!  LOL, I wonder if that's why they're called swallows?

Tomorrow's AG Spotlight will go up as scheduled (it's Kirsten's turn).  Dang those posts are easy, especially for the historical girls, since all I have to do is snap a couple'a pictures.  As insane as my life has been lately, I haven't had the energy for much else.

Hugs, rainbows, and bug guts,
RagingMoon1987

MGA Entertainment's next big hit?

Random post, since I haven't done this in awhile.  The information contained in this post is very, very old news, but I'm sharing it anyway because these dolls look amazing in real life.  Yesterday I went to the local Wally World for some necessities, and as I always do I go to the toy section and see what's new.  Barbie has some nice new things available (WITH SHOES!!!), and Na! Na! Na! Surprises have returned to shelves.  I had been worried that those were discontinued already, but nope!  I'm a casual fan of Na! Na! Na! Surprises, but what caught my eyes were the new Rainbow High dolls.  I knew that a second wave was out already, but partially due to this coronavirus crap I'm only now seeing parts of Wave One.  Amaya Raine is much more impressive IRL than she is on pictures.

Bella Parker is also much better in real life, though I think that pale pink washes her out.

And lastly, the cheerleader line is making it in.  The only cheerleader available at our Wal-Mart was Violet Willow, but the employees were stocking shelves so there may be more to come.

I knew about all of them, but I DIDN'T know that Amaya Raine had gotten a redesign.  Gone are her snow-white locks and glitter paint.  Now she looks like Rainbow Dream.

Maybe Rainbow Dream and Amaya Raine are cousins or something like that!  MGA loves to make family units out of spin-off dolls (like they did with the Bratzillaz), so maybe we can all pretend that Rainbow and Amaya are related.  So far all the characters I've shown were old ones with new spins, but this next gal is a new one entirely.  Her box lists her name as Karma Nichols, and she belongs to Wave 2 like Bella Parker does.

These are getting fun, y'all!  I knew about Bella and about the first guy in the Rainbow High line (Kendall River, who represents the color teal and looks like a Moxie Girlz friend), but this young lady surprised me completely.  Karma apparently represents the color neon green, which is a color I never would've imagined since green has already been done (Jade Hunter is green).  I didn't get a good picture of Karma's eyes, but they're a lovely shade of light brown.  In addition to pink, teal, and neon green, indigo and fuchsia have also made an appearance.  The fuchsia doll is Stella Monroe, who has a fluffy coat like Violet Willow does, and the indigo doll is Krystal Bailey.  Krystal is...thank God, a DOLL OF COLOR!!!  I was wondering if we'd get a doll darker than Sunny Madison.  Having seen Krystal though, I can't help feeling that she and Violet should be switched.  Violet looks more lavender or indigo than violet, and Krystal looks more violet than indigo!  Krystal is a must-have for me, though; I had hoped to get all of these dolls, but I've fallen far behind and these poppets aren't exactly cheap.

Ah yes, the last time MGA Entertainment poured out dolls like this at such a fast rate, they were making a killing with the Bratz dolls.  Oh, what a happy time that was, seeing the toy shelves that were full of some other doll besides Barbie!  Yeah, yeah, I know Bratz were risque, but it was still nice to see something different for a change, and I was sorely disappointed when their comebacks were such flops.  As with the Bratz I predict that the Rainbow High troupe will not be everyone's cuppa tea, but I like their cartoonish proportions and eye-catching colors, and I hope these will become the next big thing for MGA.

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987