Wednesday, March 21, 2012

2012 Lalaloopsies

I never got into the large Lalaloopsies, but I'm a huge fan of the minis.  I recently got Suzette La Sweet (above) to add to my collection.  In my eyes, she is the most awesome Lalaloopsy mini made thus far.  She comes with a big double-tier cake, a fan, a doggie and a pink ... thing on a plate.  Jello, maybe? 

I've been squeeing over the new fairy tale-themed minis!  The Lala version of Snow White ("Snowy Fairest") comes with a funny gnome man, a mirror, caramel apple and a squirrel.  Miss Muffet has a tiny spider hanging from her apron!  I love that little detail.  She also comes with a larger spider, which for some reason has a fuchsia hanger shooting out of its head.  I guess it's so you can hang it from somewhere above Miss Muffet for display.  The spider also has a bow on its head, and shoes. 

Maybe it's a girl spider?

Left: The three posing with the 2012 Easter mini.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

More on Pinypons, plus My Little Pony

When I wrote the first post about Pinypons, I had NO IDEA they had alternate faces on the backs of their heads!  My daughter discovered it, which just goes to show you sometimes daughters are more observant than their mommies.  LOL.  You can lift off the Pinypon's hair and turn her head around to show a different face on the back of the head.  After learning this, I went back to Target to get a couple more of these little cuties (still on sale at $2.50, luckily).  I took a couple of pictures to show you what they look like with their alternate faces.  My daughter has now adopted my Pinypon family as her own.  If she'd just share them with me once in awhile, that would be great.  LOL. 




On a different subject ...

The last time I visited my (40-year-old) brother, he was telling me some anecdote about My Little Ponies and their fans.  He's not a Pony fan, but found it interesting.  I decided to get him a My Little Pony as a gag gift ... and ended up buying two for myself.  Aarrghhh!!!  I need an intervention program to protect myself from buying adorable little plastic nonsense.  Hee hee!  These are the two I got for myself.  The Pony I bought for my brother is white with an ice cream sundae branded on its rear.



I have to wonder, though ... why did the My Little Pony company (Hasbro) decide to change the faces to this more anime-ish sculpt?  The sculpts used to be cuter!  I've really had a hard time liking the new/current sculpt(s), but they're growing on me.  I realize this sculpt change is old news to MLP fans, but I thought I'd mention it.  Why fix it if it ain't broke?  Eh?

Since I've been totally ignorant of the history of My Little Ponies (a VERY important historical topic!), I decided to research them for a few minutes.  Apparently, the older sculpt I knew and loved was what MLP fans call the "3rd Generation sculpt."  The new sculpts are meant to look more like the characters in the newest cartoon series.  Hmmm.   You can see a short but illustrated history of the MLPs on this web site, if you're interested. 

Later.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Some Easter finds at Target

I love browsing the seasonal aisles at Target, particularly at Easter, Halloween and Christmas.  Right now their Easter merchandise is out.  I discovered these super-cheap Pinypon dolls in the Easter section. ... Not sure why they were there, since they have absolutely nothing to do with Easter!  LOL.  They're super charming, though, and have a bit of an Asian flavor even though they aren't Asian dolls.  They're only about 7cm/3" tall. 

Since I'm a sucker for pink and purple hair, I got three.  I've discovered they have interchangeable parts like Pinky Street dolls, except sturdier.  You can change around their hair, lower bodies and upper bodies.  Fun and cute.  I'm resisting the urge to fill my house with more of these.  They're so cheap that it's tempting.  I only paid $3 each for them (U.S. dollars), and recently saw them on sale for $2.50.

They have some tiny parts that fall off, though, so I wouldn't buy them for toddlers who still put things in their mouths.   Toys R Us apparently carries Pinypons, too, according to the Pinypon web site.


Also, I found the new, 2012 Lalaloopsy Easter mini.  Darlingness!  Like the other Lala minis, her clothing is not removeable, but she comes with a crazy-eyed pink bunny, a polka-dotted egg, and a pail of paint and a paintbrush. (I guess to paint the Easter eggs?)  I love that she looks like a plastic version of an old-fashioned rag doll.

More later, Alligator. ...

Friday, March 9, 2012

Minions of Cuteness, Part II

Two more Ddung dolls arrived in the mail today. I got them from an eBay seller in South Korea called Legendeux. ... They mailed them with signature delivery required, which sucked because I had no idea when they would be arriving, and if I hadn't been home at that exact moment they arrived, I would have had to pick them up at the post office with a lively 4-year-old in tow, in an ancient car that barely runs.  I just happened to be home when they got here, though.  Whew!  I'd still buy from that seller again, though.  They sent them SO FAST.  ... It only took two weeks to get to the southern USA all the way from South Korea. It takes the same amount of time to get something here from Canada, I swear.  Plus, I sure can't blame ANY seller for insisting on a signature delivery.  It's the safest way to go.

I got two of the 18cm Ddungs, "Sleeping Bear" and "White Rabbit."  Ooooohhh ... the cuteness!  Yes, "White Rabbit" has pink hair.  Who can resist that?!  She comes with panties underneath the dress.  "Sleeping Bear" comes with an extra shirt and a big stuffed, striped rabbit (at first I thought it was a puppy), and a small brown bear-thing tucked into her pajama pocket. It's like the designers try to figure out ways to get the maximum amount of cuteness in one package.

I have to admit, I have a thing for animal-ear hats.  If my favorite doll company, Integrity Toys, started producing their own brand of minions of cuteness wearing animal-ear hats, I would fall over from WANTS.

I'll be posting more pictures of these girlies on the Ddung forum in the next few weeks. 

Monday, March 5, 2012

The Minions of Cuteness

I've been noticing this adorable, chubby Asian doll on the Doll Epic blog.  (A very good blog, if you've never heard of it).  I was enchanted, but of course the dolls aren't available in my part of the world.  I learned they're called Ddung dolls, and these abominably sweet minions of cuteness come from South Korea. 

There are two sizes:  18cm (7" ) and 11cm (4.3").  This is the 18cm version.  They're easy to find on eBay, and if you're in North America like I am, that's probably one of the few places you'll be able to find them to purchase easily without a huge markup.  And then you have to wait ... probably forever, or at least it will seem like it ... for them to be delivered all the way from South Korea.  Totally worth it.



This one is my first, bought secondhand from a very nice lady on a forum dedicated to Ddung dolls.  (You can find the forum here.)  I somehow managed to buy a few more, that are currently on their way to me.  I'm not sure how. ... I think they just jumped into my online shopping cart all by themselves last time I was on eBay.  It's like the cuteness drugged me and in my cute-induced stupor I forgot what I was doing and the "BUY IT NOW" button was all I could see.  LOL.

There are some counterfeits and look-alikes on the market, so if you get one, just make sure you are buying an authentic Ddung.  They're cuter than the fakes, anyway.  There is some info on the Ddung forum about how to tell the authentics from the fakes.

This one is called "Earplug Santa," which I believe is just a bad translation of "Earmuff Santa."  LOL.  I'm guessing the Korean word for earmuffs translates literally as "earplugs" in English.  She came with a Christmas stocking and earmuffs (seen in the second picture), but I made the kitty ears for her to match her outfit.  Her hair is an excellent quality and silky-soft, and her outfit is quite a nice quality as well.  She comes with white panties under the dress. Her head is hard plastic, not a soft vinyl like a lot of fashion dolly heads. 

Santa Ddung posing with two Domos, another Asian import.
Since I have a few more Ddungs on the way, you can be sure I'll be posting about them again at some point.

... And I won't make any poop jokes about the name "Ddung," even though I REALLY, REALLY want to.  LOL. 

Sunday, March 4, 2012

My gray eyes for Haruka arrived

The gray eyes I orderd for my Haruka Obitsu arrived, so of course it sparked an immediate photoshoot.  :)

Probably no one cares about this doll except for me, but I guess she's my muse for the week because I can't stop taking pictures of her!  I'll post about some different kinds of dolls in the next week, but for today ... it's Haruka again!  Yay! 

I made the gray jumper, but not the rest of her outfit.  Don't you love the kitty shoes?  As I told you before, she is the Haruka head sculpt on the 40cm small-bust Obitsu body.  The tiny doll she's holding in her hands is a Mini Lalaloopsy. Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Hit Single Darla Daley

Since Mary T's Doll House is going out of business, I thought I'd go ahead and order the Darla Daley doll I've had my eye on for the past few months.  I couldn't resist her at half price!  It's "Hit Single" Darla from the Poppy Parker doll line by Integrity.  She arrived here the day after my birthday, so happy birthday to me!  I'm obsessed with the Poppy Parker line, so anything from that line I see on sale just HAS to come home to me.

The dress is one piece and zips down the back.  It comes with nice gold pumps and a gold clutch purse.  I usually can't stand those little strapless clutch purses Integrity likes to include with the Poppy dolls, but this gold purse is nicer than most.

Hit Single Darla, left, with Twist N Shout Darla.
This was the doll that had a HUGE production delay because someone at the factory Integrity uses broke the original Darla face mold (so I've heard ... apparently, this was revealed at Integrity's convention this past October).  They had to re-do the Darla sculpt, which is why the original promo photos of "Hit Single" look so different from the production doll. She even managed to go from left-glancing eyes to right-glancing.  The final product is a super cute dollie, though, so I'm certainly not complaining.  See?  Isn't she cute?

Thursday, March 1, 2012

More Haruka and Alice pics

I realized I pretty much only showed my Obitsu Haruka's face from just one angle, so I thought I'd offer you a different angle just so you could see her sculpt better.  She's so sweet!  I'm still playing with putting different wigs on her.  I was lucky enough to visit the Cool Cat web site just in time to get in on their 50% off wig sale, so I ended up getting six wigs from them really cheaply, and wish I'd gotten eight. (The sale is over now, sorry. ...)  This is one of the sale wigs.   Nice, eh? 

I just ordered some 16mm eyes in gray, so I'd have a change of eyes for her.  Right now she only has the purple ones and some 16mm browns she's stolen from Obitsu Alice.  I think I'm going to be having fun with this doll for a good long while.  You can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

I thought I'd throw in more pics of Obitsu Alice, too.  I thought this sculpt looked cute in a slightly punked-out red wig.  This is a wig I bought second-hand off someone on the Den of Angels ball-jointed doll forum.  Sometimes it pays to not pay retail.