| Spotted at Walmart |
[Jul. 18th, 2009|10:32 pm] |
I ran by Walmart on Friday and was surprised to see new Bratz dolls.
One was the cartoon mascot themed line (Iconz, allegedly? There was nothing to that effect on the boxes). Cute but very plasticky-looking.
There was another unnamed line, with Cloe dolled up like a Country & Western singer, Jade as an artist, and Yasmin as a purple hippie "Earth Girl." I may return for Jade. She had very striking green eyes. I think Yasmin had freckles...?
And the third was the Desert Jewelz line, with C&Y&J dressed like genies in harem pants. Cloe's pants had some ill-advised slits going way WAY up the front of the legs.
I also saw a few of the BFC Ink fashion dolls, which looked like standard Mattel-style fashion dolls, except a wee bit shorter. Fashions were decent but not exciting. They were placed with all the Mattel HSM/Hannah Montana/Barbie dolls, and unfortunately the BFC dolls' faces looked a lot less expressive. Then again, I've been wondering if Mattel has somehow improved their vinyl head production process to reduce distortion, because it seems to me that those celeb-based dolls no longer look like they've been smacked in the face with a tennis racquet.
But finally I saw some Moxie Girlz Sasha Art-titude dolls. Couldn't get a price, and I couldn't buy one right then for logistical reasons, but I do like the outfit. Especially the grafitti print on the leggings. I wasn't very impressed with the bike though, which looks like unusually cheap translucent plastic.
One more positive note: It looks like the Moxie girlz fashions might just fit Blythe dolls. Now I'm wondering about the BFC Ink dolls too. |
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| Back with stuff. |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|12:06 am] |
I found a ton of Moxie Girlz stuff.
( Read on for links to pictures... )
Edit: WTF, the Moxie Girlz links just went dead. Bastards! No wait, they're back. OK, so expect some possible technical difficulties. Gah. I'm going to bed. |
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| Bratz is dead, long live Bratz (New stuff alert!) |
[Dec. 16th, 2008|11:44 pm] |
So... the Bratz brand may be doomed.
This article in Salon and this blog post sum up a lot of the reasons I ever liked Bratz in the first place.
I'm hoping that, even if they can't rescue the Bratz brand, MGA comes up with another doll line that continues the good things they have going... like relevant fashions, diversity, and all-fabric miniature purses. I certainly hope they had some sort of contingency plan, anyways. Sorry I don't have more thoughts on the topic than that right now. (I've been distracted by some heavy real life issues.)
Meanwhile, in the face of obliteration by litigation, I present.... new Bratz stuffs!
( Oodles of catch-up pics and links behind the cut ) |
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| Guess where I just came back from? |
[Aug. 4th, 2008|09:55 pm] |
SAN DIEGO! For a business conference starting four days after Comic-Con. Yeah, I'm cool.
Actually, it was my first time flying post-9/11. I didn't have any complications from security or Customs (phew!) but I did find the standardized "Yes, we manhandled your underwear" love letter from the TSA in my locked luggage when I got home.
Coles Notes version: Even this long after 9/11, I find the conspicuous patriotism really creepy and coercive in tone (At one point, I was told that public display of a Canadian flag was deemed potentially offensive to the rank-and-file American attendees). ZOMG, you Americans have liquor on sale in your drugstores! Horton Plaza Mall has a floor plan inspired by M.C. Escher. The San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park were amazing, and each merited far more time than we were given.
Also, we've been given an absurdly short deadline for a massive annual project. And I am not the rate determining step in the process.
I did finally see the Rhythmic Gymnastics Sasha at that drugstore. That's one of the dolls that I don't think I ever spotted at home. Also, the lone souvenir/magazines/snacks shop in the terrible SD airport terminal featured a hilariously ugly Carnival Cruises doll. It was a dollar store almost-Barbie packed in a clear mini backpack, wearing a red and white striped swimsuit, with browny-orange eyeshadow and blackish-purple lipstick. |
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| Mall crawl |
[Jul. 20th, 2008|04:36 pm] |
I was at Metrotown today and checked out TRU (nothing new), Sears (ditto), Superstore (ditto), and Zellers (bingo!).
Zellers had GRR Sasha, the new snap-on Kidz Sasha, a single Designed by Cloe, Wintertime C&Y and some of the various other things I'd already seen at the Bay. Nice to see some Sashas finally. The whole section was a mess though, so taking anything out for a closer inspection was like playing Jenga.
The Jeanne Beker Bratz doll was on sale for under $10.
Oh yeah, I also saw single dress packs for the ANTM dolls at TRU. I didn't think they looked too hot, though. |
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| Today's mission: Success! |
[Jul. 13th, 2008|07:44 pm] |
I dropped by the toy department of Bay Downtown Vancouver today, and was amply rewarded by the discovery of loads of new Bratz stock. Sorry I don't have a camera phone, but I took notes.
New Item! Bratz Kidz Concert Clubhouse: This is a 2-storey dollhouse entirely composed of folded and printed cardboard, which strikes me as somewhat lame. (Hopefully it's cheap to make up for it; I couldn't find a price tag or a price scanner.) More importantly though, it comes with a wicked awesome Kidz Katia doll, which is basically a green-eyed Kidz version of Girls Really Rock Jade. She's in snap-on plastic clothes: grey boots, pink jacket, silver miniskirt, headset.
Bratz World Familiez Yasmin & Her Mom: I guess the package pic I discovered yesterday was an early prototype, because now her name is just "Mom." Those are silver streaks in her hair, by the way. Hawt.
New Item! Lil' Bratz Surprise Locket: Big plasticky toy lockets with super-mini versions of Cloe and Yasmin. They're about 2 inches tall, if that, and they have real hair and tiny fabric dresses. They're fairly fairy-pixie-ish, though.
Bratz World playsets: I'm not really surprised that Cloe's furniture is no longer completely silvered. It's now white with some silvery details. Also, the goofy boudoir toques are gone: one of the rare instances where I'm glad to see the prototype hats disappear as per their usual custom. Yasmin's packaging exclaimed "Now with longer hair!" The bathtub and bed sets were also there, as was the Bratz World version of the RC cruiser. It looks like a new design to me: this one has a sleeker nose, rounded headlights, and I don't think I saw tailfins. Still retro, but no longer 50s. I'm sure some car enthusiast will take one look at it and identify exactly which vintage car it's modeled after.
Holiday Bratz: Good lord, Meygan's hat is hideous. That is all.
Girlz Really Rock Cloe, Yasmin and Jade: DAAAAAANG! I will be getting a Jade, that much is certain. (I may also get the Katia mentioned above.) My hands were already too full to grab her today, though. I bought a bunch of non-doll stuff, including some acrylic paints for that blank Baby Qee I've had for many months — holy crap, a year?
Other items spotted without further comment: Lil' Angelz Heavenly Hair Dana, Nighty Nite Cloe&Yasmin, Dress Up Kidz C&Y, Snap On C&Y, Snap On Kidz Boyz, GRR Guitar, Kidz Concert C&Y.
And yes, that Xpress It Yasmin is STILL THERE. For reference: Xpress It Yasmin was the very first Bratz doll I ever bought. And yes, I got it from the Bay as well. |
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| Dollybird 10 |
[Jul. 11th, 2008|10:57 pm] |
I was totally sucked in by the gold-flecked, Art Nouveau-ish slipcover of Dollybird 10, so I bought it from Iwase books, despite not having a clue what was under the shrinkwrap.
It's a bit of an odd issue, as it turns out: It's one massive fashion shoot of 50 various collectible dolls in various vaguely Lolita-esque frilly white underthings; a sort of encyclopedia with base measurements of each of the dolls depicted; and the inevitable sewing pattern sheets. Strictly one outfit per doll, though.
It might come in handy if I get back making doll clothes again, since I could maybe use the measurements to scale patterns from one doll type to another. Or if I do another dollie craft swap and get assigned someone with an Emerald the Enchanting Witch doll or something similarly random. Or maybe I just paid way too much money for a pretty slipcover. I dunno. |
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| You wouldn't like MGA angry, I guess |
[Jul. 9th, 2008|11:21 pm] |
I dropped by the toy section of the Bay (functionally equivalent to a Zellers) this afternoon and saw some new stuff: the new pyjama dolls the name of which is escaping me right now (Only Cloe and Yasmin though, which was wierd), The new snap on Bratz Boyz dolls (Cade, Cameron and Dylan, I think... meh), The Girlz Rock guitar toy (hopefully a harbinger of awesome dolls to come) and the 3 basic Magic Hair Color dolls. Gorgeous dolls. The dresses they're in look like they're made of tight patent leather and mesh like whoa. I thought they even looked a bit alarmingly fetish-y, like the Bratz Dynamite dolls. And the kid on the packaging has some really blatantly Photoshopped red hair streaks, verging on MS Paint territory.
MGA has put up a somewhat muck-rakey webpage of links to documents relating to the Bratz IP trial. It includes public records of Mattel CEO Robert Eckert's stock trades. (Looks like he sold all his Mattel stock down to 0 months ago... Am I reading that right? What does "Automatic sale" mean in this context?) And there's a press release from a different, small company about a different Mattel IP fight. (The lawsuit in question does sound terribly frivolous, but the press release comes off more like an angry personal blog post than anything that ought to be sent to the media. And I don't see how it's relevant to the Bratz case, really.)
Taobao time!
New item! Bratz Friendz: Yasmin, Jade and Cloe, together in one box for the very first time. Outfits look a bit rehash-y, although I'm not 100% sure.
Holiday Meygan! Cute doll, atrocious hat.
Holiday Cloe.
Holiday Angel Yasmin. Looking pretty much exactly as expected.
Nighty Night Cloe with a serious outfit/box art mismatch.
Oh God, it's that Paris Hilton doll. Who let her in? |
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| Incidentally... |
[Jun. 23rd, 2008|10:52 pm] |
I've also found a whackload of miscellaneous Barbie and other Mattel dolls, none of which I think is terribly impressive but I might post it later anyways. Right now I need to go to sleep though.
Note to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) tanz_fanatika: Not sure if this is useful to you, but I'm guessing either this or this might be that pink haired Lola HM doll you're after. |
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| More doll shopping notes |
[Jan. 7th, 2008|06:32 pm] |
I spotted the Sun-Kissed Bratz at Walmart a couple days ago. So, why the foil-wrapped potato look? The dresses (and accessories) change colour in the sun. Yasmin's dress goes gold, Cloe's goes blue. Cloe's is noticeably less silvery. I'm a little surprised that the sun gimmick wouldn't change the tint of the dolls instead.
I also spotted hair falls to tie into the "Hair Style" line. I don't know about the dolls but the box art is pretty sweet.
Over at TRU I saw the Fashion Designer dolls... the overstitching is actually silkscreened onto the fabric. Wierd.
And somehow I didn't realize that the America's Next Top Model dolls are apparently made by MGA. Maybe that's where all the creative effort has been going? |
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| It's yesterday's blog post, today! |
[Jul. 25th, 2007|10:11 pm] |
Pesky Livejournal outages! Anyways, I visited Walmart yesterday, and spotted some things:
Yummi-Land Ice Cream Pop Girls, large and small sizes - With ads for the upcoming DVD. The big girls are cute! Also, Yummi-Land Pets, which are twin packs of the small size animals.
Hi-Glamm dolls - much taller than I expected! All their faces seemed to be a bit squishy, though, and the outfits just aren't cutting it for me.
Star Singerz dolls and playset, including Sasha. I can't remember who the playset girl is supposed to be, but I can't bring myself to care, because they all look exactly the same.
Winter Kidz and ice cream making playset - up on the high shelf, looking bulky and slightly intimidating. Didn't think to inspect it for Vinessa. Dang!
School Kidz (note to pikapika217: Meygan's hair is sort of a dirty-penny brown)
Super Babyz, including Sasha - The small size. The costumes are done in iridescent glitter, which in this case looks good instead of stupid. I thought the smaller ones came with the girl-sized cape, but these didn't seem to.
Sportz - Dance Tess looks sort of scared. Yasmin is wearing way too much eye makeup for a workout. Cloe and Dana look pretty good, actually.
Bratz The Fashion Show - Very bleah. Definitely the bargain basement doll of the season. The only thing they have going for them is super-high heels, almost like the Princess dolls' shoes but without the platform.
Fashion Fever clothing packs - they had the latest lineup of $5ish packs, which are pretty good, and other 2-piece sets without shoes for under $2, which were way more stylish than I would have expected at that price point. Mattel is not fooling around!
Spotted without additional comment: Flower Girlz, MMU Yas, Big Kidz, Costume Party, Ice Hockey. |
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| Barbie? Is that you? |
[Jul. 21st, 2007|09:19 am] |
Via BoingBoing, of all friggin' places:
Alice in Wonderland Barbie. Wow, that's a Barbie? She sure doesn't look it. She reminds me of the Fashion Royalty dolls... Erin perhaps? The dress is amazing.
Also: Mad Hatter. Creepy looking little fella. And there's also a Queen of Hearts, who judging by this pic looks a lot more like a conventional Barbie.
Also at Entertainment Earth: fashion packs for the Barbie widget, and a picless listing for Hello Kitty Barbie.
Hello Kitty Barbie? Hello Kitty Barbie! How did I not know about this already? And that's my favorite Barbie face sculpt, too. I might actually buy this.
I have a Hello Kitty tote bag somewhere, of significant vintage, which I actually saw reproduced in the Sanrio Vintage Mini candy-toy line... actually, I'm not sure where that is right now. Is that in storage at the parents', or did I bring it home and stow it in this mess? Uh-oh... |
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| Gwen again |
[Jul. 16th, 2007|10:55 pm] |
Via ONTD: There are more Gwen Stefani dolls on the way, including some sort of ultra limited San Diego Comic Con special, based on The Sweet Escape.
(Yeah, OK, I read ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) ohnotheydidnt.) |
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| And now, something else entirely. |
[Jul. 10th, 2007|08:59 pm] |
So a week and a half ago, I was shopping in Richmond and stumbled across a new shop in Aberdeen Centre: Voodoo Palace.
Yes, that's right, it's a store that sells voodoo dolls. In a shopping mall.
And it's busy.
And they've been getting plenty of press.
I wonder if angry religious protesters are going to show up at some point? |
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| Various other Bratz bloggery |
[Jul. 10th, 2007|08:28 pm] |
A teacher at the school where they filmed the Bratz movie wrote up some posts about the experience.
I like this
piece - it's an interview with a professor about the Bratz phenomenon, and
he's not just adding to the wailing that Bratz are ruining innocent girlhood
forever etc. Instead, he talks about how the dolls are pegged by observers as
hyper-sexual because they're non-white and urban (ooh!), and how girls relate
to the fashions as mature and independent, not sexual. Exactly! Mind
you, he has concerns about how consumption-centric it all is, and I can't knock
that. I'm getting a bit annoyed myself that so much Bratz stuff seems to revolve
around mall-crawling as the end-all and be-all of teenage life, especially in
the less imaginative licensed goods.
On the other hand, I don't necessarily buy that the word "sassy"
is a universal euphemism for "sexy" in children's marketing, even as (especially
as!) the interviewer treats it as unquestioned common knowledge. The "secret,
sexually-charged code word" aspect makes it a bit too close to urban legend
territory to me. Show me a leaked internal memo or something, then we have something
to go on.
And if there's too much sex in marketing aimed at girls, I'd like to see someone
look at how it affects boys too. Or, heck, what about the use of the word "power"
in boys' toys? I noticed once how it was used with obsessive frequency... after
five minutes in the boys' toy aisle, it was downright unsettling.
... Moving on. Another post here
takes a look at who's looking at Barbie and Bratz' websites, and comes to the
conclusion that affluent households prefer Barbies and the less affluent prefer
Bratz. Hm. Well, I'd like to see that broken down further, since households
with young kids are usually on a tighter budget than, say, a grandma with a
Barbie collection. Also, the comments make a very good point - wouldn't the
most affluent households probably gravitate to those status-laden and crazy-expensive
(but purportedly wholesome and educational) American Girl dolls?
Speaking of, this
related entry looks at searches for various doll brands. American Girl spikes
dramatically over the holidays while Bratz and Barbie stay relatively constant. |
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| Tons of stuff on Walmart |
[Jul. 10th, 2007|07:23 pm] |
(Still twitchy about my PC. I've gotta talk to my big bro' the computer expert sometime.)
I've left out a lot of the things that we've already seen pics of elsewhere. Most of these don't have images yet.
Kidz School Sasha.
Kidz
School Bus Playset with Lilani
Kidz Yasmin,
Sasha,
Jade
& Cloe
Kidz Winter Sasha
Kidz Boyz Koby,
Eitan,
Dylan,
& Cameron.
Kidz
Music Guitar & CD
Player
Kidz Horses Piper,
Jubilee,
Honey
Kidz
Jumping Horse
Itsy Bitsy RC
Plane & Bus
Bratz
Magic Makeup Studio with Katia (pic)
Bratz
Secret Journal
Bratz
Movie Dress
Bratz
Math The Mall
Bratz Big Babyz Superheroes Yasmin,
Sasha,
Cloe
(pics)
Pampered Pupz Sasha
P4F Sasha
Birthday Yasmin
(pic), Cloe
(pic), Sasha.
Not liking those skirts, myself.
Hi Glam Dolls: Pam,
Kit,
Julia,
Alex
(pics) |
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| Beauty Cuties, and glasses |
[Jul. 7th, 2007|08:20 am] |
So Teahoshi on This Is Blythe got her hands on some Beauty Cuties.
Unfortunately for me, the dolls are not sized anything like Blythes. The heads are about double the size of a Blythe's (!) and the bodies are closer to a Bratz Kidz doll. It sounds like they're a bit unstable and flimsy, as well, so proceed with caution.
Pic shamelessly lifted:
It's a shame, 'cause I was totally hankering for those glasses for Loïe.
Meanwhile, I'm going to be ordering my own new glasses today.
I actually have been shopping for glasses off and on since April. All the eyewear stores are swamped with thick rectangular plastic frames, which look cute on the shelf and hideous on my face. But then I stumbled across these.
These actually work on my face. They've got delicate filigree work, and itty bitty rhinestones embedded in the arms. I'm getting them in an eggplant purple. I'm a little nervous since they're so dark, and maybe a bit gothy. It's a major change to my look, and one that's going to stick with me for a long time. But I've never gone SQUEE over a pair of glasses like this before, so hopefully that means I'm doing something right. |
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| Stuff from all over |
[Jun. 18th, 2007|09:22 pm] |
Beauty Cuties fashion packs: Glamalina,
Lovelylu,
Rockabelle.
Although Lovelylu looks pretty dorky next to the other two.
A Re-ment
house? It's a dollhouse! It looks like it might even be modular, like a
Habitrail or something. Ooh, shiny. I've never indulged in any of the Re-ment
furnishings since my dollhouse idea is on hold until I have more space for it,
but this makes it so tempting.
Bratz
Movie Starz 6 Foot Puzzle.
In-Box Kidz
Winter Sasha. These pics make it really clear that she's floating way up
in the package. Are they trying to make the boxes taller for some reason? Because
they might be easier to see in the forest of Bratz boxes that way, but it's
also going to make the boxes more likely to topple.
In-box Star Singerz Yas
and Clo.
I still don't get these at all. |
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