New Hello Kitty in the Dollar Aisle!

Target has added new stuff to their Dollar Aisle stuff now that Halloween is basically over. Aside from an alarming amount of Christmas stuff (already!) they have some new Hello Kitty items! These are not Christmas-themed, so maybe there will even be still more closer to Christmas? Exciting!

Aside from the usual cheap jewelry and hair elastics, the stamps from last year have returned (at least at my store):

I didn't buy one b/c I am pretty sure I bought one last year. I need to finish looking back through my collection tho (I'm trying to find things to get rid of... ^^;)

The lipgloss, however, was something I had never seen before, and it was super-adorable! <3

I didn't buy any of that either though because I don't think I'd use it, and I hate to have lipgloss hanging around unused. I may break down tho and get it because even if I just clean out the lipgloss without touching it, that would be a pretty cute little container, and that might be worth $1...

Something else that was different were these cute whiteboards:

I am not sure what I could do with a whiteboard now that I'm not in college, but it IS definitely adorable!

Then, of course, there were more kids socks. I didn't take a photo of those. I am always tempted to buy those, even tho I can't wear them (too small!) because I feel like I ought to be able to make doll sweaters out of them. I have not managed to work out a good pattern for that yet though...

I did buy the stickers - they may not be the most exciting stickers ever, but they were still worth a dollar I think!

The pen-type things next to them are crayons of some sort, I think you can swap around the colors inside.

I also had to pick up the lenticular notebooks - anything lenticular is a must!

And yes, lenticular is a weird word I only learned recently because I love this kind of thing so much. It's what you call that stuff that is sort of 3D and where the picture "blinks" between one thing and another. You can also recognize it from something like a hologram because when you scratch your fingernail across it, there's a texture and it makes a zipping sort of sound.

The pink one blinks, and the words change colors. The blue one is more elaborate and therefore harder to photograph. The pink one kind of "works" better, but the blue design is so much cuter!

The last thing I went home with was some ribbon and a deck of cards.

I thought about giving the cards away to a friend, but I didn't... ^^; I'm still trying to decide if I should, or if I should open them. I want to see the design so I probably will! (I am suspecting they are boring tho and look just like the package). There are two designs of cards. The other one is pink, but I did not photo it. There's only the two ribbon designs, and I got both of those. (yay ribbon! XD)

The last thing I noted over in the Dollar Aisle were these "fashion journals":

They have stickers that come with them:

(the pink stickers are exactly the same, just pink)

I was curious if there was anything inside that made them specifically "fashion" oriented, so I bought one, but apparently not


Sorry for the relatively terrible photos of the stuff I bought. It's been raining and I was in a hurry, so the lighting was awful... >.<

Target also snuck some new stuff into the toy aisle, namely these mysterious items:






I am very intrigued by these, and may have to buy some to check them out! You can read a bit more about how they are supposed to work on the back of the box.


There was also this cute little playset:


If you want to see more pictures of it out of the packaging, check out tomo.moko's excellent photos on flickr!

Down on the bottom shelf, this cute box caught my eye...



I have seen versions of these decorator Kitties (and Chococat and My Melody) floating around on flickr, so I guess this is Target's version.

Even the top of the box is cute! (of course! XD)


And then, finally, just one unrelated item - as I was walking out of the store, I saw these cute kids' PJs!

Scary Kitty is adorable! XD

Halloween Hello Kitty at Hot Topic

Before my Sanrio obsession got kind of out of hand in recent years, I really pretty much never set foot in Hot Topic. I don't look like I belong in Hot Topic. I'm sure they are happy to take my money nonetheless, but I feel foolish shopping there. ^^; Still, for goodies like these, how can I resist?



I went there specifically to get the ears because I saw them on someone else's flickr photostream. They didn't have any out, but I asked and she brought them out from the back for me. Lucky!

I wore the ears to a Halloween/doggie birthday party last weekend (early Halloween! XD). While I do not have any photos of myself wearing the ears (and probably wouldn't be willing to share them even if I did ;P) I can show you a photo of my friend's dog wearing them!

It's a touch blurry, but poor doggie wasn't that excited to wear them, as you might imagine. Still he was a good sport about it! My friend's dog is named "Captain Awesome" and I think he was awesome here indeed! ^__^

While I was buying the ears, I was looking at the other Sanrio Halloween products. They had the same (or close to the same) adorable "Kitty Frankenstein" and "Kitty as a Mummy" (2 versions - maybe one is new?) that they had last year. (I don't see the Frankenstein on their webpage, so maybe that is only available if your store has leftover stock? Or maybe it was never there and I'm just remembering from last year... ^^;) I'm not really a big fan of the Kitty t-shirts they sell at Hot Topic because they tend to be made from very thin fabric (not durable!) and to be a bit too long to look right on someone my height. Still, I love the Halloween Kitty stuff and really wanted a shirt last year anyway. So when I saw some Mummy Kitty jewelry and barrettes, I couldn't pass up buying *something*, right?


They were $8, which is a lot for barrettes, but I thought they would be just perfect because I could wear them myself for Halloween if I wanted, or I could just put them on my dolls. Plus they were not as likely to wear out after one use as the shirts were! (I don't see this on their website either, tho I do see a necklace. I have not spent much time on the Hot Topic website - is there a close correspondance between merchandise available there vs. the store?)

And, while I was there, I spotted some small items from the "Loves Nerds" theme. I saw this stuff originally at Sanrio Luxe in NY, but it was all so expensive... ^^; I think it was mostly all Loungefly stuff, and for some reason their bags are very expensive. (tho if you want one desperately, be sure to check online. I've seen it go on sale!) I don't want to spend $70 on a bag, but $2 on a pin is ok, right?


And how could I pass up this cute little keychain? I wear glasses! Hello Kitty is wearing glasses! It's like a requirement to get it, no?

And that was only another $5. Really, what's $5?

And oh, while I'm in line, what are those cute long socks I see?

They look good for the winter, no? And unlike the socks at H&M, the pattern is all over and not just on the toe. That's so much better! And socks are always useful, right? Esp. in the winter. $8 for socks isn't so bad...

And that, kids, is how you spend $30+ dollars at Hot Topic on stuff you didn't really need. >.<

I regretfully put away all the adorable Alice in Wonderland stuff I saw too, or it would've been more! One obsession at a time, I think... (I was eyeing some stuff with this cute mirror design - they had pins and keychains and suchlike - but if I'd seen this cute totebag, I might not have been able to pass it up! Still I have soooooo many totes! ^^;)

p.s. it looks like Hot Topic has the Hello Kitty Jelly Belly jelly beans I was reading about on hellokittyjunkie, so I may be going back for those soon...

As I was walking out of the store, I was telling my friend that she really needed to stage an intervention for me and keep me from spending so much money on Sanrio stuff I don't really need. Of course, no sooner had the words left my mouth than I saw this cute t-shirt at Journeys:

I had to have that too. I mean, come on! I was a (radio) DJ for years! How could I pass that up?! (they have this cute totebag too, but see above about too many totes... I see a very similar - but more expensive - tote on loungefly too, so if you were thinking of that, maybe this is a good cheap alternative!)

I think the idea that I will ever be able to resist much is only wishful thinking... *sigh* Still, how can I really regret buying such cute stuff?

AniMadness

AniMadness is a new store in Waltham, MA (one of the close suburbs of Boston if you aren't familiar with the area). It's an anime store, but they also carry pullips and Re-Ment. Hooray! I feel really lucky to have this store nearby! :)


(psst: you can clicky on all these photos to make them bigger... ;)



They also have a good selection of Sanrio stuff. Ok, it's not the overwhelming Kittyness of going to the Sanrio store (I'm getting spoiled!), but they good stuff - like UFO Catcher prizes:


They also have a bunch of Hello Kitty x Rody stuff:




You can see a cute Panda Kitty in the corner of that first photo, here is a better shot of the panda twins. They've been at the store for a while now, and they have batteries/motors so that their head shakes. Can you believe no one has bought them yet? (Can you believe I haven't?! XD)




Then there are these other Panda Kitty pillow/plushies. They are amusing!


And just some cute big plushies:


It's hard to believe, but here it is, already time for Christmas decorations to make their sneaky appearance...



Still, when it's domo-kun plushies, you can't mind too much, right? ;)

My favorite of the lot is the 'failed attempt at gift-wrapping' one:


But this one is pretty cute too:


Finally, the store also had these guys - not Christmas related, but cute!


These are current photos of some of their new stuff, but you can see older photos (or if you are reading in the future, new photos! XD) here at my flickr set.

More New Hello Kitty...

...at both Toys R Us and Target. Kitty's 35th Anniversary is apparently spawning a Hello Kitty bonanza! Tho it could be that there's not more HK stuff than there ever was and I'm just noticing it more because of my accelerating Sanrio addiction. Or it could be that they are just making a bigger push to sell things in the US market again - it's hard to say! In the end tho, the important thing is: more Kitty! XD

First up, these adorable new mini plushies at Toys R Us!





My favorite is that edamame one! (I think there were actually 4 designs, but I need to go back tonight and look at my original files. I am not sure if I uploaded the wrong file last night, or if I was mistaken at the store...) Of course the "cat in food" genre has been well-covered already by San-X's Nyan Nyan Nyanko line, so there's nothing new or different here. You might even think Sanrio is being (dare we say?) a copycat (ha! Cat! Get it? ;P) but I think there's more than enough room in the world for many cats in food. Tho they were adorable, I didn't buy any. I am not sure what I would do with them (I'd hate to take them out of their package!) and I have sooooo much Kitty stuff - plenty from this weekend alone! ^^;

Toys R Us also had some Kitty items in their candy aisle. Many types I had seen before (Hello Kitty face tins, for instance) or these marshamallow lollipops:

I actually got the pink one for my birthday from a friend a few months back, but I haven't been able to bring myself to eat it... Poor Kitty! ^^;

However, I was not able to resist these cute hard candy packages:

The little Kitty figures were so adorable that I had to get one of each! I did try to put one back, but in the end I couldn't find one "less cute" than the others. At $1.50 for candy I probably won't like, this wasn't the best use of my money, but... Alas, the addiction is hard to resist...

I almost missed the new Kitty stuff in Target - I checked out the Toy Aisles and the Halloween stuff and we were leaving the store when we ran into a clerk who had these cute pink earphones. She said they were Hello Kitty and there was a new selection of Hello Kitty stuff over in electronics! So of course the electronics section had to be checked out!

Impressive, isn't it? In case it is hard to see, moving from left to right/top to bottom, we have walkie talkies starting us out in the top left corner, then digital cameras in the top right corner. Next row brings us a USB drive, the headphones, and iPod/iPhone skins. The next row has an optical mouse/mouse pad combo and an analog phone. Down on the bottom is a CD player and two styles of alarm clocks. I do need a new alarm clock, which makes those tempting, but I kind of wanted one with a cd player. Hm...

Way, way down at the bottom, cut off by the photo (I couldn't back up any further because of the camera display in back of me... XD) is a Karaoke system:

Kind of an amusing product!

Of course I went home with the headphones I'd gone there to buy, so here's a closer look at those:

This was very well-timed for me since my last headphones just broke! I haven't had a chance to open the package and try them out yet, so I am not sure how good the sound quality is. If it's decent, I might be tempted to buy a second pair - in case the first pair wears out! (I hate to admit it, but my headphones do tend to eventually bite the dust...)

I also felt like I couldn't leave the store without the USB drive...

I just bought a USB drive a few months ago and it has been very handy! But... I am not at all sure I need TWO of them. Still, the included software seemed intriguing. I am not sure, I am still teetering. I may return it!

One thing about this USB drive tho is that it is not terribly expensive. It cost $15 for 2GB. I bought a relatively 'cheap' 4 GB USB drive (in the sense that I could've paid more. But it seems like the one I have is just fine!) for $20. So making it a Hello Kitty product does not seem to have added much to the price. This is a little bit different than Hello Kitty electronics I have seen in the past. Very often it has seemed like Hello Kitty electronics items were much more expensive than their equivalent non-Hello Kitty products. This has been particularly noticeable with the cameras - which makes that camera in the upper right of the display interesting! I didn't notice until I was peering at my picture (I was in a bit of a hurry when I visited the store) but that camera is only $15! I wonder how many megapixels it has? My camera phone has 2 MP, and it takes terrible photos, so my guess is that it would not be worth buying the "Kittycam", but I will have to go back and take a closer look...

New Barbies at Toys R Us and Target

Well, as Christmas creeps closer, it looks like new toys are getting rolled out. Barbie has had several new dolls introduced to stores - here's some photos I took at Target and Toys R Us over the weekend.
There were some of the 'Candy Glams' on sale at Target, but I wasn't fast enough to get the ones I liked. I'll continue hitting up the discount stores (Big Lots, Tuesday Morning, TJ Maxx, Marshall's) and hope I get lucky. So far my quick ventures to those stores have mostly been strike-outs.
But on to the new things!

First up are the Barbies on the new bodies. They say "100+ poses". I didn't buy one to try it out, but they do look much nicer then the old bodies. Cute clothes too!

(You can't see so well here, but there's a bit of metallic in the dress. It's more nice than tacky for once. The boots are kinda lame tho. So maybe if this goes on sale)

This one is the big winner in terms of cute clothes:

I may get her even *before* she goes on sale! But I have been a bit bad this week (too much Hello Kitty) so she'll have to wait on that.

Then there is the new "So in Style Sis" line. That also has some cute clothes!

I really like the skirt on the one on the right. I don't think I'll ever be getting her tho. The amount of extra stuff that comes with her pretty much guarantees she will never be cheap...


I guess this is the "sis"? I think this is a new 'little kid' body type for Barbie? She looks 'older' than Kelly, if I figure 'skinnier and taller' to mean older. I don't know that Barbie needs to be making their little kid dolls skinnier and taller (isn't that why everyone hated Barbie in the first place?) but these do look cute. I am wondering if the little clothes will fit anyone's tiny dolls? I only have the pinkys, so I can't be sure.


This one was my favorite - check out the cute kitty shirt! The art supplies aren't too bad either. She is definitely going on my list of things to buy sooner or later.

And then for some reason, this little ballerina caught my eye:

She's for the very young 'uns. That bodice is part of her costume. So nothing I would ever buy. Maybe I just like the package?

Toys R Us had two dress set exclusives as well:



I prefer the clothes of the one on the bottom. Probably too much pink for me to worry about buying tho...

Meanwhile, Disney has been pumping out Princess dolls like there's no tomorrow. I am not interested in Princess clothes, so I don't much care, but I kind of like their display at Target:

You can spin that thing over on the right to select a Princess and then push a button to hear her song. Fancy! They must've paid a pretty penny for that shelf space.

Target also had some new Project Runway toys that seemed pretty cool. There's nothing I would buy for myself, but if I actually were buying toys for a kid, I'd give these some serious consideration:

Skelanimals at Target

This Halloween, Target is featuring Skelanimals for Halloween. I am not the biggest fan of Skelanimals stuff, but it's cute in its weird little way for Halloween. And as always, Target has some fun stuff, and some fun decorations. Just like the did last year with Domo-kun, they are definitely making the Skelanimals stuff very prominent in the stores, it decorates all of the aisles where the Halloween merchandise is, and is the first thing you see walking into the store:


Here's the hanging decorations up near the registers:

I really love that cat, I wish they had more merchandise featuring that character - I am not sure I've even seen any...

Here's another hanging sign:

I like the giant lollipops!


This is the main display in the Halloween section. It's in the big open area with no aisles where the seasonal merchandise goes. It contains most, tho not nearly all, of the Skelanimals stuff. You can find more over by the candy. It is surrounded by the aisles of costumes and candy.


Oliver is the owl, I am not sure which one Timmy is? Maybe he is the spider, he seems to be featured the most in the decorations...


You can get a Sekelanimals costume, tho I personally think they are a bit boring...


...I'd much rather get this hoodie, because it is super-cute! (even if it wouldn't make a Halloween costume). In fact, I really should see if they have it in my size, tho I don't need any more hoodies... ;)


This section was still a bit understocked when I took this picture, but it later had some kids-size t-shirts in addition to what is pictured here.

Here's a better view of the little bag, which is cute. There were a few different styles available, with different characters.



This is a reusable canvas shopping bag type thing that you can get for $1.99 with purchase. It's cute, it's too bad it's the spider, as he is my least favorite...


I'm not quite sure if these were stickers or temporary tattoos, but I think it is pretty funny they are calling them "Child Accessories"


Halloween basket. Cute!


On the left is not the baskets, but actually some sort of pillow? I'm not sure I saw them again after this picture! On the right is some pumpkins you can plug in to light up for decoration. I don't think those would actually be all that exciting. They seem like they might not be very interesting in the dark...

Much cuter and more fun, I think, is the variety of stuffed animals they have. Plus, with stuffed animals, you don't have to put them away after Halloween if you don't want to! (well, I suppose you don't have to put any of your Halloween decorations awy if you don't want to, depending on what sort of decor you are going for! XD But the stuffed animals probably blend in a little better...). These big ones come in a coffin case, which is pretty cool and very in keeping with the theme, tho maybe not quite to my taste.


Or you can get them dressed up as trick-or-treaters, which is much cuter in my opinion! (Tho, truthfully, maybe more likely to need to wind up in storage until next Halloween...)


I don't recall if there were 3 or 4 designs. If there were 4 I missed getting a picture of one. Hm. I got the devil a number of times tho - he must like to be photographed! XD


The Frankenstein one is my favorite of this series by far!

Then there are the slightly smaller trick-or-treat plushies, which are even cuter!

I may have to break down on my plushie ban to buy the owl skeleton pirate! ^^;

That's most of the stuff over in the main section. Except for the really adorable vinyl figurines! I can't believe I didn't get any photos of those! I will have to go back and get some photos and I will add them here.

Moving away from the big Halloween display section, here's what they have over by the candy aisle:

There are fruit-colored gummy skelanimals (hard to photograph), some more 'realistic' gummy skelanimals, spiral lollipops with skelanimals printed on the packaging, some candy necklaces and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting.

You can also buy candy in a variety of cute packages, such as this mug:

(front)

(back)

Or these cute pouches:

They'd be great for pencils or cosmetics. I use a lot of these little bags to keep things sorted in my handbag or backpack. They are very handy! I almost bought one, but... well, truthfully, I have a million already. Maybe if they end up in the clearance bin.

Last, but not least, we have these lunchboxes full of lollipops. I did buy one of these, tho I haven't the slightest idea what I will do with it! ^^; But they are the same price as the pencil case and I think the lunchbox seems like a better deal. Also, the lollipops sounded like a better candy option than the candy necklace type stuff you can get in the pouch.


Here's the lunchbox I bought:


This is the candy inside:

Kind of blah, actually, but you do get a bunch of them and I can give them out on Halloween. The loose candy in the pouch wouldn't be suitable for that.

I also couldn't resist buying a few other things - a mini tin:


The candy for this one is actually really cute! Experience with previous mini tin candy tells me it won't be tasty, but cute is important too... ;P


And then finally, I bought this keychain:

Oh! I just realized as I was posting this - the back of the package names all the characters. So Timmy IS the spider!

I am using it to decorate my bag to stay in the Halloween spirit this month.


Can you tell who my favorite character is? XD

Oh, and I almost forgot - there are also tissue boxes featuring Skelanimals! That's kind of different, no?



Some of the designs are of the other (unnamed?) monster characters Target is featuring. I actually really like those boxes too. I should probably buy some, but we don't need any tissues right now, and I know from experience I won't want to throw them out, and then what? I have empty tissue boxes sitting around. *sigh*
Still, some of the boxes are lenticular (aka 3D/motion), which is really cool, and maybe I can just save that panel? Hm...

So, last year was domo-kun, and this year was skelanimals. Who do you suppose Target will feature next year for Halloween? I am not sure I can think of who else would be suitable in a similar way... Dunny? A newly designed character, like the sorta-Toki doki stuff they just did for back-to-school? Hello Kitty?!!! (Ok, I can wish, right? XD) I guess I have a long time to wait to find out...

This month, 7-11 is doing a promotion using domo-kun. You can get slurpee cups or coffee cups with domo-kun's picture on them. The domo-kun slurpee cups are enough fun that I may break my current effort at eating healthy enough to buy a slurpee (or two or three? It looks like there are 3 different cups total. That's more slurpees then I've had in the past 3 years tho, so we'll see!). I did stop by a 7-11 the first day of October to try to find one, but they didn't seem to have the slurpee cups in stock at that store... You can read more about the promotion here (and on a sidenote: people still use the word 'Japanime'? Seriously?). And you might want to check the website for domo-kun they mention. (Although I think the domonation/obey the domo joke is kinda lame...) I thought some of the little commercials/animated clips were funny!

Here's some pictures I snapped quickly on my trip to the 7-11:




The coffee cups aren't actually all that exciting, they're just cardboard...


That's not the best photo, I was trying to be stealthy, but I love this sign. It's on the donuts, so somehow it seems appropriate he looks so stressed out! XD




This is the Slurpee machine, seen through the door...




Domo-kun also shows up at Target again this Halloween where you can get some really cute plushies in costumes... The domonation website has a really fun Target commercial that shows domo-kun trying to get in the holiday spirit.



I grabbed this screenshot because it reminded me of the domo-kun figure I got at Target last year.



My picture of DJ Domo




Here's some pictures of the plushies at Target, you can see how they match up with the commercial:







Of course, this is nothing compared to last year's Domo-kun bonanza at Target...

(my personal favorite store display - of all time! XD)

Toys 'R' Us Pop Up Stores

According to the Wall Street Journal (Which I won't bother linking too, since their website is only available to paid subscribers) Toys R Us is going to have "pop up" stores in vacant storefronts in malls (and in their own Babies R Us - which I kept, disappointingly, thinking was BARBIES R Us... If only! XD - stores, since those are going to go out of business in January) for Christmas. So this means lots more places to buy toys this Christmas - and hopefully lots more selection? If we are *really* lucky, it will also lead to lots of good post-Christmas sales too, as these stores look to get rid of their unsold inventory before closing these temporary locations. (well, maybe that wouldn't be so good for Toys R Us, but I always love clearance prices!) Toys R Us recently bought FAO Schwarz, and I haven't been back to NY to see what sort of impact that has had on FAO Schwarz, but it could be good news in combination with these pop up stores if you don't live anywhere near NYC or FAO's other locations (there aren't many, but I forget where the other(s) are...) FAO always has interesting stuff during Christmas, so I am really hoping to see some of that stuff at these popups - that would be really great!

The article also mentions that Sears had been hoping to capitalize on the disappearance of KB Toys to expand their toy sales over the holidays, and this will be a blow to Sears. So don't forget to check Sears during the Christmas holidays - they may be forced to have some good sales too, but even if not, maybe they will have some interesting toys!

Some additional info here and here (since those articles are free to all)