Alice in Wonderland

This weekend I finally got to see Alice in Wonderland, so I thought I'd 'celebrate' by posting some Alice in Wonderland themed products I've seen in stores recently. (Of course, because of the movie, there are absolutely tons, and this is by no means comprehensive.)

Hot Topic is doing a big movie tie-in, and they have the most merchandise that specifically relates to the movie. (a lot of the other Alice stuff is either generic, or based on the older Disney movie) I don't have many pictures of their stuff, however, because the employees there are very 'helpful' and check in with you every five minutes - which is probably because they are afraid of shoplifting. (either that or I'm just overly 'helped' because I do not in any way look like I belong in a Hot Topic... XD) Plus, you can see most of their stuff on their website anyway.

So, with those caveats, here's just a couple of things I liked:

They had a bunch of jewelry with scissors. I am not actually sure what the connection is (I'm blanking - was there something about scissors in the movie?), but I think it makes for a fun jewelry theme. I gave some serious thought to buying the scissors necklace, but... well, I don't think I'd really wear it... XD

They also had a bunch of really cool false eyelashes. Again, the connection to the movie here is a bit thin (I promise there's a ton of stuff there that's directly tied into the movie, I guess I just liked the stuff that wasn't!), but I adored these blue sparkly lashes! Sorry the picture quality is so bad...

I kind of want these for a doll, but of course they are like $10-$15 (I forget) and I'm not sure which doll I'd even put them on. Sparkly is a look that doesn't go with everyone...

They also had some kind of Alice-related lolita dresses next to the Alice merchandise...

(Again, sorry for the bad photo. This one is in focus, but it's a weird angle)

As I mentioned, most of the rest of their stuff that relates to the movie is on their webpage, so click here to see!

Moving along to Toys R Us, they also have a lot of movie tie-ins, both the new movie, and the original Disney movie. The products aren't quite what I would expect (not a lot of toys/plushies), but that's probably because the movie is not aimed at little kids, and the character designs probably don't lend themselves to that either...

So, first up, we have some beauty products:



slightly better view of the soaps...


...and the mirrors.


You can buy some fleece blankets with your choice of designs from either the old movie or the new one.


There's also a collector Barbie (well, Ken, I guess?) based on the Mad Hatter. I didn't get a photo at the store, but you can find him online. I wonder if there will be an 'Alice'? I really hope so!! I would love to steal any of those pretty dresses from the movies for my dolls! BTW, Mr. Hatter is a little scary looking for me to consider bringing home, but his outfit is nicely detailed!

The more 'toy' oriented stuff all uses the original Disney movie character designs.

bobbleheads


Cute plush Cheshire Cat! They also had other plushies from Alice, and from other Disney movies. Here's an example of some others (from FAO Schwarz a while back)...

They also had Snow White, and a few others, tho nothing like this kind of selection! Just a few of each.

Some other Disney theme products in the same 'flat' style, including some more Cheshire:


Toys R Us was also one of many places I found these cute little guys:

(Photo from Toy Fair)
They seem to be running about $12 each.

Of course, if we're going to talk Toy Fair, there was a ton of Alice stuff there. I discussed that in a previous post tho, and most of it I'm still waiting to find on sale somewhere. Tho, one other thing I DID see in a store was the Living Dead Alice. (no sign of the Red Queen, the White Rabbit, or the Mad Hatter, but they are probably out too. I'm actually kinda tempted by the Mad Hatter for some reason, he has a bit of a steampunk vibe... I haven't checked Newbury Comics, which is the only place I know that carries these dolls around here... Altho, hey, I guess Hot Topic does too! XD I didn't see them at the store tho)

Speaking of Borders tho, they (not surprisingly) have a big selection of Alice in Wonderland books, with all kind of different covers, as well as notebooks and keychains and suchlike with character designs from the new movie. Now that I've seen the movie, I'm feeling more tempted to buy one of the books. It's been a long time since I've read Alice - if I ever did properly read it - and I'm somewhat curious about certain details. As much as some of the new versions of the book have really cute artwork, I guess I want one of the more classic versions with the original illustrations...

I have to say though, I've only seen a Living Dead doll at one Borders, so don't necessarily expect to find one at yours!

I didn't spot much Alice stuff at Target, tho they did sneak in a few things that were suspiciously *Alice-like*, such as this keyboard:


That's all for Alice right now, but I'm sure there's tons of stuff I missed.
I'll close with a picture of my mini Alice ddung... ;)

Easter is Coming!

I've been sitting on these photos for a while now due to not having time to post them, but I figured I'd better hurry up and do it - Easter is coming, so if you want to get any of this stuff for the holiday, you might need to make a shopping trip soon. And if you are just putting on your race shoes for the clearance sales, then it's good to know what your targets are! XD (Of course this means I have another long post coming up... ^^;)

I actually don't think I will be buying any of this, unless the clearance prices are too tempting to ignore. It's really cute (of course!) but there's nothing I feel like I can't live without. But hey, no sense selling it short before we begin! Let's take a look at some fun Easter products. ;)

Let's answer the most important question first - what kind of Hello Kitty stuff does Target have? XD

Most of you have probably already seen the plushies, but just in case, here they are again:


The reason I will probably not buy any of these is that they are sort of cheaper versions of other plushies that are out. Except for the yellow Kitty in the middle. She's the only one that tempts me! But Kitty in the Easter egg (on the left) is available in a slightly cuter (tho more expensive) version at the Sanrio store. And Kitty with the ears is available in many places (such as Borders) as a Ty Beanie Baby. She's not much more expensive there, and is much nicer quality! Interestingly, the bunny ear Kitty is very similar to a much smaller version that was available last year. (Just for fun, HelloKittyJunkie did a good roundup of Easter stuff last year - of course, since all her posts are excellent! I actually have a lot of photos of this stuff too, but I wasn't blogging then...) I do love the middle Kitty's polka-dot dress tho, so cute! I don't have a great deal of hope of catching her on clearance tho, those plushies always disappear quick!
Note: I can't find a picture of the easter egg Kitty you can get at the Sanrio store, which makes me feel like maybe I imagined seeing her - but I'm pretty sure I didn't! ;P

Next most important is, of course, the easter baskets! None of them this year compare to my much loved basket of a few years ago (which I don't have a picture of? Is that possible?!), but they are still cute...

This is the big size one. Or, I guess, the standard size one you would say. It's very basic, but I quite like the lining.


Isn't that a cute print?

They also had these really adorable mini baskets:

These are maybe big enough to fit like 4 hardboiled eggs, tops.

This is the inside:

It's a little bit funny that the print for the smaller baskets is bigger than the print for the big basket, don't you think? I'd really like to get one of the smaller baskets, but I'm trying to cut down on buying stuff for the moment (lack of space, other things to do with my money... XD). I'd get it if I found it on clearance, but I don't count my chances as good for that - it's not even Easter yet and I haven't been able to find these mini baskets consistently!

Last year they had some really adorable pre-packaged Easter baskets. This year's baskets (as in, the actual container) were not as cute, but the stuff inside was pretty fun!

This is the only Sanrio basket I saw, I don't know if there were any others?

This year they also had a cute gift package that was NOT a basket:

I thought it was really cute, but I guess I'm a traditionalist - I want the basket!

After Easter baskets, the next most important thing is, of course, Easter *eggs*. Target has a variety of plastic Easter eggs for hiding candy or whatever. The Sanrio ones were the same as last year, but some of the other designs were actually pretty fun:



I find the Batman heads terribly amusing! *snicker*

Speaking of Batman, we also had this:



These are actually pretty cute!


Just a very basic design here, but I love glow in the dark stuff, so I thought these seemed so fun!

The Hello Kitty egg dying kits are really fun too, I used one a few years ago to dye a bunch of eggs and thoroughly enjoyed myself! XD

This year's designs are super-adorable (I love that little bunny!!), but I probably won't buy this, because I don't think I will have time to dye eggs this year... (alas!)

There are a lot of toys too, of course, but I didn't take photos of everything. Aside from the Kitty stuff, the highlights for me were this glittery rubber duckie that lights up!

(here in his non-lit state)


I also liked these low-cost Munny ripoffs... even tho they are, you know, rip offs... XD

There was the usual variety of Polly Pocket and My Little Pony, but Polly somehow doesn't do much for me, and MLP is kind of horrible to me now that they've redone the molds - they aren't recognizable as horses anymore!! (I'm sorry, I know a lot of people still love them, and that's cool, but I haven't liked them since they stopped looking like horses...) I didn't see any Kellys in costume, which is a shame, because those costumes are handy to swipe for other dolls! I heard a rumor (or maybe it's just 'news'!) that Kelly was discontinued. I hope not, that would be sad. I at least want her to make holiday appearances!

Target had lots of candy too, of course, including special hersey's kiss varieties, which are apparently now a staple of all holidays. For Easter, I think flavors included coconut and orange kreme. The orange kreme was surprisingly good!

There was also the usual array of cute cupcake liners and gift baggies. This theme was little chicks...


Better view

(The treat bags are similar)

Last - but most definitely not least! - we have stickers. Target seems to roll out new Sanrio stickers every couple of months, and every once in a while they will feature a character other than Kitty. The Easter ones feature none other than My Melody! And they are super-adorable!

Earlier (for St. Patrick's Day?) they had some Keroppi ones. I need to get a picture of those posted. You may be able to find those still!

Moving away from Target, I was surprised to see some really cute stuff at Wal-Mart! No Hello Kitty, just cute little character items. I don't do a lot of shopping at Wal-Mart - there are no convenient locations in Boston, so I only stop in when I'm in CT - and I don't really do any buying. I've browsed through there a number of times and I just never feel compelled to buy anything. I actually feel like Target has better prices on toys (I can't compare for things like paper towels, since I'm not doing 'real' shopping there), but maybe I just don't get into Wal-Mart enough to catch the good sales. ANYWAY, my point is, I don't associate them with having adorable own-brand random stuff the way Target seems to have. So I was actually quite surprised to see some really cute stuff there this time! Maybe I shouldn't be, I don't know, but I was. So... that long digression aside, here it is!


I thought these were mugs, but I guess they are 'ceramic pails' (I just noticed that at the bottom). Not sure what that means, but if you can't drink out of them, they'd probably make really cute planters for small plants!



Some cute candy...


The theme mostly features owls and squirrels (chipmunks?) and bunnies, but the candy had that adorable hedgehog. If he were on something that was more permanent, I think I would've bought it!

Everything was repeated in all different colors - blue, pink, yellow, green... I liked the green best, as you can probably tell! They also had these cute mini gumball machines. I'm sure I'd've bought one of those, but I already bought something similar (in the more traditional red) from Toys R Us recently. They are a little too big for Pinkys tho, and a little too small for Pullips...

Plus, I think that half of their appeal is seeing them in such multiples. Don't they look cute this way?

Hello Kitty at Sears and Elsewhere

If you follow my photos on flickr, you've already seen the first of these photos, but I went to Sears sometime about a month ago - I was visiting my dad and we were sort of wandering around the mall. I don't go to Sears (it's probably been most of a year since I was last there!) but he likes to look at the appliances and power tools - how appropriately dad-like, right? ;) So on the way out of Sears, we went thru the upstairs where the clothes are and I spotted a bunch of Hello Kitty stuff! I was surprised, I didn't know there was anything Sanrio at Sears! But then, these days, Hello Kitty truly seems to be everywhere...

Mostly they had banks, wallets, scarves, boots and umbrellas. The boots were cute, but I think they were sized for children (no surprise!).







I really liked the wallets, they're those flat kind that have lots of room for cards. But I didn't end up buying one because I know I won't use it. I'm plenty happy with my current wallet style! Still the one with all the bows was so adorable...



Don't you just love it?

Hot Topic was right outside Sears, so I couldn't resist running in there, even tho I feel like I can't really subject my dad to that (he waited outside). They had still more cute flat wallets!



This one was my favorite, and even more tempting, but I didn't buy it either... *sigh*

I basically forgot about most of these photos because they were on my cell phone camera, but when I remembered them a month later I decided to run back over to Sears to see what they had. Maybe some of it would be on sale? Kinda, but not really... Sale, but not clearance. The prices were not good enough to persuade me to buy stuff I didn't really completely want/need. This was the weekend of the huge rainstorm tho, so I couldn't resist buying an umbrella. I had an umbrella (two in fact), but there's nothing like getting soaking wet in the rain to convince you that another umbrella couldn't really hurt. Unfortunately, waiting in line convinced me that Sears is not really a great place to shop. The clerks were basically inefficient and not very nice. Not that I generally make it a point to criticize stores, because it could be they were having a bad day, or that one girl was just not nice, but... I still kinda feel like I won't be going back anytime soon.

However, if I *were* to go back, it would be to buy one of these cute watches! I noticed them on the way in the second time, as I was trying to remember where in the store I'd seen the original stuff...


The box

I saw two versions of Hello Kitty watches:




I also saw a Bratz watch, which was kind of entertaining!



You can see a price tag on the Bratz watch ($20), but I think the Kitty watches were more expensive, if I remember correctly. Probably closer to $30. I might be wrong, but I'm thinking probably not, or I would've bought one!

And to further prove you never know where you're going to run across Hello Kitty, I was poking around in A.J. Wright (a discount store - they're sort of like a Marshall's or a T.J. Maxx, I guess, tho probably not as nice! XP). It's next to the Target, and I pop in there sometimes to see if they have any cheap dolls on sale that I can buy and steal their clothes for my Pullips! Ah, the strange life of a doll collector...

I was really excited tho, because I found some Hello Kitty headphones there for only $8!!



This would be exciting enough on its own, but it was extra exciting because I'd already bought these headphones once before, and I lost the ear bud piece - I don't know what you call it, but the little squishy plastic piece that keeps it in your ear. I was waffling around about buying a replacement (like $6 for a couple of sizes of just the squishy pieces) or just buying new headphones (which cost like $16 if you buy them in the store. I'd bought my original pair at Target, but they don't have them there anymore. The sanrio store still sells them tho. They have Chococat and Kuromi too, btw.). I figured at least that way I'd have a second pair for when the first pair wore out and I could probably just share the earpiece thing, unless I got really unlucky and lost more of them! But, you know, it was $16 for something I already had. So when I saw this second pair for $8, it was the best news ever! Haha. And, as an unexpected bonus, they come with a case and a thing to wind it around. Score!

Here's a close up of the cute illustration of Kitty rocking out.

What sort of music does Kitty listen to anyway?

I also stopped by Toys R Us and found a couple of cute things I hadn't seen before. These are like the Kittys in animal costumes they have at Target, but smaller...



I like the giraffe, I just want that one!

On the other side of the size scale, they had these rather large 35th Anniversary Kittys too. Cute, right?



I haven't spotted much new at Target recently, but I did see this cute little item as they roll out their summer toys.



It's a sprinkler!

EDIT: Of course, just after I post this, I spotted some new stuff at Target! Yikes! (this is all not counting the Easter stuff too, which needs its own post still... ^^;) So I'll have to post those photos soon!

And then, finally, I got a better picture of the corduroy Kitty that everyone seemed to like so much! :)