Finally, some new Barbie stuff!

First up we have what I *think* are new clothing sets. It's always possible they are not new, and just haven't been in stock for so long that I forgot about them, but hopefully I'm right that they are new. If not, maybe you haven't seen them either! ;)

I think I don't love any of them overall, but they have some nice elements...



The iPod is cool, and the red shirt that's with it. Maybe the belt (tho I'd have to take the sticker off) - belts are somewhat useful. The rest of it... not so much for me. It reminds me of the set for the pre-school teacher Barbie they had out recently?



Roller skates!!! Sadly, everything else except the white skirt, I am not that interested in. But... Roller skates!! I may have to get this anyway...



Cheerleader outfits. Nothing esp. exciting and I don't see any of my dolls wanting to be cheerleaders... Still the outfit on the right is pretty cute, and there's sneakers...



I don't think this one is new, but I'm not sure. She's pretty blah overall - that dress is nothing special. But the cupcake bag is cute!

Here's a closeup of the bag...



Then we move on to the defintely new. Some Toy Story Barbies! There's a Barbie dressed like the Barbie in the movie (tho I didn't get a picture of her - she was not in stock at the store I was at, tho I'd seen her earlier) with a matching Ken. But there are also Barbies that are dressed in Toy Story theme outfits. I saw two, but there are more...



I really like this one! I think I will be buying it eventually.



This one is also cute, but Woody is not as much fun to me as the little alien dudes. I'm also not sure what I think about that outfit overall. I kinda like the vest and the belt (assuming they detach from the shirt) but I can't say I care about the jeans as much - I have plenty of jeans.

There's also Barbie Loves Buzz. Interestingly, Amazon lists Barbie Loves Ken and Ken Loves Barbie as releases, but they each say only one available. Not sure if these are not US releases, or just really hot sellers?

I didn't really see any new furniture, but I did see this one random set - it's a reissue of the pink mirror. So if you missed out on the pink mirror - or can't stand pink - here's your chance to get it in purple.



I think the dress that the Barbie is wearing is not as cute as the pink dress tho. I'm somewhat amused that the cardboard cat is switched to a dog - they could've just totally reused the original packaging, but I guess they are hoping people will buy both!

Then the last thing I have to show for the moment is that there are new Barbie Basics out in the stores. I have not been totally onboard with the Barbie Basics because I think they are kind of pricey and the outfits were a little *too* basic. It was a nice idea tho - I liked all the different kinds of Barbies. If I actually collected Barbie (and not just her clothes) I would probably have been a lot more excited, because some of the faces are pretty cute.

So considering my particular biases, I think v. 1.5 (as they call it) is an improvement - the clothes look a little bit more detailed to me. The faces, however, start looking a bit repetitive of v. 1. I think if I'd've bought any of the first round I'd be a little irritated, because I'm not sure round 2 is different enough to have both, but I like 2 better.

There was only a small selection of 1.5 at this store - I'm sure there's a bunch more out tho.



The short hair is cute...



I like this outfit. And I kind of like her overall look (tho she's a little too 'hard' looking for me... I like the sweeter faces that look less 'fashion model fierce')

But see what I mean about how similar the faces look to version 1? As a non-Barbie person, I could be missing some subtleties, but I think she's pretty much the same girl as this one but with new hair?



Of course, on a Barbie, new hair is pretty much everything! XD And it's not like Pullips aren't a bit repetitive at this point...

So as you can probably see from that last example, the old versions have a white background, the new versions have a pink background.



This was my favorite of the new girls. For some reason I rather like her. If I'm starting to learn anything from my Barbie-knowledgeable friends (which is unclear! I'm a slow learner! XD) this is the Stephi face mold?



This is an old one, but I like her too. She doesn't really look like a Barbie at all!

That's everything I found so far. I suspect there's more, so I may be adding a second post as soon as I have a chance to go to a different Target!

The new shoe set should also be out, but I didn't see that yet...

EDIT: Ooh, flipped over to BarbieCollector.com to look for additional Toy Story Barbies, and noticed the new Twilight Dolls. Still not a Twilight fan, but these have awesome clothes-stealing potential! Also, I really like Alice's little flippy haircut.

Pirate Day in Milford

Well, I happened to be in Milford for yet another in the town's series of summer events. I've made it to this one a couple of times in the past, but always manage to arrive just as it ends. This time I was here for the beginning, but since I had other obligations, I *still* only managed to be there for a quick zip through. But that's ok, because this event is very much aimed at kids. They get a map and a series of riddles that correspond to each of the various stores that are participating in the event. At each store, the kids can pick up some "booty" - just cheap little trinkets mostly. All the stores do pirate-themed window displays and have someone dressed as a pirate to give out the prizes. A really surprising (to me anyway) number of attendees - just random people in the area with their kids - also come dressed as pirates. So there's just all these people randomly strolling around dressed as pirates. It's like Halloween, except everyone decided to go as the same thing. XD Also, it's in June. ;P

The reason behind this event is a little sketchy to me - supposedly Captain Kidd buried his treasure on Charles Island (a little island just off the coast here) - but who doesn't love pirates? I'm just wondering if they'll be able to work out some historical town connection to ninjas eventually...

On to the pictures!

They did a Rubber Duck window again, which was my favorite from previous years. I got some better pictures this time too.


Front of the window (lots of reflection, so not the best picture of the bunch)


There were lots of people trying to get by me to do the scavenger hunt as I took these, so I'm glad they more or less came out anyway!

This time the window had a theme - to do with Captain Kidd of course!


Then we have lots of closeups so you can appreciate all the details. I don't know who did this (I'll try to find out) but they put a lot of work in!

Here's a closeup of the ducks in the rowboat:

Notice that they have band-aid eyepatches! XD

The ducks on the 'island':



The beer drinking ducks. Their campfire is one of those LED candles. One of a couple of 'nighttime' features I noticed. I wonder if they light the window up after dark? Seems unlikely, since the store is closed and downtown is pretty deserted. But why did they bother then?

Here's the other bit that seems to light up:

I think the moon looks like it is wired to have a light behind it? That's cute! I like the duck flying the kite too.


There's a surprising number of these boat models floating around stores in Milford. Maybe when you open a store here the town council welcomes you with a model boat and a gift basket...

The ducks playing cards in the front:


The ducks counting their treasure (in the back):


The other windows were not as spectacular, but these bears are cute:




And they put in a nice effort with all this sand and the cool treasure chest:

Notice that they tied pirate bandanas on the cardboard women that are probably always in their window - nice touch!

And this map is nicely done:


Complete with pirate skeleton making a joke:


I liked the little octopus painted on the window of Cafe Atlantique:


Nonnie had a bone to pick with this display, as well as several of the others...

"Ok, unless your pirates are more exasperated than evil, they should be saying 'Arrr!', not "Arghh!', ok?"
(It was so crowded during the event that I actually came back later after it was over to take this - and it was still embarrassing considering how many cars were driving by!)

Here's some of the other fun stuff that went on (all of which I missed - and i'm really sorry to have missed the Johnny Depp lookalike contest! That seems like it would've been some good fun...)


More pix here in the flickr set.