Holidays are a-comin'

Ok, brace yourself - this is going to be a very long post! In between working like a maniac so I could take some days off to go to ComicCon, going to ComicCon, and then getting sick after ComicCon, I did have some time to go shopping this month. I was vaguely looking for additional Bitty Buttons/Lalaloopsy dolls, because Toys R Us had told me they were restocking, but I kind of struck out on that. I'm mostly looking for Spot Splatter Splash, Mittens Fluff 'n' Stuff and Dot Starlight. And the twins. Of course, these dolls are a bit pricey, as well as being *large* so I don't know how many I should really be getting! ^^; I saw the Twins and Dot at TRU, but they are pretty expensive. I decided to wait for sales. I was also looking for the new Blythe Loves LPS scooter, which I did eventually find, but then also decided not to buy. It's cute, but not cute enough (to me) to justify the price. And there's sooooo many of these mini Blythes coming out, I feel like I need to be more selective. The final thing I was looking for was the "Dawn of the Dance" Monster High doll - which I did eventually find, but more about that later in this post.

While I was wandering around to various TRUs in NYC, CT, and MA (as well as Targets in MA and CT - since NYC still lacks a Target) I found a bunch of new toys. I guess the Christmas toys continue to make their way into shops. We still have a good month to go tho - will there be yet more to expect??

According to this article, whatever the new toys are, at least we can (theoretically) look forward to bargains! Judging by the products mentioned in the article, however, I think this will come in more handy for people buying for kids than it will for adults buying for their own doll collections... >.> (lalala, no comment...) Maybe there's hope tho. Target says that they are discounting some 1,000 toys, including 250 which are Target exclusives. The press release also mentions that you can get 5% off nearly any purchase with a Target credit card. Given how often I shop at Target, this is a very tempting offer - that could actually add up! But I am still not sure I want to open any additional credit cards.

And just to shoehorn in some additional Target news that may add some cheer for my friends in Canada - it looks like Target is finally gonna open some stores there! Read more about that in this article!

Ok, that's my news. On to the picture portion!

I really have no idea how many of these Barbies are out there, but I discovered a couple more that I hadn't seen before. These two Barbies are mostly noteable for their headgear... XD


This one has a Hello Kitty bow!


and this one has a nifty little top hat. Which doesn't really match that well with her outfit in my opinion, but oh well. It's nice to see Barbie incorporating some Lolita elements nonetheless...

As an update to something I almost missed when I first saw them - I finally saw the heads that can be swapped for the "Swapping Styles" Fashionista Barbies.


I guess this solves the question of matching skintones, but it really doesn't solve the question of "Why?" to me... I mean, just change the clothes. Why do you need to change the heads? I guess I may not care enough about hair and makeup tho. I don't really feel like that was terribly important to me as a kid. Then again, I was not much of a doll person as a kid. Now that I AM a doll person, I do admit that the pink hair is sort of tempting... XD

Moving away from Barbie, which has mostly been a big snooze-fest this season anyway, in my opinion, we get some exciting news - Moxie clothing packs! Yay!

Here's the back of the package, which shows all the available styles:


Of course I didn't leave it at that, I got pictures of all the styles they had at the store! XD


This one is probably my favorite. I didn't buy anything, because I was already buying some other stuff and at about $6 each, they aren't exactly cheap. No shoes are included either, as far as I could tell, so that again makes this not the best bargain. I am hoping they might be a bit cheaper when they make their move from TRU (where I saw them) to Target. Either that or I may have to wait 'til there's a sale or clearance...


I like the pink coat. The picture shows overalls underneath - or maybe a white shirt? - but I think it's just the coat and pants in the package.


This one is not so much my speed. Better for actual kids I'm sure! ;)


This one is kind of strange, but for some reason it appeals to me a little bit... I remember being disappointed that one of these outfits was shorts instead of long pants, but I don't remember what it was. I think it was this set tho.


I'm thinking of these as PJs, but I am not sure if they are meant to be.

In other clothing news, this is also interesting. Liv is now selling their outfits as "multi-packs" so you get two outfits in one package.

This makes them just slightly cheaper than it would be to buy two indvidual outfits. It's not enough of a savings to make me really excited, but I did have a twinge of regret for buying the outfit with the UK flag on it - I wouldn't've minded getting that blue dress along with it, tho I am not really excited enough about the blue dress on its own to buy it. One thing I notice after the fact tho - only one pair of shoes. So if the shoes are important to you, that is a significant drawback of buying the multi-pack. (It's a little hard to read underneath, but these seem to be $16.99)

I also spotted a few new (or new to me) furniture type things.


The Liv bike is annoyingly pink, but if I painted it, I was thinking it might be kind of cute for my dolls...


This store window intrigues me. I am not sure what I could use it for off the top of my head, but I feel like it has some potential to be interesting for dioramas. I bet it would be cute for Christmas scenes. Still, I am not sure it is worth buying...

And speaking of Christmas, before I move away from the topic of Liv and Moxie, it looks like TRU already has the Christmas Moxies out.

These two are pretty, but my favorite is Lexa. I have actually had her saved on my Amazon wishlist since last year. I didn't expect them to release her again this year! Good thing I've never given in to temptation and bough her before now, because she's much cheaper this way. She looks a little bit more elaborate in the picture on Amazon, but then they all do. For an additional $10 tho, I really don't care that much. (These are $19.99 each on Amazon - tho there may be other listings that are cheaper? - but only $9.99 at TRU)

One thing I noticed at the store is that there were two versions of her. One with yellow earrings and green boots and one with red earrings and white boots.


I am thinking the 'original' was the white boots, since that matched my Amazon picture. So that's the one I bought. Here's a closeup of the green boots, since it's easier to see the white boots in the Amazon picture anyway.


I kind of thought the white boots were nicer anyway, tho I am not sure that was the right choice, since I rather like the idea of green boots too...
I wasn't even sure I should buy one of these, since they might go on sale nearer (or after) Christmas, but I figured after wanting one for a full year, I may as well just go ahead and pay the stupid $10 and not risk missing out on her if they sold out or something!

I saw the Moxies only at TRU, but Target had a new Christmas Barbie out when I was last there.

I am not sure how excited I am about her clothes, but if I didn't own so much re-ment, I might be pretty keen on getting her cute accessories! I like the cup of cocoa in particular.

The other thing I ended up buying in my last TRU trip is the Monster High "Dawn of the Dance" Clawdeen. I've been wanting her since I first saw preview pictures on flickr and she's been kind of elusive - it seems like the Monster High dolls sell out as fast as they come in. They didn't have her anywhere I'd been looking, until I saw her in the NYC TRU. I didn't feel like carting her around ComicCon tho, so I decided not to buy her there. So when I finally saw her the following week at the store near my house, I figured "what the heck" and bought her, even tho the $25 she was marked at seemed rather steep. Luckily I didn't open her yet tho, because like 2 days later (it's a miracle if I open anything the same day I buy it. Sometimes it goes several weeks. I don't like to open stuff until I figure out where I'm gonna put it... ^^;) I saw all the Dawn of the Dance dolls AND the newest Monster High guys and gals - Ghoulia Yelps and Holt Hyde - at Target for $15!!! Sooo... sorry originally bought TRU Clawdeen. You will be going back to the store. $10 is enough of a savings to trek back out to TRU for. I also bought Ghoulia Yelps while I was at it, because I had already mentally "spent" $30 anyway, may as well get an extra doll for my trouble!

I also noticed that Target has Barbie Basics stuff on sale, including the special Target accessory pack, which was $2 off. I decided to go ahead and buy that too. In for a penny, in for a pound. (plus my dolls always seem to need more red shoes anyway... I just hope these are not too small for pullips.)

I didn't photo Ghoulia yet, I figured I'd show her off Out of Box. Here's Holt tho:

I am not sure how I feel about him. I kinda like the Michael Jackson sort of outfit, and I'm glad there's another boy besides the snake dude, but somehow he doesn't do much for me. Then again, it's not like I'm really trying to own ALL of these dolls anyway.

I also saw a bunch of non-doll Monster High merchandise making its way into the stores. Aside from the notebooks and plushies, which don't interest me that much, here's some of the items I thought were more unique or noteable:


I really like the design of these, and how the bow and roses are made of zippers. If I were a more interesting dresser, I might just buy these because they are kind of cool!


They also had these hair extensions/barrettes that I'm sure I'd've loved as a kid.


Like the headbands, i actually think this bag is kind of cool on its own.

And then just a couple of random things. I saw only one of this Talking Bratz, and I don't know anything about it. But it's strange that she seems to be a bit bigger than usual?



Moving either further afield, I rather liked these little lip gloss dolls. They remind me a bit of Kokeshi.

This was my favorite of the ones I saw there. I almost bought her, but decided I'd be better off saving my $5.


Here's the package showing all of the available designs. They definitely didn't have them all there to.


I thought this penguin robot thing was sort of fascinating for some reason. I like that it has a 'baby' included. It's just sort of funny and cute.

'
I also liked the detail of the girl peeking in the window of the packaging!

One final thing before I close - I notice that FAO Schwarz is carrying a couple of Momokos on their website!! Is this totally unprecedented, or is it something that has happened before and I've just never noticed?

They only have two, but that's something!



I wonder if they have them in store, or if it's just the website? The price isn't that bad, I think, considering that the shipping is free...

Ok, that concludes this mega-edition blog post!