New at Toys R Us (plus some Black Friday rambling)

Yikes! The holidays (and the vacation that goes with them) always seem like they will provide plentiful free time to catch up with all my online pursuits... and then they never do. >.< But Thanksgiving here in the States (just in case I have any international readers... ;) is always a big deal in terms of shopping. So *of course* I went shopping, and so *of course* there are some pictures. I just have not had time to get them posted - wah! I've been working on getting this post done all week, that's how sad it is. Anyhow, enough with the intro, on with the post.

Most (or all, I think) of these photos come from Toys R Us. I am a little disappointed I did not get over there ON 'Black Friday', but I spent too much time and money elsewhere. So most of these photos were right before that, when the stores were probably stocking up for sales.

One thing I noted was these new (?) Bratz. They may not actually be new, but I hadn't seen them before.



I liked their hair. It may be hard to see in my photos - thru a box and in a store is not optimal for good closeups - but they have rather nifty streaky hair.


Bratz brunette


Bratz blonde


Bratz black

I also noticed that Justin Bieber or whatever his name has joined Taylor Swift in having fashion dolls with his name on them.



His fashion sense seems disappointingly bland tho...

Now I don't really have a strong opinion on this kid either way, but I have to admit, I got a bit annoyed when I saw this:



Ok, no. Just no. Stay away from 'Say Anything' junior!

Sigh.

Back to Ms. Barbie, there's some new Rocawear that I spotted:





Not the best picture, but I really like this girl. The pink underneath shirt doesn't look so fabulous, but the skirt and the fuzzy pink jacket are really fun! I actually rather like the doll herself too.

I think there were four designs again. I wanted a picture of the back of the box because that showed them all, but I was in NY and running out of memory card space (and energy) at that point. You can sort of get an overview just looking on Amazon tho. Are there two skin colors for some of the dolls? That's how it looks on Amazon, but I don't think I have seen both in stores...?

The big Toys R Us in Times Square always has some of the expensive collectors' Barbies on display, tho there weren't that many this time. I don't know if there's not much new in that department, or if its just that TRU hasn't stocked up, but here's the couple I felt like I hadn't seen before in person:


Barbie Stunning in the Spotlight


Palm Beach Barbie

I'm fairly 'meh' about both, tho the crazy outfit on Palm Beach is pretty great!

I'm not clear on whether they actually keep releasing these 'Swappin' Styles Fashionista' Barbies one and two at a time, or if it's just that they released them all at once but they go out of stock so fast I've not yet managed to see the whole lineup in stores (I suspect the latter), but this one seemed new to me:



And that's it for dolls in this post. The second half will be Sanrio!

TRU had a second set of 50th Anniversary mini plushies. I guess this is the 'expansion kit' for the first version!



Although, of course, that first version is just the characters, whereas this version is Kitty dressed as the other characters. So in that way, it's something else altogether, and maybe is more like the mini version of the latest round of the individually sold small plushies. You may remember those from my last 'shopping roundup' post. I thought I had gotten a photo of all the new ones, but I was confused about which ones came out when. I was corrected by a helpful commenter, and found the one I was *actually* missing a photo of in NY.

So, here's Hangyodon:



I don't think this character was ever very popular in the US? I don't feel very familiar with him, at any rate (is it really wrong to say he sorta reminds me of the 3-eyed fish from the Simpsons?). It's strange, because he was the *only* plushie from this series at the NY TRU - and the only one I can never find at Target. I can see him being a 'leftover' at TRU if they sold all the others they originally had in stock, but I wonder if Target managed to just never order any? You would think that the manufacturer would sell them only as a set, but then again, if you are Target, I suspect you have a lot of negotiating room to make demands about breaking apart sets. If he's hard to find, maybe I should've bought him for resale, but I'm lazy and more prone to hoarding then reselling for fun and profit. ^^;

I also saw this 50th Anniversary bag...



...it's really similar to the one I saw at Target, so similar I thought it might be the same, but on comparison, nope! In addition to the zipper and the design, I think the material was also different. The target one was more of a simple satiny cloth tote, while the TRU one was made of something heavier and seemed to be trying harder to be a 'real' bag.

Other 50th Anniversary merch included this great big eraser set:


I can't seem to get too interested in erasers, but if you do like erasers, this is pretty darn awesome.

Randomly, there was also this new (?) suitcase. Too small for an adult, but perfect for a kid!



I also spied these Hello Kitty games at Borders. I am not much of a game player, but if I were, I would totally want the Monopoly game!



Lastly, I just saw this Domo for the very first time last week - but I think he was meant for Halloween!!



In case you can't tell, he's supposed to be a werewolf. *tsk tsk* Domo-kun!! What have you been up to that you have arrived so late?! ;P

Also while doing my Thanksgiving shopping, I spotted this cardboard dollhouse in the JoAnn Fabric flyer and had to go take a look at it in person.



I think it might work for smaller dolls, and it's probably pretty sturdy - but it's not like it would take up less space than a regular dollhouse, and I don't think it folds back up or anything... (which would make it *really* useful for me!) I think if I had the space I'd still rather have a 'nice' dollhouse, but if you were looking for something low-cost you could customize, this might be pretty cool. It was on sale for 30% off, but I don't know what good that does when you can almost always get 40% off coupons in their flyers. So if you are interested, clip that coupon and hope your store carries it!

And then, finally, some links to articles. I am somewhat surprised to have been reading that the lalaloopsy dolls (formerly Bitty Buttons) are some of the 'hot toys' of the season. That explains why I can't find any of them now!! Apparently the blue-haired girl is the most popular and is almost impossible to find. She's the one I liked best too, so I was amused to discover this! Maybe I'll be able to find her after Christmas then. (I don't mind waiting, I wouldn't want to get one and have some little girl not!!)

And just as a btw random story - I guess Video Barbie has been declared a threat by some. Not that this isn't something to take seriously, but I gotta say, this seems a bit silly...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!, originally uploaded by esmereldes.

I think someone is a little nervous about the turkey... ~.^

Hello Kitty Trading Cards

Well, I went for a bit of a walk today because I have been sick and I felt like it was about time to get back to some exercise. As so often happens, however, I don't find walking all that entertaining - esp. in the dark (stupid winter!) - so I walked into harvard square and that quickly led to shopping. Only minor damage here:



All the Christmas food is so tempting! I could've bought sooooo much more... But this is not a food blog, it's a toy blog. So let's get to the point here - those little Hello Kitty packages at the bottom of the picture. These are new 'trading cards' that go with a game. The game is pretty simple and doesn't sound like it would be any fun for an adult, but the cards are so cute! I miss buying anime cards, so this is kinda nice. Plus at $3 a pack, it's a pretty cheap Hello Kitty fix. AND you get a little figure in each pack!



There's 8 possible figures available, you can see them all on the package insert:



I was trying to guess which one I might get by feel, because the figure is just stuck in the foil, it's not impossible to guess. But I kept feeling a circle on all of them, and I was thinking they were somehow ALL the one with the hat! So I picked the one with the least obvious circle. It turns out that the circle was *not* the hat, most likely - it was the *stand*! Ohhh.... Anyway, it all worked out because I got England and I like that one.



As you can see from the first photo, my foil card was also from England. But it doesn't seem like the foil card and the figure are tied together always, as that didn't happen in my second set.



It's a little hard to tell from the photo, but the foil card in that set is for Kenya.

The figure is from... Ireland? I guess?

To me, this one is sort of a 'blank' - I feel like she is just a 'regular' Kitty instead of one in a regional costume, but maybe the four-leaf clover means Ireland? Oh well, it's cute, so I don't care that much either way! XD

The back of the cards have stickers and trivia questions about the country on the front:

(these are the cards from the first set)

You also get a Hello Kitty 'passport'

(these are the cards from the second set)

and some sort of cardboard 'pog' type things. So to play the game, you flip the carboard coins which gives you a turn or whatever (I only skimmed the instructions) and you try to collect the stickers onto your 'passport' by answering the trivia questions. Cute, but definitely not my idea of fun. ;P

The insert also shows you the 'deluxe set' which comes with a card case and a pocketbook type thing.


I can live without the purse, but I am coveting that little notebook! Mini anything is a must have! XD

The figures, btw, are *really* tiny! They are small enough to be Pinky toys!

Christmas at Target

Well, normally I might complain about it being kind of early for Christmas, or about the fact that they were moving the Halloween stuff OUT and the Christmas stuff IN the day BEFORE Halloween, but I've been sick and overworked for the better part of a month and I'm already feeling the need for some Christmas Cheer. So let's grab a peppermint mocha and check out the early Christmas selections!

(and in case you are NOT ready to think about Christmas, maybe you would rather read these articles about how stores decide the timing of when to start their Christmas marketing? Of course the funniest thing about the first article is that it is saying how Target is starting their Christmas marketing "later" when the stores are full of Christmas stuff, and have Christmas ornament decorations hanging from the ceiling. The second article clarifies - they don't mean the store, just the ads! XD)







This one is bigger and seems to be made of a slightly more fragile (ceramic? glass?) material...


I didn't see any mini ornaments, which is a bit disappointing. I guess I can't add anything to my tree this year. But that's probably ok - my tree is pretty full! I didn't see any hello kitty stockings yet either. Tho again, I'm fixed for that anyway. I just like to see new designs!

Then, in addition to ornaments, there are, of course, the toys...

First, new Sanrio Town (do these have an official name?) buildings.

I bought the "Holiday Home" one, because I thought it was the cuter of the two, tho of course both are adorable!

There was a comb and mirror set as well (kind of random?) but I didnt get a picture of that. And then the last thing I saw (of hello kitty - there were some cute MLP and LPS stuff too) that I HAD to get a picture of (and it wasn't easy! They were restocking! XD) was these cute Kitty plushies.



At $7.99, I thought they were kind of expensive for their size. But on the plus side, they are actually really nice quality. Very soft and nicely put together...

In addition to the Christmas ornaments, a few more 'Kitty in costume' plushies appeared. This is more of the theme of Kitty dressed as other Sanrio characters.


I am not a big fan of the pig character - in fact, I don't really know his name - but Kitty looks pretty cute dressed up this way!


I like this one too, even tho he is also a character I'm not so familiar with. I think his name is Purin?


Chococat is a little funny looking!


I thought the fourth one is Pochacco, so I took his picture, but I realize from looking at my old picture that he was already out. So I guess the new one was Tuxedo Sam, who I thought was already out. I will have to get a picture of the Tuxedo Sam costume next time then. Pochacco used to be one of my favorite characters tho actually. And Kitty looks pretty cute dressed up as him too!
I am not sure, however, if I want to buy any more of these. I have so many stuffed animals now... ^^;

I also have to show a picture of this cute nightshirt, even tho it is for kids. Isn't it an adorable design?


Transitioning back to Christmas, here's some non-Sanrio stuff.

I always am on the lookout for ornaments that could make good doll accessories. These aren't as cute as re-ment or anything, but they are pretty amusing. I am not sure why you would want them as ornaments tho! XD



I notice its a big year for owls this year at Target. I'm not surprised, they do seem trendy lately. So here's a few owl ornaments I noticed:




(These are somewhat see-thru, so they were a bit hard to photograph)

There were also some owl-themed gift wrapping options too (well, bows and gift bags)



These are gift TAGS, not BAGS. But I think there also were bags...
I didn't really like this owl design all that well, but since it's an owl, it's still cute! ;P

I think nesting dolls are somewhat trendy lately too. These don't actually 'nest', but clearly that is the style they are meant to be in.


Target also has a LOT of cute Penguins, but I didn't get to photograph many of them. But here's one I did photograph, along with the other cute "astronaut" snow globes. I feel like I don't need such a bulky decoration, but these are really too cute to pass up. I think I will have to buy one - as soon as I can decide which one I like best anyway!


(maybe the bear?)

Here's another style of penguin:



(these two are probably my least favorite... Sorry guys! ^^;)

Also, jumping back to the 'stocking stuffers', I forgot I had this picture of the Barbie Mini Bs. (I still miss the holiday Kellys!!!)

I like that the case for them is an ornament (it's a little bit hard to tell that from the photo, but they are ornaments) but overall, I don't like these as well as the Halloween ones. I was fine with passing those up at the time, but somehow now that the christmas ones are not as cute, i find I'm sorry I didn't buy the halloween ones! ^^; (ah, the psychology of consumerism...)

And speaking of Barbie, I'll just randomly squash in my sighting of some new Barbie clothes:


That blue dress says "I love tokyo". I kind of want this set for that one dress, but I gotta tell you, that middle outfit is the ugliest thing I've seen in a while!! It's actually shorts, and it's got this weird high waist/corset thing going on. Ugh.


This one is nicer overall, but it doesn't have any items that really grab me. The pink 'tweed' kind of material reminds me of previous sets. It would, therefore, be easy to coordinate with things I already have, but like I said... I just don't find any of it that exciting.


I DID really like this dress... but I get sick of buying entire dolls just to snag the clothing. Sigh.

I also couldn't resist taking a peek at this Barbie coloring book, because I've been wondering what the story was supposed to be with those odd Barbie fairy type dolls.



I always knew Ken was a schmuck!! ;P
(it's not really him. One of her frenemies was pranking her. Actually, I am not sure who this girl pranking her is supposed to be. She's the 'bad guy' of the story, but I don't know if it explained how she got Ken's phone to send the text message..)