"She Said Yes!" Campaign

To coincide with Valentine's Day, and with Ken's 50th birthday, Mattel has been running a whole campaign revolving around Ken and Barbie getting back together. Still not being particularly 'in the know' about Barbie, despite my doll habits and my toy store lurking, I had no idea that Ken and Barbie were still split up. I remember when they 'broke up', because it made the news all over the place, and it seemed so silly. This predates my doll collecting (I'm pretty sure?), so at the time I was thinking "who takes the lovelife of dolls that seriously?" (little did I know... XD) - but also because you can't split up Ken and Barbie. They're like chocolate and peanut butter or something. Then she was dating Blaine, apparently - and maybe briefly? I remember that name floated around, but I can't recall ever really seeing (or at least noticing) a Blaine doll in the stores... It sounds like during this period Ken was out of production as a toy, but then Ken 'made his comeback' and was supposedly cooler than before (really?). However, despite his awesome new image, he and Barbie were 'just friends'. I guess I misinterpreted his comeback and thought they'd gotten back together. Anyway, clearly I wasn't paying attention, so here's Mattel's press release explaining the matter. That's gotta be a better explanation than I can manage! This other article is also good for background. It talks about how Ken is also making his comeback because of the success of Toy Story 3. It also says that he sports a Bieber-style hairdo to do it, but I'm not sure I see that... Anyway, apparently Ken has been 'tweeting' and has a facebook page and all that, but of course I know nothing about that either, since I live in the digital dark ages aside from this blog and my flickr account... But I approve of this effort to give Ken more of a personality. I hope that results in better clothes and fewer swim trunks!

He's also been trying to win Barbie over with messages of love around NYC (and any other cities? Do Ken and Barbie live in NY?)



In addition to the twittering and the press releases and the billboards, of course there's merch!



This was the selection at Target a few weeks ago. I thought it was 'just' valentine's stuff and wasn't very interested in it, but now I realize it was highly collectible Barbie and Ken relationship rekindling paraphernalia. If I'd realized I coulda made some $$ on ebay!!



Esp. for that tote/shopping bag. Apparently it got pulled off the shelves because people were offended by it. Or at least that is what the 'word on the streets' is, I don't know if there's anything 'official' saying this? I was certainly not offended by it, but I found it more weird than amusing, so I didn't buy it.

On Valentine's Day (which nicely - for the purposes of Mattel - corresponds to Toy Fair in NYC and is probably the real reason Ken posted all his billboards in NY), there were a bunch of events around NYC ending the 'drama' about whether Barbie would take Ken back.



Of course, as you can see from the flyer, "she said yes!". Was there any real suspense? Even for those of you who, unlike me, actually knew this was going on? XD



Here's the list of events that were going on. Some of them seem kind of fun! Hopefully you can squint and read them well enough because I'm too lazy to retype out a list of events that none of us can go to because they already happened.

The only thing I made it to myself was cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery. There was a line out the door and around the block at the bakery, but I am not sure if this was because of Ken cupcakes, or because of valentine's day, or because it's always that mobbed at Magnolia Bakery... Cupcakes can definitely draw a crowd on their own, and Magnolia Bakery is really good! They do more than cupcakes, btw, since I know cupcake-only places are all the rage these days. I recommend their banana pudding and banana cake... (Why yes, I do like banana flavored desserts. Why do you ask?) Anyway, I was in line and didn't get any of my own photos, so I'll link you to my friends photos of the line and the store. (and kids, they also have a kiosk/store in Grand Central's food court, so you can get your banana cake on your way to the train! I know I do... ;P)

Here's Magnolia showing off its Ken and Barbie trappings...


And its Valentine's Day decorations




And its delicious cakes and cupcakes...





And then, finally, the Barbie cupcakes!





The will she/won't she suspense ended with a commemorative "she said yes" giftset, which was available for $5 on Valentine's Day.


Do you see any Bieber-ness here, btw?



As you can see from the back of the box, the swimsuits are to commemorate the original release of Ken, but it doesn't give me much hope that Ken is going to graduate from the swim trunks into better outfits... ;P

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In other Barbie news, Mattel introduced a bunch of stuff at Toy Fair, but I don't have any pictures of any of that, so I recommend you check out Mawphoto.com's photos on flickr. Biggest news: Tokidoki Barbie!

Valentine's Day

Ridiculous amounts of snow are still curtailing my trips to Connecticut (which tends to mean few or no trips to Toys R Us) and sapping my desire to go to Target, so I don't have as many new 'shopping' photos as I might otherwise, but I think I have enough to do a Valentine's Day update.

I think I have managed only one trip to TRU since the beginning of the year... Maybe two, tops. But here's a couple of things I found...

First up, two Hello Kitty plushies. You know they never do the small size Hello Kitty plushies in any fashion other than a series, but I was only able to find one of each type. I'm sure there must have been more...

There was this cute plaid peppermint scented one...


(I believe she did smell like peppermint, but not strongly)

...and this orange cupcake one:



I considered buying the peppermint one because I did like the plaid pattern, but I'm over my limit of plushies, so I'm only allowing myself to buy them now if they are really special. The cupcake reminded me of the one they had at target a few years back, and since I managed to resist her then, I could still resist her now...

I was MUCH more tempted by this Hello Kitty pillow that also stores a fleece blanket...


The pillow is nothing special, but the blanket is so cute!! I like the Sherlock Kitty very much, but I ultimately (after much waffling) passed on it because I felt like the fleece was very thin and probably not the greatest quality. Or maybe that's just what I told myself to get out of the store without spending money. The fleece really was thin tho...

I am not quite sure I understand how these next things work...



...but anything crafty and Kitty is a winning combo!

That was all I found that was new in the world of Hello Kitty at TRU, but I notice Target is already warming up for Spring by stocking up their 'summer lawn/pool toys' aisle (Spring still feels like a fictional concept to me tho!)

I thought this first thing was just some bubbles and cut sunglasses...



...but looking at the picture I notice that the sticker underneath the glasses says "3D glasses". So maybe it is so you can see your bubbles in 3D? But... is it just me, or does that not really make sense? I mean, the bubbles are in real life, not on a screen, so by definition they are already 3D. I don't understand.... @_@

There was also a more comprehensible bubble machine:



Is it just me or does she look like the Terrance and Philip puppets from South Park? ;P (I still think it is a 1000 times cuter than anything on South Park tho! XD)

Target also (of course) has all their valentine's stuff out. Since I've not been hitting all my usual Targets, or even getting to Target as often as usual, I think it's very possible I've missed stuff, but here's what I've found so far.

You can't have Valentine's Day without Chocolate, so this year there are Hello Kitty chocolates.



Very cute! And at $2.99 totally reasonably priced. I didn't get any, however, because I am waaaaaay oversupplied with chocolate at the moment.

They also had these Hello Kitty sticker rolls:



These are *extremely* similar to the ones they had last year, but if my squinting and flipping back and forth between one picture and the other is correct, they are not the same after all.

And then, of course, it wouldn't be a Target holiday aisle these days without a holiday theme Hello Kitty mini plush, and this year is no exception.



Once again, however, I think I liked last year's version better. :/
(I wish I had gotten that red Kitty after all - tho if I did, it could be lost somewhere in my room at the moment and I probably wouldn't even know. This is why I'm making valiant efforts to pass up on plushies - I can't keep them all on display and once you put a plushie away, it's like not even having it really. Still if they were gonna remake stuff, I wish they'd remade that one too!)

Then there are the valentine's day cards and stickers. I bought the sticker sheet for valentine's day, but I'm not quite sure what I did with it, so no pictures of that yet. The cards are cute.





I like lenticular stuff, so I bought them even tho, again, they did something like this last year. (Last year they had a pack with pencils too, I wonder if they have those this year and I just didn't see them? At another store I saw ones with magnets, but I didn't get a picture). I need to start resisting the valentine's cards too, since the ones from last year are just hanging out in my room (actually they aren't even put anywhere in particular, and are just In The Way) so they are a stupid purchase even tho they are cheap at 2.99. But... lenticular! ^^; I love lenticular even more than glitter and sparkle!

That's all for Hello Kitty. But some big news for this year is that Target finally brought back the holiday costume Kellys!



There's a redheaded one that is missing from this picture (I saw her later) who is actually my favorite, but you otherwise get the idea. Now if I'm going to quibble, I will note that her outfit is actually kind of boring, and at $5.99 she's no steal, but I am still happy enough that they have her again instead of just the mini b's that I will keep my mouth shut... :P

That finishes up Valentine's Day, but while I'm on the topic of Barbie, I have a couple of new Barbie items to post pictures of.

One is this Barbie themed after the Sydney (australia) Opera House.



I guess she is probably part of the architecture series that included Big Ben and the Statue of Liberty earlier, but then again, I feel like this take on architecture is different from those, so maybe they are not meant to be part of the same grouping, despite them all being based on buildings.

Here's a better look at her face:



Then, moving in a completely different direction, there was some new 'fairy' style Barbies - these are clearly aimed at the kids, but I kind of like these fantasy Barbies because they are sort of different and unique.



Note the glittery plastic legs. Kind of weird. The glitter idea was previously used in those "fashion fairytale" dolls, but this time it is Barbie herself who gets the glitter skin.



Then there were the 'little' dolls with seahorses. I feel like they are either part of the same series as the Barbies - tho I think wings and seahorses don't really go together, and I don't see the same sort of package design, so probably not really. I am not sure what name these dolls go by... they look a little more 'pretty' than Kelly, and more like the S.I.S. little sisters. But I don't remember if they had a character name of their own like Kelly does. I'm sure they must, I just don't know what it is.



I don't think the tails come off, but I wouldn't swear to it.



I'm sure that between the streaked hair and the glittery 'horses', these would've been irresistible to me when I was a kid (even tho I didn't like Barbie!).



Esp. this blue one, I really like her.



Lending some support to my idea that there's probably a Barbie to go with these 'Kelly' mermaids, we have this 'mermaid' Ken. As usual, Ken is boring and wearing a swimsuit. I have no idea what makes this Ken particular to the "mermaid's tale" storyline, since Ken is wearing a swimsuit more than half the time anyway! I swear, I picture him attending all of Barbie's functions dressed totally inappropriately. "Ken, I thought we were going out to dinner! Why are you wearing that swimsuit?" (stupid Ken! My Taeyangs want clothes!)



That's all I've got for Barbie, but here's some other random photos...

This was in the wrong aisle, as it was over by the Hello Kitty stuff, but look how cute! I had to get a photo.



You can't see well in the photo but the zipper has a cheese wedge pull. So cute! I wonder if there were other animals in this cute style?

I missed this Applejack farm playset when I was talking about MLP recently:



Look at the kitty in the wheelbarrow! I want to buy this set just for that kitty!

I did mention that there was a new set of costumes for the Disney Fairies (the Tinkerbell and friends) but I don't think I had a picture. So here's a snap of a couple of them:



I like this version better than the previous ones, tho it's very very similar. Like the Power Rangers or something, the fairies are 'color coded', so I guess they can't change up the costume design too much...

Lastly, look at all the Bitty Buttons dolls!!! This is the most I've ever seen together!! o_o Still no Spots tho. Boo.



That's all for now!!