More about Makies

I admit it, i'm obsessed with these things ok?

in fact, it was only last month I reviewed my first three.
http://flyingpurplemonkfish.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/makies.html

Yes... FIRST three.
I say this because since then my little 3d printed family has expanded.

Yessss...

Tonner Sindy - Just Sindy

What's this? A mysterious white box.... with Sindy on it? Yes, dear old Sindy celebrated her 50th birthday in September 2013 and as part of the celebrations, Tonner annouced they were working on a line of collectable Sindy dolls based on the ever popular 1971 Trendy Girl. (one of the most collectable of the Sindy dolls, for some reason)

Tonner City Girls - Houston

So, City girls.

It's been a while since these were released so technically I suppose this is a "retro review" because it's a line that's a few years old now... but let's pretend like it's shiny and new and exciting or something.

So, the Tonner City Girls were released in 2012 by Tonner toys, a subdivision of Tonner dolls who deal with all the cheaper lines intended as gateway collector dolls.
Their early attempts were things like Maudline Macabre and the Little Miss Matched dolls with their strange troll faces, but the City Girls were the first to go for a more standard fashion doll sort of aesthetic while remaining within that "gateway" price point.

The dolls retailed at between $39:99 and $49:99 and were even sold in stores like toys r us. They attempted to fill a niche as a mid price point doll that slotted neatly between cheap playline and super eye-wateringly expensive collector.
It was a fair point, as this was a niche that hadn't really been looked at previously. The jump between the price of playline dolls and collector dolls can be a bit startling.

Anyway, I first saw the City Girls shortly after they were released and thought they were quite cute looking, but I couldn't justify the price of importing all the way from the USA. they weren't sold in overseas stores and Tonner's shipping is a bit painful. So I held off and waited... and waited...

Monster High - Haunted - Porter Geiss

New boy new boy new boy!

Ahem.

So, new season of toys means new characters for Monster high. And a new dvd special too. (well that's not out yet but yeah...)

Anyway, this season's dvd linked line is Haunted, a ghost themed line featuring 4 brand new ghost characters and ghost versions of several of the existing MH cast.
it's a bit gimmicky, much like Freaky Fusion was, but the ghost designs look pretty solid (get it? i'm sorry... I feel bad now)

Anyway, naturally we have one boy character/love interest/eye candy doll.
This time it's graffitti artist Porter Geiss, a poultergeist.

Now here in the UK the new stock hasn't hit yet, and likely won't hit till the new year (end of jan usually) which means a huge delay for us and an annoying drought in the toy aisle.
This happens every year.
However, Amazon.com do really reasonable international shipping so they're my "go to" place for dolls that won't be coming out for months.

I was honestly tempted to buy all the new characters, but this close to christmas I just couldn't justify it. I decided to grab Porter when I could because I knew he'd be a pain to find in stores.
Now, he may be like Neigthan and shipped one to every single case, making him crazy easy to find in any store that carries freaky fusion, or he may end up more like the other boys where he's shipped in some cases but not others. I don't trust Mattel so I bit the bullet and ordered Porter from the US.
It means I don't have the stress of trying to find him when the Haunted range hits the UK, which is a great relief.

So let's get to this review malarky.

Makies

Makies are, for those uninitiated, 3d printed dolls you design.

The basic idea is that you toddle on over to the website ( www.mymakie.com) and click "make a makie"

From here you open the makie maker, which resembles one of those avatar creators you'd get for an MMORPG or Create a Sim.

You pick an gender and skin tone, then move on to outfit, wig and eyes.

TY Li'l ones

TY girls, I remember TY Girlz. Back when Moxie Teenz were still in stores someone realised they could fit into TY Girlz clothing, so i'm sure there was a random surge in sales of those strange plushie fashion dolls.

The TY Girlz (Who the hell decided a Z was edgy and cool?) were a line of  14 inch tall plush dolls with removable fashions (but sewn on shoes... kinda defeating the point but there ya go). They had rooted brushable hair, stitched on eyes and no noses.

They had internal wires so they could be posed, but honestly these things kinda freaked me out and I thought they were super ugly.

However, they did have some nice clothes. And at the time Moxie Teenz came out, TY Girlz were hitting the clearance bargain bins. A couple of quid for a full outfit seemed a good deal to me, and so a lot of these things came home with me.

(For the record, the shirts fit Moxie Teenz pretty well but Teenz have narrower waists, meaning a lot of pants and skirts are a bit loose. Nothing some alterations couldn't fix i'm sure though, and given the crappy selection of Moxie outfits, these tops were a great help. The shirts also fit, albeit baggily on barbie sized dolls.)

Anyway,

for some reason TY decided to move away from creepy plushie fashion rag dolls and instead turn these characters into small plastic toddler dolls, similar to Barbie's little sister Chelsea.

These are the TY Li'l ones.

I love VIP Pets - Nyla

A little change of pace, as usually I only really review dolls.
But the VIP pets have been out a while and their faces keep attracting my attention in stores.

however, their full retail price of between £7:99 and £9:99 I think is a bit too much, so i've passed on them on multiple occassions thinking "what would I do with one anyway?"

For those who have no clue what i'm on about, the VIP pets are a line of giant headed dog figures produced by a company called IMC toys (who i've never heard of.) A look online reveals they're the company behind a lot of licensed "random tat", like the Monster High walkie talkies, the Barbie branded toy guitars and electronic diaries. Pens, watches, musical lockers, board games... basically all that "non doll" branded junk that finds it's way into TK Maxx on a regular basis.

Now the VIP pets are marketed as "hair play" toys, which explains the giant head and rooted hair.
I've never been one for hair play I have to admit, I couldn't even plait till I was in my 20s! I'm flat out useless with hair, it's just not my "thing". So the hair element of these dogs really isn't what attracted me.
Instead, it was the vibrant colours and their kinda cute faces.

They all use the same mould, but come in a wide variety of colours and styles. Some more fantastical than others (there's a purple one, a pink one but most of them are actually sort of beige.)

Each doll has a character and a mini bio that gives them some personality.
there's the party girl, the writer, the photographer, the pop star... and so on.
Some are uh.. more interesting than others.

So, wandering around the shops on Saturday we popped into the Entertainer and I happened to spot two of these toys on the shelf, marked down to £5 each.
With only two to chose from, my selection was pretty limited but for £5 I decided to take the plunge.
I picked out Nyla, the brown haired, brown skinned/furred dog with the funky beads.

Look at that adorable smiley doggy face!