Another random roundup.

April came and went and the two things I was saving for never materialised. Bummer.

Maybe next month.

I don't like Limited releases because they mess up my budgeting. I can't like, put them back on the wishlist because I have to get them WHEN they're released or never get them, which is highly stressful when there's other stuff tempting you and you've got limited funds.
Oh wouldn't it be nice to have unlimited cash?

Anyway,

I didn't go without this month anyway. I bought a few small bits here and there, and opened a few things I had laying about at long last too. So here's a random assortment of STUFF. Whoo?

Charity roundup - Voodoo bears, art bears, Descendants 2 and more

I'm supposed to be saving up for two things this month, but I managed to sell some stuff and very little keeps me away from charity shops. I'm addicted.

So here's the secondhand stuff i've bought in the past 3 or 4 weeks.

Hasbro Equestria Girls reboot - Applejack

I had an appointment at the dental hospital last week (I think I mentioned this in a previous review) and so I went to Smyths for the first time ever.
It was an.. experience.

Our nearest Smyths from home is like nearly 2 hours away so it's not exactly somewhere I can go to realistically, but I was in central london anyway so what was another 40 minutes to Greenwich?

Our local supermarket hasn't got new toys in for a while so this was the first time i'd seen the new Equestria Girls in person, and I had my pick of a whole case or two.

What was curious about the assortment was that while they had a good dozen or more on the shelf, they were mostly Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and a couple of Rainbow Dash. They had Two Applejacks and ONE Rarity. Wth?
Sunset shimmer seems to be the one easier to find and I admit, I was tempted by her. she looks cool but I decided to go with Applejack because I have a small collection of Applejacks (for some reason) and she was one of the scarcer ones.
Even Amazon when they listed these up didnt' included Applejack at first. Wth?

Since this trip i have seen her in stores a few times though, so i'm not really sure how the case assortments are shipping. They seem to be pretty random.

Charity finds - I'm probably now cursed

This is a short one,

but yeah, i'm probably now actually cursed.

Monster High - Monster Family - Wolf family

So when I elected to boycott Mattel I knew there would be a few things they released that I wanted, but would feel horribly dirty about buying at full price or indeed at retail in general.
So I made a deal with myself.
If I really wanted something, as in, after a few months I still really wanted it and it wasn't a passing whim, and if I had vouchers, a big sale was on or better yet, i found it secondhand on ebay etc, then I could just about manage to break my boycott and not feel too bad about it.

And so for months i've been sitting, waiting for the price of the Monster Family dolls to drop but they never bloody do.
They sit at full price, mocking me with their overpricedness. Bah.(seriously £25 for 2 static bodied dolls is a bloody joke)

That was until last week.

I stumbled upon an ebay listing for the Wolf family 3 pack, a set I ONLY wanted one doll out of and couldn't justify getting for just one dang doll. But it was a kinda squished up box and listed at half retail or thereabouts.
So I bought it.
Hey, the money already went to Mattel so it's not like i'm giving them my money, i'm giving a nice ebay seller my money instead.
Least that's how I rationalize it.

However, having purchased this I felt even more like I really SHOULD get Pawla, who i'd been watching the price of for months and months and cursing her refusal to drop below £9 on amazon.
Meanwhile everywhere else sold out or removed her listings and as reboot Monster High isn't sold in stores over here (tru had some but tru's gone bust and all closing down so yeah... no new monster high for the UK) i knew if I didn't get her on amazon i'd probably miss my chance completely. And it'd drive me INSANE to have Barker but not Pawla.

Thankfully I had a wad of Amazon vouchers i'd gained from doing bugger all on Swagbucks (shameless referral link)
I love Swagbucks, it's basically free money, seriously. You CAN do surveys if you want, or watch ads, or do any of the other stuff on their site but all I do is have their search engine as my default one and every so often a random search will give me points. Doing this (which involves literally zero effort once you've set it up) means I can get a £5 Amazon voucher about every 3 months, and that is SWEEEEET.
So I had a pile of vouchers I hadn't used for anything and were just burning a hole in my pocket...

I also noticed the price of the Forces of Destiny Endor Leia had dropped to £15, which is a much better price than the £50 they were asking originally (seriously who decides these RRPs? they need a kick in the crotch seriously. It's ridiculous)

So with my wad o vouchers I got Leia and Pawla for a much more palatable £5, and I can argue that the fiver was for Leia and Pawla was basically free if I need to HAH.

so yeah, I didn't pay much for these sets, but I had been eyeing them up for months and months and trying to talk myself out of it.

Anyway, let's dig in shall we?

Why i'm broke

After Christmas I had a lot of money, which went... fast due to my poor impulse control.

After finally putting in my order for Impldoll back in October, I also put in an order for 2 Resinsoul dolls in December (just after christmas).
I joked that they'd all turn up at once but... well, that's kinda exactly what happened.

On top of that, I also was gifted another doll by an extremely generous lady.

So well, let's start at the beginning shall we?

Tesco Sindy

Surprise review this one.

Now, in 2016 when Pedigree announced a relaunch of the Sindy franchise, everyone was of course a bit excited. For a lot of people well... older than me, Sindy is a huge part of their childhood and the nostelgia was strong.
Sadly, what materialised on shelves was not... at all... what anyone anticipated.

Instead of an 11 inch fashion doll, heck, instead of a fashion doll at all what we got were glassy eyed 18 inch American Girl wannabes.

She was exclusive to Tesco and being produced under license not by Pedigree themselves but by a company called Cititoy. Who incidentally, produce the "My Life As A" line of 18 inch dolls.
The Sindy 18 inch dolls are VERY similar to the My Life As range, even down to the dead eyed stare I often find so repellent in dolls of this style.

Now don't get me wrong, I understand why some people like 18 inch little girl dolls, but i've never been into this style of doll at all. I've always found them a little too like a porcelain doll for my tastes (which is kinda ironic given I collect bjds but for whatever reason they don't spook me out as much)