Chabel by Feber - Spain's own Licca Chan

 

 

One thing I really love about doll collecting is learning about other country's BIG doll lines, the ones that had a large impact on people's childhoods and yet never broke any other markets. 

 Chabel is one such doll. 

If you're a Spanish Millennial then you probably know her, otherwise, let me tell you a little from what i've managed to glean from my research. 

Chabel was a doll line released in 1983 by a company called Feber (who still exist as a subsidiary of Famosa now). Inspired by Japanese anime and manga which was becoming popular in the country at the time, the story goes that a deal was struck with Takara to use Licca Chan's likeness. However I can't find any confirmation that this is for sure what happened. But there's definite heavy inspiration from Licca if nothing else. 

 Chabel was by the sounds of it, a very successful brand. She had fashion packs, accessories and playsets and even stationary and shoes for kids. But her reign was short lived. In 1993 Feber stopped producing dolls completely, and Chabel was retired. It's unclear what happened, as their 1991 turnover was great, but soon after financial issues arose and the company pivoted to what they still produce today, outdoor toys and playhouses. They were acquired by Famosa in 2006 and exist now rather like MGA's Little Tykes or Mattel's Fischer Price. They in fact seem to make very similar products to Little Tykes, lots of little ride on car things and playhouses and slides. 

 Anyway, in the 8 years of her existence, Chabel stood her ground against foreign dolls like Barbie and was well remembered enough to get a reproduction doll produced by Famosa and Giochi Preziosi in 2024. 

Today i'm going to be looking at a vintage 1989-90 Chabel, and the 2024 reproduction doll. And let's see how she compares with Japan's own Licca Chan. 

While it's still Pride month - Monster High Valentine and Spelldon

 I've had these guys for a few weeks now, i've just been too exhausted to debox anything and then a massive heatwave hit which further killed my energy. 

But I wanted to get this out before the end of the month so here we go! 

if i'm a bit erratic please understand it's like 35C right now in the UK and we're struggling. 

Let's goooo

 

Dress to Impress - another roblox doll

 I reviewed the last Roblox fashion doll a while back and found her marshmallow head very amusing, and I have to admit, I didn't really think they'd try again with that but here we are. 

Another company, another roblox doll. 

and just like the previous ones this one is from a very popular game on the platform and comes with digital codes for wearable stuff. 

I don't play roblox, I don't know much about it beyond what my kids have told me and these dress up games aren't their thing so they aren't much help there. 

But Dress to Impress seems to be some sort of fashion game where you earn coins or something to dress up your avatar. I don't really know but whatever, we're here for the dolls not the video game.

I grabbed this pack half price secondhand because the person only wanted the code and I don't want the code, so it worked out great. 

if you don't care about the code, you can get a lot of these dolls pretty cheap on vinted and ebay. 

Let's get into this

Monster High g3 Robecca Steam

 A little interlude to finally review this doll that i've had sitting here for months. 

I just haven't had the energy.

and the photos reflect that. I'm sorry they're a bit shit, I was and still am in the middle of a fatigue episode and getting up to do stuff is difficult, but I wanted to debox her to cheer myself up and still wanted to review her. 

 so here we go

The Haul - part 2 - oh so many clothes.... tlc bundles and assorted dolls

 I have been trying not to buy too many dolls lately (which is in itself extremely difficult and i'm not doing great, at all. You could in fact say that i'm failing miserably.) but I have been scratching that itch by buying doll clothes. 

You see, I have a goal. I am trying to obtain an example of every Sindy outfit made during the Pedigree years (1963-1986) and it's an interesting project. 

what I have found the most surprising, is how common some outfits are vs others and which eras are so much more represented. The very early 60s stuff is quite easy to find while the late 60s stuff tends to be a lot rarer and I can't quite figure out why that is. 

Anyway, this means buying big bundles for a handful of pieces to complete sets or get new bits I didn't already have. It means buying tlc lots to repair. it means a lot of doll clothes to identify and enjoy.

And inevitably, I end up with non Sindy stuff that I like enough to keep for other dolls. 

So let's get into this!

The haul part 1 - Bratz, Wild Hearts Crew and Monster High

So, flush with Christmas money and kinda in that post holiday season come down, what better way to get a little shot of happiness than by splurging on some small plastic people?

Also, sales. There's a lot of sales.... January sales, Easter sales.... all the damn sales. And some pretty nice ones for once. 

So, I did a thing. Well... several things. From multiple places. 

Amazon US

Amazon JP

Amazon UK

Very

Ebay

Vinted

Aliexpress

I.... might have gone a little mad. 

but in my defense, SALES! 

so let's take a look at all the things I splurged on and feel kinda a little bit like I need to justify shall we?

This won't be quite as in depth as some of my individual reviews but i'll try to be detailed without this ending up too long. I intend to split this into a few posts too. Just for you know... my sanity. 

So here's part one! 

Barbie You Create kits 2026

 I can't think of much preamble here. 

Last year (?) Mattel released their "You Create" kits and dolls, the idea being that they came with a new neck knob that made it easier to take the head off and swap things around. 

the first set came with three heads, three bodies and three wigs for ultimate customisability, however while the wigs were "okay", wigs at Barbie scale always suffer from looking a little bulky on those tiny heads and the price point was pretty steep (£92 + postage). Couple that with no apparently mainstream store release and being only available via Mattel's own online shopfront, they weren't exactly easily obtainable. 

So 2026 brings us their second wave, where they've changed things up quite a bit.

Gone are the wigs, we have fully rooted heads now. But sadly also gone are the extra bodies. Each kit comes with three heads but only one body, which is I suppose a brilliant way for Mattel to sell more bodies... but of course they don't just sell bodies, you gotta buy a whole extra doll because of course you do.

This time not only are these cheaper (still a rather steep £64.99) they're also available via mainstream retailers like Amazon. 

And as I was flush with amazon vouchers from christmas... and the kits briefly dropped to a little over £50 each... I splurged and bought a couple to check out.