Hairdorables Hairdudables bff 2 pack series 2

Whew that title was a mouthful huh?

I haven't bought any of the basic season Hairdorables since series 2, blind bags piss me off too much, but the two packs generally speaking come with a confirmed "blind" boy and I LOVE boy dolls anyway.

Unfortunately, the UK is crap atm so toy stores aren't getting a lot on shelves, instead it's all being sold online and in assortments so you can't pick which damn girl you get. -_-

this makes me cranky.

I took a gamble that Amazon would AT LEAST send me two different ones if I ordered them at the same time and used the vouchers my dad gave me for christmas to buy two sets.


At around £28 these aren't exactly cheap but at least you get two dolls. Still, as with all blind bags, the hairdorables are cute but feel really overpriced.

Mini-Monk presents, Hairdorables Hairdudables series 2.

Amazon did indeed send me two different ones. Kat and Skylar.

I wanted Skylar because I assumed she came with Max, both having food accessories in their artwork.

Though I also foolishly assumed that Kat, having an animal theme and carrying a cat purse, might be paired with the animal loving boy, new character Asher.

He's the one with the blue and green striped afro and green eyes.

Unlike the previous series this set ONLY contains 4 pairs, so no duplicate boys this time.

Kat has the duck face pout they introduced in series er...3?

She's cute though. I really like her little jumpsuit.

inside the scene is a diner. Both had the same scene so I assume they're all the same.

Cute though these scenes are, they really don't feel like they add much. It's just MORE cardboard.
Honestly how small could this box be if they just packaged both of them side by side so you could see them both?

Blind boxes are really pissing me off more and more these days. I have to pay 10-20p for a fucking plastic bag to carry this in from the store but toy companies can still churn out this much waste on a regular basis?
I mean seriously?
I can't get a plastic goddamn straw but I can buy a doll packaged in a box three times its size and full of plastic baggies.

It's ludicrous.

(Side note: the series 4 hairdorables come in a fully plastic "reusable" clam shell box but let's be real, who the hell is gonna keep more than one or two of those?)

Anyway, here's the 8 dolls in this wave.

We have on the girl side Harmony with er.. some maraccas... Kat with a... cat... Neila with a tennis racket and Skylar with a fish... sundae... er..

Meanwhile the boys you have Asher, the new boy, with his parrot.
Greg with a camera.
Logan with a tennis racket (no prizes for guessing who HIS partner is)
and Max holding sushi.

This is the point I realised Kat probably did NOT come with Asher.

see, the names are underneath them and while most are pretty vuage, Harmony is "Jungle Jammin" while Asher is "Safari Searchin"

I'm... not totally sure how I feel about their first actually BLACK character being safari themed....

I do however like that he appears to be an animal lover. You don't see that enough with male characters.

Anyway,

My theory was that Skylar and Max must go together, both having food as an accessory. That Logan and Neila were a pair given they both have tennis rackets and as it appeared Asher and Harmony were a pair (How do they even go together? He's bird watching and she's making a lot of noise with maracas!) that left Kat with Greg, which again, felt like a random pairing as they had no thematic similarity. She's got a cat, he has a camera. Is he taking photos of her cat in a diner?

So confused.

The blind bag gimmick can bite me at this point. I'm tired of it so nowadays I just undo the tape at the top of the box and grab all the bits out lol.

It's way quicker and less messy.

We have 4 bags and 2 stand bases. At least they ditched the plastic trays, but still, these plastic bags are fucking wasteful.

Grump grump grump.

And I was right. Greg was in the box with Kat.

He's quite different to his previous dolls. His hair is in this sort of bowl cut that's a bit 60s mod lol. There's a rainbow streak in the front. His mismatched eyes are side glancing.

He wears a long sleeved tee with CMYB on it (printer cartridges, it took me way too long to figure that out omg! It's Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. Eugh, I feel dumb)

His pants are made of shiny fabric and aren't very attractive. I wish he'd gotten something that looked more like jeans. These look like pjs.

Greg seems to get the most variety in his dolls. I mean look at these three!

Greg 3's accessories include a pair of pink sneakers, a massively oversized yellow camera and a paint splattered hat. 

Kat is really cute. She has little pawprints on her cheek and a headband with a cat head on it. The headband doesn't really fit on her head due to the style of her updo though.

She wears a cute green jumpsuit thing and reddish sandles with er... coins... on them? I'm not totally sure.

She carries a cat... i think it's a cat... in a basket.

What do these two have in common? Damned if I know. Maybe he's there to take pet pics.

I mean the previous wave they all had a common theme. Gamer Greg came with gamer stuff for his hangout with Kali, the artsy Greg came with Sallee the other artist. You know, it made SENSE.

Kat's accessories are pretty decently painted but Greg's camera is a bit sloppily done.

I think Greg looks a lot cuter with his hat on though. It reduces the "bowl"-ness of his haircut lol.

Box two contains Max! As I expected.

I wanted this guy, his cute trenchcoat, giant glasses, crazy hair mad science vibe made me smile.

His jacket and shirt are one piece and made from wierd stiff shiny fabric like a lot of the hairdorables.
I  THINK the print on the top might be a piece of tofu with a face... er...

Max's accessories are a pair of dark red shoes, a plate of various japanese foods and a pair of huge green tinted glasses.

His hair is flocked at the back.

All three max dolls look in different directions, it cracks me up.

Skylar, the travel girl comes wearing what looks more like a cheerleading outfit to me but I think is supposed to be more like some sort of japanese themed look. I dunno.
Her backpack is heart shaped and doesn't open.

She has a bow on her cheek for some reason and comes with an ice cream sundae inexplicably in a fish shaped cup. Is this some thing i'm just not clued up on?

Her hair is really silky and lovely.

Cute lot. Though when you consider that this represents nearly £60, it's a bit painful.

I DO want Asher though. Damnit.
and given I only have a 1/4 chance of Amazon sending me that Harmony set, it's not looking great for that. Unless some stores get them on damn shelves, I might be SOL.

*sigh*

The dolls all came with a sticker of themselves and their little ID card. This wave doesn't have any info on those cards, just a picture and a name. The previous ones had interests and stuff on them.

I also wish the back of them formed an image of something but it doesn't, it's just a repeating pattern of the checks.
A little puzzle would have been cute.

Thing is, Hairdorables I do like. I think they're quite cute and pretty well made. Their clothing ranges in quality from pretty decent to "wtf is this shit?" but their hair is usually nice and soft and they are a good size to carry around and play with.
My middle child enjoys stealing them to play with so that's a good sign right?

I just really wish they'd stop the blind bag crap. As I say with every blind bag toy, i'm tired of it. I'm tired of the waste, i'm tired of the disappointment, i'm tired of the difficult to sell on duplicates.
I'd rather spend my money on a toy I could SEE and given the price of blind bags nowadays, not being able to see what you're getting is frankly disgusting.

Now the BFF 2 packs have the advantage that each visible girl comes with one specific boy so once you crack the code you can pick which ones you want. But being two packs there's always that big chance you only want ONE of the pair and it's a lot to fork out for just one doll.
It also raises the question, what the hell is the POINT of blind bagging it in the first place if the result is always the same?
If I know that Kat will ALWAYS come with Greg, why bother hiding him?
It's this artificial "surprise" aspect that really irritates me most of all because it's so POINTLESS. All it does is add bulk to a box and more plastic and cardboard shit to throw out. It makes it take even longer to get the toy out and ready to play with as well and honestly? the novelty of deboxing wears off FAST even for kids.

If it's not a surprise, don't pretend like it is. If it's got no reason to be hidden, don't fucking hide it!

I just.. argh.

the thing that really riles me up is that honestly? Hairdorables would SELL if they weren't blind boxed. Heck, they might even sell BETTER because parents wouldn't get annoyed with all the duplicates and wasted money and disappointed upset children.

"but Monk" I hear you scream. "You could just sell on the duplicates"
I could, but at a massive loss. Ebay prices for Hairdorables is insanely low. There's no demand for the common ones. You're just pissing money down the drain.

I can't wait for the blind bag trend to die already. It's massively outstayed its welcome and in an age of eco conciousness, it feels utterly tonedeaf to continue to promote such wasteful packaging.

Cut it out companies, Just cut it the hell out.