Na! Na! Na! Surprise by MGA

MGA released more blind bags at the end of last year, because of course they did. Blind bags are "the in thing" and damn companies are gonna milk that cash cow till it collapses from exhaustion.

Now, anyone who reads my blog knows i'm really DONE with blind bags at this point and the price of them has become absolutely ridiculous anyway.

The newest offering from MGA is no exception,it's expensive as shit for tiny little dolls and comes with a pointless and messy gimmick.

At £22 each (yes, twenty two pounds) I just flat out couldn't justify buying any of these new. However I came across someone selling a few secondhand for half that and thought "why not?"

I'll pay a tenner for curiosity sake.

Amazon stock image should give a good idea of the packaging.

these come in big pink er... bag things... I think they're supposed to be like a balloon or something because they come with a straw that you blow on and it pops and confetti comes out and your parents go "WHY!???" and curse MGA yet again.

You can see people popping these things on youtube, it's every bit as "whatever" as you'd expect.

Honestly you'd get a similar effect just hurling a load of paper scraps into the air.

Anyway, mine came deboxed already so I didn't have to endure the pointless gimmick.

One nice thing MGA have done with this line though is actually label them so you know which doll you're getting. They have a little symbol that matches to a character. Diamond, Heart... you get the idea.

though it raises the question WHY NOT JUST NOT HAVE THEM BLIND FUCKING BAGGED!??

I mean, if they're gonna bother putting a code on the front, why not just have the character who's inside pictured on the front?

Why bother pretending it's a blind bag at all?

It's fucking stupid.

Anyway, let's get into this nonsense shall we?

So once you pop that balloon thing and clean up the mess, inside is a plush purse thing in the shape of an animal head.

They are VERY cute.

Inside that is a plastic clamshell containing the doll.

But here's the thing, the doll is BIGGER than the purse so they come SQUISHED up in a really uncomfortable manner and once you get them out and throw out that plastic shit they will NOT go back into the purse comfortably.

So what's the point of the purse thing? If the doll can't fit into it what purpose does it serve?

I mean yes they're cute, but they're also completely unlined and feel like they won't really stand up to being used as an actual purse or bag. The fur fabric is VERY thin and the seams look delicate. Honestly I was concerned i'd tear it trying to ram the doll back into it.

So what are you supposed to do with them? The dolls only come with one outfit and no accessories so there's nothing to put IN the purse.

I don't understand.

The two dolls I got were the gothy punky girl Minna Moody (Is that Min na or a mispelling of Mina?) and CJ Cuddles, the boy. She's got a black sheep bag and hat (cute) and he has a tiger.

The dolls are plush over what feels like a plastic skeleton. The body and head have something inside them to hold the shape which is squishy but too firm to be stuffing. The arms and legs are just stuffed and unwired so they don't bend and hold.

Their clothing is all separate pieces and they come with plastic slip on shoes.

Their hair isn't rooted, it's wefts sewn to the inner edge of their hats which are then sewn to their heads. So sadly you can't easily remove their hats or their hair to do any swapping.

That could have been fun.

Their faces are printed onto the fabric, as are their undergarments and socks.

All the dolls in the first wave seem to have the same pink coloured skin except the bear girl who's slightly tanned. Series 2 is out now too and looks like they're ALL pink.

Which is honestly a little disappointing for MGA who are usually pretty good at including at least one token black character.

I guess it was cheaper to buy bulk lots of pink fabric huh? 

Each doll comes with an "ear tag", you know, those tags TY Beanie Babies had? It's sewn to the ear of their hat and lists the character name, their birthday and has a quote.

Minna didn't have hers, it had been removed.

They also have a MASSIVE label sewn onto their hat which extends down to their freaking knees. It's SO BIG and unneccisary.

Minna's had already been cut off and honestly i'm tempted to do the same with CJ's because it's ridiculous and it gets in the way.

They come with printed on undergarments which are er... interesting?

CJ wears a pair of red and white briefs with "stripes" written along the waistband. He also has a pair of white socks with green and red stripes on them. He has a tiger on his butt.

I don't really understand the nose bandaid, I mean, why would you put a bandaid there? It's a wierd cartoonish trope I see a lot on dolls and I flat out don't understand it.

Minna has somewhat more printed clothing and it's er... rather... confusing.

I mean given the shape of these dolls and how small they are i'd have expected them to be children. Certainly CJ's nose bandaid gives the impression of "young, active child falling and hurting themselves" and the animal hats are pretty cutsie so it's wierd that she's wearing a lacey bra, fishnets and panties.

It even has a drawn on clasp at the back.

And I mean, I kinda appreciate that attention to detail but at the same time i'm not sure i'm that comfortable with a doll that looks so childlike wearing adult lingere. I suppose I should just be thankful she's not wearing a thong.

But still, she doesn't even have any boobs, why is she wearing a bra!?

Anyway,

the boy and girl bodies are slightly different. The girl has a narrower chest and a more pear shaped torso while the boy has wider shoulders.

They have articulation at the hips, shoulders and neck which is honestly quite impressive for a small plush figure. The joints move smoothly and feel pretty robust. Much like old fashioned style teddy bear armature.

They can NOT sit down though. This is as far as their legs will actually move, meaning they can't actually sit and their legs just keep splaying more and more and more till they're basically doing this awkward semi splits pose.

It's an odd choice.

The arms move up and down just fine but the legs rotate on an angle and thus splay outward.

Size-wise these two are about 8 inches tall, so yeah, they aren't big dolls.

they can stand on their own in their clunky plastic shoes though, which i love.

The pair came with some other clothes from other dolls in the line, which gave me a few pieces to play around with.

The sleeves of CJ's top are too long for the girl body but it looks like they can fit one another's clothing for the most part.

This red... thing is supposed to be a dress. On the OMG doll it's rather baggy

While on the Barbie body it fits decently at the top but is baggy at the bottom as it's a dress not a top and Barbie is waaaaay too tall to wear it as anything other than a top.

The shorts are also far too baggy in the waist.

Minna's default outfit looks great on the OMG but it doesn't really fit. The shorts are too loose and the top is baggy as all heck.

While on Barbie or Sindy sized bodies the top is sinfully short and can't even be classed as a top and the shorts are still too baggy. They might work with some thick leggings underneath.

The bear sweater is also supposed to be a dress but it fits as a sweater quite nicely on the barbie/sindy sized dolls.

So the answer is... finding clothing that'll fit the Na na na surprise dolls could be a challenge. They're proportioned unlike any fashion doll with a very wide bottom and narrow but sort of squared upper. They have no bust at all to speak of and quite chunky limbs.

They also have very small but also very square feet so their shoes are like little cubes.

You're also limited by the printed on undergarments as the printed on stockings/tights/leggings/socks will always be there regardless of what you dress the doll in.

still, it'd be nice to get fashion packs as otherwise what's the point of the clothing being removable?

All in all, they're cute dolls, but i'm not convinced they're worth £22 each. I mean that's ridiculous.

Their clothing is fairly well made, about on par with anything else MGA produce. Minna's shirt tied around her waist is just a piece of fabric but it does the trick at this scale.

Everything is decently constructed and the denim is actually thin fashion denim rather than shitty printed on white cotton like Mattel like to do these days.

So you know, I appreciate that.

Their hair/hat combo works well enough but it is a bit of a bummer you can't remove the hat. I think it'd add to the playability if you could take the damn things off you know? mix and match em.

Minna's hair wefts shed a LOT and her hair is way too long for the doll, she's 8 inches tall and her hair is closer to 9 inches long. WHY? just... just WHY? It's not like it's hair play quality hair ffs.

It gets messy easily and when you brush it a lot of it comes out which is concerning.

I think it's nylon but i'm not sure. It's shiny and soft but has a certain plasticky sensation to it and it looks like it'll frizz and tangle easily.

The construction of these dolls is very interesting and part of me would LOVE to skin one and see how they're put together but at the price, i'm not about to start unpicking seams to sate some idle curiosity.

They're actually very heavy for plush, far heavier than you'd expect something this size to be. They have real heft to them which I find surprising.

but at the same time they're really too small to be a decent plush and the fabric will be a pain in the arse to clean. You can't just throw them into a washing machine when they have nylon fibre hair, printed on details that may run and what feels like a plastic interior.

They really are gonna be surface clean only and given how easily fabric absorbs stains, I wouldn't really call these a great plan for a kid with sticky fingers. I'm honestly not sure how well these will stand the test of time.

for those curious, the label says they contain: polyvinyl chloride (pvc to normal people), acrolonitrile butadiene styrene (abs which is a really commonly used plastic) and thermoplastic vulcanizates (which is a sort of... rubbery thermoplastic?)

So there's definitely plastic inside of these things. Wierdly nothing says what the outside fabric is made of. Wierd.

They are cute little dolls and a nice size for play but at the same time, i'm not sure why they're fabric when something easier to wipe down and clean would have been more practical. Fashion fabric dolls have seldom done that well, probably because they get so filthy so quick and are way harder to just disinfect and be done with.

And you can't really argue it's more eco friendly when the things contain plastic anyway and come in plastic shells inside a mylar balloon thing. I suspect the fabric is synthetic anyway.

They aren't cuddly, they're kinda hard and pointy.

So why are they plush?

I don't really get the design process here.

Or the price point.

Sorry but what the hell MGA? Do they just pick a random number out of a hat to decide the price for toys?

Because it sure as heck feels like it.

I do like this pair and there's a black cat from wave 2 I think is pretty cute but at the price, yeah... no.

not worth it.

I'm happy to have paid £10 for each of my two. Honestly about £15 would be more than fair and get rid of the stupid as shit wasteful gimmick packaging ffs.

their retail price is ridiculous price gouging. Which to be fair, is pretty typical of mga. They've always been prone to pricing their products way too high.

But I am SO tired of overpriced "blind" bagged shit with messy pointless gimmicks that just add more waste to the whole situation.

I really am just so so tired of it.

Can we please go back to selling toys on their merit as a toy rather than for youtube deboxing videos?