Sindy 2021 - Fashion Blogger

 The first black sindy made for the UK market! 

that's pretty special isn't it?

Now i'm gonna admit, i'm still salty that the teased black collector sindy never got made but at least the playline version made it to production. 

Back in the late 70s Sindy finally made it to the USA, distributed by Marx toys. They didn't last long but the few dolls they did make included Gayle, a dark skinned Sindy on an active/ballerina body. Later they also released a standard bodied dark skinned sindy under the name of "black sindy" as well. 

Neither were released in the UK and weren't made in great numbers in the US either which makes Gayle and her basic bodied sister very very hard to find. They tend to sell for well over £200 at this point which is frankly INSANE for a playline doll imo. And a lot of us doll collectors could never justify such a price. 

So naturally, Fashion Blogger is the one that keeps selling out online. Lol. 

Anyway,

since I picked up my two girls Argos has been struggling to keep stock in. I mean I take that as a good sign, it means the dolls are selling, but given how many are showing up on Ebay for inflated prices i'm not totally sure it's not just artificial scarcity caused by a combination of scalpers and the import issues the UK is suffering.

*sigh*

anyway,

Fashion Blogger has been out of stock since I picked mine up. Dang. 

The rest keep popping in and out of stock, looks like everywhere is literally getting ONE in stock at a time. 

Apparently there's better stock availability up north. That's wierdly often the case. London seems to really suck for getting new toys. 

Go figure. 

Fashion Blogger is one of the three "budget" dolls for this line. She's £20 and comes in a slim card box. 

Each of the boxes is designed to become a store front, much like how horse rider's stuff became a stable. 

Though I honestly do think it's a stretch to call this a "playset" lol. 

The back of each of the boxes has a little inspirational quote. A bit "live, laugh..." whatever for me but I suppose it's a positive message for kids. Certainly a better message than the usual commercial "buy more shit!" message most kids toys have. 

 I didn't notice with Riding Sindy but the litlte card sleeve that goes around the box has a cute little message on it under the barcode. It reads: "when you buy from a small business, an actual person does A LITTLE HAPPY DANCE." lol. That's funny. 

They also carry the Lion mark for toy safety and the 0-3 sad onions sign (lol, husband always refers to it as the sad onion. Makes me laugh) 

Like Horse Riding Sindy, the box is only held down with a few circle stickers. They're quite difficult to peel, I use scissors. Then the box just opens like a book and you can lift the plastic tray out. 

Sindy isn't held in with anything, nor are her accessories, so she's a breeze to just take out and immediately play with. I approve hugely of this.

She also has her craft cutouts that make up her "playset."

In the case of Fashion Blogger hers include a little sign for her store, a counter and some paperdoll cutouts.

I'm not 100% sure about the cardboard clothing. The sign and counter both would work fine but the paper cutout clothing feels a bit silly to me. Still, YMMV on that. 

I'll probably use the various bits that came with my Rainbow High dolls if I want to give her a shop. I have SO MANY rainbow high coat hangers lol. 

I'm sure kids will enjoy putting some of this stuff together though. Particularly the furniture pieces. It makes me think of the success of Youtube channels like Froggy Stuff who makes a lot out of card stock. It could be quite neat for KK to have a few more little printables you could make more out of. little boxes for example, or bags for your purchases. Heheh. 

Sindy herself comes with a few little accessories. A backpack, a laptop and a magazine. 

Like Horse Rider, the magazine features 6 pages detailing each doll in the range, a page showing the not yet released outfits and then some activities. 

The activities are much the same, just themed differently. There's a wordsearch, a quiz, some info on hair care and two colouring/drawing activities. 

It's cute.

Her laptop is a simple little thing but perfectly servicable. It's hollow at the back but it does fold and looks the part.

It also fits inside the backpack which is absolutely delightful. I always love when bags are functional.

The bag itself is made of soft squishy plastic with a molded bow on the front, little molded decorative pockets on each side and two straps. 

It's a nicely molded piece and it fits the doll pretty well provided she wears it like a backpack properly rather than trying to sling it over one shoulder like so many of us do lol.

Sindy is a similar skin tone to Bratz Sasha, not the darkest brown but certain unambiguously so. 

Her lips are a fairly bright pink that's a touch darker than photographs suggest. Her eyes are brown and her hair is wonderfully curly. 

Her hair is styled with a center parting and held in place with a purple headband made of what feels like thick t-shirt material. It doesn't appear to be tabbed to her head in any way, which is nice. 

Her hair is quite soft, particularly considering how curly it is and the care instructions suggest you finger comb it rather than brushing it which is good advice.

Her outfit is surprisingly detailed. She wears a thin jacket made of some sort of foil fabric that shimmers in the light, a pale purple tee that reads "sindy, since 1963" which I adore the idea behind, a purple double layered net tutu and thick black and silver leggings. 

Each piece is seperate and well constructed. The tee I would argue could benefit from better placement of the logo because I feel like it sits a little low on the doll when it's worn and distorts wierdly. Her tutu could have also maybe done with slightly neater stitching at the top as it's quite visible but i'm not sure how else you could do a skirt like this without that visible stitching. 

Her jacket feels very fragile due to the fabric it's made of, it's very very soft, very very thin material but it's so damn beautiful in the light and it's sewn extremely nicely. I just have to hope the material doesn't age poorly like plether does. 

Her leggings are really thick and shot with silver thread, they're a breeze to get on and off thanks to the doll's hard plastic legs and jointed ankles and are a great piece for various mix and match ideas. 

Her shoes are little purple sneakers/trainers and they have properly detailed soles which I always love to see. They fit the doll perfectly and are very very soft, making them quite easy to get on and off.

Now you could argue it's quite a childish outfit for a doll that's supposed to be an adult, but I think that's part of the charm honestly. This is a doll aimed at young children who don't care about nor think about adult fashion but want something they think looks cool or pretty. 

And tutus are FUN damnit. 

It's also a very sort of "safe" outfit in the sense that it's very innocent and sweet, which will appeal to parents and makes the doll feel very approachable and a little more timeless.

I also very much appreciate that it's mostly purple with black and silver. It looks great against the doll's dark complexion and also, i really like the colour purple so... you know. 

New Sindy is reminding more more and more of Lottie, though i've discovered this is actually not a coincidence at all as the lead designer also worked on the launch of Lottie. 

So that's cool. 

I really like Fashion Blogger. not just her hair and complexion but I quite like her outfit too. I wish her shirt had slightly better logo placement but I think it's a very cool idea for a shirt (Can I have one in adult sizing please?) reminicient of Barbie's "1959" logos and references. Her leggings are great, I love a good pair of doll leggings and her jacket is gorgeous to look at. It's not something i'd ever wear but I love moving the doll around to watch the silver shimmer and sparkle all rainbowy. <_< Am I just really easily amused? lol. 

Also clearly the designer and I share some sort of wavelength because this is how I elected to dress my BMR Barbie.... 

Lol. 

Tutu skirts are awesome okay? 

for £20 i'm very pleased with my new Sindy. As usual, Kid Kreations make lovely clothes for a very reasonable price and the presentation is quite attractive and once you cut through those stickers, pretty easy to get into as well. 

I would like if they do a second wave for them to improve the articulation in the arms and legs a little. Just engineer some little cutouts so they can pull a full 90degree angle for better poseability and sitting. 

The KK girls are a teensy bit slimmer than the vintage sindy dolls in the arms and chest, which means while they can wear vintage sindy stuff (and a fair bit of modern barbie stuff too) it can be a little big and their own outfits won't always fit the vintage dolls so well. They fit Creatable world stuff very well and SOME rainbow high stuff (jackets/coats mostly but they can manage some of the bottoms too) 

I'm fighting the urge to order the rest now. <_< 

I want a couple more (the pet one and ballerina one) but I gotta be good and wait till I have money and space. Ahem.