Monster High is BACK baby! - Draculaura

 Aww hell yeah, they're back! And this time effort was put in. 

Unlike the reboot which was honestly super phoned in, this "threeboot" or "g3" as people are calling it comes with a whole new animated series, a live action movie and a LOT of new dolls. Like seriously Mattel is pushing out so much at once to compete with MGA's "flood the market and overload the shelves" approach that it's sort of overwhelming. 

Of course, the UK still has no sign of these new dolls while the US has people excitedly heading off for doll hunts and I can't say i'm not super envious. I miss doll hunts. 

BUT Amazon ships to the UK. It's bloody expensive, but it's an option so I ordered in a few of the first wave of the Threeboot while I wait for the UK to even tell us IF we're getting the damn dolls any time in the next fucking 6 months. -_- 

I want to do these thoroughly, or as thoroughly as I can, so first up is Draculaura with Frankie and Cleo to follow in their own reviews. 

Strap in. This could be a long un. 

Naturalistas by Purpose toys and Just Play

 Every few years we get another line of Black dolls hitting the market and almost every single time they're US only (because obviously black people don't exist outside of America huh? -_- ) which makes them extremely difficult to get anywhere else in the world. 

They don't usually last very long unfortunately, trying to compete with the big hitters like Mattel and MGA is very very difficult. It is however always interesting to see a new small company make an attempt and as anyone who follows this blog knows, i'm very much of the opinion that black dolls MATTER and these attempts to give kids that choice and diversity is extremely important. 

And so, the Naturalistas are the latest attempt. They're created by a group called Purpose Toys who appear to be more of a group that brings creators together rather than their own manufacturer? I'm not totally sure. They themselves describe it as "a supportive community of Black founders" and claim "Purpose Toys partners with entrepreneurs, providing the infrastructure and resources necessary to succeed at retail."

It appears that for this doll line they partnered with Just Play for distribution which makes sense. Just Play are a moderately sized toy company best known to the doll community at least, of making the 24 inch tall Barbies and such. They don't seem to have many franchises all of their own so much as they do things for other companies and act as a distributing partner or something. I'm not totally sure how it works honestly. But if you look at their website they have a partnership with Disney, Mattel, multiple kids shows and youtube channels, Warner brothers, Nickelodeon... the list goes on. They're even currently holding the rights for Slinky and Shrinky Dinks as well as producing those Art Squad dolls (which sorry, i'm not gonna be reviewing. They freak me out.)

Anyway,

the Naturalistas are a line of 11 inch fashion dolls who's big gimmick (can you call it a gimmick?) is that they each have natural Black hair textures and styles. Their aim is to promote the beauty of natural hair, something that sadly is still policed and discriminated against in the western world. 

I'm afraid with lines like this it's impossible not to get into politics because there are inherent politics to their existance. It's sad that something like hair IS political in the first sodding place, but that's the crappy world we live in i'm afraid. As the Skunk Anansie song goes "yes it's fucking political, everything's political"

 

Update on the Monster High bundle

 So I figured people might like to know what I did with the huge bundle of monster high dolls and how much success I had with deglueing them. 

So settle in and let me show you. 

Another huge bundle of Monster High

 As any regular reader knows, big bundles of dolls are my biggest weakness. I just can't resist them. I LOVE the dang things. 

So when one of my fellow Sindy collectors on Facebook posted that she was looking to rehome her daughter's old Monster High collection I jumped at the chance to get my hands on a huge bundle of tlc dolls and parts. 

The bundle was £35 and included "at least 40 dolls plus playsets" which is an absolute bargain. The only catch was that it was collection only, because it was too much stuff to easily post. So after some back and forth we settled on a time and place and on Saturday I made the trek across London to Essex with a wheeled suitcase and a large backpack to pick these things up. 

For context, it's an hour and a half journey there and another hour and a half back.

I made a day of it. Took a book, had lunch just off Oxford Street, enjoyed some time just to myself. It was a pleasant trip and nice to meet another Sindy collector. 

It turns out that her daughter was big into MH but the dolls have been sitting under her bed for about 7 years now unplayed with. Now that the daughter has gone off the university it's time to clear things out. They're just cluttering up the house. 

 

A whole suitcase full of goodies!

My backpack had playset bits and stands and also included was the High School playset. 

So.. much... stuff. 

LOL OMG Fierce

 LOL OMG have been out for quite a while now and judging by the massive slowdown of releases, i'm going to go out on a limb and assume that the franchise is winding down at last. They had a great run, but doll lines only have a limited life span. 

Released in 2019, the OMG line was a spinoff of the blind ball LOL tots, and since 2019 they've spawned quite a few MORE spinoffs including the B-Tweens and JK, and now we have a whole new spinoff. The OMG Fierce dolls. 

Are these going to be the new direction OMG go in to refresh the brand or are they kinda like Moxie Teenz, just a random deluxe aside that ultimately fades into obscurity? 

Let's take a look shall we?

Cry Babies BFF by IMC

 Amazon IT was pretty awesome about Meena's issues and gave me some vouchers, which I promptly used to purchase a new doll line that had me curious. 

Spanish company IMC's foray into fashion dolls is a spinoff of their wildly popular baby dolls

Which are definitely NOT my cup of tea but seem to be quite loved by kids. 

IMC in fact don't have many brands, Crybabies and VIP pets are the big ones. As far as I can tell, they've never actually made fashion dolls before so the BFFs are very much new territory for them. 

They're listed at £21 on Amazon UK but not currently in stock. Amazon It lists them at 32 euros which puts them in line with MGA's and Mattel's lines pricewise. 

Anyway, let's get a look at this new doll shall we? 

Rainbow High series 4 - Meena Fleur

 The UK is still being slow as all shit to get any new stuff in but thankfully we have all the european Amazons who ship to the UK for £5-6 which is more than reasonable thank you very much. 

So with the UK still not having the Rainbow High slumber party or rock star lines, how long we'd have to wait for the core series 4 to hit was anyone's guess. 

As it turned out, Amazon Italy got them in stock for immediate dispatch and the cost ended up being the same as i'd pay within the UK even after taxes and shipping which is honestly pretty ridiculous. It really shouldn't cost me less to import something from nearly 2000 miles away than from within my own country, that's nuts! 

I ordered a few things from Amazon Italy in two separate transactions. First I ordered Rock Star Vanessa and she arrived within 3 days in an amazon box covered in customs forms and amazon stickers in Italian which makes sense right?

So then I ordered series 4 Meena and Daphne and that's where things get odd. 

It took 9 days for them to turn up and when they did they had no customs labels, no italian stickers, instead they came in an English box with a return address for Amazon's warehouse in SCOTLAND and Royal Mail labels. This suggests that this parcel came from within the UK and never once got on a place. 

So why on earth are Amazon Italy selling dolls from a warehouse in the UK while Amazon UK still have no listings for these dolls yet? 

It's so wierd! I'm so confused! 

Anyway, dolls are here so let's take a look at Meena first.