This is a very very belated review. I bought this girl back in September!?? but then I got distracted and didn't open her. So she's sat on my desk for months, making me feel bad.
well she's open now!
Honestly i'm a little behind in reviews so i'm going to try to write up a few to queue. I've been really distractable lately. Sorry about that.
Anyway,
Barbie Looks is an interesting line from Mattel. So let's get a look at it.
Okay yes, I know, it's been months. The end of the year is chaotic for me and this year it was just a mess. I had no motivation to do doll stuff.
But i'm back now, i'm actually alive and all that.
And i've FINALLY gotten a hold of Rainbow High Emi Vanda.
Why has it taken me so long? Well 1: I'm cheap so I didn't want to buy all of the wave 3 ones I wanted at once (because it's ouch expensive) and 2: She kept going out of stock.
Let's get into this.
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.
It's SINDY TIME!
lol.
no seriously, I woke up at 8:30 this morning to the news on facebook that Sindy had finally hit Argos. Everyone in the Sindy group lost their collective shit, it was glorious. We might have broken Argos for a bit, and risked breaking Facebook again (hahahahah)
Anyway,
let's start from the begining shall we?
Back in 2020 Kid Kreations released their collector line Sindy dolls, a collection of 6 dolls inspired by the vintage dolls but redesigned for the modern era.
At a whopping £79:99 they were pretty pricey and a bit prohibitive, but I ended up with all of them anyway thanks to a few sales and some lucky ebay sales.
You can find my review of some of them here
Now I was quite pleased to see Sindy back, but the price point was a bit painful and the loss of the Dog Walker Sindy (the black one) left me pretty salty.
But come 2021 KK annouced, a little out of the blue "oh hey, we're doing a playline range, here they are."
Available only through Sainsburys supermarkets and Argos, the exact release date for the 6 new playline dolls is a bit uncertain. Hence the excitement to have two of them suddenly appear available to order from Argos this morning.
So I treked to Argos and picked up Fashion Blogger and Horse Rider.
Let's do this thing!
So this is an unusual one.
In my random ebay scrolling I came across a listing for a doll i'd never seen before, new in box.
It peaked my curiosity and was pretty inexpensive so I picked her up.
I always find new dolls lines interesting, especially when they're from toy companies you've never heard of.
it's interesting to see what fresh new stuff might hit the market.
Glo Up girls are made by a company named Farout Toys, who prior to this have been mostly known for Love, Diana and Ryan's World blind bag toys and a couple of gimmicky kids board games.
From what I can establish, they're a pretty new company and tiny.
So it was a bold move to try a fashion doll when the market is so saturated with those and big hitters like MGA and Mattel are looming large over that whole aisle.
It was also bold to opt for a higher price point product. At £25 the Glo up girls are NOT a cheap alternative. They're only £5 less than a Rainbow High or LOL OMG doll and more expensive than a LOT of Barbie's offerings.
so are they worth the price and are they worth the shelf space?
She's finally here!
And she was bloody expensive.
At £60 this is a pricey set, but I took the plunge because well, I have poor impulse control okay?
