Ebay and other finds.

 The UK has some major supply chain issues right now, which means not a lot of new stock and what new stock there IS is either really overpriced or keeps selling out. Amazon particularly seems to be really struggling to keep their dolls in stock and it's starting to get a bit irritating honestly. 

As it stands, there's several lines the US has gotten that we're yet to see here. We haven't gotten the Rainbow High rockstars, or the slumber party dolls. We haven't gotten ANY Mermaid High which is now on wave 2 in the USA! We've not gotten Barbie Rewind either. And it's not clear if we WILL get any of these or if they're gonna end up missing us entirely.

I'd order stuff from amazon us but the rainbow high dolls are both store exclusives from stores who don't do international shipping and what Amazon DOES have is rather screwed over by the extremely high shipping and customs fees i'd have to pay on top. 

And so it means that right now i've been back to my ol' mainstay, shopping for older stuff on Ebay and various marketplaces. 

Which in itself has been slim pickings because everyone else is doing the same so prices are going up and up and up! 

bah.

BAH I SAY.

Still, got some fun stuff recently so let's take a look. 

Big ol bundle of bjds

 now this is a different one. 

See, i've mentioned before how big job lots of dolls are a weakness for me right? Especially tlc job lots. but usually that means playline dolls, cheap old toys that are only like ten to twenty quid for the lot.

Buuuut... well... 

I stumbled upon someone in the UK selling a big lot of Dollmore bjds for a really good price. She'd inherited them and wanted them to just go together for simplicities sake, which isn't an easy ask when selling high ticket items like bjds. I mean even selling ONE bjd can take forever.  As a result that "quick sale" ended up taking several months to happen. 

So along I came all "oo dolls?" 

And I fell in love with one of the sculpts which I then learned was discontinued. So then I was like "WANT!"

I also had been eyeing one of the other sculpts  for a while because she was dang adorable. 

Anyway, 

It took weeks to organise. 5 msd sized dolls aren't a simple thing to package up and post and the seller had just had a baby which of course meant she was exhausted and distracted and I didn't want to nag her because damn, let the poor thing sleep when she can! Babies are hard work. 

But we eventually worked stuff out and I arranged a courier for her to collect. She was very nice and packaged them up beautifully for me. 

And after weeks of discussion and planning, suddenly I had a courier going to pick up these dolls and a lump sum to send to the seller and it all stopped being an "if" but "it's happening" and panic set in. 

"Did I really just spend that much money in one go?" I thought.

But you know... YOLO or whatever. 

Barbie Empress of the Aliens - A long overdue Patreon review

 I'll be honest here, this is WAY beyond overdue. I'm so sorry. 

The truth is, every time I thought about doing this review I got kinda overwhelmed. This is a gold label doll, one of only 4800 in existance and she's worth a fair chunk of change so a combination of "do I dare open this" and "Someone SENT THIS TO ME!?? I'm not worthy!" kicked in and paralysed me. 

But i'm forcing myself to get over it and do this. Deep breaths okay? Deep deep breaths. 

Here we go.

LOL OMG World Travel - Sunset

 

LOL OMG are a line that just keeps on sucking me in. I can't help it. Despite their basic cartoonish face, they have such a variety of hair styles, makeup and interesting outfits that I cannot resist them. 

Barbie Looks Model #2

 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. 

Rainbow High - Emi Vanda

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.

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.