I have bought a lot of dolls in this past week. I bought several Ken Fashionistas first. I don't normally buy as many dolls all at once, but it seems that these kens are being phased out, at least locally, and some are harder to find at stores. So I bought the rest of the ones that I wanted before they were not in stores and only available at higher prices online, on ebay, etc. I did have to order one already via amazon, at 1.5x the price I would have paid at somewhere like Walmart, where they sell (here where I live) for 7.94. I paid 12.10 for him. He's the one I wanted most. He is Ken Fashionistas Hyped Stripes Doll, with the Slim build. I will show him first. I have not yet taken any photos of him or any other recent dolls just yet, so just stock photos for now.
I love his shoes, I did not see them until I received him today. I tend to not look at dolls online for very long because I typically like but do not buy them, as there are others higher on my list. I usually only buy one or two dolls a month, I do my best to limit myself. At the rate I buy dolls, many of those that I like but choose my monthly one or two over get pushed back down on the list, due to my liking another doll more at the time, and sometimes are not available in the stores by the time they reach the top of my list again. This is what happened with Ken Fashionistas Hyped Stripes. I did not check all of the stores in my city before buying him, just 3 or 4, but I felt paying an extra 4 dollars (with free shipping) was an acceptable price bump over spending time going to different stores and checking. I could have checked online for their availability, some sites offer this, but that feature is sometimes not accurate, as the item may have sold before the website could update, or perhaps the store has the item but the item itself is not in the precise area it should be, and thus the employee is unable to locate it. This has happened to me a few times with dolls and other items.
Recently, I have had the opportunity to buy 2 dolls that I have considered buying for a while. These are the Sorcha collector's Barbie as well as a Silkstone Barbie. They were available at my local Tuesday Morning store at decently discounted prices. I chose not to purchase either, however. Sorcha doll is on a ModelMuse body with articulated arms, but her legs do not bend at the knee. I do not like dolls that are partially articulated; it does not make sense to me to not have the whole doll articulated or non-articulated. I have featured a doll before, the Harley Davidson Barbie from the Harley Davidson Ken and Barbie set, and she was articulated only at the knee, with both arms straight out. This annoyed me, especially as Harley Davidson Ken had full-body articulation. I did not buy the set to obtain her specifically, however, (rather I bought it for the Ken) so it was a mild annoyance only, though I would have loved her had she been fully articulated. I suppose I could buy Sorcha and combine the Harley Davidson Barbie with her, giving me one fully articulated body and one non-articulated body, but I do not have the expertise to modify the Barbie bodies with any confidence. I apologise if I am rambling on, I tend to do so when I have had too much tea, and I certainly had too much tea today. The second doll I declined was the African American Silkstone in a blue jacket and skirt outfit, I do not know the name offhand. This is one of the newly articulated Silkstone dolls, which I have lukewarm feelings about - I love articulated bodies, but the Silkstone doll is much nicer, and just does not look good with the articulation, it cheapens the look. That is not the reason I declined, however. I did not like the quality of the material, and the stitching was very wide, as in not spaced closely with wide gaps, and unattractive. The clothing looked very cheap and almost home-made. For what is supposed to be a higher-quality doll, I was not impressed. I know many collectors of the higher-quality collector Barbies have been very unsatisfied with the quality of the dolls that have been released, it seems that Mattel consistently lowers the quality of the nicer dolls as time goes on. I see this myself, but I love the fashionistas line, I am very impressed with the wide array of individuality. I love the diverse faces, skin tones, and features, and almost every single doll's fashions have interested me. I have been unable to buy as many as I wish, as I would really rather not have a huge number of dolls. But I have bought several that I couldn't help myself from liking. I wish I could say that this trend carried over to Mattel's other brand, Monster High, as well as Ever After High. I believe Mattel has phased out Ever After and no longer makes them, and it seems that Mattel is phasing out Monster High, as well. I am thoroughly unhappy with this, as I adored Monster High and Ever After High. Now it seems that the only Monster High dolls you can buy are the cheap, ugly ones that have the shoes molded on to the legs, no articulation, and the shirts/tops are only molded on as well, with the cheapest and plainest skirts being the only fabric on the doll. They have softened the faces, as well, which I am ambivalent about, as I understand change is typically required to ensure continued customer interest. I don't mind them, but I am saddened by the loss of what Monster High was before. I loved the highly-detailed outfits. I especially dislike losing the Ever After High line, as I had only just discovered their existence shortly before Ever After started disappearing from the shelves. In fact, one of the Ever After dolls is one of the dolls that I have purchased this week. I discovered the existence of the character Mira Shards only 2 days ago, and loved what I saw. She was in the 'darker' character lineup like Raven Queen, my favorite Ever After character. I immediately went to ebay and discovered only one of them, and bought it. Here is her stock photo:
I have not followed the Monster High film collection, so I don't know anything about the characters themselves outside of what they have on their boxes. It seems that there is only one edition of Mira Shards available, from the 'Dragon Games' theme. From what I have read, there is only one appearance of Mira Shards in the Monster High storyline. It's a shame, as there are lots of fashion possibilities for this character.
I understand that nothing is forever, but I thought that Monster High would be around for longer. It seems just last year that I was reading how MH sales were higher than Barbie sales. So to see such a sudden cessation to them really disappoints me. The creativity was very high with those dolls, and I feel that kids (and collectors alike) could use much more creative thinking/playing with these dolls, as there were more possibilities than with Barbie, who, being human, has fewer possible 'realistic-to-the-toy-theme' options. A random example of what I mean is, it would fall in line for a Monster High doll's bed to be filled with toxic glowing goo. One could do that with Barbie, of course, and I certainly did things like that, but the Barbie character is more humanistic in her 'life', preferring pink or purple pillows to pink or purple slime. Anyway, I digress. My opinions mean nothing to everyone but myself, I'm simply rambling. I will close this entry, and write further entries about my other new dolls. I hope I have not ended this entry badly!
