Byul-tiful Photo Contest

Dear Readers,

I bought a Byul doll a month ago.  I wanted to participate in the Byul-tiful Photo Contest organized by the Dal House Forum so I got myself a Byul Cocotte who is a doll collaboration with Angelic Pretty, the Lolita clothing brand.

Byul is made by the South Korean company Groove, the same company that creates Pullip and Taeyang dolls.  She is Dal's best friend.  Here below is a quick introduction to these dolls and their relationship to each other (from Wikipedia):

Pullip (풀잎) means "blade of grass/leaf" in Korean

Namu (나무, tree); he is Pullip's former boyfriend

Taeyang (태양, sun); he is Pullip's boyfriend

Dal (달, moon); she is Taeyang's younger sister

Byul (별, star); she is Dal's best friend

Isul (이슬, dew): he is Pullip's younger brother

Yeolume (열매, berry/fruit); she is Pullip's future daughter

Are you still following me? :)

Dal is my favorite doll but I had yet to purchase a Byul.  I love Lolita fashion so I decided to get Byul Cocotte.  I named her Delphine.

Here are my entries for the photo contest which spanned over 4 weeks.  We had to submit one picture each week according to a chosen theme, for a total of 4.

Week 1: Beautiful

"Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?"

Since "Beautiful" is the first theme of the Photo Contest, I thought of the vain Evil Queen jealous of Snow White's beauty. Pullip Merl takes on the role of the Evil Queen and Byul Cocotte as Snow White.

Week 2 : Crush

The second theme for the Byul-tiful contest is "crush" so here is my take on it. Delphine has a crush on Isul so she wants to let him know. During class, she asks Yeolume to pass to Isul her love note.

Week 3 : Best Friend

The third theme for the Byul-tiful photo contest is "Best Friend".  Delphine's best friend is always there to lend a sympathetic ear to her stories.

Week 4 : Oh My!

"The awkward moment when you walk into somebody who just got out of the shower... "

The last theme is "Oh My". Byul has to be in a scene where she shows her trademark surprised expression.

It was a very fun contest and I learned a lot because the judges would post their critics of the pictures.  It was informative and I am thankful to the judges and organizers.  I am glad to have participated although I don't think I would win anything!

To view the other photos submitted in the Byul-tiful contest, you can go to the  Photo Contest Flickr Album HERE.

I hope I will be able to take better pictures of my dollies in the future :)

Susie R&D Dolls

Dear Readers,

Did you ever like a doll instantly, like a "falling in love at first sight" kinda feeling?

I don't think I did.  Until now.  Most dolls took a while to impress me.  Even my favorite doll, the DAL dolls, did not wow me until after seeing them a few times.  I can be curious about certain type of dolls and then try to find out more about them until I really get interested.  But only in one occasion so far did I fall head over heels in love with a type of doll.

And this one occasion is when I saw the Susie R&D Dolls!

The first time I saw one, I was so intrigued that I looked for her everywhere for days and bought the first one that I could find.  She is a Riviera Breeze Susie (the blond version).  Once I received her, the feeling only grew and grew.  I just adore her faceup and her outfits were so well done!  And ever since then, I got hooked on Susie dolls.  Here below are a few of her pictures.

She has a very elegant beach outfit!

Her skintone is a gorgeous sunkissed tan color!

Her bathing suit is designed like a corset!

She has a very subtle face-up.

A Susie doll from R&D Collectibles (which are the initials for their creators: Randi Turuel and David Wu) is a jointed fashion doll from Taiwan with a distinctive face that you may recognize in the newly Dynamite Girl Susie Doll.  She is indeed the same doll.  Susie was first born in 2003 when she was produced by R&D.  She is now been marketed as a Dynamite Girl by Integrity Toys, famous for their Fashion Royalty Dolls.

The Dynamite Girl Dolls are around $70 (initial price) and are thus more affordable than the other Fashion Royalty dolls but the price tag can go quite higher once the dolls hit the second-hand market.

I love the most recent Susie called Freedom Susie.  Her face has a young and edgy look and I love her long black hair and trendy clothes but I prefer the older models by R&D.  They are however extremely difficult to find because they were only released in very small quantities.  Most models are produced in quantities of 300 and some have only 100 releases or less.  So my chances of getting the models I wanted for a reasonable price were slim.

But once again I got lucky.  A few doll collectors were downsizing their Susie collection and sold them for super cheap.  I had to put a cap on my dolly spending and told myself to only get one new doll per month from now on.  But when I saw so many Susie dolls going for one fraction of their original price, I couldn't say no!

Some of them were sold without their clothes but I did not mind at all because they were almost in new condition.  Some even had their hair still enclosed in their hair net.  And best of all, they were the models I most wanted! :D 

Also important is that Susie dolls can wear many type of clothes, most notably Momoko, Takara Jenny and some Barbie clothes.  They can wear the Fashion Fever and Fashionista outfits very well so finding outfits for their closet won't be too difficult.

Susie is described as being a fashion designer and a fashion model as well.  She has quite a mixed heritage: her mother is Chinese American and her father is Spanish American.  She travels all around the world for her fashion photoshoots and each Susie release is named after a city.

If you want to know more about Susie dolls, there is a very good list of Susie Dolls on the Barbie Girl website HERE.

For photos, there is a Flickr Pool for Susie Dolls HERE.

I only have 10 dolls so far but I really wished I could own them all.

I will introduce each one of my dolls separately in subsequent posts and I hope I will do justice to their incredible beauty!

7 Susie R&D (some have been redressed)

J-Doll Rewigged

Dear Readers,

I found out about J-Dolls earlier this year and posted about them HERE.  They are so pretty that I could not resist and bought three J-Dolls from Amazon.com.  They were moderately priced at $39.99 and I was very happy with them except that one of them had very bad hair.  I had chosen J-Doll Esplanadi Katu because she is so strikingly beautiful and her outfit is incredibly detailed and well-done.

This is what she looked like on the promo photos.  Her coat and purse are the best doll's clothes and accessories I had seen so far.  

The green dress looked cheap but the rest of her outfit made up for that.

But something I could not get over was her horrible hair.  It had the texture of straw and there was so little of it that I could not style her in anyway.  I didn't like her silver/grey color either.  I wouldn't have minded so much if the hair was of good quality but it was not so the whole wig was a fail to me.  

On the promo photos, the hair length looks even but in reality, it was uneven all over.  And it was too short for me to tie it up nicely or style it in a bun.

J-Dolls are made by Jun Planning, the mother company that makes Pullip and Dal dolls.  Except J-Dolls have normal-sized head and not the over-sized big heads that Pullip and the other dolls have.  Pullip and J-Dolls share the same body but the J-Dolls have no eye mechanism so they cannot close or move their eyes like the other big-head dolls.

Another difference is that J-Dolls are not meant to be customized so their wigs are not supposed to be removed and their eyes are not supposed to be changed.  One would need to break their head out to change their eyes.  However, the hair can be replaced.  Although their wigs are glued to their head, it is possible to unglue the hair with a hot water soak with a mild dish detergent.  I read about this tutorial on Diane's Dolls and Kitties Blog.  

After the recommended 30 minutes of soaking, the wig still felt very hard and did not budge so I let it soak for another  30 minutes and added a little bit of boiling water to the existing water.  So after a whole hour of soaking, I noticed the wig cap was starting to become weaker at some points and so I used my thumb to push it along the edges.  It took a good 5 minutes of pushing to dislodge the wig completely from my doll's head.

I was very worried that I would break her head or her body with all that pressure so I was extra careful while handling her.  It was still a nerve-wrecking process because I was sure she would end up snapping a limb!

Once her wig was removed, I was able to give her new hair!  Many months ago, I bought a size 4 wig for my Little Dal doll but I didn't use it yet so I gave it to this J-Doll to try it first!

Oh it's so soft now!

So what do you think? 

The size 4 wig is a little big for her but I think it would be stay in place with double-sided tape.  Now that she has new hair, I feel she is worthy of display again.  I gave her a Re-ment outfit to try out and it fits perfectly!   I can't wait to try other wigs on her and give try some other clothes as well.   Happy dolly times at last!

Have a great week everybody!

Best Friends Club Ink Fashion Pack

Dear Readers,

Did you have a pleasant weekend?  I was mostly at home enjoying my time off from work.  I took the kids to the park and we also went to the restaurant but it was otherwise a quiet and calm weekend.

I did however stop by the Dollar Store (where every item is priced at $1) and I found Best Friends Club Ink Fashion Packs.  There were five different sets.  I bought the following three.

You can see on the back of the package the five different outfits with the BFC ink dolls.  I didn't see any dolls in the store.  They were released years ago by MGA Entertainment (the same company that produces Bratz dolls and Moxie Girlz dolls) but are now discontinued.  The fashion packs shown here are for the small size dolls, not for the 18 inches dolls which were also called BFC ink dolls.

I don't own any BFC ink dolls but I bought the clothes for my small size dolls.  I opened the pink outfit.  I chose to buy this one because it has a nice pink top with tiny white polka dots, ruffle collar, and long sleeves with flower prints.  Also in the pack was pink hot pants (or very short shorts) with a pink belt and silver clasp.  A backpack, pink and white striped knee socks and purple sneakers complete the outfit.   The top and shorts have velcro closure in the back.  I tried the garments on a few dolls.

The first to try is a Stacie doll from Mattel.  She is one of Barbie's many little sisters.  It was a little difficult to dress her up because of her right arm's bent position.  The socks kept snagging over her legs while I was dressing her up.   The shoes are way too big for her.

The top looks great on her but the shorts are too big although you can hardly notice from the front.

From the back, it's another story!

The backpack is really cute and does open and close with a velcro stripe on the top.  However, the back and side pockets do not open.

I found this Stacie doll at a garage sales.  She was disheveled and naked when I got her.  She seems quite happy to finally have some clothes! 

Next to try the outfit is Hina-chan who shares the same body as Licca dolls.  It was a breeze to dress her up!  Licca dolls have such smooth body so clothes literally glide over their limbs!  The shoes are still too big.

From the front, you can see the sleeves are too long.

The back shows how tight the top is for her.  I could not close it completely.

Next in line is another of Licca's friend, Maria-chan but with Obitsu 23 cm body.

My photos do not do any justice to this beautiful doll.  She has strawberry blonde hair (that can apparently change color if you wet or heat them up... but I have not tried yet!) EDIT: her hair actually curls but does not change color!  I found the LINK HERE that shows the different hair styles!  The Licca doll that can change hair color is THIS ONE.  Takara has released a few other Licca dolls with the same hair color change ability.

I bought her head without a Licca body. It was cheaper that way (only $5 as opposed to $35 for a full body doll) and I wanted to try an Obitsu body anyway!  The BFC ink clothes fit the Obitsu 23cm very well.

The back closes perfectly for both the top and shorts.  The socks and shoes fit her well too.

The last doll to try the outfit is a Licca doll but with an Azone Pure Neemo S Body.  As it was the case with Maria-chan, I bought her head only and purchased a different body type that I wanted to try out for my dolls.

The top fits but the shorts were too small for Pure Neemo "fatter" legs.  The shoes fit perfectly though.  I gave her a skirt from the Re-ment Summer Clothes Collection.

The back velcro closes well without any problem.

Overall, I would say that I am extremely happy with the Best Friends Club Ink Fashion Packs.  They are so well made and super affordable!  For $1 only, I got an entire outfit with shoes and bag included!  They can fit many dolls and you can mix and match with other outfits!

I wished MGA Entertainment still produced the dolls who look really cute from the pictures I saw on the flyers included in the fashion packs.  There was also an iron-on picture in each pack.  

I regret not buying the other two fashion sets so I'll probably go back to the Dollar Store tomorrow to get them now that I know they can fit so many of my dolls.   

Ever After High Dolls

Have you heard or seen the Ever After High dolls yet?  They are a new doll collection created by Mattel.  Based on the animated series Ever Have High, the dolls are a little similar to the Monster High Dolls concept but this line will focus on characters inspired by fairy tales.
 

You can check out the official Ever After High Website HERE.  

You can view the Ever After High animated series on their Youtube Channel HERE.
 

I have heard of them before but it wasn't until yesterday that I saw them for the first time in a store and now all I can say is that I AM ABSOLUTELY HEAD OVER HEELS IN LOVE WITH THEM!

Each doll comes with a doll stand, a key-themed hairbrush and a bookmark telling their back story.  They are released in a box shaped like a book with a big spine.

I think this new line of dolls has all the right ingredients to become the new toy crack fad.  The dolls are even more gorgeous looking in real life than in pictures!  I love everything about them: clothes, hairstyle, accessories and back story!  The price tag is moderately high but they are still much cheaper than other fashion dolls like Pullip or Dal.  I think they will appeal to children and collectors alike.





I have my eyes set on Ashlynn Ella & Hunter Huntsman in particular.  This box set comes with 2 dolls and they are both incredibly beautiful.

I don't like boy dolls and it takes a lot to convince me to get one.  Even my Isul Lir did not really sway me like Hunter Hunstman did!  He looks so cool and he comes with very nice clothes and a great looking messenger bag.



Ashlynn Ella is very pretty!  I love her hair and she has such a sweet face.  She wears glass slippers and her purse shaped like a clock is fitting and original.   

The Ever After Dolls are divided in two groups: Royals or Rebels.  Per this Wikipedia page:

The Ever After High storyline is based upon the children of famous fairy tale characters attending the eponymous high school, who are destined to follow in their parents’ footsteps to keep their stories alive through generations, otherwise their stories will cease to exist. However, Raven Queen is unhappy with her destiny and wishes to write her own path. The school gets divided in ‘Royals or Rebels’ which is between those who know they will have a happily ever after and those with less favorable destinies or those who prefer the idea of writing their own destiny

In this case, Ashlynn Ella is the daughter of Cinderella, a Royal, and she is secretly dating Hunter Huntsman, son of the Huntsman, a Rebel.  A SECRET ROMANCE!  She is expected to marry a prince, not a huntsman!  I love this!  Mattel, you clever thing!

The other dolls from Ever After High are equally interesting and each of them comes with a different accessory.  I would totally buy them all if I had the money.  I can't comment on the show because I didn't watch it yet but now I am curious and will probably take a look.

One might say it's just another collection of dolls with a fairy tale theme but I am more enthusiastic to buy a doll from this line than a princess Barbie doll because EAH dolls look younger and more their age than Barbie dolls who look more like an adult and because the EAH dolls have a more interesting back story with their conflict about their destiny and desire to follow their own path. 

I would also choose an EAH doll over the La Dee Da dolls from the Fairy Tale Collection because the outfit and accessories seem better too.

The addition of male dolls is a big plus as well!  The Barbie line does have prince dolls but I don't like them very much so EAH dolls are winning so far in my books.  I wonder how the other EAH male dolls will look!

That's just a question of personal taste though so I don't know if Ever After High Dolls will appeal to everybody the same way but I think they will be a hit this Christmas!
 

I truly want to stay away from this new line of dolls because they seem highly addictive.  It will be hard.