Archive for the ‘Girl Toys’ Category

Hi everyone! Oh how I wish I was a kid again. I don’t know why but I just LOVE the Monster High dolls! I love everything about them – their coloring, the fact that they’re odd, the hair, the clothes, the way they move (they’re not stiff like some dolls). So the fact that I have a 7 year old daughter who’s into them is great because it means I can tap into my inner child again!

Scarlett wanted some Monster High dolls for Christmas. Now you should know she isn’t into the show – she just likes the dolls! I suspect she’ll get into it later, but right now, it’s just the dolls she thinks are cool. I actually bought her three of them total. But this review is for the Monster High Classroom Playset Frankie Stein Doll alone.

I don’t think you need all the extra stuff for the classroom, but she does love it – she enjoyed decorating the locker and those dolls were in their new duds within seconds of me opening the box for her, so the extra change of clothes was nice! She loves the skull lock, too.

The dolls are all very pretty, even with their murky complexion and facial stitches intact. The same night we opened the Frankie Stein doll, Scarlett asked if she could give me a makeover. I said sure. Little did I know she was using my eyeliner (black) to draw stitches all over my face like Frankie Stein! LOL! It was hideous. Oh okay, I’ll show you.

Beautiful, isn’t it? I had stitches everywhere and blue stuff on my eyelids and yellow powder all over my face. My hubby just gave me a look with raised eyebrows that said, “Do I really even want to know?” and walked away. When she finished she said, “Now you look just like Frankie Stein!”

So she loves her dolls a lot. I have nothing negative to say about them.  They’re fun. They’re not overly expensive. They’re durable. They open up the imagination a lot! Here are Scarlett’s own words about them:

Enjoy!
Tiff

Hi everyone! Today we’re reviewing the Bratz Masquerade Dolls. I’ll admit I was not a fan of the Bratz line as a parent when they first came out. They have HUGE heads for starters, but when Scarlett (now 7) was 4, she was always losing the feet – and unlike Barbie who has shows that come off, the Bratz dolls’ entire feet come off so then we had to pretend she had surgery and lost a foot or something silly. LOL!

But I keep buying Bratz dolls because Scarlett loves them. They DO look dramatic and I like everything else about them. I was especially happy that the Bratz Masquerade line didn’t have the overly huge heads – they’re still big, but not monstrous.

Scarlett wanted these dolls for Christmas, so I got her four of them – 2 boys and 2 girls. We bought the following Bratz dolls:

Bratz Masquerade Doll Kirana Vampire
Bratz Masquerade Doll Lian Fairy
Bratz Masquerade Boyz Doll Penn As Vampire
Bratz Masquerade Boyz Doll Gable As Knight

That was for starters and I’m sure she’ll be ordering more. I did find a bunch more that I would have preferred to order Scarrlett, but they ran out during Christmas. You can see the whole line of Bratz Masquerade Dolls here.

Pros and cons now. Scarlett’s like me – she doesn’t like that the feet detach. BUT I do have to say one pro about that con. LOL! With Barbie, we’re always losing shoes. They don’t stay on very good. So if you have any kind of organization strategy in place, your Bratz doll can swap out shoes easily with the change of their entire foot. It’s kind of a double edged sword.

The Bratz Masquerade dolls came with a masquerade mask for Scarlett, which was really cute – and it came with make up. So what you’re supposed to do is put on the mask and you can paint with the makeup inside the cutouts on the mask so that when you take your mask off, your face will have a design.

Well, as with most kids’ makeup sets, the makeup just didn’t even show up at all. She threw hers away and just kept the mask and doll. If the makeup is important, I would just get a small set of eye shadow for adults at the store and replace it.

The dolls themselves are VERY reasonably priced. One of the boys was like $13 and all were under $25 that I bought. Barbie is sometimes overly expensive these days.

She loves her dolls, bottom line. She loves their hair and their sassy look. Here’s what Scarlett has to tell you about them and listen to what she says about how commercials are – precious that she “gets it” already:

Scroll back up to click the link to see all the Bratz Masquerade dolls if you want to see individual costs and ratings.

See ya!
Tiff

Hi everyone! Today we’re going to showcase the Barbie Glam Jet.  My 7 year old daughter Scarlett got this from Santa for Christmas, so she’s going to help me do the review for you because I think it’s important to hear from kids what they like and dislike about toys. I’ve done this for you in two formats  a video right below and the text version beneath that. Choose whichever works for you or do both!

The Barbie Glam Jet is lightweight, but not enough that Scarlett feels like carrying it through the air for a long time. She mainly plays with it on the floor, where the doors are open and she can access the dolls. She prefers to use her Monster High dolls in there rather than the Barbies, but either fit okay.

I put the stickers on the jet and the only complaint I had about those was the one long design going down each side of the plan was too long, so I had to cut it off a bit. Otherwise they were easy (and I normally hate stickers). We noticed the planes tail pieces kept falling off and as you can hear on the video, Scarlett informs me that “Dad superglued them in.” LOL! So there you go. They only fell when you hit it against something, but with kids, that can be often

The plane isn’t the easiest thing to open but she does it. Adults can do it easily. Once it pops open, you’ll see three swivel chairs that go back and forth and turn sideways. One is the pilot chair and the other 2 are passenger chairs. They recline too. I noticed one Mom in a review said she took her chair’s seatbelts out but Scarlett likes hers. (She’s a stickler for rules, though).

One side of the plane has two overhead compartments that open and a slider that lets you choose between a sunny with clouds window scene or a starry night scene. Scarlett also liked the seatbelt sign overhead. (Again, rules).

Behind the dolls there’s the stewardess area. It comes with a precious cart the stewardess can roll around the plane. The cart has tray areas for the 3 food trays with meals printed on it. It has space for soda cans and pitchers and everyone thinks the little tiny ice cubes (beads) are cute, but we’ll probably lose most of them within a month I’m guessing.

There’s a little area where you put the ice bucket and pull down a lever and the ice cubes fall down into the bucket. I made the mistake of pulling it when there was no bucket, so beads went everywhere and we needed tweezers to remove them.

Also in the back of the plane are storage areas and in flight magazines that are really cute! Scarlett took some of these and put them into her Barbie mansion since she had extras. There’s a large compartment where you can store the luggage (the luggage opens, by the way, so they can really pack Barbie clothes), and when the plane lands, you go around back and open it from the outside to get the luggage.

Scarlett also mentions in the video that she likes how the wheel really steers and the levers in the cockpit move up and down like a real plane. The only complaint she has about the Barbie Glam Jet is that when she DOES close it to have it fly, the ice cubes go all over the place (must be turbulence in the air!).

I feel this is an excellent toy for a girl. I wouldn’t go younger than 6 but this will last her as long as she plays with Barbies. Older girls will probably be able to enjoy the tiny accessories more (like tongs to put each ice cube in the cup). But Scarlett thinks all that is cool too – she just won’t use it as realistically as an older tween might (yet).

The jet varies in cost but like most Barbie things, it isn’t the cheapest. But it’s the best!

Tiff