ToyVey!

LEGO Friends Set 3187: Butterfly Beauty Shop
Manufacturer: LEGO
MSRP: $24.99
Availability: Mass retail, now
Website: Friends.Lego.com

I’ll be honest: I wasn’t expecting to buy this set.

After the ground-breaking Olivia’s Invention Workshop, a Beauty Shop just felt so… commonplace. So many girls’ toylines have beauty shops or boutiques, but how many have robots and power tools? But I was interested in getting a set with Emma in it.

Emma is the black-haired member of the LEGO Friends. Her interests are primarily focused around interior design, fashion design, jewelry design, makeovers, etc… but she’s also into horseback jumping, yoga, martial arts, and origami. Those latter two interests made me wonder if Emma was meant to be Asian, or just someone who’s interested in Asian cultures.

I was initially planning on getting Emma’s Design School (tiny sewing machine! giant ruler! humongous sandwich and adorable laptop!) but I hesitated when I saw that its general design was similar to Olivia’s Invention Workshop. I didn’t really want a pink-and-purple version of a set I’d already made…

…but the Butterfly Beauty Shop bugged me, what with the huge number of bright yellow accessories. I did my homework, and the LEGO Friends bios clearly state that Emma’s favorite color is purple! Stephanie is the one who likes yellow! I wanted purple accessories!

As soon as I realized that these accessories were actually functional (and that the set came with an extra hair piece), I was sold.

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LEGO Friends Set 3933: Olivia’s Invention Workshop
Manufacturer: LEGO
MSRP: $9.99
Availability: Mass retail, now
Website: Friends.Lego.com

LEGO Friends launched on January 1, 2012, after a teaser campaign that started with a mysterious “Coming Soon” website in December, and a full website launch on December 26th 2011. Although I continue to be baffled by the fact that these sets weren’t available for Christmas 2011 — I know they would’ve been on MY shopping list — I am happy to report that the wait was worth it.

Meet Olivia! Arguably the most prominent of the LEGO Friends mini-dolls, she is available in three sets: Olivia’s House, Olivia’s Treehouse, and Olivia’s Invention Workshop. To be fair, four out of the five LEGO Friends girls also star in three sets each, but Olivia’s the only one whose parents are available in a set as well.

According to her bio on the LEGO Friends website, Olivia is the scientist-inventor-computer geek of the group. Her interests include outdoor activities like hiking and stargazing as well as the kind of indoor pursuits you’d expect from someone who lists “school” and “history” among her favorite things. This kind of earnest geekiness warms the cockles of my heart… but I’m also charmed to see that Olivia’s favorite color is pink, and she enjoys drawing. She’s not just a stereotypical “I’m no stereotypical girl!” science maven; she is capable of loving pink just as much as science.
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Monster High Create-A-Monster Vampire and Sea Monster Starter Pack
Manufacturer: Mattel
MSRP: $26.99 at Toys R Us, less at other retailers
Availability: Mass retail, now
Website: MonsterHigh.com

Mattel’s Monster High line of fashion dolls has been taking full advantage of geek culture, releasing exclusive dolls for San Diego Comic Con since 2010 and debuting dolls and fashions on Facebook. It’s a strange new world where new product is shown off at a SDCC booth rather than Mattel’s Toy Fair booth.

Thanks to the online social media blitz, I’d been aware of the Create-a-Monster sets coming out, and that one of the sets was “Vampire and Sea Monster”. I was baffled as to why they’d release such a set when the Monster High core cast already has a vampire (“Draculaura, daughter of the Vampire”) and a sea monster (“Lagoona Blue, daughter of the Sea Monster”).

I thought I’d be passing on these in favor of the more-exciting “Werewolf and Dragon” set (the Monster High cast includes “Clawdeen and Clawd, children of the Werewolf”, but the Create-A-Monster Werewolf has a unique pale skintone). But I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Create a Monster Sea Monster is also unique!

Each Create-a-Monster Starter Pack includes 1 torso, two sets of upper arms, two sets of lower arms, two sets of hands, two sets of upper legs, two sets of lower legs with feet, two heads, two outfits, a pair of shoes and one wig. Accessories include a comb and a stand and (for the Vampire and Sea Monster set) a hair clip.

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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Gift Set
Manufacturer: Hasbro
MSRP: $19.99
Availability: Mass retail, now
Website: MyLittlePony.com, Hubworld: Friendship is Magic

Before I begin this quasi-review, I have a confession to make.

Applejack is my favorite.

Applejack, for those of you unfamiliar with the name, is a My Little Pony. She is what is often referred to as an Earth pony – neither unicorn nor pegasus nor sea-pony, she is a regular old salt-of-the-earth pony. Although I’m fairly certain that I watched the My Little Pony movies and TV show as a child, my main memory of Applejack is of her original toy; an orange pony with white freckles and a shy expression, turning her head away bashfully. In my household, her default costume was a pristine white tennis outfit (despite Applejack’s tragic inability to hold the accompanying tennis racket).

I was surprised and delighted when Toy Fair 2010 brought us the news that Applejack would be in the My Little Pony relaunch in Fall 2010. My favorite pony! In a new My Little Pony cartoon and toy line, developed by Lauren Faust! As more information about the new “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” series was revealed on the official website for the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic cartoon, I was amazed to see that she would be a regular cast member.

Although I was disappointed to see that the Friendship is Magic ponies that debuted at Toy Fair 2010 had plastic hair, I read on Lauren Faust’s DeviantArt website that there would be ponies with rooted hair, as well. Since I prefer my toys to have poseability and combable hair, I thought I might wait for the rooted hair version of Applejack… but when I saw this giftset today, I just had to get it. It’s Applejack! Plus my first ever unicorn-pegasus pony! And Spike the Baby Dragon!

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I was very excited this week to discover that Takara Tomy of Japan has a brand new Jenny website, just in time for her 25th anniversary.

The Jenny doll is Takara’s Barbie-equivalent… only she’s not, really, because the premier Japanese fashion doll (the one as ubiquitous in Japan as Barbie is in America) is Licca-chan, also by Takara. Licca has been beloved by little girls in Japan since 1967. Meanwhile, Jenny came on the scene some 20 years later, and was initially sold as Takara Barbie under license from Mattel. Licca is occasionally imported overseas as “Lisa”; Jenny hasn’t had that kind of luck, at least as a playline doll.

Over the years, Takara has seemed at a loss as to what to do with Jenny. There have been a few attempts to revive her as a playline doll (Angel’s Garden, which was anime-inspired; Fashion Station, which focussed on modern fashion), and many attempts to market her to collectors. They’ve done collaborations with lolita fashion brands! They’ve come out with monthly themed Calender Girl dolls (the last of which was cancelled, allegedly due to copyright issues over Rose of Versailles)! They did work uniforms, historical fashions, school uniforms, anything that might appeal to adult collectors. Transformers fans who remember Sports Label (Optimus Prime and Megatron transform into NIKE Sneakers! With real laces!) may recognize a pattern.

Judging from their own timeline, it looks like Jenny disappeared from the market around 2007. But she’s back, for her 25th anniversary!
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I’ve been back from Toy Fair for a week, and finally have all of my pictures uploaded. I’m still sorting through my memories and trying to make some time to come up with a good, cohesive Toy Fair Report (only a week late! Har!)

One common question bandied between collector sites at Toy Fair is “What good stuff have you seen?” (or “So what’s good at Toy Fair?” or “What’s new?”) In a similar vein, my husband asked me what was most exciting at Toy Fair this year.

Well.

Judging from how I reacted in person, the most exciting news was Hasbro’s My Little Pony [ASM link]. Specifically, the return of mermaid ponies/hippocampuses (albeit in the miniature PonyVille line) and of course the new Lauren Faust-designed My Little Ponies, including a princess pegacorn with glittery wings, Spike the baby dragon, and my own personal favorite, APPLEJACK! Admittedly, the hayseed/Daisy Duke depiction isn’t quite what I had in mind for Applejack, but I’m just thrilled that she isn’t portrayed as masculine just based on the “jack” part of her name.

When my husband showed me these pictures, I loudly squeed in excitement, despite being in line at Kinokuniya Books.

So that’s definitely something that I found exciting at Toy Fair.

The other thing that had me completely losing my composure and hopping up and down in glee was Evolvems. You may remember them from last Toy Fair, and the number of times that I’ve linked to them in the past while. It is so amazing to see a small toy company debut at Toy Fair and then *actually make it big*, or at least make it into some stores. I was so relieved when I saw that ThinkGeek.com was carrying their “transforming” plush… and I was excited to see that they not only returned to Toy Fair, but also brought along TWO NEW PLUSHES!

Proailurus to Smilodon is cute, but regrettably has a kind of same-y feel due to the fact that kitties are pretty cat-like no matter what. But props on the interesting coloration for the “saber tiger”!

Eoraptor to Tyrannosaurus rex. Oh my goodness, look at those little bitty T. rex arms!

I asked Avi (the Evolvems guy) if they got a lot of backlash from creationists and intelligent design supporters, and I was massively disappointed to find out that EVERYONE asks him that. I liked my husband’s suggestion that such people should just buy two of each plush and display them as two separate creature/toys.

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This afternoon, we’ll be driving down to New Haven and taking a train in to New York.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to attend the American International Toy Fair, but the stars have aligned! So I’m taking a moment to hype myself up for Toy Fair, and make predictions about the trends that I’ll see in toys this year…

Prediction 1: More DIY Hong Kong Vinyl-y things. Actually aimed at kids, as opposed to KidRobot’s DIY MUNNY, which is more likely to be found in collector-oriented stores rather than the toy aisle at Target.

Last year, we saw a LOT of companies jump on the Hong Kong Vinyl/chunky figurine bandwagon. I’m thinking that this year, we’ll see a lot of crossover between that and the usual “creative play and crafts for kids”.

Personally, I really dig the kokeshi-like figurines that MGA Entertainment’s Moxie Girlz “I am…” series come with.

Prediction 2: More DIY crafts in general.

I think the whole “Build a Bear” thing is going to expand into more “make your own cute plush”-type kits, probably overlapping with “make your own cellphone charms and danglers”. As cellphones become more and more ubiquitous, I believe we’ll see more emulations of Japanese cellphone straps and tiny plush and all kinds of stuff, aimed at the Kid Market.

I was impressed to see that Bandai’s Harumika has expanded its line, and has even inspired similar toys from the Project Runway toyline by Fashion Angels. Who knew that something as simple as a fashion form to mold fabric around could become an entire genre! I suspect that it’s a combination of the resurgence in fashion-related reality TV shows and parents’ fond memories of paper dolls that’s creating this interesting niche in the toy and crafts aisle.

I’m not sure what trends we’ll see in Boys Toys. I would imagine every company is scrambling to come up with their own answer to Spinmasters’ astoundingly popular Bakugan, but the beautiful simplicity of a magnetic auto-transforming ball is pretty hard to beat.

Comic Con Day 2 was a big day for fans of BBC’s Doctor Who and Torchwood series! A two-hour block was dedicated to these two series, with appearances by new Head Writer Steven Moffat, producer Julie Gardner, and Torchwood stars John Barrowman, Gareth David-Lloyd, and Naoko Mori.

…Unfortunately, we don’t have any pictures to share from the panels. Instead, please enjoy the following pictures taken while I shuffled through the line to purchase San Diego Comic Con exclusives from Mattel. It was only an hour long wait, thank goodness, and we were able to get the exclusives we wanted.

We’re at San Diego Comic Con, where the air is hot and heavy with excitement over the latest comic, gaming, and pop culture news.

Wednesday night was Preview Night, when preregistrants were permitted to enter the exhibit hall early to get a glimpse of what’s in store. Here are a random selection of things that we found exciting or notable… the My Little Pony 25 Ponies for 25 Years project, the 3 3/4 inch Hellboy action figures, and some upcoming World of Warcraft action figures!

Sam & Max Season 2 Episode 4: Chariots of the Dogs
From Telltale Games (http://www.telltalegames.com)
Available now

Okay, I admit it — I’ve been a lousy reviewer this season. It’s not Telltale’s fault! The Sam & Max Season 2 episodes have been good! But between traveling for work and Toy Fair and basic procrastination, I keep missing my chance to review the new chapters until it’s too late.

Well, not this time, bucko.

We’ve had a pretty good season up to now. There’s been more variety of locations and storylines, a few new characters, and lots of good gags. Just like last season, there’s generally been one puzzle per episode that’s stumped me for hours until I’ve finally slapped my forehead and said, “DUH.”
Okay, I’ve needed to ask Max for help a couple of times, too. Yes, this old-school adventure gamer is ashamed. But I also appreciate this season’s clever new hint system, which lets you set the frequency at which your loveable lagomorph companion offers vague chatter to gently steer you in the correct direction without outright hitting you over the head with it. And I especially like that the default setting for this hint system is “off” so that I can continue to feel good about myself and my awesome puzzle-solving skillz.

So hey, new episode! Flying saucers! Time travel! Faces from the past, present and future!
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