Veni Vidi Dolli: kuu kuu harajuku

Showing posts with label kuu kuu harajuku. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

NEWS: Mattel In Stocks and Backorders

Friday, June 2, 2017

REVIEW: Kuu Kuu Harajuku Baby doll

Baby and Music popped into stock VERY briefly on Amazon. I'm not sure of the total number of dolls they had on hand, but when I saw them, there was only one of each left, and I'd only just checked the listings less than 20 minutes earlier. I clicked on Music right away, but I'd missed out on her. I did manage to get the last Baby though and she arrived today.

I have been obsessively checking the listings ever since Monday afternoon when this happened. I have not seen either come back in stock even once. I am still without Music, who is far and away my favorite character, and I'm pretty livid about it. They got loads of the first three in, made us wait way too long for these two, then barely got any in, so I'm still stuck without my fave. Urgh.

I prayed to the dolly gods that Baby would be okay. I opened the package today and breathed a sigh of relief. No lip rubs. No bad eyes. One is a tiny bit lower, but it's pretty much perfect for this line and it's poor quality control. I checked her hands. One right, one left. Then I opened the box.

And saw this:

Yep. Two left boots.

I mean, honestly, if I'd noticed it before I opened, I would have opened her anyway. Getting one of these dolls with decent eyes and lips is that hard. I'm going to just buy another once they hit stores and go on sale. Then I'll use that one for a fashion pack and give this one the right boot. I did write Mattel and ask if they had a spare right boot, but you know I'll probably just get sent another voucher.

Anyway. Baby is really cute. I love her hair. They did the same stupid thing they did to Love's barrettes and stuck them in with all this plastic, but I took that out. Unlike Love, Baby's hair is not shellacked, so I was able to put these on like regular barrettes. She wears the little pop-in of herself and the gold bow. The other two are a pink donut and gold bunny head. I didn't take a pic of the kid-sized accessories. You can see them in the boxed shot.

Baby's kneepads are the same mold as Love's and her boots are similar to Love's, as well.

I'm pleased to have the four members of HJ5, but it would be really nice to get Music here! I just want my fave, Mattel, Amazon, come on!

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

Sunday, May 14, 2017

REVIEW: Kuu Kuu Harajuku Angel

I love Angel. She looks like she's the Sporty One, but NO. She is the Fashion One. Surprise!

I have had a rough time with this girl. My first one had horribly off eyes and paint rubs. The first one I pulled out of the box from this order also had off eyes and a thin spot in the paint where the white went across the indent line. The second one I pulled out was this girl and here eyes are PERFECT. I was so thrilled. And her bangs look great, too.

Then I noticed it.

Big honkin' lip rub.

Angel, however, is gifted with tan skin and a more natural lip color, so the rub is actually not that noticeable. I know it's there, but I also wanted an Angel with great eyes like this because she is SO cute, and I decided to just open her and if I find a perfect one in a store, I can upgrade. That one can wear the uniform and this one will get a fashion pack.

So that decided, I think I willingly opened a lip rub doll for the first time ever.

Angel is basically wearing the same outfit as Love only blue is her color, while Love's is red. And the initial on the top is different, of course.

Her knee pads are different though. Love's have little ruffles and Angel's don't. (Baby's also have the ruffles, while Music's don't.)

Angel's headband thing is velcroed at the back, but stapled to her head with plastic bits, so I left it attached, same as the other two's plastic headbands.

Her barrettes are kind of irritating, because they're designed to be barrettes, but they're just on with plastic bands. And if you were to try to put them on right, you'd totally mess up her hair.

I gave Angel the charm that's her own head. I'm trying to just give the girls one charm each, but most of these are kinda duds. I didn't mind Angel's gold star, but she's already got four others. It's kinda overkill.

Her hair is a lovely blend of colors, as this pic shows pretty well.

She has four braids with the two in front being a little longer. The left braid has two barrettes, the right has one.

Here she is from the back. Nothing major going on here.

I should note that Angel's knee pads don't stay on as well as Love's do when it comes to moving her legs. The right pad has already flown off twice.

Her kid accessory is a pair of angel wing barrettes, which makes me wonder why none of her charms were wings.

Her other charms are a gold star, blue guitar and blue bear purse. What is it with her and the bear purse? Didn't the figure get that, too? Must be an episode I haven't watched yet.

Anyway! I love the Angel doll. I will definitely be watching my stores for one with both good eyes AND no lip rub. I'm just glad she's the skintone she is with that lip color, because if that was G with a rub through bright red lipstick over pale skin, she would have been going back to Amazon.

These dolls are so super cute, but man, they really need some QC help!

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Kuu Kuu Harajuku G

Well, I'm happy to finally be able to do these two more reviews for the current KKH dolls out. Yep, still no sign of Music and Baby, although pictures have been added to their listings.

Thanks to really bad quality control, I had to order two of each of G and Angel to replace the ones I sent back. I hoped to get non-defective ones and I got a G that's actually really great. Angel, however, we'll get to that in her post.

G is my least favorite of the line. Despite being blonde, I hardly ever like the blondes much.

G is very cute though, because all the dolls in this line are.

While the other girls have more uniform-type outfits, G has a little blue and white dress with black plastic bows sewn on worn under a gray blazer.

The blazer is a separate piece from the dress.

The dress is pretty cute on its own, but I wish they'd added some of those thin plastic straps. Not that wide flat ones that don't age well, but the really thin, like fishing line thin, ones. G flashed me several times during these photos and even with the blazer on, she's still flash-happy. It probably doesn't help that the plastic bow sewn there makes that part of the dress heavier.

G actually has REAL FABRIC STOCKINGS.

Yes, that deserves all caps.

I'm really not one to be super picky about painted on stockings or whatnot, but it is nice to see some actual fabric ones for a change.

Her legwarmers are separate from the stockings, but I have had waaaaaaaay too long a day to deal with that kind of struggle.

While my G was gifted with nicely-placed eyes, her glitter eyeshadow did not get so lucky. Thankfully, her hair is swung over her forehead exactly where it helps hide just how much the glitter shadow over the right eye has wandered off course.

G's hair is in cute little buns and she does have tinsel. Just in the front, but it is there. Her black hairbow/band is stapled to her head and I'm leaving it that way. Mattel seems to rely more on stapling things down than making them actually fit right if they're loosened, so I'm not undoing anyone's head stuff unless I have to.

I like the off-kilter part G's got going on.

I don't care for any of her charms (strawberry, music note, microphone, her own head), so I stuck them all on the fake quilted bow for kids.

Love and Music really got the best child-size accessories.

So yeah, G. Cute, but my least fave by far.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

Thursday, May 11, 2017

REVIEW: Kuu Kuu Harajuku Love

It saddens me to say that I only have one review for you today and not three.

The quality control on the KKH dolls is just what I feared: the same weak level as Monster High and Ever After High. I received a G doll with her left eye printed much lower than her right. Love here suffers from the same problem with the same eye, but her lower eye only goes onto the eye indent molding a tiny bit, so it's not as noticeable as G's was. When that white paint goes onto the molding line, it makes a big shiny crease and it's really obvious then that one eye is not placed right.

And poor Angel. Angel had two eyes placed completely different, plus a chunk of missing eyeshadow, a big scratch across the white of one eye and several scratches through the brown paint of the iris. All on the same eye.

Needless to say, I've packaged both dolls for return. I'm not paying $19.99 for messed up toys. I also wrote to Mattel and complained, because I really shouldn't have to return dolls, plus place an order for two of each in the hopes of getting one that's decent and once again have to do a return on the extras. It's a lot of work just to get a couple dolls. But if I wait for them to show in stores, what are the chances the one that will be on the shelf will have good eyes?

Slim. Sadly slim.

So anyway. Let's set that aside and look at Love.

I am very happy that the one doll I was able to open and keep was Love, who's my second favorite in the line after Music. (The sarcastic one's my fave, then the smart one. No shock.)

Love has an adorable face with big blue eyes and dark pink lipstick that matches the thin streaks in her black bangs.

Her bangs are set in curls on each side of her face and her hair is done in four heavily gelled buns. I'm trying to avoid touching her hair, because those aren't the most stable buns ever. Her headband is plastic stapled to her head and while I didn't touch the tabs holding it down, I did remove the giant ugly plastic chunk holding her smaller heart barrette down, which in turn lead to the larger barrette also coming loose.

Love does not have enough hair to support these barrettes. The buns will be messed up if you separate a chunk of hair small enough to work in the barrettes. I used the plastic bands from her hands, clipped a barrette to each and slipped the bands over the buns. So it looks like her barrettes are on, but they're not really.

She has a funny little flat profile. If people whined that the Ever After High original headmold had pancake face, wait 'til they get a load of these!

Unlike several other Mattel lines, the print and detailing on the clothing are on the back of it as well. No half prints here. Not yet anyway.

All the outfit pieces are separate. My only complaint is that there's no "panty" strap in the skirt to hold it in place, so it spins around on her little waist pretty easily.

I think the outfit is well-made, typical Mattel quality. The only real flaw is that the paint on the kneepads could have used another coat.

Love's boots are enormous compared to her teeny tiny feet, which works perfectly for her standing on her own. Yep, the boots are even large enough to balance that giant head.

Love has a petite body that's unlike any Monster High or Ever After High doll. They have exaggerated proportions in a different way. Love's got the giant head over a teeny torso and long legs. Her arms have relatively large forearms and hands.

I did not struggle a lot with it, but neither her hands nor her forearms wanted to come off, so I don't think that's a feature on these dolls. I wasn't going to force the issue, but I would think I would have been able to get at least one loose if they were meant to be so.

The Kuu Kuu Harajuku girls are shorter than Monster High. The giant head and updo make the height a little more equal, but you can see the differences in the body part sizes.

Love's feet are tiny and she cannot wear any open MH shoes. Some fully enclosed shoes might work, since even though they're bigger, they're still not nearly as big as Love's own boots. Love's boots do fit Cleo, but they looked so ridiculous I wasn't going to shame Cleo by posting the photo.

Love actually fits quite well into Cleo's dress, so there might be some clothing sharing capable on the part of the Kuu Kuus. Although both lines have such distinctive clothing that I'm not sure many swaps would work aesthetically.

Love's clothes cannot be worn by Cleo.

Each Kuu Kuu Harajuku doll comes with a different child-sized accessory and four pop-in pieces, similar to the ones that came with the smaller action figures.

Love only has two places she can wear the pop-ins though. On the side of each boot and in one of her barrettes. I don't really care for the boot ones, so I put three of her pop-ins into the bracelet for storage. The silver ones are an alien and Love's head and the pink one in the bracelet is a mushroom.

I love the pink atom-shaped one, so that ended up in her barrette.

Overall, I think this is an adorable, well-designed line. I love the shorter hair on almost all the girls, even if it does render them unbrushable. I always pick style over brushing, because a) I'm not a hair person and b) even if I was, I can brush a five dollar Barbie. I don't need to brush everything. The faces are incredibly cute and I love the uniform-esque outfits. Also, definitely a fan of more dolls that can stand on their own!

On the con side, of course the biggest one is the quality control. Pick your dolls very carefully if you buy them in stores, and if you're disappointed in what Amazon sent, don't hesitate to mark it as defective, because it is, and send it back. And let Mattel know!

I'm not a big fan of the separate outfits except the one purple dress, so I probably won't get any just yet. I'd put Music in that dress, but I like the uniformity of the...well, uniforms, so I don't plan on redressing unless they release outfits I like more.

So now I'm just going to cross my fingers that the next Amazon delivery brings me a G and an Angel that I can actually add to my collection!

Monday, May 8, 2017

NEWS: Kuu Kuu Harajuku

Now Angel!

https://www.amazon.com/KuuKuu-Harajuku-Fashion-Angel-Doll/dp/B01N7KFK6W/

NEWS: Kuu Kuu Harajuku

G now available!

https://www.amazon.com/KuuKuu-Harajuku-Fashion-G-Doll/dp/B01MRZMBNS/

NEWS: Kuu Kuu Harajuku

LOVE is now in stock on Amazon! $19.99 for her. The five outfits are also in stock at $9.99 each.

Love:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N9JULZH/

No links for the outfits, because I'm lazy. Aaaaand totally stalking Amazon for the other four girls. Needless to say, I'll review her on Thursday when she arrives!

Friday, April 14, 2017

REVIEW: Kuu Kuu Harajuku figures

I still haven't watched Kuu Kuu Harajuku, but I can't help but love the designs of these toys. I have a few of the old perfume figures, but these are even cuter.

The five characters are available on Amazon for $5.99 apiece. Right now, they are add-on items, which means your order needs to be $25 or more to buy them. Easy enough, because you meet that if you buy all five.

Each figure comes with a child-sized ring in a different style, and several small charms that I can't help but wonder if they were inspired by Hasbro's Little Kingdom Disney figures, because that's exactly what they're like.

Each character has two holes on her skirt and one in each boot to place charms in. G has three holds in her headband, while the others have at least one hole in their hairdos.

G is the only figure to wear a charm in her skirt while packaged. That black bow is a charm.

All of them have at least one charm in their hair while packaged. The big black bow on the headband is another charm.

G's charms are the two black bows, red lips, a red megaphone, pink music notes, and a pink microphone.

The skirt and boots are removable on each figure. I love their giant feet! You know Bratz feet were always undersized for those huge heads. Well, Kuu Kuu Harajuku isn't afraid to give at least these figures whopping big feet.

G is the only one with stockings. The others all have bare legs.

Love has always been one of my favorites from the perfume figures to the original L.A.M.B. dolls.

She's my favorite of these new figures, too, although Music is a close second. Amusingly, those were my first two perfume figures.

Love's charms include a bear, a computer, a red heart and jellybeans (took me awhile to figure that one out).

Some of the girls have different charms from their prototype pictures on Amazon. G lacks the makeup on the figure, too. But G and Love both were shown with the charms they actually came with.

I gave Love the pink heart that came with Angel, because she needed more hearts.

Of the hearts in her hair, the bigger ones on either end are charms.

I think Love is going to be my favorite overall. She seems to be the smart one, a type I usually like. I really love the doll shown at Toy Fair, although again, Music is close second.

Angel is my biggest disappointment from the line, but it has nothing to do with the figure or character design. It's the fact that her prototype images on Amazon showed her with this adorable hamburger charm and she doesn't really come with it! That one was my fave of all the charms. Unless there are multiple charm options, which might be a possibility. I won't know until more people start taking pics of these girls.

Angel's charms are a pink guitar (shown without the yellow paint in her Amazon images), a bear purse, a little octopus (?), and a pink heart. The pink heart wasn't in the prototype pics. It was a little pink ray gun or hair dryer or something instead, so the heart is a nice change.

Angel's blue star and the biggest yellow stars in her hair are also charms.

I decided not to use the pink ones on her because they don't really go with her look. Love's got the pink heart and I gave Baby the bear purse.

The prototype pics showed her with a teal makeup line above her eyes, but the toy doesn't have that.

Ah, pretty little Music. I love her.

Like Angel, Music's Amazon photos show her with an extra charm. It's just a purple version of the pink music notes G comes with, so I'm okay with that being missing. Still not okay about the burger!

Music's charms are a purple bow, purple kitty ear headphones, a purple guitar and a pinky-purple...well, it looks like a cassette tape to me.

Thanks to her hair, Music's got a bit of a lean. The other girls stand straight pretty well, but not Music. Her hair is huge though and very obviously on one side, so it makes sense.

Music's hair decoration is another charm.

I struggled with her a bit, because the kitty headphones are too cute not to use, but they don't look right anywhere. They'd look best in her hair, but I'm not removing her trademark hair deco.

Last but not least is Baby.

Baby got the short end of the charm stick. She was shown with an extra one in her Amazon photos, but also, two of the ones she was pictured with are not here.

Baby's charms are a donut, a cloud, a mushroom and a...cake? I'm not sure.

But she was pictured with a cute bear and a green sushi roll on Amazon. Neither of those came with her and they were replaced by the ugly cake thing.

I gave Baby the bear purse from Angel's charms. I think it suits her more. The two little bows in her hair are also charms.

These girls are about 4-5" tall, depending on their hairstyles. Their arms are a very soft rubber, while their legs are a harder rubber. Heads and torsos are hard plastic.

They're a really cute little doll line and you can have fun switching around the charms. They're like amped up versions of the perfume figurines. I'm eagerly awaiting the actual dolls though!

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

NEWS: Kuu Kuu Harajuku

I was just looking for Kuu Kuu Harajuku on Amazon and I stumbled across some IN STOCK mini figures!

G:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N9JUJQC/

LOVE:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MT1AMYE/

ANGEL:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N2W5EN6/

MUSIC:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NCNTMAP/

BABY:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NCNRBNI/

They are all so amazingly cute! I happened to have money in my Paypal balance, so I ordered all five. I'll do a review once they arrive, hopefully on Friday.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

TOY FAIR 2017: Mattel (Part 4)

http://toyfair17.asmzine.com/gallery/mattel/showroom/index.html

I have to dash to work, but check these lovely photos out! DCSG, MH, Enchantimals, Barbie, American Girl, and Kuu Kuu Harajuku!