REVIEW: Boss Fight Strawberry Shortcake SOUR GRAPES

 
I thought I'd reviewed Boss Fight's Lime Chiffon, but I guess I didn't? I dunno. Anyway, I got my hands on Sour Grapes and she is fabulous. 

The biggest detractor of this line is the price, so I'm really picky about who I get. Sour Grapes and the Pieman, who I skipped, are $46. 

Don't get me wrong, there's quality here and a lot of pieces, but that's still a lot. 

She has two different heads, four hands, two versions of Dregs (YES), a pile of money, and a jam jar. 

She also has a stand and a basket. 

The stand is not my favorite. She tipped over so many times while waiting for me to have the time to take pictures. It should have been a bit bigger.

Dregs though in his iconic vintage pose. LOVE. 

Oh, and that translucent cape is a separate piece that likes to fall off. 

 Side view. Check out that hair. 

She is stunning. 

I love her. 

I still have my childhood one and she was one of my favorite SSC pieces. 

So is she worth the money? 

Quality-wise, I'd give it a maybe. 

Nostalgia-wise, a definite yes. 

And she smells AMAZING. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.

Five Below SSC Fashions

 

All righty, I am getting around to doing some reviews to distract myself. We had to say goodbye to my oldest dog yesterday morning, so I've not been in the greatest frame of mind. Tuesday was hard because it was the last day and yesterday was obviously harder. I've not been sleeping well. I think I've channeled a lot of my feelings into writing motivation, so my sleep hours have been all screwed up because I don't like to stop writing when I'm really motivated. Pre-dawn hours have been my most productive, but I'm definitely going to regret that this weekend unless I can switch my sleep schedule fast. (I doubt it. Coffee is a BFF for a reason.)

Anyway! I got the Strawberry Shortcake theme fashions from Five Below. Love that these were only $3.25. 

I didn't take any pics of them in their packaging. Each pack has two full outfits, though only one pair of shoes. The Blueberry Muffin pack is the only one where I didn't have a model for the boring second dress, so I'm just showcasing this outfit. I love it on this doll. She looks super cute. 

The Lemon Meringue pack looks great on these two. 

The dress has a matching scrunchy that she's wearing, but it's not really visible. 

This one had a fanny pack accessory. Directly into the trash. 

And the Orange Blossom pack. This one had an ugly hat. Not into the trash, but definitely not to be worn. 

I like both of these pieces, but the girl on the left would have suited a Strawberry pack much better. She needed out of her ugly Fashionista clothes though. 

The shoes are for high-heeled feet, so girl on the left is without. I need to dig out my shoe bag and see if I have anything that will fit her. 

I'd love to see Five Below do more fashion packs. These are cute and you can't beat $3.25. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine. 

REVIEW: TLS Toy's Strawberry Shortcake CheeBees Series 2

 I caved and got the new series of Strawberry Shortcake figures on ebay. Without a Five Below anymore, I have no other way to go and last series, they were horrible at putting them up online until months after they first came out. These new ones have some favorites, so I was more impatient this time. 

And honestly, work has been so hard lately that I deserve to splurge a little. 

So! Blueberry Muffin is one of my favorites from the earliest SSC characters. Pretty much her, Raspberry and Lime. I'm always happy when she's included. She's adorable here as always and she smells great. 

The younger characters are the ones I care about least, but I do still own my childhood Cherry. I definitely hope to see Apricot next series. She's my favorite of younger cast. 

Cherry's scent really reminds me of the dolls, so that's a big plus. 

So excited to see some of the international friends! They're my faves of all. I really hope they do Cafe Ole and my absolute fave, Crepe Suzette, next time. 

Mint is darling, but she has a weird smell. It reminds me of lavender, which is definitely neither mint nor tulip. 

Almond was who I had in mind to be my fave from this set. Adorable and smells great. 

I don't care for the glitter chase figures, but when I saw hers, I had to grab her. I like the odd split coloring. It's not as obvious with Blueberry, Strawberry or Mint, who are the other chase figures. 

And here is my surprise actual favorite! Don't get me wrong, I prefer Almond Tea in my overall list of SSC faves, but for this series of figures, Angel Cake is hands down the cutest one. And she smells good, too.

THE CUTEST. 

She's a little tippy, but she's still perfect. 

That catches me up with the SSC figures. I rewarded myself for getting through the weekend by grabbing the main six Rainbow Brite figures off Mercari. That only leaves Buddy and Canary, and honestly, I have no real hope of getting them. I'm disappointed TLS decided to make main characters so rare in a line that's already hard to find because not all of us have a Five Below. But I'm very relieved they didn't choose any of my faves to make rare!

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine. 

REVIEW: TLS Toy's Recent Rainbow Brite & Strawberry Shortcake Additions

I was supposed to get this package on my birthday on the 30th. We got water and power back instead, which was definitely a better gift! 

Amazon took the longest to recover from the hurricane, so I ended up ordering these dolls from Big Bad Toy Store. 

I didn't take any out of box shots of Stormy, but she's lovely. 

Poseable Stormy is also fantastic. 

Has anyone gotten anything other than the headband? I haven't seen anyone with other accessories. I think there's a vest and maybe boots?

 

The headband is actually really cute on her, though I don't like that it blocks her colored braid. 

Love her hair. 

And I love her!

So cute!

Okay, now where are Indigo and Lala? Then my faves will be complete.

Here's Tickled Pink. 

Love the purse. I wish they changed up the lunchbox colors like SSC did though. 

I think this looks better on her than Rainbow's did. 

I love this line so much. I can't wait for the rest!

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine. 

REVIEW: TLS Toy STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE Micro Figures

It was so great to come home from a rough workday to get to open these tiny cuties. 

I ordered a case of the Strawberry Shortcake micro figures from Big Bad Toy Store. I also ordered Rainbow Brite, which are in a different post. 

Each case has 12 packs of 2 figures, so 24 figures total. 

They are truly blind. I couldn't find any markings of any sort that would be codes. They're also packaged in tiny black plastic bags, so seeing through them is impossible. 

I have not photographed them in the order I pulled them out, but I will be listing my case placement. 

Each case seems to have the full common character set, plus 2 rare, 1 ultra rare, and 7 doubles of common characters. Being that there are multiple rares and ultra rares, each case may very well be different. 

TOP layer of 6 packs:

Left Front: Custard, Purple Pieman (Rare)

Left Middle: Blueberry Muffin, Crepe Suzette

Left Back: Huckleberry Pie, Almond Tea

Right Front: Ginger Snap (Rare), Blueberry Muffin (double)

Right Middle: Mint Tulip, Strawberry Shortcake alternate outfit (Ultra Rare)

Right Back: Lime Chiffon, Pupcake

BOTTOM layer of 6 packs:

Left Front: Raspberry Tart, Strawberry Shortcake

Left Middle: Lime Chiffon (double), Apple Dumplin'

Left Back: Custard, Pupcake

Right Front: Mint Tulip (double), Peach Blush

Right Middle: Lemon Meringue, Huckleberry Pie (double)

Right Back: Almond Tea (double), Orange Blossom 

PICTURED: Apple Dumplin, SSC alternate outfit, SSC, Custard

Raspberry Tart, Blueberry Muffin, Lime Chiffon, Peach Blush, Lemon Meringue, Orange Blossom

My faves!

Crepe Suzette, Almond Tea, Mint Tulip

Pupcake, Huck, Ginger Snap, Purple Pieman

These are scented, though they don't all succeed. A lot of the issue is that some are very faint compared to others. These seven have my favorite scents. 

Pupcake, Crepe and Custard all smell like sweet baked goods. Custard is the strongest and best of the three. 

Ginger Snap smells amazingly like a spicy cookie. She's one of my two favorite scents of the set. 

Almond Tea is my other favorite. I'm not sure how to describe her scent. I don't get almond from it, but tea is definitely there and something else. 

Huck and Pieman both also smell great and pretty similar. 

Some of them I barely I got a scent off at all. The citrusy ones are kinda sharp, but not as good as the SDCC citrus ones were. I didn't get any mint off Mint Tulip and you'd think that would be easy. 

For this set, unlike Rainbow Brite, I definitely want the ones I'm missing. While I like the alternate outfit SSC, I would really have preferred Sour Grapes or Plum for my ultra rare. And the rare Angel Cake is a must have. I'll have to track those three down. 

Here are my doubles from this case. 

I'm not 100% sure I want to part with Almond, but the others I would. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine. 

REVIEW: SDCC Strawberry Shortcake

For SSC, they released Plum a bit early. I don't think this version is exclusive in any way. 

Blueberry and Orange should be the next two releases. 

Stickers are the same as Strawberry's. 

I believe they took notes from our complaints, because there is no denying that this doll is SCENTED. She smells great. 

I'm not sure what the blind items are. I think all Plums have the comb and Elderberry Owl. I've seen a purse that looks like grapes, so that's probably the alternate of the lunchbox. I love the composition book and I'm thrilled I got it. I'm assuming its alternate is a food item. 

With the original. (Not sure whose shoes mine has. She came that way in the box.)

Both Plums have permanent glasses. The vintage are molded, and the new version has them glued on. Interesting choice. 

The SSCs also get a mini set. 

That is Huck in blue, not Blueberry. 

Again, they made the right decision. These are SCENTED. Each has an appropriate smell. I can't tell if Lemon and Orange smell different but at least they both smell citrusy. 

Can't wait for more from both of these lines!

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.

REVIEW: TLS Toy Strawberry Shortcake 5.5" Doll

I was berry surprised to see TLS Toy's SSC doll actually show up in stock on Walmart.com. (One pun. Only the one. I promise.) For $12.97, I grabbed her, even though I initially was only going to get my fave SSC characters and Strawberry herself has never been one of them. 

Same format as the Rainbow Brite doll. You're supposed to punch open the spaces on the back and pull out the surprises inside, kinda like Hairdorables. 

Once again, I didn't do this. 

I do want to have a quick word on the surprises. I honestly didn't watch any reviews or really pay attention to the more recent pictures, because I wanted my first impressions of these to be of my own dolls. So it was only recently that I noticed that there are several DIFFERENT surprises. 

For Rainbow Brite, her lunchbox can be yellow, red or blue. The headband I got is only one of three options. The other two are a fabric skirt or a pair of fabric legwarmers and a pair of sandals. Now I definitely do not think it's fair that the choices are one plastic piece, one fabric piece, or two plastic pieces AND two fabric pieces. Those are not items of the same value, let's say. However, I honestly don't think any of them look good on the doll. I'll never use that headband. The legwarmers and sandals looked really silly with Rainbow's dress. The skirt was the best one, in my opinion, because it resembled the vintage dress-up Rainbow outfit, but I still doubt I would have put it on her ever. But still. Point is that the surprises are not of equal value and that kinda sucks. 

Now for SSC, it's much harder to see all the options. Try looking at the SSC tag on Instagram. It's a lot wider scope than Rainbow Brite. From what I can tell, they all come with the little berry comb and Custard the cat. They better all come with the pet. Seriously. That would not be the thing to swap out. I got this little berry purse. Other people got lunchboxes. (I would rather have had the lunchbox.) I got a plate of strawberry shortcake, which is cute, but others got a basket of strawberries. Again, would rather have had that. 

So yeah, I really don't care for this blind surprise aspect of the line. It's so unnecessary. It's one thing for it to be the color of a lunchbox, but I think all the dolls should come with basically the same accessories. What, now I have to wonder if my Lala Orange will have the short skirt or the boa? Or if all the Color Kids will get their sprite purses? Because I saw other purse options. Lala has an orange purse (fruit, not color), Patty has a frog, Stormy has a cloud. I think I saw Tickled Pink with a headband on in some older pics. 

Anyway, okay, rant over. Moving on.

She's very cute. 

Time for Rant #2. 

Yeah, I can't just be happy these exist and not be critical. Sorry. It's not me. 

Across all of SSC's different reincarnations, what's the one thing that's stayed constant aside from the baking/food theme? 

THEY'RE SCENTED. 

The smell is so nostalgic for a lot of people. However, no matter what the front of the box says, this doll is NOT strawberry scented. Both my mom and I gave her several sniffs. There's a slight sweet smell on her hair that's...sort of cakey? I'm guessing they tried to make a strawberry shortcake smell instead of just going for strawberry and it backfired. It also backfired in that these dolls were never very subtle. Put on your neon 80s big kid pants, TLS Toy, and just go for it with the scents. Do not be shy. This is not the place for it. 

I grabbed one of my Altaya dolls instead of vintage for the comparisons. They're a little easier to redress. 

Very poseable. (Let the Robot Chicken flashbacks commence.)

TLS's is a little taller with bigger feet.  

Rainbow is by far the sturdier of the two. 

And here she is. I would have done a pet comparison, but my Custard is in my storage closet. I'm also not taking that hat off, so I left it tacked on. 

Overall, she's cute. I prefer my vintage ones and Altayas though. I'm disappointed in the smell and not getting the accessories I would have preferred. If I can get them all for this price, I'd consider collecting the whole line. Otherwise, I may be picky. 

I'm definitely more a fan of the Rainbow Brite line. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.