Featuring: Dragon Models Nie Feng Action Figure Part 1

Welcome to  the world of I cannot ever upload images correctly the first time on this computer. -.- So yeah, once again this will be a two-part post. Anyways, check out that box opening pic. What a box, right?

So this is Nie Feng, the 'Life Action Figure' of a character from the manhua (Chinese comic) Fung Wan, which was eventually made into a movie which was called The Storm Riders. I've not seen the movie, but when I saw that http://heyitsmuff.blogspot.com had listed him as her favorite purchase of the year I became interested.

This doll has been in his box since 1999, so the paint on his sword kind of decided to glue itself to his hand. I don't care much, because if he's holding the sword, the paint spots aren't visible, and in my doll world Nie Feng isn't even a warrior, he's a chef, ha ha. The only other quality problem he has is with his face. I think originally his lips were darker, but over time the paint has dissipated and turned the lower half of his face extra-red.

Eew. Stabby thing. Apparently it's pretty comic-accurate.

 Details on the evil stabby thing.

 His clothes are well made and quite soft. I don't know what the material is. His outer clothes fasten to him in like five different ways. A couple snaps, a tie around his waist, another tie on the inside...

 I accidentally broke these ties like right after the picture whoops.

 Is this still called a peanut joint when it's on an action figure? Whatever, he is SUPER ARTICULATED. Number one best articulated doll I own that isn't a BJD.

Sorry It looks like he's on the toilet, but for a while I didn't want to take his boots off (which I eventually had to remove with an exacto knife). His knees also have these extra joints. It's awesome.





His hair looks super cool, but makes his head pretty much always flop back. His abs are so shiny I can see my reflection in them! He's rather ripped, haha. He also has lateral movement in his upper torso and horizontal movement in the lower.











And this is why I changed my tumblr URL to dolly-butts yesterday. Always doll markings are on the behind. COPYRIGHT 1999 DRAGON MODELS LTD PATENT PENDING.

More photos to come in part 2.

Featuring: Dr. Yue Sai Wa Wa (and Son) Part 2

Aka, my mother's computer is old and slow.

It embarrasses the kid when his parents kiss, haha. I paired up Yue Sai and Nie Feng (who I have yet to review). I think they're cute together. c:

And this is why I'm considering changing my Tumblr URL to dolly-butts. q: Anyways, you can see the Yue-Sai marking and year of creation, 2001. The body mold is VERY similar to the Barbie dolls of *my* childhood, with the '67 mold horizontal twist waist and painted-on underwear. I thought the legs might be click-knee, and there is a hole in the feet where one would expect the wire to lay, but the legs are made of a rather stiff vinyl, and I didn't think it wise to force the legs further than they wanted to go. Which means this doll has six points of articulation (which is fine with me, because I hate click-knees).

While I speak of these feet, I'll note that her shoes aren't a perfect fit. They're the right size, but the angle of her arches don't line up with those of the shoes. Were this a problem that seriously bugged me, I think it could be solved with a spoon and some boiling water, but Yue-Sai is content to be propped up with a (conveniently sized) Monster High boy's stand. She can't stand on her lonesome anyways.

Her clothes are nicely made and feature the brand logo on the inside. I appreciate that everything is hemmed, because I fear silky fabrics are the most rapid to unravel. Yue Sai came with an extra top for when she doesn't want to be on-duty (which is never, because she loves her job so much).

I don't think a ton of effort was put in to making her have a certain coordinating, fashionable 'look' the way MH girls do (no where else in her outfit can one find that baby pink lipstick, nor do her shoes or purse match anything else she owns), but one has to keep in mind that when filling a massive gap in the doll market, one must work their way up from scratch. On that note, I feel like people have given Lammily a slam she doesn't deserve for the same reason. The first Barbie wasn't perfect. Yes, collectors look on her with reverence because she was first, but had those poodle bangs and the complete lack of articulation not been an original Barbie thing, and a doll with those features were released today, nobody would be impressed. Yue Sai has room for improvement, sure, but she is also a gorgeous doll I'm proud to have in my collection, not just for looks, but for what she represents.

That bottle is hilariously out of proportion, but yolo. None of my doll stuff is in proportion. I'm just tickled to death that her name is printed on her jacket. c:

And once again that is all of the pictures this computer will allow me to upload, whoop. I'll share some more pictures of her cute face some other time. ^^

-ER

Featuring: Dr. Yue Sai Wa Wa (and Son)

Deep in thought about the cardiovascular system.

Meet Dr. Yue-Sai!

To introduce her, I will steal an exerpt from Kan Yue-Sai's personal website (http://www.yuesaikan.com/wawa-dolls.html).

"In 2000, seeing as all dolls in China had blue eyes and blonde hair, Yue-Sai designed and produced a line of Asian female dolls, known as the Yue-Sai WaWa (“doll” in Chinese). Each doll has distinctive Asian features, accessories and educational facts, to help Asian children develop confidence, knowledge and pride in their heritage as well as educate children of all heritages about Asian cultures."

I picked Dr.Yue-Sai, because she is a pediatrician! (That is my goal job, and the reason my undergraduate major which I will begin this fall is in biological studies.) So basically, before even ordering this doll I biasedly loved her. Basically I am asking you to forgive the lack of objectivity in this post. (Then again, when is this blog ever objective?)

This is the little boy who came in the box! Isn't he cute? He doesn't have a name yet. His body and hands are plush, while his head is vinyl. People in the Amazon comments were complaining about this, but personally I think he is a cutie. Speaking of which, do not be fooled by eBay prices on this set. It is not yet "rare" or anything. Don't dish out $40 when you can get it on Amazon for $18.

Since she's a doctor, she came with doctory things. And apparently sideways pictures because I don't know how to work my mother's computer.

The baby book has actual pages for her to write in.^^









By far my favorite accessory is the herbal medicine cabinet. The back of the box explained it further, but basically Dr. Yue-Sai practices modern medicine while making use of herbal medicine of China's past. Having this in my doll accessories collection makes me so happy, and reminds me of my old home in Singapore, which was just a walk away from a Chinese herbal medicine shop. This accessory is made of a thick cardboard and is pretty sturdy.

Since she's a fashion doll, Dr. Yue-Sai couldn't forgo the heels, however impractical.

Apparently that is all the photos my mother's computer wants to upload. ._. I'm going to go ahead and publish this and try to edit it later.

And yes, today my tummy is feeling much better thanks to Dr. Yue-Sai!

Ciao,
-ER

Featuring: Licca Riku-Kun Japan Kindergarten Outfit

Hi.

I have a tummy bug. Don't feel up to writing.

There, 2000 words worth.

Japanese words.

So sick.

Family.

Riku so cute Heath cute daddy.

-ER

Featuring: Monster High Jane Boolittle

Jane Boolittle is a boo lotta shy. She can communicate with all animals, and is smashing gorgeous, too!

Ah, the Monster High box. My apologies if these images upload fuzzily. They were shot with a DSLR, but between the computer being physically incapable of uploading images to Blogger and having to transfer through Imgur and two iPad apps... I'm afraid they do lose a bit of their quality. Eventually I hope to find a remedy for this situation. Probably it will be a new computer. -.- Also, these are older photos I've been meaning to upload, whoops, so if the quality seems to be a digression from my latest post... That's because it is.

Jane is the adopted daughter of Doctor Boolittle and has a pet voodoo sloth named Needles, who is hecka cute.

So. Many. Plastic. Tags. Jane is probably the most complicatedly boxed doll I've opened as of late.

Now *that* is cute.

Hi Jane! I love the little paint dots beneath her eyes. The feather earrings are cute, too. Her full upper lip is unique to her and I love it. This is the only doll that purple eyebrows actually work on!

I LOVE the little crop top, although I've since traded her outfit with Frankie's.

I don't totally love this pink undershirt, but I donated it to another doll and it works, haha.

I'm not about to marry these shoes, either. Mostly becaus the color doesn't quite match any of the other blues in the outfit. The design is cool, though.

Hi Needles! His slothy arms are meant to hold on to Jane's shoulders for a slothy-back ride. ^^

Jane's staff is actually a marker. I keep thinking the now is upside down, but it actually has feathers out the top. Hello Kitty would be proud.

Heh, it's fun to play with.

Jane is a wonderful doll. I ship her with Heath (from my Home Ick set), hehe. Purple and yellow just go together! LSU... yeah. I'm not a big fan of her clothing, and like her accessories only selectively. I like her bracelets and earrings, but not necklace or shoulder... feathers... or shoes. Yeah.

Happy Easter!

-ER

Featuring: The Doll Factory Diana Collection Multicultural Boy- Asian

How can you not love that little face?

Meet Koda. He spent months on my dollie wishlist until the first of April or so when I finally decided it was time to try for him. I purchased him through http://www.dollfactorydirect.com, and there is something about the site that made me a little uneasy and worried that I might have been throwing my money down a rabbit hole. I can happily say his was not the case. A day or so after my purchase I recieved a shipping notification and my beautiful baby boy was on his way. Another hesitation of mine was due to an unfavorable review from http://wwww.toyboxphilosopher.com/2013/05/eurogirl-diana-collection-doll-by-doll.html in which the doll she reviewed (purchased from eBay, not DFD, iirc) had a strange reverse-mullet going on, and the hair couldn't be positioned any way other than in a ponytail. I'm also happy to report hat while Koda has one or two shortcomings as far as quality goes, on the whole he is very sturdy (but also soft and cuddly), and his appearance outshines the few problems he has.

Koda came wearing a traditional 长衫 (pronounced chang-shan). I'll interject here the bit of Chinese history I understand, but I don't have a degree in it, so don't like quote me. 长衫 literally translates to long shirt. This is the name for men's clothing only, whereas 汉服 (han-fu) refers to all clothing of the Han dynasty style. This style of clothing was worn for important functions and celebrations until the 1949 Communist revolution. Nowadays it has been brought back into (admittedly altered) style by Chinese-based companies such as Shanghai Tang (which is popular in Singapore and whose storefront occupies what is arguably one of the best locations down on Orchard). Basically this isn't an outfit Koda can go outside and play in. I'm afraid I'll snag he silky material for one, and for another he really just needs some play clothes. I'm not sure what size doll would be able to share clothes with him, as I don't own any others with his size or proportions. Most of my dolls near his size are female and are supposed to be pre-teen age.

The little details on his 长衫 are nice. The closing in the front is just for decoration and keeping with the traditional style. The back of the shirt has a large velcro strip along it's entire length.

He has tiny hands  and little baby hand-dimples.

His hands are quite detailed, and realistic, and really cute.

As are his little feet.

Hee hee, little butt.

His back has little dimples...

And his front has little baby chubb. I didn't want to remove his pants for this review, because he is just a little baby, but he is unsexed. His legs also have lots of adorable baby chubb.

His eyes are a nice, warm color, and speckled in pattern.

Semi-profile... the depth and detail of his eyes are not easy to capture on camera because they are so dark.

Profile. You can see the baby chubb below his chin.

Cute little ears.

Outie!

This is the only real problem with Koda. The rooting is a little thin on top.

But it stops halfway down his scalp. ._. 

So long as it is brushed properly, it doesn't make a difference and cannot be seen, but it feels a bit like giving him a comb-over. Maybe his hair is sparse because he is a baby and it hasn't grown in yet? Yeah, that's it. The other minor odd thing about Koda is that he came to me smelling weird. After asking Emily, the toybox philosopher whether her Diana Collection doll came smelling weird, to which she responded no, I *think* it is/was supposed to be a baby-perfume/powder smell. However. For all I know Koda has been sitting on a shelf in Royal Palm Beach in his plastic baggie, marinating in weird baby smell since 1998. Or he could be fresh off the boat from the manufacturer in China. There is no way of knowing. He also didn't arrive in any sort of proper box. Inside the USPS (or was it FedEx?) box was a bunch of packing peanuts that exploded all over my room, and Koda inside a clear plastic bag. I don't remember cutting it open to get him out, but I might have. There was also a clear plastic band around his head to keep his hair from being messed up in shipping.

Pardon my makeupless teenage face. Koda is a cutie. When he arrived, he didn't come with a name, so I started calling him Baby Bear and Little Bear until my boyfriend said something about the Brother Bear movie in response to me talking about him, thus the name Koda. If I ever get a big brother for him, the name will obviously have to be Kenai, hehe. 

In summary? Koda is a cutie and I love him. His vinyl(?) is really soft. There is a female version of this doll on the website, but she is currently sold out. The Doll Factory prides itself in having more affordable alternatives to American Girl dolls. In fact, a little research has shown that it is likely their most popular items for sale are clothing for 18" AG dolls at cut-rate prices. The problem with the prices being so low (Koda was $35, of which $8 was shipping, so... $27), is that it means they often cut corners, too, which impacts quality. If there is anything I've seen as a positive common trend in Diana Collection dolls (EuroGirls included), it is that they have wonderful face sculpts that are both expressive and adorable, very childlike. I think I had another point to make, but I've forgotten it and am now rambling.

Have a wonderful weekend!

-ER

Bonus Yui!