I am always in trouble, when the Pokémon Center announces any releases related to the nine eeveelutions. So it was kind of a shock, when I read their announcement of their big event, which would bring back merchandise for all nine cuties at once. The main pieces of merchandise was the release of the new Pokémon Dolls, which I already own an Alolan Vulpix of. Deciding was pretty hard, but since I love pink and baby blue, Sylveon was basically a sealed deal from the beginning. Since a lot of past Leafeon releases looked kind of derpy, I was blown away by its cuteness and so these sweet creatures became part of my Poké-posse! 🙂
Gashapon: One Piece Nyan Piece Mascots
Gashapon are one of my favorite things about Japan! I would love to be able to walk down the street and check out the new toys in the capsule machines. Furthermore there is no stigma involved that these tiny toys are only for children, which explains why you can get toys from all sorts of franchises.
Today I am going to write about a gashapon series from one of my favorite anime. For years I was not interested in One Piece at all, but now I am up to date with the manga and I am always catching up with the anime. Due to its huge popularity in Japan, there are regular One Piece gashapon releases, but in January Bandai totally hit it out of the park with this adorable and creative Nyan Piece Mascots series. If anybody important at Bandai is reading this: I would absolutely not mind having a second series with more characters! Continue reading Gashapon: One Piece Nyan Piece Mascots
My Dolly Week #18: Summer’s Heat & Fashionable Blythes
Welcome everybody to another My Dolly Week on my blog. Summer is my least favorite season and it really is a shame because my birthday in August is coming up. >< Still, it is hard to embrace my destiny and love a time period that causes me such discomfort. Speaking of birthdays: My fiancé turned 30 years old last week. And we are going to have two parties today, which I am super looking forward to. 🙂
My dolls are in the middle of moving to a cooler place. It is so hot right now in my living room and so they are all going to live in the bedroom during the summer. Normally, my shelves are always changing because I like to try and spend equal time with each doll as much as I can. Speaking of which, I have not shown my Blythe dolls much in recent weeks. Thanks to social media I fell in love with the kitty rompers from PlasticFashion, which are hard to come by. Everything by them is literally selling out instantly like hot cakes and Instagram is your best bet to catch one of their creations, since the account gets updated everytime, new items are available. I got lucky one day and was fast enough to order two rompers in the span of a few hours. They are made to fit the Takara Tomy Neo-Blythe stock body perfectly and are even cuter in real life. My girls, Blythie Minoru Shiraishi and Lola Akira (I might love Lucky Star a little bit too much), are thrilled to wear the latest Blythe fashion! Continue reading My Dolly Week #18: Summer’s Heat & Fashionable Blythes
Petit Chara Land: Sailor Moon ‘Three Lights’
This is my second post about a Megahouse Sailor Moon Petit Chara release. Click here, if you are interested in the Sailor Moon Yukata Special!
Another limited release from 2016 is this four piece set, which includes characters from the last Sailor Moon season, Sailor Stars, from the 90ies anime. Being a limited release the figures come in a special night blue cardboard box with shiny foliage silhouettes of the Sailor Starlights on its lid. Inside the box, the figures are protected by foam and they also come with their own stands. Most of the time, Petit Chara-stands are designed differently for each individual figure, but in this case, they are all the same. They are a dark matte navy with the golden Starlights-symbol and stars on it. Continue reading Petit Chara Land: Sailor Moon ‘Three Lights’
My Dolly Week #17: Blanche arrived, Pullip Eternal Sailor Moon & Pullip characters!
Welcome to another Dolly Week on Komonogatari! 😀 This week I have been away for a few days, but that did not stop me from getting some quality time with my dollies and there were some amazing announcements this week, which I am tremendously looking forward to!
First of all, Pullip Blanche arrived this week. I was pretty lucky to get her brand new in great condition, even though she is on a type 3-body, which are prone to be quite fragile and easy to crack especially at the wrists. Two stones fell out of her beautiful earrings, but they were securely sliding around in her box and it won’t be a hard task to glue them back in. Blanche, who I renamed Orphelia, is a stunning release. I cannot help feeling extremely lucky that she joined my family. I already love her so much! When I realised that her outfit had a lot in common with Pullip Princess Serenity, I had to make a picture of my cuties, put it on Instagram and I was quite happy and proud that it started trending under #pullip and made it to second place. I did not write on Instagram about it, but please note that I am very thankful for every support and love to share dolly love!
Actually, the more time I am spending with my dolls, the more they are getting their own characters and backstories. One day I wanted to change up Carlie’s hair and as it turns out, she is the type of girl that looks amazing in two braids. She can even wear this knitted beanie (from KukiDolls) in summer and looks amazing. I never until now knew that Carlie is an artist, who loves to paint, play guitar and play with kitties. We definitely got to know each other better this week! Continue reading My Dolly Week #17: Blanche arrived, Pullip Eternal Sailor Moon & Pullip characters!
Review: Pullip Premium Kiyomi Mint Ice Cream Ver.
Everybody that knows a little bit about Groove Inc.’s Pullip release history, knows how much Groove loves to bring out recolored versions of their dolls. In early 2016 Pullip Kiyomi Mint Ice Cream Ver. was released, a recolored version of the original 2012 Kiyomi from the Beary Fairy series. Next to being a recolored version of an older release, which had been long sold out, Groove also called Mint Ice Cream Kiyomi part of a new Pullip Premium series. Until now there have been two more Pullip Premium releases, both recolored versions, Romantic Alice Monochrome and Veritas Deep Crimson. Continue reading Review: Pullip Premium Kiyomi Mint Ice Cream Ver.
My Dolly Week #16: My Dolls are S-P-O-I-L-E-D!
Welcome everybody! Last week I had a really good dolly week! I focused mainly on new outfits for my lovelies that I shared on my Instagram. It really helps me unwind to get somebody a new look and to combine different components of unused stock pieces. My most favorite photograph of last week is this one from Ruri. It was inspired by this lovely beret from It’s MY Caprice that really made my heart jump due to its prettiness. To give her an exuberant French style, I rediscovered Pullip Clara’s fancy dress and Myra’s light pink faux-fur cape. Her socks are the ones she arrived in and I rarely change her out of them, since they have the most perfect mauve color. Since she is on an obitsu body, her feet are a little bigger than Pullip’s type 4 body and most of my shoes unfortunately don’t fit her. I am still waiting for her new shoes and will buy a bunch of obitsu shoes in Japan, but for now she is happy in these Hello Cool Cat shoes, which are a favorite of mine. They come in a lot of different colors and are out of very nice quality!
Another new outfit came for my Pullip Chloi. It also is from It’s MY Caprice and not only do I love all the beads, sequins and beautiful turquoise fabric, its name Ariel only managed to draw me in further. I mentioned how much I am looking forward to going back to Tokyo Disney Sea and my favorite spot there is the Mermaid Lagoon at night! Together with her fitting flower crown, she perfectly embodies the warmer seasons for me. Wouldn’t Summer also be a beautiful name for her? Continue reading My Dolly Week #16: My Dolls are S-P-O-I-L-E-D!
Yotsuba &! Figure Collection vol. 1
Sometimes everything is going backwards: The second volume of the Yotsuba &! figure collection showed me, what I would be missing out on, if I would not acquire the original collection as well. It’s nice to have full sets and matching reviews, so let’s get started with this amazing and lovely release!
1) SIT SQUARE
The first Yotsuba is a set out of two pieces, since the green pillow Yotsuba is supposed to sit on, comes separately. One side is completely flat, but the other side is moulded to fit her legs; so there is no wobbling around. Her pose on the pillow is absolutely perfect. I know how hard it is to sit like that for a long time; I experienced it during a tea workshop on a farm near Kyoto, where I had to change my sitting position because my legs had gone completely numb. What I absolutely loved about the second volume also applies here: Yotsuba’s head is fully moveable and her sweet expression makes my day!
2) PUSH
This figure has pretty much the same facial expression that the Suspend figure from the second volume has. The only difference is Yotsuba’s open mouth, which shows how much strength she is putting into pushing something. You can move her head a little bit, but be careful: I moved her head a little bit too much to one side and it suddenly came right off! No worries, thankfully it was also really easy to put it back on!
3) CLIMB
Climb is an adorable figure through and through! She is supposed to be put on your cup or bowl and her design perfectly holds its promise and Yotsuba is holding her pose on your dishware! Often figures are promised to stay on your cups, but fall right off. In this case, she is securing herself with both hands and one leg. Her expression looks a bit worried, but who wouldn’t be worried dangling from a cup like that?! You can move her head a little bit, but this pose does not leave her head much space to be moved.
4) DRAW
Yotsuba drawing on the floor is absolutely darling! I love that her little white socks are in the air and how she is concentrating on the invisible piece of paper in front of her. She is holding a tiny black pencil in her right hand and you can freely move her head in each direction! I imagine that this figure would be especially sweet, if you would make a little drawing for Yotsuba herself and give it to her to finish it! 😉
5) SLEEP
Costume change! Yotsuba’s PJ’s are so, so cute in light blue with mauve colored details on collar, sleeves and buttons. After a long day she is completely spaced out and the only thing she still manages to do, is to move her head to the left and the right. It is hard to pick a favorite out of the bunch, but I cannot help myself to pick sleeping Yotsuba!
When comparing this figure volume with the second one, I would say that they perfectly compliment each other. The sleeping Yotsuba pretty much makes this whole set so worth it for me, but every figure is out of amazing quality and I can recommend it very much! When comparing the facial expressions, I would have to say that I like the second volume a teensy bit more. Hopefully my posts can help you to make up your mind! 🙂
Which figure volume do you prefer? Thank you so much for reading!
Theri
My Dolly Week #15: Tired, but optimistic!
Welcome to my 15th post of My Dolly Week! Last week was pretty busy and still I get the feeling that I did not get enough done. I got to meet my best friends and celebrated the seventh anniversary with my fiancé. I am pretty tired and the heat outside is not exactly helping, so this is going to be a pretty rambly post!
From a dolly perspective, I was mostly thankful for all the beautiful dolls I have collected so far. A very special doll is Pullip Kühn. I still have to write up a review about her and so I colorfasted her stock and displayed her in it since then. Although her stock outfit is unique, original and high quality, there is just so much more to her beautiful face and dark brown wig. Changing things up is fun and this especially applies to the doll hobby. I feel that keeping dolls in their stock and admiring them is fine, but now that I actually interact more with my collection to find out, what suits each girl individually, it is much more fulfilling!
It is still surreal for me to see Ruri in my collection. She makes me so happy and last week she got her first sets of clothes. I am so looking forward to her pair of shoes and hope they will fit her feet. 😀 I will keep you updated, when everything is here in form of a big photo shoot. It’s going to be a lot of fun!
When it comes to using my lightbox, I am still ambivalent. The lighting is great, but I am struggling a bit with the way the backgrounds look. It feels like everythings needs more character. It would be super helpful to get some feedback; what do you guys think of the picture of Elodie above?! Continue reading My Dolly Week #15: Tired, but optimistic!
Japan: Stationary Heaven (Part 2/2)
This is the second and final post (for the time being) about Japanese stationary. Here is part 1 and I hope, you will enjoy reading!
Pens
Japanese pens are, simply put, a dream. I especially love gel pens. I got two favorites: The Juice up pens from PILOT, which I own in a 10 pack with standard colors, a 6 pack solely with metallics and the loveliest 6 pack with pastels! The pastels are beautiful and unique: If you can only get one set of gel pens, I highly recommend these pastel colored ones! I got them from Tokyu Hands.
Furthermore I love my UNI Style Fit 5 color gel pen, which has a special Little Twin Stars collaboration cover. The colors I chose are their prettiest pinks, violets and a luscious grass green. The quality is outstanding and I love how smooth these pens basically glide on their own. Another great product are FRIXION pens, which some of you might already know. I love my three color pen, which has a black, blue and red color. Their speciality is that their ink can be erased with the plastic on top of the pen. A nice addition is that the casing of these pens comes in different colors. Of course I chose turquoise! Pentel ENERGEL Liquid Gel Ink pens are also a successful Japanese import, meaning that even I can get them in stores here in the middle of Europe. They are amazing and I can only recommend them. Still, I can save up to a third, if I buy them directly in Japan. Another pen I love and that comes with three colors (black, red and blue) is from JETSTREAM. They are nice, when you need super precise fine lines! Dr. Grip, here in a KIKI’s Delivery Service version, has lots of collaborations with character goods. It gets its name from its thick rubber band that goes all around the pen to prevent your hand from getting stiff or hurting. My last pen is probably my most expensive one (about 2000 Yen, if I remember correctly) from Tombow JAPAN. This pen writes such delicate lines that you have to be very aware of your hand motions, since it notices basically verything and is therefore not very forgiving. It is a pen that is best used for your finest handwriting and not for your spontaneous ideas! Continue reading Japan: Stationary Heaven (Part 2/2)