Anybody interested in an incredibly stylish Steffi Love Fashion Boutique playset? There's one on ebay with a fairly reasonable starting bid, but the shipping to Sweden is ridiculous so I'm leaving it for you guys. Just look at it:

(Sorry for borrowing the pic)

Black and white and not the slightest bit pink. I hope it's as awesome as it looks - if you win it, please post pics.

While you've got your wallet out, you can also buy this absolutely ridiculous Steffi Love Spongebob Squarepants fashion set, which... honestly, I don't know. It looks like the kind of fashion set that would have words like CHIC and CITY on the package, except it's Spongebob. Would you wear it? I would, but probably not to a meating at the bank.

Or to that fancy fashion boutique for that matter.

I have no idea whether it's new or old, but there's another one that looks slightly more like you'd expect a Spongebob Squarepants outfit to look like. But where's the fun in that?

Alright, that's today's window shopping. I actually found something pretty cool at goodwill last week that I'll try to put together a post about as soon as I've taken a few photos of it.

EAH Maddie - polka dots, yukatas and more glue

For all my complaining about Mattel, it turns out all it takes for me to come crawling back is a decent sale.

The other day I found out completely by accident that both major toy store chains had been having a complete clearance on their EAH stuff for like two weeks. Mentally kicking myself for not religiously checking the website of every toy store every morning for this kind of things, I rushed to TRU. Of course the shelves were pretty bare by then, and there was no sign of Cerise Hood, BUT they had a few Maddies left.
I always wanted a signature Maddie (polka dot tights! teacup shoes!), but with her blue glove hands she's kind of stuck in her default outfit, and to me a doll doesn't feel like a proper doll unless you can redress it. I had some kind of idea that if I got a signature Maddie. I'd have to get the Getting Fairest Maddie too just for her hands, and at regular price that's just ridiculous. So I'm really glad I stumbled across this sale, because this was probably the only time in the history of the world when I could comfortably afford both of them!

Maddies. The coveted gloveless hands are locked in my safe.

Also, for some reason there were loads of Apple Whites left - is she widely regarded as the least favorite doll? Maybe they just overstocked.  I'm tempted to go back for her just for the extra shoes and outfit, but I think that's just my hoarding tendencies talking.


Now, the glue situation:

Signature Maddie, made in Indonesia: quite glue-y. Some had even seeped out of her head around the plastic tab and soaked the cardboard, which is actually the first time it's happened to me. This makes me kind of sad because I like her crazy candy hair, and she has the best sausage curls of the two.

Ew.

GF Maddie, made in China: only slightly glue-y, but not clear. Her head isn't quite as hard, but there's a definite stickiness to the roots. Sigh. I find myself thinking "oh great, it's not that sticky", but... remember when doll hair had ZERO stickiness?

I haven't decided what to do yet, but since I've got two I think I'll sacrifice The Stickiest for a reroot (even though that means getting into close contact with the glue) and see how that turns out. Sticky hair makes me want to put the doll away in a drawer and never touch it again, and that's no fun. For now, signature Maddie and her glue is quarantined in the packaging material (glass coffin?) until I feel like dealing with her, and GF Maddie is running around freely with her relatively glueless hair. She's a bit shorter than the other MH/EAH dolls so I'm still trying out clothes for her. This Re-ment yukata is a bit too big and not really her style, but it has polka dots and that's all that matters.


Speaking of doll yukatas, Daiso has new ones in a cute pink/white/blue heart print, fitting ~21cm dolls (this japanese blog has some good pics). They're dollar store quality and not really worth the markup on ebay, but FoundInJapan (where I got mine) is a bit cheaper if you go with the cheapest shipping option. I'm trying not to buy any more doll things this month, so I'm telling you about it instead.

Everybody loves Mattel's greasy glue

And when I say "loves", I mean "googles solutions for".

As I was looking at my blogstats the other day I noticed my post about Mattel's greasy hair problem topping the list of daily pageviews yet again. This has been happening a lot recently, so I thought I'd check the pageviews for all time. I found something pretty interesting:

Those are my top five most popular posts ever, with Mattel and their godawful glue as the undisputed winners.

They show up in the search strings as well: 

In the all time top keywords...

...and top keywords for the last month.

Congrats, Mattel! You win everlasting shame and dishonor.

Every time I see this post at the top of my weekly visitors count, I'm reminded that I don't actually have a good way of dealing with the head glue, and that I don't know what's in it or whether it's a health hazard or not. It's a source of worry that's taken a lot of the fun out of buying new Mattel dolls, and frankly I'm feeling less and less inclined to do so.

In the last year or so, almost all new Barbies I've bought have been body donors for older, glue-less heads (and sometimes I've still had to scrub glue off the neck disk). There are some great faces in the 2015 lineup, but from what I heard the glue is still in there (although I think I read somewhere that it's a new type that's slightly less likely to seep out?) and I'm not sure I want to buy the undercut flocking girl or "albino Artsy" with her big curly hair, only to dread the day the stickiness will inevitably appear and ruin the hair.

I'm not swearing off modern Mattel dolls forever, but... a hobby is supposed to be fun. Sticky glue head syndrome isn't.

In case you're wondering where I've gone...

...well, I haven't gone anywhere, really. I've just not been in the mood for writing long blog posts lately, but even when I'm not blogging I'm still taking way too many photos and putting them on Flickr. So if, for some reason, you're dying to know what my latest goodwill find is, that's the place to look. :)