Walking the Toy Aisle

My mom and I went to Toys R Us today. The last few visits have been lackluster, with nothing new to show off. However, this time we actually saw some pretty exciting things! You can tell the store is ramping up for Christmas! We’ll start off with the good.

Regal Academy, manufactured by Auldey Toys, is based on an Italian cartoon of the same name. The cartoon has since aired in the US, Canada and other regions. It follows the grandchildren of fairy tale characters. (Something tells me in 20 years, we’ll be seeing series that are based on the great, great, great, great, great grandchildren of popular fairy tale characters!)

The budget dolls have knee joints, but no elbows. The deluxe dolls look to have elbow and knee joints. And then, there’s a singing doll that, you guessed it, sings. She has no elbow articulation. My mom picked up Joy, the granddaughter of LeFrog, for review (doll seen above). Not in the aisles were the two boy dolls. I’m looking forward to seeing them!

Luvabeau is the boy doll in the Luvabella line by Spin Master. Luvabeau is cuter than his female counterpart, I think. This is a doll line that can come off as creepy very easily. I’m interested in seeing how people react to it. At $100.00, it’s a bit pricey, but this baby has a lot of technology inside that allows him to interact with you or your child, as well as learn. (Kind of like a human Furby.) It would take a massive sale or a free sample for me to review him, though. The price is just too high for me!

Mattel’s Kuu Kuu Harujuku finally made it to our store! I think these are pretty cool looking. I like the faces on this doll line and the articulated bodies. My mom picked up one for review. You’ll see it on her channel soon!

Holy Growth Spurt, Batman! Look at this super tall DC Superhero Girls Bat Girl doll from Jakks Pacific! There are other Superhero girls in this size, including Wonder Woman. Not only does she tower above her smaller counterpart (seen on the left of the photo), but she matches Monster High’s Gooliape in height!

These cute and colorful animals, Squeezoos, are total impulse buys, but how cute are they! I love the design and bright color scheme. So kawaii! They’re from MGA and come in both small and large sized products. The giggling pink bear and the blue elephant are both really big compared to the smaller light up figures.

I could see myself collecting Glimmies from Just Play. They’re tiny, but kind of adorable. Alongside the figures, you can buy play sets!

This Disney Princess Little Kingdom gift set is too expensive, but for the person who has none of the figures, it could make a great Christmas present. I prefer the Little Kingdom line to the fashion dolls coming out of Hasbro.

The DC Toddler dolls have hit stores! I showed them off earlier in my Blogger Bash coverage. I still think they’re the cutest toddler dolls to come out of Jakks Pacific.

This toy puts on quite a show if you ‘test’ it while walking the aisles. We recommend trying it out next time you’re at Toys R Us.

The Toy Box exclusives were in a bin at our local Toys R Us. They’re not toys I would actually buy, though the water art is pretty cool. Mostly, seeing these made me wonder what or how My Ballerina Dolls would have changed had they won the first season of The Toy Box. ABC green lit a second season of the toy based reality show and has made some big changes. Some of which, I might add, I suggested here in a blog post. They cut the (useless) adult mentors out completely and are going with just the kids opinions this time around. Let’s hope they take my other suggestion of choosing a ‘theme’ for each week’s entries, too. It’s not fair to put a doll against a sports toy against a STEM toy.

I love this Project Mc2 doll and it’s theme. I want to make fairy wings for her! I also quite like the purple hair and headpiece. It’s very earthy. MGA did good with this doll release (and product line).

You don’t know how much I want to see FurReal’s Roaring Tyler in action. If he’s anything like Hasbro’s Torch, he’ll be awesome, I’m sure. I wonder if he pounces? How cute would that be? Note to self: Must search videos of him out on YouTube.

So, that’s a lot of good, but alas, there was also some bad in the toy aisles. Unfortunately, all of it comes from Mattel’s Monster High.

Let’s talk about Twyla. Twyla had an awesome ‘oddness’ about her pre-reboot. They seem to have taken out everything that was interesting about her, which makes her look very generic. Her face is bland looking and so un-Twyla-like. Sad. So sad.

No articulation. Cheap looking sibling doll. Enough said.

Finally, this Frankie. She’s just so basic looking. Her outfit isn’t horrible. I also don’t mind the glasses or hair bow (though I wish it were fabric). However, the body is sad and not articulated. Not to mention, haven’t we seen this cafeteria set two or three times now? It was a hard sell with a well articulated doll and you want us to buy it again with a cheaper, blander doll? Sorry, Mattel, I ain’t biting.

So, that’s what I saw while walking the toy aisles. What have you seen in the stores recently? What do you think of the things we saw? Share your thoughts in the comment area!