Sunday, August 28, 2016

New Mattel Releases

My Walmart has completely revamped their toy isles and shockingly, the Barbie stuff is no longer at the front of the center isle. It's been moved all the way to the end of the row. How very curious! Anyway, with the revamp came some new items:
I was messing with the box and the arms can only be pushed down. You cant raise them up or put them in any other position. Hopefully they were just tied down and that's why I couldn't move them.
 
I like this face. She reminds me of the youngest Obama daughter.
But uh, that's not where your heart is.
 
This looks pretty neat! I like the brick detailing and the burner and pot are stylized as well. The fact that it's not pinked out is also a surprising bonus.

Well, it's pink, lol, but they had to make something pink, I guess. It does have a nice register and cute deserts going for it.


Yes, very nice! Something I would expect to see at an amusement park or at the beach. I could have done without the Barbie logo on the awning, but you are either going to get pink or the logo. Thems the rules.

The prices are about average but I don't see why the addition of play doh makes the Spaghetti Chef cost 5 dollars more.

Check out the video for some close up details


28 comments:

  1. How odd! When my WM revamped the doll aisle, the Barbie stuff all got moved to the front of the aisle. Monster High is in the middle now (no Ever After High at all), alongside the Descendants and Project MC2 and just in front of the Disney princess dolls.

    I think I'm in love with that spaghetti chef playset, even at $5 more. I could do without the play doh thing, but that island is just gorgeous!

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    1. Presto, I did have to wonder if toy sales was the reason for the shift in doll stuff. Disney had always been in the back, but now it's the most prominent. Curious going ons!

      That spaghetti island is so different from their norm. I'm quite impressed with it.

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    2. Yeah! It's like it's from a totally different line! I wish they sold THAT line, I'd buy everything in a heartbeat, ha ha!

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  2. My Wal-Mart is nowhere near as clean, tidy and organized as yours. And every time I look through the small fashion and accessory packs, there's at least one empty package where it looks like someone has stolen something. :P

    You really wouldn't want the heart dolls to have light-up breasts, would you? ;) I too like that spaghetti chef set, and I think it'd be a great gift for my 7 yo niece. My in-laws are Italian, and it's a family tradition every Easter for my brother-in-law and my grown-up nephew to make homemade pasta.

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    1. Barb, I remember way back when I first started collecting there were a rash of thefts of Barbie merchandise, particularly the Basics line. However, people would buy a Basic doll and then return it with a different doll in the box! I must have come across 12 or more boxes like that. It was crazy.

      Actually, I wouldn't mind some light up boobs, lol. I would tape down the arm and use it as a night light!

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    2. I just need to comment on the theft. I notice that every so often in the Sparkle Girlz clothes cards, there are outfits missing, but either the shoes or the handbag are still there.

      Recently I was in a Walmart where there were about 8 cards, all with outfits missing and just the purse. There happened to be a store employee counting something else in the aisle. So I told her that someone stole all the outfits off the card and they shouldn't be sold that way because they have a theft problem and missing clothes.

      She looked at me as if I was bothering her, made a comment about thinking they came that way. I said, "No, they don't. I buy these all the time and I'm telling you all of the outfits are missing." She just shrugged and went on about her business. Nice that employees care.

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    3. LOL, Janainah! I'm not going to say that all Walmart employees have such lackluster attitudes. However, when I retire I want to work at Walmart part-time and I will DEFINITELY have a lackluster attitude.

      Many times I have seen a customer ask an employee for help and the employee will say, "I'm on break," and just walk off, lol. That will be me!

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  3. Very interesting post! I like it so much! Thanks for sharing!

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  4. I like the fact that the spaghetti chef uses the Asha headmold, I like the diversity theyr're adding to the lines. And as you said, the playset is neat and cute.

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    1. Monster, I didn't notice the diversity until you mentioned it. Usually sets either contain Barbie or Nikki and now they have introduced 2 different dolls to sets. Making progress!

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  5. Wow, your Walmart has a lot of new items. I have not seen any of the play sets. The smoothie stand. is a must have! The bakery is nice as well, but $20 seems a little high. I guess because they added a doll. I prefer them to offer the play set minus the doll for a cheaper price. Great video though!!

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    1. Thanks, Georgia Girl! You're right, sets used to be $12 - 15, but now just about every set comes with a doll to bump up the cost.

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  6. Thanks for the tour.:-) The chef playsets are great though I wish the parasol on the Smoothie Chef's cart was much higher.

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    1. Maricha, it is a tad low. I'm assuming you can pop it out and then you would be able to customize the length.

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  7. I love the smoothie cart. You can just put something right over that Barbie logo. Like your own logo.

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    1. That's true, Janainah. Even fill it with some putty and smooth it over for no logo.

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  8. Yes, I was happy to see a revamping of our fashion doll sections. They moved the Barbie stuff more to the middle. It had been moved to the back the last go round. I saw a couple new sets that I liked. I didn't see the cart. I really like that.

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    1. Vanessa, in the entire 4 years I've been collecting, the Barbie stuff was always in the same area. Maybe my store was just cleaning shelves and the move has nothing to do with sales.

      I saw the Olympic dolls and they look so stiff. I would not have imagined that was the same sculpt.

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    2. Hey Muff, on a recent trip to Walmart, I noticed they changed the sculpt on the new AA Olympic swimmer. I was totally surprised. The one I purchased definitely has the facesculpt like the heart doll. The new ones I saw have the Desiree sculpt, I think.

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    3. Vanessa, I went back and checked and that Olympic girl is similar, but definitely different. She's more square faced than the Heart doll.

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  9. By the way, that's the same face sculpt they used for the new Olympic swimming dolls. She is only $5. If you were interested in the sculpt, that's a much better way to go instead of the $14.44.

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  10. I saw the new dolls in my local toy store here in Manila as well. I'm thinking the doll in Smoothie Chef set has the same skin tone as Made To Move Lea's or blond Fashionistas Nikki. Or the Twilight dolls... I'm not so sure about Twilight.

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    1. Oly, I still keep waiting for those Made to Move girls to go on sale. Some have reported them being down to $5 in some areas.

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  11. I didn't see this post in my blogger feed but I saw it on your Facebook page! Love that you are doing on the spot videos! I have seen the new store setup and new dolls! Maybe Mattel isn't spending the money on space like they use to! I thought the doll with the arms was such a gimmick! I too liked the red brick set but thought the making pasta thing was a gimmick too! The juice cart is new and not bad. Great post! Hey BTW, you have such great posts making, fixing and reconfiguring things! You should put them up on Facebook!

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    1. Thanks, Ms. Leo! I finally figured out to sync my blogger, youtube and facebook. I am in stores all the time even if I'm not buying so I thought I'd do some What's In My Store type stuff.

      That's interesting that so many stores have moved the Mattel stuff around. This keeps getting more curious.

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    2. So, how do you sync blogger, YouTube and facebook?

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    3. Ms. Leo, I just got it into my thick head that I could update them all at the same time instead of doing it different days. I still have to do it myself. That would be cool if there was a program that let you cross post, but no, I have 3 windows open and when they are all edited, I click them the old fashioned way.

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