Go Time Bowling and Basketball Sets

Found these on clearance at Target today:

Bowling $2.38 (70% off) and Basketball $3.98 (50% off)

Basketball pieces and fyi that suction cup doesn't work

Put together it's 11.5 inches tall

Too short for 1:6 scale, but...

... cut a dowel at 18 inches (20in. if you want it regulation)

and yay, now it's 1:6 scale-ish..

The basketball seems a wee bit big to me, but whatevs

Bowling pieces and yep, pins are halved

The lane is pretty long though

Like, very long

Bowling ball is excellent size, but no finger holes

Pins are connected to the base so they cant fall individually

Only one side or the other can remain standing

My overall impression is that these sets are cheaply made and quite flimsy. HOWEVER, given the price I paid, they are totally worth adding to your collection. Go Time also makes a football and ping pong set but neither are 1:6 scale. You could probably use the field goal in the football one, but not the football itself.

The Target I found these at also had their 1D dolls for $5.98 (70% off) and the Life in the Dreamhouse set with Barbie and Midge for $14.98 (50% off). I got a 1D dude, but not Barbie and Midge because I was running out of cash and I'm too scared to use my credit card at Target anymore.

Dollar Tree Goodies

With much thanks to Dana for her [Rosi Reports: Playscale Trash Cans] post and a follow up [comment by Ms. Leo], I was able to pick up some cool trash cans at the Dollar Tree! I had first seen cans like these in Carrickters post of last year, titled [Rubbish Bin = Trash Can]. The ones available in Australia are solid black versus the colored ones available here.

In addition to the blue and green versions, the store I went to also had them in Barbie pink. I didn't get those. Before you walk the entire store like I did, I found them near the register in a display stand. Pick wisely because some had broken lids and others were missing their wheels.

Jay is modeling the scale for us and you can see that the cans are a good 1:6 match. When standing straight up, Jay cant touch the top of the closed lid, but neither can I on my real garbage can. The hinge works and the wheels do roll. Even though some of the lids were broken in the store, overall, it's actually a hefty piece of plastic. More durable than I was expecting for a dollar, really. I'm sure if I dropped it on a hardwood floor it would break - but on a carpet, maybe not.

The Dollar Tree also had these pool tables! I know they are not to scale, but who cares, they were a dollar! Use dowels to add higher legs, fashion pool sticks out of bamboo skewers and rack 'em up!

I got these ping pong balls because I think they would make perfect light globes for street lamps or even great interior hanging lights.

All in all, a sweet little haul.

Texas A&M Has Arrived

Thanks to [Debbie] letting me know that he was available online at Walmart for just $19.97, I finally got one! He has a few flaws (lacking small amount of paint in one eye, tiny nick in arm), but nothing so annoying that I will take him back. I'm very pleased with his overall quality. Compared to the unarticulated Basics version, the TAM has darker hair, is a smidge darker in skin tone and is kinda... shiny.

Left TAM, Right Basics

Left Shiny Sexy, Right Matte Sexy

Another thing I'm pleased with is the new (well, new to me) Ken Fashion pack that my TAM is wearing. I paid full price for it at TRU ($7.99) which was silly since it will probably be $5.89 at Target. But hey, I had a new doll and I wanted him to have a new outfit. I'm pretty messy around here so he cant be walking about in that white cheerleader uniform.

The shirt is one piece

Pack comes with a clip on phone...

... and detailed boots

Belt is from the male Basics accessory pack

The only real negative to the outfit is that because the shirt is one piece, he cant raise his arms any more than this. Still, I like the style of this top a lot. It looks like something you would see a real dude wearing.

I sure do hope that the TAM dolls make it to Tuesday Morning as some people expect they might, because I love the body. If they drop to $9.99 like some of the Twilight dolls did, I'm going to buy bunches and bunches!

MiWorld Collector Packs

Toys R Us has the MiWorld sets for sale, but the TRU I went to is only carrying the Sprinkles version for $14.99 (larger sets like Claire's are supposedly $29.99). However, they did have a display set up so I got to see what some of the others look like.

Even though the sets are 1:12 scale it really looked to me as if the accessories could be used for 1:6. They were carrying a huge amount of Collector Packs for $2.99 so I figured, what the heck, and bought a bunch. They are AWESOME and will work great with your 1:6 dolls! Check out Cleo modeling the scale.

Although the sets themselves are small, I can see them selling out and probably not making it to clearance prices. If they do, I would snap up every single one. Just going on the accessories alone, they are extremely well made. I am very pleased with the sturdy materials used and their attention to detail. It's all so cute!

Twist Around Heads Made Easier

Q&A with Sergio!

Sergio comments, "I want to swap a Twist Around Head, from its stiff body to a articulated body that had a Twist Around Head too, but I don't know how, the head pops out every time."

These are some of the thrift store Twist Around versions I have. They are all produced by Mattel even though the middle one is a Disney character. If you are using a GI Joe then I cant help you with that. Assuming you are using Mattel, we'll keep going. FYI, Sergio, I know you already know a lot of what I'm about to say, but for those that don't, I'm going to be a bit detailed.

When you pull the head off of a Twist Around you should expect for the neck and shoulder seams to open a little bit. Someone had previously tried to take this guys head off too harshly and cracked his throat in the process. Super glue is the only fix I can think of for this if you want to save the body.

Once you get the head off, you'll find that some neck openings have a single ring or in Ken's case, a double ring.

You'll also see that each head has a plastic prong inserted into its base. That plastic prong is the reason why your head keeps popping off. The plastic actually sits below the rings of the neck. If you don't angle it right and apply enough pressure when putting the head back in, you wont make it past the ring(s). The good news though, is that you don't need the plastic prongs at all, because the protruding vinyl at the base of the head fits snuggly into the neck and will actually stay in place until you tug it out.

You can remove the prongs by putting the plastic section between your teeth and twisting the dolls head in a circle while pulling it at the same time. But now my teeth are sore, so if you don't want to do that, then use pliers, lol. The Disney guy's prong was glued inside his head so I had to use pliers on him and just broke off the outer ring of plastic.

If for some reason you want to leave the prong in there, you can always use an Xacto to whittle it down some, but taking it out is so much easier in the long run.

Now you can quickly swap Twist heads as much as you want. Just make sure you angle the head into the opening and then twist the head backwards as you push it in and you'll be good to go.

In case you have High School Musical heads, they are a different story:

Their necks are much smaller than an adult and when I pulled off this guys head, the prong stayed inside the neck.

Needle nose pliers got it out with some tugging.

However, the prong on the black HSM kid was glued inside his head. I pulled his head out as far as it would come and then just gently angled his head back and forth until the base of the prong broke inside the neck hole and fell into his body. If you have a blow dryer, it might be easier to get it out, but my way worked regardless.

You can now put the HSM kids onto adult bodies, however, again, they are smaller so they are going to look funny at the neck and vice versa if you put an adult head on a HSM body, like so:

Happy body swapping!

Older related posts:

Put a Twist Around Head on an Articulated Neck
Pump Up Your Ken Tutorial
We Can Rebuild Him