Disney Limited Edition Beauty and the Beast Dolls

Tomorrow is the in store preorder for the Beauty and the Beast 17 inch limited edition dolls and the online preorder is August 3. The dolls are $119.95 each and ship early fall.

Will you be ordering any?

Return To The Isle Book Review

The sequel to "Isle of the Lost" was released May 24, 2016, and picks up where the Descendants movie left off. If you haven't read the first book or seen the movie don't worry, while Return to the Isle references previous events it is a stand alone story. It brings back the previously known characters and introduces us to some new ones. 

Author: Melissa De La Cruz

Length: 320 Pages

Summary: contains spoilers

Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos receive messages to return to the isle by the new moon and Mal's is signed "M." They immediately assume their parents are behind the letters and that is all but confirmed when Evie can't see their parents in her magic mirror except lizard Malificent. 

Meanwhile King Ben is dealing with an issue of his own. Camelot seems to have a monster stalking it and Merlin has come to seek permission to use magic to catch it. When Ben ventures to Camelot and meets with the Knights of the Round Table it is confirmed that no one has actually seen the monster. Ben and the knights go on a camping expedition to the last known location and are stunned to find the monster is a purple dragon. Ben rushes back to meet with the council and come up with a game plan, he thinks it could possible be Malificent, but how is she getting out of her glass dome?

Carlos starts tracing the email he received asking him to return to the island and stumbles upon the evil Internet. There is a message board dedicated to the Anti-Heros with a picture of the four with their faces crossed out. They come up with a plan to return to the Isle and crash the anti-hero meeting and confront their parents. As they are leaving for the Isle they meet up with Ben who approves of their plan and tells them about the purple dragon. 

Once back on the Isle they start looking for their parents but no one has seen them. They run into some old acquaintances who appear to be up to something. They go to the location of the Anti-heros meeting which is held in the basement of the Evil Queen's castle. They are surprised to find Yen Sid (one of the teachers from Dragon Hall) teaching a select group how to be good. The Anti-heros meeting is a group dedicated to emulating the goodness that the first four to leave the island found since good is more powerful than evil. They ask the professor where their parents are, but while he isn't certain he thinks they may be looking for the tunnel that connects the Isle of the Lost to Auradon. He explains that his class has been studying and trying to map the tunnels because they are protected by magic and unless the magic is released it will continue to build and could destroy the island and Auradon. Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos are the only ones that can get the medallions and stop the magic, if their parents get to them first they will have their evil powers restored.

Meanwhile in Auradon Charmington is being stalked by a large purple snake. Ben ventures out to try to find a scale of the creature so the fairies can analyze it and tell him if it is definitely Malificent. He manages to find a scale at a farm where the snake had slithered into a chicken coop, he takes  the scale to Neverland to the fairies. After the fairies examine the scale they can not tell him if it was from Malificent or not but they do tell him that there was a mine the dwarfs started excavating years ago that also contained scales. The mine was shut down after finding the scales but the scales found there are a match for the scale Ben found. Ben goes to get Merlin and comments he will let him bring his wand and heads for the mine tunnel. 

Back on the island Mad Maddie and some other Isle residents throw Mal off of a bridge. Carlos dives in to save her while Evie and Jay distract the crocodiles. When Mal is underwater she sees a cave a deduces the hidden opening to the tunnel must be on the shore. The members of Yen Sid's class help them locate the tunnel entrance. Before they enter Yen Sid gives them the maps his students made and offers them each some words of wisdom. The group enters the tunnel and makes their way to the first challenge which is Evie's. She retrieves the magic apple but is sent into a dream where her friends have abandoned her, she remembers what Yen Sid told her and defeats the power of the talisman. The others each defeat their tailsmans and Mal has to get a dragon's egg which is her talisman. When they emerge from the tunnel they come face to face with Ben and Merlin. 

Ben informs the group that the dragon lives in the tunnel but the group didn't see it. Merlin gets ready to seal the tunnel when purple smoke appears and Madame Mim materializes. The two get into a magic battle and Mim traps Merlin in a cage. Mal and company debate on Isi g their talismans but realizes the magic will probably turn them evil without redemption. Merlin gets out of his cage and casts a spell to send Mim back where she belongs and seal the tunnel.

When the group arrives back to Auradon they use Evie's mirror to try to locate their parents again because they didn't see them in the tunnel. Their parents are back in their houses and the group figures the villains had followed them through the tunnel so when Merlin cast his spell they were sent back to the Isle along with Mim. They notice a goblin giving Jafar something and realize its the remote that opens the magical barrier from the Isle of the Lost to Auradon. Luckily the remote is broken and hopefully Jafar won't figure out how to fix it. Mal is stunned to see the dragon's egg she had to retrive is starting to turn green which means its hatching. The story ends with a line that Yen Sid told the group on the island, "We're anti-heros, were the villains you want to cheer for."

New Disney Animator's Lilo Doll

Pictures were recently released of a Lilo Animator's doll.

 I'm excited and surprised to see this doll and can't wait to see here in person. I hope we see more new additions to this line this year.

What characters do you hope will be added to this line?

Disney Collectors Edition Minnie Mouse

The first Disney Collectors doll of the year  will be released Friday, and who better to start off the year than the legendary Minnie Mouse. The price for this adorable doll is $79.99 and should be on sale online and in select Disney Stores.

What do you think of the Minnie Collectors doll?

Disney Descendants Genie Chic

The new Genie Chic Descendants line has hit stores and is based off of an episode of the Descendants animated series on Disney Channel. In the episode we meet Jordan, the daughter of the genie of the lamp, when she confronts Mal about taking her lamp. When several of the girls accidentally pop into Jordan's lamp they end up in genie chic outfits similar to the ones seen in the doll line.

I'm looking forward to seeing what else and what new characters this line has in store for us?

Weekend Store Sightings

This weekend was my first store outing other than to American Girl since the holidays. The stores seem to have stocked several new items including the much anticipated Hasbro Disney Princess Dolls. As always I am happy to share what I saw with everyone. If you see anything new please share that with us.

Great Scarrier Reef Clawdeen

Great Scarrier Reef Draculaura

Dragon Games Raven

Dragon Games Holly

Dragon Games Teenage Evil Queen/Mira Shards

Hairstyling Holly

Equestria Girls Rainbow Rocks Lyra Heartstrings

Genie Chic Jordan

Genie Chic Mal

Genie Chic Evie

Genie Chic Audrey

Hasbro Merida

Close up of Merida's face

Pocahontas and Jasmine

Close up of Jasmine

Cinderella

Close up of Cinderella

Do you have a favorite new release item?

Shelf Sitters

Have you ever seen the same toy just sit on the shelf at your local store for months and months, even after newer versions or lines are released? I knew I wasn't the only one. I thought it would be interesting to share what shelf sits in our areas.

In my area the shelf sitters are:

Monster High Freaky Fusion dolls

Monster High Wolf Family Four Pack

Monster High Boo York

Ever After High-most everything, we still had the O'Hair twins in the original style box the last time I was there and Ashlynn/Hunter sets.

Disney Princess Dolls- Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella seem to be the least popular here, most popular seems to be Rapunzel or Ariel

Barbie- we still have 2012 Barbie for President dolls

Disney Fairies-Pirate Fairies Tinkerbell and Wendy's Music Box

In the clearance section you can still find:

La Dee Da dolls Garden Party and Juicy Crush

Pinkie Cooper dolls

Funky Glow Bratz dolls

Winx Flying Bloom dolls

Bratzillas

Monster High Sweet 1600 Clawdeen

Inner Monster Dolls and add on packs

Cutie Pops Caramel

Cutie Pops accessory packs

Monster High Die-Ner set

Vi and Va dolls

What do you have shelf sitting in your area?

Weekend Store Sightings November 15

With the shopping season upon us I seem to find myself in stores and traveling more often. While this might not always be good for my wallet it is good for spotting new (or new to me) items .

I was at a Target over the weekend and was amazed at all the new Our Generation things that were out.

Larger pets, which are about the same size as My Life As Pets, $7.99

Matching girl and doll purses, slippers and bath robes-Target

Our Generation (1970s) Retro dolls Jackie and Jamie-Target $24.99 but were on sale for $19.99

Disney Frozen Anna and Kristoff Troll Wedding Set at WalMart $44.97

Disney Descendants 4 pack at WalMart $55.97

Have you seen anything new or interesting at a store lately?

Possible Doll Line For Upcoming Disney Movie

In a press release today Disney announced that they will be releasing a new movie next November titled Moana. The title character is a determined teenage girl, (likely) from Hawaii who sets out on an adventure. I think it would be very safe to say that we will see lots of toys including dolls for this upcoming movie.

You can read more about the movie at https://gma.yahoo.com/meet-moana-newest-disney-princess-161229376--abc-news-celebrities.html#.

Disney Fairytale Designer Collection

I was visiting a Disney Store while on vacation and they had a display of upcoming Disney Collector edition dolls. The sets are captioned Happily Ever After meets Happily Evil After and includes a hero or heroine and the antagonist of their story. They are scheduled to release one a week on Tuesdays starting the last Tuesday of September. The sets include Snow White with Hag, Ariel with Ursula, Peter Pan with Captain Hook (with a tiny Tinker Bell), Elsa with Hans and Rapunzel with Mother Gothel. According to the sales associate they will be $129.99, limited to one per person with an edition size of 6000.

Which one is your favorite?

New Doll Items In Stores

While on vacation we decided to stop by a few stores and see what they have versus what we have available at home.

Below are pictures of some of the goodies we saw today.

Disney Toddler Cinderella based on the movie (Toys R Us)

Disney Princess and Me Cinderella based on the movie (Toys R Us)

 

Journey Girls Italia Holiday Doll

Royally Ever After Apple White (Toys R Us)

Royally Ever After Apple White 

Journey Girls 2 Pack 

Ever After High Heartstruck C.A. Cupid

Ever After High Rosabella Beauty

Monster High Loves Not Dead 2 Pack

Ever After High Alistar Wonderland 

Monster High Boo York Nefera de Nile

Monster High Boo York Nefera de Nile

Little Charmers Lavender and Posie

My Life As Desk and Accessories