My son had an appointment in Swansea so we parked in the nearest car park which happened to be Toys R Us, as went past the store I noticed the sale signs - yay!
So of course being the massive dollivert that I am and having 15 minutes to spare, I couldn't resist going in, after finding Wydona Spyder "I Heart Fashion" set for £12.49. I placed it in my basket straight away and wandered off to another aisle to check what bargains were to be had.
I discovered some Novi Starz (sadly no Maillie Tasker) for £2.95 and a large selection of Once Upon A Zombie dolls amongst other things, being indecisive it was hard to choose, so I decided "Sod it, I'll come back after the appointment if I have time"...
So I took Wydona out of my basket and prepared to leave, I almost made it out without buying anything and was feeling quite proud of myself until I spotted six toy vending machines next to the exit ...*sigh*
Having never grown up I cannot resist their twisty turn noise and kerplunk of the capsule landing, so of course I bought two!
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After Aaron's appointment he suggested we both go back and have another nose about, so we did only this time, egged on by Aaron I ended up leaving with a huge Hello Kitty bag full of discounted goodies!
And here it all is laid out all neatly for the photograph before I ripped apart all the packaging and got at it all!
I wasn't really keen on either but out of the two I felt "Roe Batik" had far more potential for customising than Tily Vizon.
I found that the more that I looked at her the more she grew on me and with those cute little extension lead hair clips included I found myself impossible to resist. Before I'd even moved onto the next aisle I'd already envisioned her repainted which hair restyling etc and those adorable little extension leads plugged into one of my dolls house walls!
Oddly on my first time around the shop I didn't notice these DeadStone Valley figures, Aaron actually pointed them out to me then of course being Zombies and having coffins and headstones I was unable to resist buying them!
Each package contains a "Cemetery Plot" in the form of a cardboard grass patterned mount which is similar to a small box lid in shape and can be used to display your collection on a shelf etc.
When the package is in it's unopened state it serves as a backdrop behind the figure.
They also come with a hard plastic coffin or tomb depending on the figure represented, a headstone and of course the figure itself.
I couldn't resist "Old Judge Wriggs" either as he reminds me of the Judge Zombie in Paranorman, albeit a tad less Puritan crossed with Judge Jefferies - an 17th Century Welsh Judge also known as "The Hanging Judge" who later became Lord Chancellor - whom I both loathe and am strangely fascinated by,
Judge Wriggs comes with a tomb to rest in and a crooked headstone which reads: "Here lies Old Judge Wriggs laid to rest in his robe and wig." Below this is a small image of The Scales of Justice...
He's obviously been dead a lot longer than Auntie Flo' - the tomb is a dead (pardon the pun) giveaway, has a crack in the lid and headstone as well as a lot of the lining tattered, torn and decayed from inside.
Apparently the heart shape bag matches her moss cap or so I've been told, but then what do I know I'm not fairy folk so I guess Pendle has the edge on me when it comes to Fairyland fashion!
It wasn't until I was halfway home and tucking into them that I began to wonder just who the hell "Niall" and "Harry" were and why I should be "loving them forever"and wanting them to"Be Mine" until Aaron informed me that I'd purchased a tube of One Direction Love Hearts - I was so ashamed, still it didn't stop me munching them all!
So of course being the massive dollivert that I am and having 15 minutes to spare, I couldn't resist going in, after finding Wydona Spyder "I Heart Fashion" set for £12.49. I placed it in my basket straight away and wandered off to another aisle to check what bargains were to be had.
I discovered some Novi Starz (sadly no Maillie Tasker) for £2.95 and a large selection of Once Upon A Zombie dolls amongst other things, being indecisive it was hard to choose, so I decided "Sod it, I'll come back after the appointment if I have time"...
So I took Wydona out of my basket and prepared to leave, I almost made it out without buying anything and was feeling quite proud of myself until I spotted six toy vending machines next to the exit ...*sigh*
Having never grown up I cannot resist their twisty turn noise and kerplunk of the capsule landing, so of course I bought two!
The first one I went for was the DC Super Friends, I turned the dial and popped a purple bottomed capsule containing a "Hawkman" figure on a phone dangle fob.
Of course he won't be staying on the dangly thing as he's a new toy for Aki' to play with.
Then I couldn't resist the Trash Pack ones and ended up with this adorable little chubby chick who's obviously eaten so much he's made himself ill - as puke covered baby animals go, this little guy's the cutest!
The capsule he came in is the standard flat bottomed kind which have quite a few uses when making dolls house miniatures - inside this was a cute little wheelie bin - also useful for a dolls house miniature, inside that was my cute little inch high chicky-chubster, which when you think about the capsule and wheelie bin uses works out as pretty good value for £1.00!
In the words of Larry David: "It's pretty pretty good"!
After Aaron's appointment he suggested we both go back and have another nose about, so we did only this time, egged on by Aaron I ended up leaving with a huge Hello Kitty bag full of discounted goodies!
Those plastic Tupperware type tubs were 49p for a set of four, after I got home I wished I'd bought more as they are stupidly useful.
When we got home Aaron cracked open one of the two Airfix kits he bought and immediately commandeered them there tubs to keep all the little bits together while painting and gluing it all together.
There were a few different Once Upon a Zombie dolls on offer, but for me it had to be "Zombie Belle" I've recently developed a thing for red head dolls since MGA released Meygana Broomstix Bratzilla so Belle really stood out to me apart from the red hair and how well it makes her eyes pop, the Belle's were the only dolls in the range that they had which didn't have their eyes on the wonk!
She what I mean about those eyes? Not only that she had the best outfit to my mind, not over the top like a lot of "Princess" dolls and I loved the quirky little skull on her belt.
In terms of accessories these dolls are pretty basic - having only a stand and a hair brush, the stand is the same basic kind you'll find in a Monster High doll box, the hair brush has been given more attention to detail. It is heart shaped - with stitched scars! and has a bone handle and a bow, it's quite cute really.
The only thing I'm not so keen on about this doll is that she doesn't come with any shoes - yeah I know when she died she was most likely wearing heels with that dress and a Zombie's not really likely to be able to keep her shoes on after a while but these dolls have pretty big feet so finding something to fit them when playing dress up is a total pain.
That said in terms of quality , poseability and sheer good looks she makes up for it!
The Curl 'N' Coil Novi Starz were £2.95 each, they only had two dolls in this range "Roe Batik" and "Tily Vizon".
I wasn't really keen on either but out of the two I felt "Roe Batik" had far more potential for customising than Tily Vizon.
I found that the more that I looked at her the more she grew on me and with those cute little extension lead hair clips included I found myself impossible to resist. Before I'd even moved onto the next aisle I'd already envisioned her repainted which hair restyling etc and those adorable little extension leads plugged into one of my dolls house walls!
It seems I wasn't the only person interested in this little girl, both Moogle and Tingle want to play with her too!
Moogle helped me out by inspecting the security of the packaging while I was trying to figure out jut how long it was going to take to remove all that tape and the plastic tabs to release my new Novi Starz doll and get to work on customising her - I'll upload the resulting custom soon.
I fell totally in love with "Auntie Flo" she's just so cute, the writing on her headstone reminds me of Living Dead Doll death certificates, it reads "Auntie Flo lies beneath, she took a deep breath and swallowed her teeth" and to add insult to injury they even included an image of her false teeth on her headstone too!
Each package contains a "Cemetery Plot" in the form of a cardboard grass patterned mount which is similar to a small box lid in shape and can be used to display your collection on a shelf etc.
When the package is in it's unopened state it serves as a backdrop behind the figure.
They also come with a hard plastic coffin or tomb depending on the figure represented, a headstone and of course the figure itself.
The bottom of each coffin or tomb is hinged and has two little holders so you can place your figures feet against it and have them stand up while remaining in their coffin!
I just love the attention to detail on these figures although I have to admit I'm not too sure about Auntie Flo's get up, what was she thinking as she tied that huge bow into her hair?
Or perhaps her next of kin told the Undertaker to do it to make her look pretty but then if that was the case what about the rest of that outfit?
Judge Wriggs comes with a tomb to rest in and a crooked headstone which reads: "Here lies Old Judge Wriggs laid to rest in his robe and wig." Below this is a small image of The Scales of Justice...
He's obviously been dead a lot longer than Auntie Flo' - the tomb is a dead (pardon the pun) giveaway, has a crack in the lid and headstone as well as a lot of the lining tattered, torn and decayed from inside.
Under each tomb or coffin is a label which contains a code for "Burial Activation" when you visit www.deadstonevalley.com you can type in your code which entitles you to bury three characters in the "DeadStone Valley Cemetary" - you can play around and make your characters (kind of like an online game of "Misfits" using clothing and features from each of the figures in the DeadStone Valley range, name them, write out thier headstone then inter them...
I know it sounds kind of weird when put like that but it's actually quite fun!!
At the time I bought these little outfits I didn't have an "I Love Minnie Doll" in fact when I saw them in the flesh I didn't much like them, (I have since got one though but only as I wanted her dog and her outfit, but anyway, I thought these two little sets were so cute and knew I'd be able to use them for someone, the fact they were £1.99 each helped sway me too!
Pendle took a liking to the ears and bags and decided she'd try them on for size, that's her happy face btw, I had a struggle to get them back off her as she loves them so much!
These flip-flop keyrings were 25p for a bag of six, they were cheap enough that I thought I could experiment with them and see if I can master the knack of making tiny shoes, so I bought two packets.
Sadly they are all for the same foot, but I've had some ideas on how I can go about disguising that fact the only problem I can see is that I don't think I have anyone who they'll fit!!
These Monster Beads were also under £1.00 - I thought they might work for pulleys or even mini monster dolls, I haven't quite made up my mind what to use them for but I'm sure when I do you'll be among the first to know!
I nearly made it to the check out without putting anything else in my basket, but then I walked past a display of tiny mystery toys in packets, as I love buying dolls and toys for my toys to play with I couldn't resist buying the Hujoos a Monster University and Lalaloopsy one to play with!
Just when I thought I'd finished and had gotten to the checkout Aaron spots a huge tube of Swizzels Matlow Love Hearts for 50p and on top of that they had the large sized Parma Violets too I was in Nostalgia Heaven so onto the conveyor belt they went too...
