Review: Club Chelsea Boy 2018

  I finally had a chance to visit the going out of business Toys R Us a week or so ago. I had hoped for a mark down on the Wellie Wishers,but there were NO American Girl items at all. I should have known that was too much to hope for. American Girl isn't the type to let their product be marked down in a going-out-of-business sale.
  There were mark downs, but most things weren't marked down very much. There was plenty of the usual  merchandise. It didn't look like much had sold.
  One thing I did find was this little guy.

He's the latest Club Chelsea boy.

The old Kelly Club boys had names.These current Club Chelsea boys are all anonymous. In the Kelly Club dolls there were only two boys, Tommy, and one Ryan,( in the Amusement Park series,before Ryan became part of Midge's Happy Family line.)  Tommy was available as a blonde, with a bowl cut, or an African American. In 2014 Mattel released a Chelsea friend who actually had a name,Darrin.
 

You can read Darrin's review HERE.

Darrin,the lucky kid, had a name and rooted hair. He seems to be the last of the rooted hair boys, however. Since then all the guys have had molded, painted hair.  There was a boy last year with molded, painted black hair.
 

You can read his review HERE.

He was followed by a blonde version of  the same head sculpt.

You can see my post on him HERE.

Late last year there was a set released that included 2 Chelsea friends, a boy and a girl,(and a purple piano.)

You can see my post on this set HERE.

The little guy had the same head sculpt as the previous 2, though.

Getting a bit tiresome,isn't it? There might not be enough difference in the past three guys to warrant buying all three for a lot of people. But wait. It gets better because now there''s this little fellow.



His package was already unsealed at the bottom. It was easy to tear the plastic bubble up and get to him.

The bottoms of his shoes say 'Chelsea'.

The bottom plastic ties were easy to break, but the one that connected his head to the packaging was more challenging. I was afraid I was going to rip his head off.

It was very tight. Here you can also see the huge mold lines under his chin and around his head. Not very attractive.

It left quite a hole in his head too. Here you can see that his hair has molded detail.

And here is his cute face with big brown eyes. There were three of this guy on the peg when I bought him,and all three had marks on their faces in different spots.

He's definitely cuter than the guys with the pompadours.

Here is the detail in his hair from the side.

There's that ugly mold line again.

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His outfit consists of a one piece shirt and shorts outift that looks like separate pieces, but isn't.

His shirt has a cactus design.

As you can see,his outfit is one piece,and closes in back with Velcro.

He has the same shoes as the camera shirt boy, only in silver. Silver?

I like him much better than the last two guys.

He has the usual articulation,at his neck,shoulders, and hips.

At least he can sit down.

 The outfits on these dolls are getting pretty frustrating. They aren't even two pieces any more. I remember when my kids were small,and Kelly and Tommy outfits were multipiece things with snaps. During their childhoods the snaps were exchanged for Velcro,but the outfits were still fairly detailed in most cases. Looking back no farther than 2014, Darrin came in a two piece outfit and shoes,as well as a hat and an accessory,(a soccer ball). It's even a bit unreasonable for this new guy to be priced the same as the Chelsea girls. They at least have rooted hair. This guy has to have been cheap to produce. I think somewhere around $8+ is a bit much to pay for a simple doll of this size, with limited articulation, molded hair, and simple one piece clothing. 

 
But as you know,I have a weakness for boy dolls, so I was helpless to resist him. See you soon for another review.

Perfect 1/6 Scale Find: Barbecue Grill

  I wanted to share this with everybody while you can still take advantage of the information. While we were at Target a couple of days ago,Ivy spotted this in the seasonal items up front.

I have no idea what it's meant to be used for. I suppose it's just for summer decorating. But it's the perfect size for 1/6 scale.

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It had a round piece of tape holding the lid shut.

It even opens. Unfortunately the wheels don't roll. The coloring isn't very realistic,but I repainted mine black.

I happened to have some black spray paint. If I had had red I would have painted the top red. I still might. Ken suggests that the legs need to be silver,but I wouldn't be satisfied unless they actually look like chrome,so I will probably stay with black. I also still need to paint the inside and make the grill part.

Mr. World is modelling the grill for size. Ivy says it's slightly too short.

Mr. World is anxious to use his new grill...for strictly vegetarian meals only of course.
  Tomorrow is Ivy's high school graduation. The years pass so quickly. A couple more months and she will be going off to college. I'm not looking forward to her leaving at all.
  In other news,I had my thyroid biopsy on Wednesday.

The two big red spots are from the band aid! That thing really hurt coming off!

For those who said needles in your throat are no big deal...yeah right. The doctor gave me a shot to numb my neck,and then poked me 5 times to draw samples from the largest nodule. I had to refrain from swallowing and not move for about 30 seconds when the needle was in. That doesn't sound like a long time until you think that you have a needle in your neck the whole time. It was pretty painful. My neck still hurts. In fact, it felt much better the next morning, but I mowed the yard that night, and after that it has been pretty sore again. I must have used my neck muscles too much. The good news is, the doctor's office called yesterday morning and said the results were in and it was benign. As for what is to be done now, I won't know until I see the doctor next month.

May Showers, Fading Flowers,and Some More Photos

  I hope all the mom's out there had a nice day Sunday. I spent the day with my girls. When Ken got home from work we all went out to eat. We spent the rest of the night at Emma's,since we had to take her to the airport at 4AM.
  We have had a lot of rainy weather lately. My beautiful dogwood tree,(I think that's what it is.), bloomed,and lost all it's petals. 

My lilacs,which I love to smell,bloomed,and are now almost all finished. 
 

All the pink stuff on the ground is dogwood petals.

The bushes with the tiny white flowers,which I used for my Mother's Day post,have bloomed.

It had been raining,so I couldn't mow, and in the meantime my neatly trimmed grass started getting out of hand.

Here are some outtakes from the Mother' Day shoot.

 I have one bloomed iris and one bloomed amaryllis. All this has happened without my getting to enjoy it very much,because it has been raining so much I haven't been out in my yard very often. I haven't been able to hang laundry,work in the yard, mow, or sit out on the patio while Ken grills,(I don't grill, because 1,vegetarian meat doesn't grill well, since it doesn't make it's own grease like real meat, so it sticks. I'm sure there's a way to do it,and you can grill vegetables, but 2,I don't like smokey tasting food anyway. ),or sit in the yard on my bench. So while I have been in here the flowers have all started to go away. The dogwood tree is naked again,and the lilacs are almost gone. Luckily I brought some inside so I could enjoy them in the house. Even more lucky, they aren't toxic, because the first thing our cat Mow wanted to do when I brought them in was start eating them.
  When we get some nice weather I can get outside and take some photographs. Tomorrow is my thyroid nodule biopsy. I'm not looking forward to the big needle in my throat!