I'm Back! With Free Toys and More about Ken

   I know it's been a while, but I'm still here. Ken is improving all the time. He has therapy twice a week, with two or three different therapy sessions each time. He has physical therapy, which works on  his walking and stair climbing, occupational therapy, which works on  his arm and hand, and speech therapy, which, in spite of the name, works on all kinds of things, including cognitive, vision, swallowing, etc. Ken's swallowing is fine now, but his vision is not good. (He lost his peripheral vision in his left eye, and his general vision is blurry.) He also still has some brain fog. So we've been pretty busy between therapy and doctor appointments. He also does therapy things at home. I've also been having to figure out what food I can make for a guy with diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.         

 Anyway, we are still living with nothing but a mini fridge, and a tiny one at that. Our regular fridge stopped working when we had the fire. The electricity surge must have blown it.) Even as mini fridges go this thing is tiny. So I've been having to go to the store frequently, since I can't buy much at a time. I usually try to check out the toy aisles when I go, so I have accumulated several Mini Brands display boxes recently. 

  I've been getting them since the beginning, but they are getting harder to get. The stores seem to think they refill the display boxes when they get more stock, which is wrong. The stuff comes in a new display box each time. It's a shame to think a lot of the displays get thrown out, with the sample toys attached. What a waste. A lot of people have caught on though, and either take the empty display boxes, or just plain rip the samples off the boxes and take them. I haven't done that. I only take empty boxes. Mind you, I am not above cramming the two or three balls that are left in a box into the next box, or leaving a single ball on the shelf. The other reason they are getting harder to get is, the practice of putting sample toys on the display boxes seems to be on the way out. There don't seem to be nearly as many boxes with sample toys on them any more.

  Here are some of the display box samples I've gotten over the last year or so.

  I got three on this day. My favourite was the esspresso maker.

There was also this plant one.

And this one makes a mini aquarium.

  Another time I got this LOL Surprise display. This is after I already ripped it off the box...at home.

  It's quite a free haul, considering that it includes two complete sets.

  In fact, I ended up with two of these. I usually don't take sets if I already have them, and leave them for someone else. I figure there are kids who could use a free toy. 

  And later I got this one. It contains squishy hairdos you can mold. I think it didn't have the squishy stuff though. 

  I also got this one. I seem to have hit on a LOL streak.

  These were in the last couple of months, so these are still available at the stores.

   The bottles that would normally contain the resin to do the 'make' part are empty. That's okay. I can handle that for free stuff.

 This Harry Potter set is pretty great stuff. It's one of my favourites of the ones I've gotten. Lots of little potion bottles and cauldrons.

    Yesterday I got the best haul yet, I think. These are some great sets, and there were multiple sets on the one box!

Min Brand Create Garden.

Mini Verse Hello Kitty waffles. 

Tiny individual strawberry slices and blueberries!

Mini Verse Make It party sets! There was so much fun stuff in this display! 

Three sets! 

  Now, be forewarned. Some of this stuff is hard to get off the packaging. They have it glued on there pretty well. But with a little work you can get it loose. The cake that came off the cake stand was stuck down with some really sticky greasy glue. But it washed off with warm water and dish soap. Some of the other stuff has thick glue you'll have to peel off.

The cake came unstuck from the cake stand. And look. This is more than one full set, because there are two cakes and decorating bits.

  I still haven't freed all the Harry Potter stuff from the packaging. I think it's going to be a little time consuming to not break anything, and I don't have much free time these days.

      And don't forget, Micro Toybox also has samples on their display boxes. These were clearanced for  $3.49 at our local Meijer.

  So get out there and get yourself,(or someone else) some free stuff the stores are going to throw away otherwise, while you still can.

  I don't know when I'll get a chance to post again, but I'm still trying to keep my hand in.        

Doll-A-Day 2023 #179: Temu Haul and an Articulated Doll

   Well, I did it again. I ordered some stuff from Temu. The weird thing is, I ended up getting paid to buy it! I ordered it, and a few days later I got an email that said my order may have been lost, so they were refunding my money. It also said that if my order did happen to turn up, that I could keep it, and the money. A day or so after that I got an email saying my order was on it's way, but they were sending me $5 because it was late! So I ended up getting paid $5 for ordering from Temu! So they are showing real care and responsibility for orders. I just hope their generosity doesn't drive them out of business!

  The whole haul only cost about $18 anyway, and the shipping was free. I also have to say that these pictures were taken with Ken's camera, which he has set weirdly or something. I apologize for some of the pictures being bright enough to burn your retinas out, and others being absolutely dim or out of focus.

 So, here's my haul. I got two 1/12 scale door handles. They came as left or right handles, and were sold in singles. I was thinking French doors, so I got both.

 They came with a tiny key. It really does fit in the keyhole, but it doesn't stay in when you let go. I hoped it would. You know, sometimes doors like that have the key left in, so you can lock the door when it's closed, and unlock it to open it, for doors that are left open a lot.

Keeping with the 1/12 scale theme, and doors, I got some tiny hinges. That's so I can make some French doors for those handles, and attach them to my house.

  I also got a sword letter opener... because, sword. It makes a great 1/6 scale sword. 

It looks a little Lord of the Rings Elves-y.

Next is a pad of little art prints. It also has a few print pages. 

They're mostly Alphonse Mucha... 

...but a few pages look like they aren't.

Plus there's a print page, as I said.

 Most of them would make good 1/12 scale framed art or posters, and 1/6 scale art. There's even a little blank Mucha menu.

  Along similar lines, I got these tiny maps.

Look at these two pictures. See what I mean about one extreme or the other?

I told Ken that these would have been great when the kids' dolls were going on trips and bringing back souvenirs.

  They're only a couple of inches wide, and they would look great in a 1/12 scale dollhouse.

Next is this little organizer. Again, sorry about the picture. It was the only one with Tammy for size comparison that even partially came out.

I think it could be used  for 1/12 or 1/6, depending on what you want to do with it.

  Before we get to the doll I ordered, here is probably my favourite thing from this order. Mini gummi bears! 

Are these not the cutest things ever?! 

They as a bag of 12.

  And finally, here's the doll I bought. She was really cheap. like, a couple of dollars. So I decided to go ahead and order her, and see what the quality is like. The doll came in several hair colours, but no red head. So, instead of the colour I was born with, I chose the colour I always wanted: black.

She came with her head off for some reason. I had to put it on myself. I took a little cramming to get it past the neck rim so it would stay on, but it wasn't hard.

 She has a pretty face.

And a very pronounced clavicle.

She can only turn her head. It can't tilt at all.

Her hair is not a terrible quality. I've seen much worse. 

It's quite long.

It's fairly silky and fully rooted on most of her head.

The rooting pattern is a bit wide spaced in places. But if you don't try to do a hair style on her, and let it hang as it is, it doesn't show.

Pulled to the side.

It is the kind of hair that looks a little greasy though.

But what about that articulation, eh?

Well, she's got a lot of it. Other than her neck, she has joints at her shoulders, upper arms, elbows, wrists. waist. hips. and knees.

Her joints are similar to Made to Move Barbie's. 

I meant to bring Made to Move from the house yesterday so we could compare. I forgot.

No ankle joints, unfortunately. She has those weirdly pointy legs/feet.

That waist joint doesn't really allow her to turn/twist very much.

This is it.

 She has a swivel joint at her hips, so she can sit in quite a few poses.

Sorry about the cat hairs. Cowboy pretty much lives in this room now.

She can't cross her legs though.

She has a lot more range in her arms. This is helped by the swiveling ball joint in her shoulders, and the turning joint in her upper arms, and the swiveling joints in her elbows. She can salute.

She can cover her mouth.

She can almost cross her arms.

But not quite.

She can even pat her head and rub her belly at the same time.

She looks graceful.

I was having a much easier time posing her right arm than her left. The left one just didn't seem to have the same flexibility. That's when I noticed that her upper arm joint was loose on the left arm. (You can see that above,)  It went back in place, but then, in checking it out, I found that her arm comes apart like a Monster High doll's.

I'm not sure if it is supposed to, but it does. It goes back just as easily though.

  So I like the stuff I got. The 'sword' looks a little cheap, but the other stuff is really nice. I love those gummi bears! The doll is worth the $2 something I paid for her, I'm not sure how much she would hold up to a child's play, but she's at least better quality than the fashion dolls that are sometimes available at Dollar Tree. And she is okay for an adult posing a doll for display or photos. 

  So that's it for today. See you tomorrow for some vintage goodness.