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.

Doll-A-DAy 2017 #352:Barbie and the Rockers Concert Fun

  Today we're looking at a whole set. This is the Barbie and the Rockers Concert Fun set.

The set,which I think is a Target stores exclusive, comes with a cool purple plastic translucent piano and bench,and two dolls: a female friend or Chelsea,and a male Chelsea friend.
 

The box seems to be referring to both of them as 'Chelsea dolls'.

He's Mr. No Name. The poor guy seems to be the same doll released as a solo guy recently in the Camping Fun line,but they still haven't given the poor kid a name.

 This version is cuter than the solo kid. He doesn't look nearly as smarmy. You can see his previous incarnation HERE. This version has pale blonde hair,instead of light brown with blonde highlights.

He still has cute freckles though.

The Chelsea,or Chelsea friend,(Who knows? Don't they give these kids names any more?!),has brown hair with a blue streak.

The set also includes a purple microphone.

Tomorrow we'll see if we can get back on our Christmas theme, talk about the new Star Wars movie,(But no spoilers!),and check how my shopping is doing so far. See you then.

Doll-A-Day 2017 #310: Camping Fun Chelsea Boy

  Today is Ivy's birthday. My baby is 18 today! Where does the time go?! To mark Ivy's birthday I'm posting a doll from what was her favourite line when she was little. Well, her favourite was Kelly,but now Kelly is Chelsea, so...Anyway, it's this guy.

He's the latest boy in the Chelsea line,Camping Fun.

These days they don't seem to give the guys names.

This boy has the same face as the last boy, who was a brunette. I did a post on him, and you can see it HERE. That kid was cute. he even had freckles.

I nabbed this guy as soon as I saw him, but I'm not sure I like him. That's why he's not out of his box yet. He may not be staying.

I loved the last guy, the little brunette Chelsea friend. But this guy in blonde,even with the same face as the other one, just kind of has the same smarmy look as, say, a 1970's Ken. Bleh. Plus he's fishing, and I don't do hunting or fishing. All the dolls around here are vegetarian.
  See you tomorrow for another doll.

Doll-A-Day 2017 #81:Club Chelsea Boy

  Yesterday I showed you a doll I got on a post birthday trip. Today I'm showing you the other doll I got at Target that day. The poor guy doesn't even have a name. He's this boy from the Club Chelsea series of dolls.

He comes with a cardboard ice cream cone.Yum.

He's not easy to find, because as usual, there are fewer boy dolls made than girls. The last time there was a boy in the Chelsea line it was Darrin.

(You can see my review of Darrin HERE.)
I am glad to see that the Chelsea boxes are alot more 'green' than they were in Darrin's time. Darrin's box was a tray type insert inside a box. This guy's box was just a plastic bubble on a card. All I had to do was tear the back off,revealing the plastic ties. They were kind of tight and hard to cut,but once they were cut,he came right out off the backing. 

This little guy is so cute. It's nice to see that he's completely different from Darrin:different face...

And he has freckles!

 

...and one of the nicest things: he's not blonde!

The kid is a big slob.He somehow got dirt all over his shirt while he was sliding. It was muddy out there...and 34 degrees! If he had been a real kid he would have been cold in that outfit.

 There hasn't been a non-blonde boy in the Kelly or Chelsea one since Happy Family Ryan.

I only wish he had rooted hair instead of molded, painted hair.

But even with painted hair he's cute. He ended up with two prongs out the back of his head where he was attached to his box with plastic ties.

I love his camera shirt too.

But I have my doubts about his shiny nylon shorts.And, unfortunately, they are all one piece with his shirt. Yuck.

The whole thing Velcros in the back.

He has white tennis shoes.

His legs static-ed a bunch of leaf bits and stuff up from the grass while he was sliding. And my camera had a hard time picking up the detail in his shoes.

His articulation is limited,as with all Chelsea dolls.

But at least he doesn't have that stupid, and very limiting bent arm!

What happened to all the articulation Mattel was using on the Kelly dolls? They variously had jointed knees,arms that could move out to the side instead of just up and down,and legs that could move out to the side too. Our guy today can only move his arms and legs back and fourth and turn his head.

He's the same size as Chelsea, since they share a body sculpt.

I still have a couple of birthday dolls to show you, and some goodies from a trade I did recently. I'm not sure which it will be, but tomorrow we'll look at another doll.