Visiting the Barbie Truck and My First Miniso Store at the Mall in Columbia, October 21, 2023

I had gone to the Mall in Columbia that day because I saw an ad on Facebook about the arrival of the Barbie Truck, which was like a food truck except you purchase Barbie merchandise instead of food. I had no problem with finding the very colorful truck.

It drew a crowd of people who waited in line to purchase Barbie stuff.

There was a pile of Barbie jackets on a folding table outside of the truck.

The reason why I wanted to see the truck was because I thought they would be selling Barbie and Ken dolls. After all, the truck had the doll imagery all over it. But when I showed up, I found that they weren’t selling dolls at all. Instead they were selling Barbie-themed clothes, housewares, jewelry, and other accessories for very high prices. A Barbie t-shirt cost $29. A Barbie denim jacket cost $75. A Barbie necklace cost $22. A Barbie coaster set cost $15. One could easily go broke buying Barbie-themed stuff from the Barbie truck.

I ended up shooting a short video of the truck and the line outside of it, which I uploaded on TikTok, Clapper, Instagram, and YouTube.

So basically the Barbie Truck was a bust for me. Since I made the half-an-hour trip to go to the Mall in Columbia and since it’s been a long time since I last went to that mall, I decided to walk around the mall a bit. I found this relatively new store (or at least new to me since I hadn’t been to that mall in a long time) called Miniso. It reminded me of all those Instagram posts I’ve seen about Japanese-themed stores on the West Coast called Daiso that made me feel envious because there isn’t a Daiso store in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area. (The closest location to me is in Houston.) But I go to Columbia and found Miniso, which looks similar to the pictures of the Daiso store photos I’ve seen online.

The store itself is totally cute and the prices are very affordable. (They are slightly higher than what I can find at Five Below but they are cheaper than most of the other stores in the Mall of Columbia.) I purchased two items. One is a plastic cup for the bathroom that has a really cool looking image of Ariel from the Disney animated movie The Little Mermaid. The other is a blind package that’s shaped like a soft drink can and it holds a small Ddung doll, which is a doll line that’s made in South Korea. I wouldn’t know what doll I would get until after I purchase it. So I decided to buy one of the soda can shaped packages for the heck of it.

When I got home I made a short video about my small haul from that Miniso store, which included unboxing the Ddung doll. I uploaded it on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. As for the Ddung doll, I ended up with this doll wearing this cute shark swimsuit (which comes with fins on the sides) along with tiny swim fins and a tiny snorkel mask. She is no more than three inches tall and she has a large head with big eyes and a tiny body. She is incredibly cute.

Here’s a fun fact: I thought the Miniso store was a Japanese store because of all the cute items it had for sale. But then I looked it up on the Wikipedia and found that Miniso was actually started in China and it patterned itself after Japanese stores like Daiso, Uniqlo, and Muji.

Here’s to a Challenging Week

The Coronavirus pandemic is still raging on while this past week was that horrifying siege of the U.S. Capitol building. I live outside of Washington, DC and I have walked past that majestic building numerous times over my life and I have even gone inside of it a few times in the past. Who knows what else will happen until January 20 when Joe Biden will get sworn in as president?

On that note I’m going to start off a new week with photos of a couple of dolls in front of the Capitol building that I shot in the past. (I actually shot both photos on location. Each time I brought my doll with me while traveling on the Metro.) Here is my Ellowyne Wilde doll at that building that I originally shot back in 2007.

You can learn more about the story behind this photo right here.

And here is my Hairdorables Willow doll that I shot in front of that same building in 2018.

You can learn more about the story behind this photo right here.

 

Vanellope Von Schweetz Doll

Here’s a doll that I recently purchased off of eBay. She is based on Vanellope Von Schweetz from the Wreck It Ralph movies. She’s among my favorite characters in those films and I was happy when I found this used doll in great shape at an affordable price. (I missed out on the doll when it was first released because I was struggling with finances.) She stands around 12 inches tall and she has great articulation in the hands, arms, and legs. She’s supposed to be a talking doll but I haven’t gotten around to installing the batteries yet. (I’ll shoot some video once I get her talking.) Here are a few still photos of Vanellope that I shot not too long ago.

And, yes, I have a miniature Fix It Felix Jr. video arcade machine that I purchased from Walmart a few months ago.

Junicorn 2020

The one thing about this enforced stay-at-home order in an effort to flatten the curve of the Coronavirus pandemic is that I did things that in other years I would have never considered doing.

Each year there is an online art thing where the entire month of June is dubbed Junicorn. The idea is to show off unicorn images between June 1-30. It runs concurrent with Pride Month and I’ve seen overlap between the two in the form of unicorns and rainbows.

Even though I’ve done a variety of unicorn-related things in the past (such as my 1990s online animated The Unicorn With An Attitude series), I’ve never took part in the annual Junicorn before. I was teaching myself how to use TikTok but, due to that platform’s one-minute maximum length, there aren’t too many Unicorn With An Attitude episodes I can actually release on that platform. I also wasn’t up for doing a new unicorn drawing every day because I’m currently decluttering my home and I just don’t want any distractions at the moment.

I decided to just show off the unicorn things I currently own on TikTok. A few times a week I shot short video footage of what I had then uploaded it on TikTok. I didn’t do it every day because I didn’t have enough unicorn stuff that I could film every day. Besides, filming a new video every day is very time-consuming and I really don’t have the time or stamina necessary to make daily videos. (This is why I haven’t taken up daily vlogging, unlike the many YouTube stars who do just that.)

I began the month where I made videos featuring atypical unicorns, starting with a tiny rubber unicorn duck. Then I showed off my tiny Bobobie Sunny doll because he has a tiny unicorn bump in the middle of his forehead. I showed off my Monster High Neightman Rot doll because he’s the son of a zombie and a unicorn (which is a pretty interesting combination). I also showed off my Hairdorables Willow doll from the first series because she wears a unicorn headband.

Once I exhausted all of the atypical unicorns I own, I started to focus on the more traditional depictions of a unicorn. I started with my Fingerlings Gigi the Unicorn robot toy. From there I showed off this electronic unicorn head keyring that I purchased from the Spirit of Halloween store last fall. (The keyring part has since broken off but the electronic head still works.)

I moved on to the Funko Pops figurines based on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which I collected for a while until financial struggles forced me to stop buying them. I showed off the Great and Powerful Trixie, DJ Pon-3 (a.k.a. Vinyl Scratch), and Lyra Heartstrings. (I have other My Little Pony Funko Pops but they are either Earth or Pegasus ponies.)

From there I moved on to these unicorn themed toys that I purchased from Target recently. They are from Spin Master and they are called Uni-Verse. They are blind box packages that are shaped like emoji clouds. You dip the cloud into water where the cloud melts away, revealing tiny wrapped packages. You unwrap each package, which reveals a card featuring the name of the unicorn you got, the unicorn itself, a tiny non-unicorn friend, and accessories.

I ended up purchasing four of the cloud-shaped packages where I filmed each cloud melting away in water. I got Glamerin’ Cameryn, Moo Moo Molly, Dilly Dolly Dotty, and Sunburst Sydney.

I also decided to make a TikTok video featuring this gouache painting that I did when I took an art class back in the 1990s. It’s currently hanging on my living room wall but I have never got around to writing any blog posts about it until now. The assignment was to do a series of smaller paintings on the same subject where we not only had to emulate the style of a famous artist but also try to morph the paintings from one style to another. And we had to do it using black and white paint. I did a unicorn where I morphed from the style of Joan Miró to Vincent Van Gogh. (I have more to tell about the making of this piece but I’ll have to write about it in a later blog post.)

I finally finished Junicorn off with me modeling a unicorn face mask that I purchased from the annual Greenbelt Green Man Festival about 10 or 15 years ago. It was back when I was still married because these masks were pretty pricey. This mask is made from leather and it is high quality. I consider it to be so artistic that I have this mask hanging on my living room wall when I’m not wearing it (which is most of the time). The 2020 Greenbelt Green Man Festival was cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic so I had a chance to wear it, even if it was for only 15 seconds.

I got a lot of views on all of my Junicorn videos (with the My Little Pony and Spin Master Uni-Verse figurines being the most popular) along with plenty of likes, which was pretty cool. Doing these Junicorn videos was a way for me to have some fun since I’m home alone most of the time due to the pandemic.

I don’t know if I’ll do anything like this next June or not. It depends on whether I have purchased new unicorn things for me to show off or if I have created some unicorn art that I want to share online.

I recently compiled my TikTok videos into one longer video and uploaded that one on YouTube, which you can see below.

My Country is in Hell Now

This week has been one horror after another. First, the death tolls from the Coronavirus has gone up to 100,000 people in the United States and experts are saying that another 100,000 people could be dead by Labor Day. What’s really maddening is the stories I’ve read about how Donald Trump had disbanded a pandemic task force that was originally put into place by President Obama and Trump didn’t do anything when he received advanced information about this incoming pandemic. I’ve read that had Trump acted even just two weeks earlier than when he finally did, more people would have lived.

What’s worse is that many states are lifting the lockdowns while the pandemic is still ongoing. I’ve heard that in some parts of the country the Coronavirus rates have skyrocketed as a result. Look, I know it’s hard being in quarantine. I’ve been mostly in isolation since March. I miss socializing with people. I miss going to the local library and checking out some books. I miss taking my laptop to the local Target where I would buy a soda and sit in the Starbucks area in the front of the store. I miss going to the Tuesday specials at the local movie theater where admission costs only $5. I miss going to free events sponsored by the non-profit makerspace/art studio known as The Space and creating all kinds of cool things that I can share in this blog. But after seeing some videos online from people who have had the Coronavirus, I’d rather be home alone than get that illness. It sucks that there are so many people who are getting impatient to go back to what things were before the Coronavirus and they care more about their needs and their conveniences than doing everything possible to make sure that their fellow Americans don’t get sick.

I remember when my recently deceased mother’s life insurance payment arrived to my house I originally had the idea of traveling to the Tysons Corner Mall in Virginia where I was going to treat myself to a nice meal at Wasabi then check out the various shops, including the American Girl Place where I would see the 2020 Girl of the Year doll in person. That plan has been totally shot to hell due to the Coronavirus with no end in sight. Sure I miss the opportunity to get sushi dishes via a conveyor belt at Wasabi but that’s the way it goes. (Besides there are other sushi places closer to my home that I could go to as alternatives. They don’t have conveyor belts but at least I wouldn’t have to commute to Virginia.) Right now I could care less if I ever see the 2020 Girl of the Year doll in person, especially since I have no desire of actually buying that doll or her accessories. (With prices for each doll at $115 and with each clothing and accessory at prices starting at $30, I am extremely picky as to what doll and/or clothes and accessories I personally think is worth buying.) Heck, I don’t even care if I end up not stepping foot inside of the American Girl Place this year because there are some things in life that are way more important than dolls.

Everything is different now. I can now laugh at something that almost happened when, back in March, I was scheduled to attend a week-long training with my new job with the Census Bureau starting on St. Patrick’s Day. The Baltimore chapter of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School was having an event on the evening after what would have been the second full day of training. That event sounded really promising with a burlesque performer serving as the model for that evening. I had planned on packing my art supplies along with my lunch before leaving for training. I fretted over being able to get out of training without having it run overtime then hit the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in rush hour traffic and hope that I arrive in Baltimore just in time to grab a quick dinner then wait for Dr. Sketchy’s to begin.

But then the venue where Dr. Sketchy’s would’ve been held had decided to close down indefinitely and the Census Bureau decided to hold the second day of training via phone conferencing before that agency decided to close all of its field offices until further notice. I now wish I had that problem of being able to attend both the training and Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School instead of my current reality of being home alone while doing everything possible to avoid getting the Coronavirus.

I’m only lucky that I still don’t directly know anyone who has had the Coronavirus, despite the fact that I live in the county that has the highest Coronavirus rates in the state of Maryland. I have friends who have friends/relatives/co-workers who have had that illness. Some of these people have recovered while others have died. I’m still bracing myself for the day when someone close to me gets diagnosed with COVID-19 and I have to hope that he or she doesn’t end up among the dead.

So there is this rush to reopen everything while the Coronavirus is still raging and I fear that more people will ultimately be dead as a result. Both Donald Trump and the Senate (especially Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell) seem to stand firm against providing any kind of subsidy to Americans beyond the one-time $1,200 check that was sent out. Many Americans are now out of work because of the pandemic and they still need to pay their bills. I get really pissed when I read about how other nations like Germany and Canada are providing monthly payments of around $2,000 to their citizens until the pandemic passes and the U.S. government is refusing to consider anything similar. Believe it or not, there are a lot of lawmakers (mainly Republicans) who honestly believe that providing any kind of temporary payment will make people too lazy to work in the long run. These are the same people who pronounce themselves as Christians yet they somehow missed the Sunday school lessons as children about how Jesus urged people to show compassion towards others, especially the poor. Thanks to them for refusing to help average Americans, there are too many Americans who have to decide on whether to work at jobs where they could be possibly exposed to the Coronavirus or not work while not having any money to pay bills. This really sucks.

Then there was that police brutality fuckery where that white Minneapolis police officer named Derek Chauvin literally kneeled at the neck of an African American named George Floyd while Floyd was lying on the ground until he was dead. I’ve seen the still photos and they are sickening to watch. I can’t face watching the videos where Floyd supposedly said “I can’t breathe” a few times but that police officer just kept on grinning like he had just caught a huge salmon on a fishing trip.

The details get worse with each passing story. George Floyd and Derek Chauvin had once worked together at the same Minneapolis nightclub. Apparently Floyd being a former co-worker wasn’t enough to deter Chauvin from kneeling on that man’s neck. Chauvin had a history of police brutality and the then-prosecutor, Amy Klobuchar, decided not to press charges. She’s the same woman who ran for president in the Democratic primaries and she is rumored to be on the short list of Joe Biden’s vice president picks. Had she pressed charges, it’s possible that Chauvin would be in prison now and George Floyd would be still alive. Here’s hoping that her political career takes a serious hit that she can never recover from.

A riot broke out in Minneapolis and I’ve heard that a police officer acting as an agent provocateur had started it by smashing a store window. The guy’s ex-wife or ex-girlfriend identified him and spoke out on Twitter. At one point a CNN reporter was arrested by the police while he was reporting live on the air. It was so obvious that he was working as a reporter but the cops decided to nab him anyway.

This whole situation in Minneapolis is a throwback to what happened closer to my home in Baltimore just five years earlier. An African American man named Freddie Gray was brutally murdered by the Baltimore police, which sparked a few days of rioting. Last month was the fifth anniversary of Gray’s murder and now history is repeating itself in Minneapolis.

The biggest insult is that, as of this writing, Donald Trump hasn’t said much about George Floyd’s murder or anything like that. That’s because this week Trump started to get peeved at Twitter because that platform decided to finally fact-check his tweets while also providing warnings on the tweets where he has been threatening violence. For years Donald Trump has been getting away with issuing the kind of tweets that would have lead to most other users get suspended with repeat offenders getting booted off of the platform entirely. It looks like Twitter is finally growing some balls by standing up to The Donald and Trump can’t stand it.

Trump cares more about being allowed to tweet whatever he wants on Twitter than the fact that people in the United States are protesting and rioting because of George Floyd’s brutal death, including a spontaneous protest that happened outside the White House yesterday. I would’ve loved to have been there but I didn’t learn about it until I saw posts on Facebook and Twitter. I’ve been doing spring cleaning of my house most of the day and I felt too tired and stiff to even consider going to downtown DC to protest.

This morning I saw photos online of Amish people in Minnesota peacefully protesting while holding signs that said “Black Lives Matter” and “Justice for George Floyd.” You know things are bad when even the Amish are protesting.

And then to cap off a really shitty week, Trump announced that he is withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization. He’s doing this in the middle of a major pandemic that has killed 100,000 Americans.

Earlier this week I made a TikTok featuring a doll that I had recently purchased off of eBay. She is based on Vanellope Von Schweetz from the Wreck It Ralph movies. I’ve always had a soft spot for her because, on the surface she seems to be a girly girl yet she is also into race cars and she has a need for speed. I was happy when I got that doll. So I make a TikTok video featuring the doll and I paired it with the song from the first Wreck It Ralph movie, “Shut Up and Drive.”

I found another sound from the first Wreck It Ralph movie on TikTok that has Vanellope saying “Tut! Tut! As your merciful princess, I hereby decree that everyone who has ever been mean to me shall be…executed.” I thought that would be a perfect sound for a potential future project and this week’s events have led me to find a use for it.

So I downloaded an official presidential portrait of Donald Trump from the Internet and printed it out. Then I glued it to some posterboard and I cut out a strip of posterboard and glued it to the back of the photo to serve as a support so the picture could stand alone. Then I took both the picture and my Vanellope doll outside and did some filming of the two side by side. Then I attempted to set the picture on fire only to find out that, for some reason, I couldn’t get the picture to catch on fire. After wasting a few matches I ended up getting some lighter fluid and pouring it on the picture before I successfully managed to set the picture on fire. I kept on filming as the picture totally burned to the ground then I took a glass of water and poured it over the remaining ashes. The picture took around 3 and a half minutes to burn but I ended up speeding up the burning footage because TikTok doesn’t allow videos to run longer than one minute. It all worked out because Donald Trump’s face burns at the moment when that sound clip of Vanellope says “…executed.”

I posted it to TikTok last night and, so far, it’s getting a pretty decent amount of attention. (As of this writing I’ve gotten 222 views and 5 likes.) I also shared that video on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as well. I also managed to combine that video along with the other previous video I did about my Vanellope doll and uploaded it on to YouTube, which you can see below.

I’m sure I’ll probably get some hate from Trump supporters but I’m beyond caring at this point. I’m seeing my country being thoroughly trashed by Trump and his supporters and 100,000 Americans are now dead because they simply didn’t care enough to do much about the pandemic. If someone successfully assassinates Trump, the first thing I would do is to go to the streets of downtown DC with a bottle of wine and celebrate outside big time. The second thing I would do is create art that would hail the assassin as a hero. It would be karma for Trump issuing that awful tweet about Minnesota where he said “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Assassination probably won’t happen but I will be looking forward to November when I can vote for whoever gets the Democratic nomination (at this point, if they nominate a goldfish for president, I would be more than happy to vote for that goldfish) and I hope that Trump will be removed from the White House.

Just today I made a new TikTok video where I recycled Donald Trump’s burning picture from the Vanellope Von Schweetz and paired it with the Chambers Brothers’ classic 1960s song “Time Has Come Today.” I also shared it on various other platforms, including YouTube.

To be honest, if Trump gets re-elected along with his enablers in the Senate (most notably Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham), there will be no hope left for the future of this country. There will be more racism, more misogyny, more homophobia, more pollution, more big financial giveaways to corporations, and fewer jobs that pay a living wage for Americans. We’ll end up with a violent situation similar to what happened with Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

Mermay 2020

For the past few years I’ve heard of Mermay, the month-long occasion that originally began as an art event where artists drew or painted mermaids during the month of May (get it?). Over time other people have shared pictures of mermaid costumes, mermaid dolls, mermaid t-shirts, mermaid knickknacks, etc. Even though I have done mermaid art in the past, I’ve never done one specifically for Mermay.

In the meantime I’ve been taking advantage of the Coronavirus-related downtime to teach myself how to use TikTok. I came up with the idea of featuring dolls in a series of TikTok videos for the month of Mermay. I have a 1/3 scale doll-sized mermaid tail that I purchased at a doll meetup that took part during either Katsucon or Otakon many years ago. (I remember that a ball jointed doll fan known only as Dizzy was selling them for $30 each on behalf of a friend of hers who was sewing them.) So one day I carted my Volks Dollfie Dream doll wearing the mermaid tail to the nearby park, which has a lake. I came up with the idea of a lake mermaid resting by the shore. (That idea was born out of necessity because any kind of lengthy nonessential travel was strongly discouraged by the state and local government authorities due to the Coronavirus pandemic.) I took a couple of still photos of my Volks Dollfie Dream all decked out as a mermaid. They are sort of NSFW because they involve a topless anatomically correct doll.

I then shot this TikTok video featuring my Volks Dollfie Dream doll wearing the mermaid tail. I ended up censoring her breasts with stickers because I learned that TikTok strongly discourages nudity and I wasn’t sure how they would react to a partially naked anatomically correct doll.

The following day I decided to shoot a merman (a male mermaid) at the same lake. I pulled out my Fantasy Doll Tobias (which is another Asian ball jointed doll) and put him in the same mermaid tale that the Volks Dollfie Dream had worn the day before. Once again I shot a couple of still photos of this doll dressed as a merman.

I shot another TikTok video featuring the merman for Mermay.

I also decided to shoot another Mermay-themed TikTok video. This one would be different from the other two in that it would feature one of my small Hairdorables doll. This doll is from the second series and it features Willow expressing herself as a mermaid lover by wearing a fishtail braid and wearing clothes and accessories with seashells on them. Here’s a still photo of Willow that I shot last year when I unboxed her for the first time.

For this TikTok I shot this in my home using the backdrop that comes with each Hairdorables doll. Once again I decided to edit the video on my phone before uploading it on to TikTok even though I had problems the last time I tried this. Since that previous time TikTok had upgraded its app and it can now accept videos that were edited outside of that app. So I made this TikTok video featuring Willow the mermaid lover.

Since I had shot those videos I saw that the one featuring the Volks Dollfie Dream was the most viewed (despite the censorship of her bare breasts) while the one with the merman came in second while Willow’s video came in last place. I have since combined those three videos into one Mermay 2020 video and I’ve uploaded on to YouTube, which you can watch below.

Unboxing a Hairdorables Series 2 Doll

On Christmas Eve I went inside of Target being amazed that the stores in my area were far less crowded than previous Christmas Eves. I saw that Target had gotten a shipment of Hairdorables, the dolls that come in blind boxes. The dolls were officially released back in August but for some reason the nearest Target didn’t get the dolls in stock until December.

So I bought one of the blind boxes and waited until the following day so I would have a surprise on Christmas Day. So I opened the package and I found out that I got Willow, a unicorn-loving doll, which was pretty cool. I thought about getting a second Hairdorables box to open on January 6 (Little Christmas) until I learned that a new second series of the Hairdorables were going to arrive in stores later that month so I decided to wait.

Given that it took four months for the series 1 Hairdorables to arrive at the local Target, I expected not to start seeing series 2 boxes arrive until May. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that the series 2 boxes arrived last week along with the first series of the Hairdorables Pets. (Yes, these dolls now have pets that one can purchase but that’s another blog post altogether.) So I purchased one of the boxes and brought it home.

The next day was on Sunday so I had originally planned on going to a local park so I could open the box in natural sunlight. But then this windstorm arrived and it was blowing things everywhere. I realized that opening that package in a park during a major windstorm would not be practical so I ended up going to the Greenbelt Makerspace to open it. There was a tye-dyeing t-shirt workshop in progress so I went to a corner of the room where I opened the box (which explains why you’ll see people hovering around a table in the background of some of the photos I took).

There have been one major change to the box. With the series 1 boxes, I saw videos on YouTube on how one can peek inside of the box in order to find out what background you got, which was supposedly a way of avoiding getting duplicate dolls. With the series 2 boxes, they are now covered in shrink-wrap so one can no longer peek inside of them before buying a box.

I removed the shrink-wrap and took a look at the box. The design is similar to the series 1 box except the box is now mostly pink. (The series 1 box was mostly purple.)

One of the sides had the backstory behind Hairdorables, which goes like this:

Hello influencers!

It’s your time to SHINE!

Meet Noah and the #Hairdorables!

Noah is a super sweet girl with a talent for styling hair. When she posted her front braid tutorial for fun, she never imagined it would go viral!

Since then, Noah has loads of inspiring friends who love to share their passions, so when she asked them to contribute to her channel, they all yelled out a resounding YAAAAAS! Check out the Hairdorables channel on YouTube!

Once again the back of the box has photos of the Hairdorables in this new series. I noticed that there are far fewer dolls in this new series. The first series had 36 possible dolls that one could collect while the second series now has 26 dolls to collect. Despite the number of dolls available, in reality there are only 12 Hairdorable characters and they have all migrated over to the new series. (In other words, there are no new Hairdorables characters.) The extra dolls are the same characters wearing alternate outfits.

One of the side panels have illustrations of the series 2 Hairdorables.

Willow from the series 1 Hairdorables is getting curious as to who is inside of that box.

I managed to do all of the opening since Willow is way too small to help out. Once again the box splits open in two, revealing all of the compartments that I have to open in a certain order along with a folded piece of paper and a peek at the doll diorama background.

First I removed the paper. One side had an illustration of the Hairdorables while the other side is a checklist of all of the dolls that are currently available in series 2. As you can see, most of the dolls are now available in two different versions—one is a regular signature style and the other is an alternative style where the doll will have a different hairdo and outfit. Harmony and Willow are the exceptions—not only are there three variations of that same character but one of these variations are marked as either “Rare” or “Super Rare.” The checklist also announced that one of the accessories can change color with exposure to water. I didn’t spend too much time reading the checklist before I opened the doll because I wanted to be surprised.

I folded out the diorama backdrop and saw that it has a candy store theme, which is very cute and colorful.

Now it was time to open each compartment in order. I opened the first compartment, which said “Top Knots Rule!” I found that I got a comb and a tiny sheet of stickers.

I opened the second compartment, which had a tub with a wrapper that had a drawing of one of the Hairdorables saying “Funky Fab & Fierce”.

I saw that I got a sticker and a pair of sneakers. The sticker had a photo of the Hairdorables with the hashtag #BFFs4Ever. As for the sneakers, they had seashells on the front with a tiny star and wavy line motif on the sides.

Next it was time to open the third compartment. I got a tub with a wrapper that said “It’s Hair.”

I got an accessory, a sticker, and a tiny note. The sticker had one of the Hairdorables with the hashtag #RainbowRealness. The accessory is shaped like a seashell. The note said that this accessory could change color with exposure to water.

The note recommended dunking the purse in ice water. I tried putting it under the cold tap water at the makerspace but the purse didn’t change color at all.

Later that evening I was at home when I decided to try the ice water method that the note recommended. I didn’t have any frozen ice cubes in the freezer so I filled up a tiny Pyrex dish with water, put the purse in water, then put the whole thing in the freezer for about an hour. I found that the purse had turned a deep royal purple color.

I moved on to the fourth compartment. I got a tub with a wrapper featuring a Hairdorables saying “Hair it is!” (The hair puns are very strong in this series. LOL!)

I found that I got a set of headphones with a seashell motif.

At this point I took a look at the empty compartment and saw that there were line drawings of shoes, indicating that it’s a shoe closet. I shot one of the photos using a flash in order for you to get a better look at the line drawings.

Finally it was time for me to find out which doll I got.

I removed the tub that contains the doll and saw that there’s a line drawing in the back suggesting a closet.

The tub containing the doll has the same artwork as before along with the same pun (“Let’s see what’s in hair!”).

I got my first look at my new Hairdorables doll from the front and back.

I took a look at the tiny card that’s also in the package and I learned that I got another Willow doll.

I also got a doll stand, which now comes with each doll starting with this new series.

I put the accessories on this new Willow doll then placed her in the doll stand and shot her against the candy store backdrop.

Here’s a closeup of Willow’s outfit. Unlike my series 1 Willow, who seemed to be into unicorns, this new Willow wears an outfit that has a seashell and fishtail motif while her hairstyle is a fishtail braid. It seems to suggest that this new Willow is into mermaids.

Here is series 2 Willow with the series 1 Willow. With the doll stand one Willow tends to tower over the other doll.

I took Willow off of the doll stand and I found that she can stand up as long as she’s leaning against the backdrop.

Here are the two Willows together. Putting them side by side I can tell the subtle differences between the two Willows besides the fact that they are wearing different outfits. The series 2 Willow has an open mouth smile while the series 1 Willow has a closed mouth smile. The series 2 doll is wearing a long braid while the series 1 doll is keeping her hair long and flowing. The series 2 doll has her hair colored pastel pink and pastel yellow while the series 1 doll has pastel pink and mint green hair.

Basically I have a set of twin dolls. It’s not usual for one to have twin dolls (although I tend to see that more frequently among those who collect Asian ball-jointed dolls) but it looks like anyone who collects Hairdorables can easily get a set of twin or triplet dolls. At least there’s enough of a difference in the two Willow dolls I have so I don’t have an exact duplicate.

Here’s one last shot of Willow with her purse after I had dunked it in ice cold water so it turned into a royal purple color.

Like the first series, the second series has a box design that also serves as the backdrop for Hairdorables play, which is a great way of reducing waste. If you’re concerned about having these boxes take up too much space in your home, I found a tutorial on the American Girl Outsider blog on how to break down the boxes so they will take up less space. (You’ll need to scroll down to the bottom of that blog post in order to find the tutorial.)

A few days after I opened my second Hairdorables doll I went back to the same Target where I purchased both Willows and I didn’t see the Hairdorables or the Hairdorables Pets in stock. (I had hoped to purchase the latter to see what that one was like but that is going to have to wait for a while.) It looks like the Hairdorables are a hit at the moment.

But, as Al Jolson once said in The Jazz Singer, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The annual Toy Fair was recently held in New York and there are more Hairdorables planned over the next few months, starting with the Series 3 Hairdorables (including a new head sculpt showing a pouty face) and Series 2 Hairdorables Pets. If that isn’t enough, there are plans for another related line called Hairdorables Shortcuts, which are dolls who are sisters of the Hairdorables and they come in shampoo bottles. Finally there will be a line of male dolls known as Hairdudeables.

I found a couple of videos from Toy Fair where you can get a sneak peek at these upcoming dolls. There is a shorter video on YouTube by My Froggy Stuff, where the Hairdorables related stuff begins at around the 3:20 mark.

But if you want even more details about the upcoming Hairdorables line, including a glimpse of the Hairdorables Shortcuts along with the Series 3 Hairdorables and Series 2 Hairdorables Pets, you can check out this longer video by Ohcluck Toys. (The Hairdorables product line begins at the 11:24 mark.)

I also recommend checking the Absolutes Hairdorables Wiki for any up-to-the-minute news about Hairdorables (as well as providing a complete encyclopedia of all things Hairdorables).

Video Break

I bought myself a Hairdorables doll just so I would have a surprise package to open on Christmas Day. (For those unfamiliar with the concept, Hairdorables are a line of dolls that come in a blind box. You literally don’t know which doll you’ll get until after you pay $13 for the box then open the box at home.) I ended up with Willow, who seems to be into unicorns, judging from her hairband.

I finally got around to checking out the official Hairdorables channel on YouTube, where I saw a these videos featuring Willow.

If you have a Hairdorables doll other than Willow, you might want to check out the YouTube channel for any videos starring your doll.

Washington, DC, December 29, 2018

This post is kind of special in a way. Not only is it the last of the purely winter holiday 2018 posts but it also marks Washington, DC when it was in the early days of the latest federal government shutdown.

When Donald Trump decided to refuse to sign any budget bills unless he gets his border wall on the U.S.-Mexico border (a demand that most experts say is a waste of money that won’t keep out illegal immigrants), the federal government underwent a shutdown. The Smithsonian and many of the other tourist buildings were able to remain open by tapping into some extra funds but they only had enough money to keep the buildings open until January 1. I decided to spend a day doing something fun downtown since it was still the winter holiday season and it would be my last chance to check out any of the government-funded buildings for a long time. (The federal government remains shut as of this writing.)

To make things even more fun, I decided to pack my latest doll, a Hairdorables Willow that I unboxed just a few days earlier on Christmas Day.

I headed to the Greenbelt Metro station where I saw that one of the periodical boxes has been refurbished as a Little Free Library. This particular one has mainly paperback books and magazines, which are perfect for commuters.

Here’s Willow standing near a giant panda bear statue advertising the annual Zoolights event at the National Zoo (which was among the places that remained opened until January 1). I’ve been to Zoolights other years (in 2012 and 2016) but I wasn’t able to squeeze in a trip this time due to tight finances. (Even though admission to the zoo is free, it still costs money to take the Metro to the zoo.)

I arrived at the U.S. Botanic Garden, which looked very festive for the holidays.

There was an outdoor toy train that rode around. There was an indoor toy train layout inside of the U.S. Botanic Conservatory building but there was such a long line that I decided to skip it and focus on the other exhibitions instead.

The cool thing about the U.S. Botanic Garden is that it has a special holiday display of replicas of various Washington, DC area landmarks that were all made from natural materials. These replicas were scattered throughout the building among the various flora and fauna. The next photo shows the newest of the Smithsonian buildings, the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Here’s the U.S. Capitol Building.

There were poinsettias in a variety of colors placed throughout the building.

The next few photos show a replica of the U.S. Supreme Court building.

Two topiary bears flanked a replica of Union Station.

There were a few Christmas trees placed throughout the Conservatory.

This photo shows the replica of the Library of Congress.

This photo shows the replica of the U.S. Botanic Conservatory building right inside of the real thing.

The next two photos show the replica of the White House.

Here’s a replica of the Washington Monument.

Willow the Hairdorables doll poses next to the Washington Monument replica.

A soon-to-be-furloughed Botanic Garden employee shows a few cocoa bean pods to visitors. (The building was crowded the day I went there.)

I also took photos of the various flora and fauna inside of the Conservatory.

A replica of two ships could be found among the flora and fauna.

The next few photos show a replica of the historic train station in Ellicott City, Maryland.

I shot a closeup of a wall that consisted only of pink poinsettias.

The outside of the U.S. Botanic Garden Conservatory building was festively decorated with two green wreaths.

Across from the Conservatory is another part of the U.S. Botanic Garden known as Bartholdi Park. The focal point of this park is a fountain that was sculpted by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who also designed the Statue of Liberty.

The water was shut off for the winter but the fountain still looked impressive, especially paired with some nice cloud formations that were there when I shot these photos.

The last photo shows some winter cabbage that were planted near the fountain.

After my time at the U.S. Botanic Garden, I walked over to the nearby U.S. Capitol Building.

Here’s a photo of my Hairdorables Willow doll with the U.S. Capitol Building in the background.

Standing near the U.S. Capitol was the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. It’s not quite as elaborately decorated as the National Christmas Tree that’s located near the White House (which I last visited in 2016 when Barack Obama still occupied the White House) but it’s charming in its own way.

I took another shot of my Hairdorables Willow doll next to both the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree and the U.S. Capitol Building.

As I was walking away from the U.S. Capitol, I took a nice photo of the National Mall at twilight along with some nice cloud formation.

Here’s another shot of my Hairdorables Willow doll.

I walked a few blocks to Union Station. The next photo shows that Union Station is located along a path that’s part of the East Coast Greenway.

The next photos show the outside of Union Station all decked out for the winter holiday season.

Here’s a shot of one of the giant wreaths as taken from inside of the archway leading to Union Station.

Each year the Norwegian Embassy puts up a large Christmas tree in Union Station that’s usually decked out with U.S. and Norwegian flags and various Norwegian-made ornaments.

Here’s the last photo I took of my Hairdorables Willow doll on this trip where she’s next to the Christmas tree.

The Norwegian embassy also puts up this elaborate toy train layout that’s based on the terrain of Norway and one can see toy trains running throughout this layout.

The one new thing I noticed about Union Station is that it now has a special virtual reality video game arcade.

This arcade sports a giant video game that bills itself as “The World’s Largest Pac-Man Game.” For only $1 per game, one can choose to play either Pac-Man or Galaga. I didn’t play on this gaming machine but I saw the tail end of one Pac-Man game while someone else took over the machine and chose to play Galaga instead.

The virtual reality area offered the chance to play vr versions of video games like Argyle Shift, Mario Kart, and Ski Rodeo. I didn’t try any of the games because, as you can see in the next photo, the prices were pretty expensive.

I ended my trip by buying sushi from the only Walgreens location that I know of that actually sells sushi. The sushi I had tasted pretty good.

Since I took those photos, the U.S. Botanic Garden is now closed due to the federal government shutdown. Yesterday I learned that unless Donald Trump relents and signs the federal bill, tomorrow will break the record for the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history. Sigh!

Opening a Blind Box Hairdorables Doll on Christmas Day

Since today is New Year’s Day, which ushers in a brand new year, I’d thought I would write about what I recently did for myself on Christmas Day.

I haven’t opened a wrapped gift on Christmas Day since 2011. It was three months after I underwent hip surgery. For my birthday on December 15 my husband surprised me with a new iPod Touch. Ten days later on Christmas Day, I opened a wrapped gift and found that he gave me a new iPad. With a new iPod Touch and a new iPad, I felt really blessed to have two new Apple devices on top of my ability to walk slowly improving after my hip surgery.

It all came crashing down just three days later when my husband came home from work, announced that he was moving out, then ran out the door before I could even respond. My iPad stopped working altogether just three years later. My iPod Touch still works even though it has older software (I can’t install the newest version of the iOS software because the hardware is now considered old).

Over the last several years, before my marriage fell apart, my mother would send me a $200 check for my birthday and a $200 check for Christmas but that was it for gifts. (She also used to send my husband checks as birthday and Christmas presents until he left me.) At least I could treat myself to a nice meal or some nice clothes for myself. The checks stopped in 2016 when my mother’s health deteriorated (she’s currently struggling with multiple sclerosis and it’s gotten to the point where I can only talk to her on the phone for no more than 2 or 3 minutes because she gets tired).

After my marriage ended I usually went to my support group’s annual post-Christmas party where we have a white elephant gift exchange. If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t even get a wrapped gift.

There were times when I miss getting a wrapped gift that i would open and I would be surprised with what I got. I finally decided to rectify that situation.

For the past few years there have been the rise in popularity of blind boxes which housed some kind of a collectible item. One can find them in comic book stores, Target, Five Below, Walmart, and other similar stores. Two years ago I purchased a cheap blind blister package that had a Hatsune Miku keychain inside. The outer pack showed photos of six possible designs that I could get and I didn’t know which one I got until after I brought it home and opened it. I only purchased one keychain because I wasn’t very comfortable with the idea of possibly getting a duplicate because I couldn’t see what I was really purchasing until after I purchased it.

I used to collect Wacky Packages as a kid and they were in blind packages. The difference was that Wacky Packages were basically flat stickers. If you ended up getting a duplicate it was no big deal. You could trade it with a friend but if you couldn’t find any friends willing to trade with you, you could always use that duplicate as a sticker. I remember plastering my notebooks and other items with my duplicate Wacky Packages stickers. When it came time to clear out my childhood home after my mother decided to sell it, I found an old 45 r.p.m. record case that had a Wacky Packages sticker on the bottom for Neveready Batteries (a parody of Eveready Batteries).

But 3D objects in blind packages were another matter. If you ended up with a duplicate 3D object, chances are that you will have a harder time with getting rid of it. Most stores will not accept returns for purchasing a duplicate. You could sell it on eBay but you may or may not get anyone willing to buy it. If you’re lucky enough to have a fellow collector willing to trade with you, you might unload your duplicate that way. Or you could wrap it and give it to someone as a birthday or Christmas present. Or even donate it to Goodwill or the Salvation Army.

Yet I could see the allure of buying a blind package an opening it on Christmas as a substitute for opening a wrapped present. There weren’t too many blind packages that really excited me enough to consider doing this until I learned of a new line of dolls that were released by Just Play a few months ago called Hairdorables. Hairdorables are a series of small dolls with huge amounts of hair that is as big as they are. Not only did the dolls skin and hair come in a variety of colors but I found their faces to be totally cute—complete with impish smiles. Each doll and her accessories comes in a blind box where you don’t know which doll you get until after you buy it and take it home.

The dolls were released in August but, for some reason, the local Target in my area didn’t start getting them until mid-December. Meanwhile I kept on reading about these dolls online until I finally saw the boxes in real life. I purchased a Hairdorables box from Target on Christmas Eve. (The local mall was far less crowded on Christmas Eve this year than in previous years.)

I brought the package home and waited until the following day to open it. Here’s the Christmas tree along with the box still in its plastic Target bag.

Here is what the package looks like. As you can see, you literally don’t know which doll you’ve actually purchased until after you open the box.

The back of the box shows a list of 36 possible dolls that could be in that box.

Here’s a close-up of that box where you can see the Hairdorables available in a variety of hair and skin colors.

One of the side panels of the box tells the story of Hairdorables.

The story goes like this:

Hello influencers!

It’s your time to SHINE!

Meet Noah and the #Hairdorables!

Noah is a super sweet girl with a talent for styling hair. When she posted her front braid tutorial for fun, she never imagined it would go viral!

Since then, Noah has loads of inspiring friends who love to share their passions, so when she asked them to contribute to her channel, they all yelled out a resounding YAAAAAS! Check out the Hairdorables channel on YouTube!

They are dolls for the Internet age that are packaged in such a way as to make filming an unboxing doll video very easy. I chose to shoot a series of still photos instead of making an unboxing video because there are already so many unboxing Hairdorables videos out there and I wasn’t in the mood to make a new video. You open the box a certain way, starting with the yellow pull tab at the top of the box.

Once I pulled down the pull tab I found that the box reveals two compartments that you pull slightly apart.

As you pull the compartments apart you see that there’s a piece of paper in the middle being flanked by the two compartments where the doll and her accessories are held. Basically you are instructed to open the box in a certain order where you open the side containing the doll last. It’s designed to build up suspense to the ultimate surprise—which doll you received.

As for the paper in the middle, one side has a promo drawing of the Hairdorables.

The other side has a checklist of all of the Hairdorables dolls that are available in its first series (while implying that there will be a second series along with more subsequent series).

I didn’t look too closely at the checklist because I’ve read other people’s accounts about unboxing the Hairdorables and I learned that if you study the checklist too much, you will figure out which doll you received while you’re unboxing the accessories. I really wanted the whole experience to be a surprise so I only glanced at it quickly.

I also want to take the time to say that even though the Hairdorables checklist (which you can view online here) says that there are 36 dolls to collect, it doesn’t mean that there are 36 different characters. There are actually 12 different characters with each character having three different variations where each variation will wear a different outfit and have different accessories.

Getting back to the box, once I removed the checklist I found that there is actually a little backdrop where you can pose your Hairdorable doll. I like the idea of reusing the box for play since it would generate less trash than a typical doll box.

The box instructed me to open the left compartment of the box first. The compartment have four smaller sections that are in exact numbered order.

I opened the door marked with the number one and I got a small plastic bin with a top wrapper that had this pun: “Hair we go!”

I got a pink hair comb and a tiny square of tiny stickers.

So I opened the door marked with the number 2 and got a bin with this pun, “You go curl!”

I got a pair of winged sneakers (which looked really intriguing because it reminded me of the winged sandals of the god known as Hermes or Mercury in the Greco-Roman myths) and another sticker.

The stickers could be peeled then folded in half in order to create a tiny smartphone for the doll.

The idea was pretty neat in theory but it turned out to be impractical in reality after I unboxed the doll because her hands were unable to hold the tiny smartphone.

It was time to open the door that was marked with number 3. I got a bin with this message: “[heart] UR Style!”

I got a pair of white angel wings along with another sticker featuring two of the Hairdorables dolls and the hashtag #BraidsRule.

Then it was time for me to open the door with the number 4. I got the bin with this pun: “Sheer Genius.”

I got another sticker with two of the dolls and the hashtag #VacayAllDay. But it was the hairband that really thrilled me. It’s a mint green hairband with a unicorn horn! It brought back memories of when I unsuccessfully tried to market myself with my 1990s Unicorn With An Attitude animation series. I was also intrigued because I once read a series of books by Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball about the adventures of Acorna, a humanoid girl born with a unicorn horn.

After opening the first four compartments it was time to unbox the doll herself.

I opened the door and I got another plastic bin.

Removing the plastic bin reveals more box graphics that suggests a clothes closet.

The bin wrapper had yet another pun: “Let’s see what’s in hair!”

Here is my new doll as she was packaged in that bin as shown from the front and back.

I removed the doll from the bin and found that there was also a small card that reveals which doll I received. One side of the card mentions that her name is Willow, her favorite color is mint green, and her motto is “Style is a state of mind!” The other side shows a cute drawing of Willow.

Once I removed the doll from her bin I put on her winged sneakers, angel wings, and unicorn hairband. Willow has an oversized head on a small, thin body. Here is my new Willow doll placed against her backdrop. I found that the doll can’t stand on her own but I could lean her against the backdrop to make it look like she’s standing. I ended up having to use the flash for the next two photos because the area was a bit too dark (even though I had turned on all the lights on the Christmas tree and opened the blinds on a nearby window to let natural light in).

After that last photo I decided to move everything outdoors. It was sunny outside but the temperatures were in the low 40s. At least I could take better photos of the doll and her background. According to the checklist I got the Willow Wings variation doll and it’s also supposed to be her signature look. (I learned that the dolls designated to be “signature looks” tend to be more common to find than the other variants.)

Willow is incredibly cute with a very impish smile. Her brown skin and pastel rainbow color scheme kind of reminds me of the Studio Mucci Instagram account. Of course her unicorn headband is to die for!

Willow is among the smaller dolls I’ve purchased. Here is how she stands against the 1/6 scale dolls. In this photo she is flanked by Clawdeen Wolf of Monster High and Barbie. As you can see, Willow looks like a toddler compared to those dolls.

Willow and the other Hairdorables are definitely 1/12 scale dolls. Here is how she stands against my other tiny dolls. From left to right: Dollcena Disney Hawaiian Harmonies, Little Pullip Alice Fanatica, Willow, and a Bobobie Sunny Asian ball-jointed doll.

Willow has a mass of long hair that reaches to her feet. I’ve dealt with doll hair over the years but I have to say that her hair is the softest doll hair I’ve ever felt. I really love her pastel highlights that make her hair resemble cotton candy.

I really loved the doll that I received even though getting a unicorn girl was definitely the luck of the draw. The most controversial part of Hairdorables is the fact that you literally don’t know which doll you’ll get while the package costs nearly $13 per box. (Most blind box packages cost anywhere from $3-8 depending on the size of the item inside.) I’ve read reviews online from parents who purchased multiple Hairdorables boxes for their children only to get duplicates.

I’ll admit that I’m still pretty ambivalent about blind boxes in general. While it was fun finding out which doll I got, I had also only purchased just one box. If I had purchased two or more boxes and I ended up getting an exact duplicate, I don’t think I would have been as enamored with the concept. I think just limiting yourself to only one box is the best way to get maximum enjoyment from opening a blind box.

While there are other blind boxes who put codes on their packages that hint at what’s inside (such as the Lego Minifigs blind packages), so far Just Play has not released any hints on how people can avoid inadvertently purchasing duplicate dolls.

I’ve read about some people saying that the best way of telling the boxes apart is to weigh them. Apparently different boxes have different accessories so it affects the weights. Then you somehow sneak a scale into the store and weigh each box to discover which doll that box may have. This method only works if you have purchased at least three or four Hairdorables boxes (while hoping and praying that you didn’t purchase any duplicates) so you can weigh them at home and write down the weight of each doll box with a certain doll inside. Then you would take your scale and list to the store, weigh each box, and compare that weight with what you have on your list. The big problem with that method is that not everyone can afford to use this method, especially since the boxes cost $13 a pop. On top of that, you would have to carry a scale into a store and weigh each box while hoping that a store employee doesn’t decide to confront you while you are doing it.

There is an alternate method is to see the imprinted lot number that’s located next to the bar code of the box.

Next peek at the back of the box to see what the background looks like. You may need to use a flashlight or use the flashlight that’s on your smartphone for this step.

The theory is that if the lot number and background matches, chances are that it’s a duplicate doll and you shouldn’t buy it. This video from the Up and Play YouTube channel demonstrates both the scale and the peeking at the background methods.

There is one major limitation with the idea that a different background means a different doll: That theory doesn’t always work. This blog post on the Toy Box Philosopher site mentions buying two Hairdorables packages with the same background but with different dolls and accessories.

I had thought about testing that idea out by buying a second Hairdorables box, which I would open on Little Christmas (January 6). I was thinking about replicating my childhood when my family used to celebrate that holiday by refilling the stocking with candy, small toys, and practical items (such as a pair of socks or underwear). Some years I would get a small package while other years I only got my stocking refilled.

But then I decided to ditch that idea when I learned that the second series of Hairdorables will be officially released later this month. I decided to just wait for the second series and bypass the dilemma of whether to buy a second Hairdorables Series 1 box and risk getting a duplicate doll. I just only hope that the Target store in my area can get the new dolls much sooner than the four months it took before that store even received its first shipment of the Series 1 Hairdorables.

The YouTube channel My Froggy Stuff managed to received advance copies of the new Series 2 dolls and made this video.

Based on the video, it looks like the biggest improvement is that this new series of dolls will each come with a doll stand. That is a great idea since my own doll can’t really stand on her own. Like the previous series, the new Series 2 doll boxes will also have backgrounds that can be used for displaying the dolls or playing with them.

Like I wrote earlier, I think it’s a good idea to have the boxes double as a display area for the dolls. The only disadvantage is that the boxes tend to take up space, especially if you own more than two dolls and you don’t have much space in your home. I found this tutorial on the American Girl Outsider blog on how to break down the backdrop so it won’t take up as much space in your home. You’ll need to scroll down to the bottom of that blog post in order to get to the tutorial.

I have to admit that it was pretty fun to once again unwrap something that I didn’t know what was inside until after I finished opening the box.

To learn more about Hairdorables you can either check out the official site or you can visit this site that was set up by a fan called the Absolute Hairdorables Wiki.