A package from Linda

Back in late December, Linda from Yéyé dolls hosted a Holiday giveaway. She had two prizes, a Barbie doll plus an outfit and a Paola Reina Las Amigas doll, also with an extra outfit. I did end up winning the Barbie prize, so I thought we could unbox it together. 

The package arrived pretty quickly. Linda sent it on a Thursday and I had it here by Monday. I know Belgium and Spain aren't that far apart, but I expected it to arrive by Wednesday, as I didn't think they would sort packages during the weekend. I also did prepare for some delays due to the pandemic, but that did not happen. It's been here for a few days now, but I've been quite busy with other stuff and I haven't had time to unbox it until now. Let's start.

The prize consist of a bath time Barbie doll and a 2-outfit fashion pack. Barbie seems to have a line themed around self-care/wellness, with the dolls either dressed to take a bath, a nap or go to the spa. The fashion pack is a pretty recent one, and includes a dress and a two-piece tracksuit. Let's start with the doll. 

Out of the box she's wearing a towel wrapped around her body, a headband, sandals, and she's carrying a brush. The towel-dress closes up with velcro and has some clear straps to hold it in place. Under the towel, she doesn't have any painted bikini (a.k.a, she's fully naked), which is a good thing if you're planning to redress her. 

She comes with some accessories, including two eye masks, a towel, a bath bomb tray and a puppy that I forgot to include in the photo. I love all the accessories, although the most disappointing ones would be the eye masks and the magazine, as they're made out of cardboard and it was quite hard to take them out of the box without damaging them. I also expected the magazine to be able to open, instead of just being a cardboard rectangle with a print on the front. The rest are great, and I love how they more or less have realistic colors. Maybe with some imagination I can pretend that the bath bomb box is a box full of muffins. 

The doll has some articulation, including her knees, elbow and wrist. This allows for better poseability than the stiff Fashionistas. It's still not the made to move range, but I really do wish that some Fashionistas came with, at least, this type of articulation. In the photo below, you can also see the puppy I forgot to include earlier. You might notice also some poster putty under her foot, as Barbie didn't want to collab and kept falling over. 

Let's move on to the fashion pack. This is actually my favorite out of the two items, as I had been seeing this tracksuit on Instagram, and it caught my eye. It also comes with a dress, running shoes and a baseball cap. It comes inside this bag with a zipper, similar to a pencil case. I like that this type of packaging could potentially be reused to store doll accessories, but if you're a huge collector maybe you're not going to need that many of this.

Kim is going to model the tracksuit for us, as she hasn't been on the blog for quite some time. It has a tie-and-dye print, predominantly in a peach color with some fun pops of other colors. I love how it works so well with Kim's skin tone. The shoes are quite big for Kim, so they might work better with some socks or for a curvy doll. 

I know this type of outfits are quite on trend right now, but personally I would use both pieces separately, combining them with something more muted. For example, I would combine the pants with a plain white t-shirt and the sweatshirt with some jeans. 

Asha is going to model the dress. It has a checkered print in a pink and orange. When I first saw it, I expected it to be more "A line" shaped, but it feels quite straight. I like the top part, and I feel as I could use it as a guide to create my own pattern, but I would try to modify to be more cinched on the waist part. 

Let me wrap up this post by thanking Linda for these prizes. I think she put in the effort to pick nice stuff from Mattel, which lately has some hit or miss products. The fashion pack is one of the best they've put out, and the doll offers something extra with all the accessories. She also included a lovely postcard filled with good wishes. 

I have no plans for my next post. I've been busy taking some photos, filming my next YouTube video, and I'm planning to start a new sewing project, so I have no idea what could I prepare for next time. These past few weeks I've been having a feeling that I'm not getting anything done, despite being constantly working. As soon as I hit "Publish" I might need to go and keep up some of your posts, because I've been more focused on getting stuff done than keeping up with the blog community. 

I hope you're all doing well, and I'll see you as soon as possible.

Monster Crafts

P.S. I just realized that I didn't take any pics with the baseball cap included in the fashion pack. The white shoes Asha is wearing are not included in the pack.