My Recent Trip to FAO Schwartz

I've lived in this city for a long time but I have never set foot in FAO Schwartz toy store until recently. It's at 59th Street and 5th Ave in New York City right behind the Apple store. 

The store was packed because of the holidays. I guess they're big draw is the custom teddy bears because I didn't see anything unique about this store. 

I didn't take any photos downstairs, just upstairs because that's where the dolls and dollhouses were. 

I didn't buy anything because this place was outrageously expensive. They did carry some of the usual Monster High, Calico Critters and various puzzles and action figures. The place was absolutely packed with what I can only imagine we're tourists who enjoy throwing their money away on overpriced toys they can find cheaper elsewhere. 

There's a huge selection of Tonner dolls upstairs. Here's the Tonner James Dean doll. It doesn't look anything like James Dean. 

Another Tonner. Forgot who this is but I don't like the doll anyway. 

These are the Edward and Bella dolls from the movie Twilight. Completely ridiculous. That doll looks nothing like Edward but the Bella doll does favor Kristin Stewart. 

Tonner City Girls dolls. I think the ones with the robes were $50 and dressed they were $60. They all had the same exact face and the black doll is wearing way too much blush.

I do love the articulation on Tonner dolls. 

These are the outfits available for the dolls. Each outfit was $19.99. 

Tonner Rapunzel doll. 

Madame Alexander. 

Madame Alexander Doll Factory dolls. 

Madame Alexander Disney Princess Dolls.

Here's one up close.

Wizard of Oz Baby Dolls. 

Special 30th anniversary Cabbage Patch Kids doll. 

Some flying fairies. 

Barbie collector dolls. 

Vampire Barbie.

They also have a dollhouse and miniatures section. 

This dollhouse is $299.99. 

This one is $495 for the kit. $650 already assembled.

That'll be the day I pay $6 for an empty, miniature paper bag. 

The few antique dolls that they have for sale. 

Two rolls of miniature toilet paper costs $10. That is outrageous! Regular people sized toilet paper doesn't cost that much.  Something like this shouldn't cost more than $1, especially because it's made in China for as cheaply as possible. 

This is the reason I don't buy miniatures. I'd rather watch My Froggy Stuff on YouTube and learn how to make the stuff myself out of recycled materials. Sometimes I find things I can use in dollar stores. But I will never pay these ridiculous prices.

At least now I can say I've been to FAO Schwartz. 

Robotica

Monster High Toralei Cat Tastrophe Review

The Crafty Kitty of Chaos. She is a crime fighting cat who's giving off some fierce Julie Newmar/Lee Meriweather Catwoman from the Batman series realness. 

This is the back of her box in case you haven't seen it yet. It says a bunch of stuff I couldn't be bothered to read. 

Her she is out of her box.

She is my absolute favorite Monster High doll. I found her at Target for $10. I'm sure everybody has her by now because that was an excellent deal. I know I couldn't pass it up. 

This doll is all over eBay now for a lot more money. 

She comes with the usual stand and brush and an excellent mini comic book that is absolutely excellent. It was the only comic book I've ever enjoyed. It would be great if Mattel could expand Toralei's story into a regular, stand alone comic book or graphic novel that is sold separately from the dolls. I would totally buy that. 

  

She has a mouse on her bracelet and painted on fingerless gloves. She also has a belt with some stuff hanging on it. Forgot to take a photo of it. 

Her are both of her arms so you can see her bracelets. 

I will never be brushing this part of her hair because it's adorable and I never want to mess it up. 

Her awesome boots. 

And just because it's so much fun to pose her here are more photos. Her stand makes her a lot of fun to pose. 

Here are some of her stunt moves. 

Here's my Monster High collection so far. 

Robotica

Monster High Rochelle Goyle

I just got Ghoul's Night Out Rochelle Goyle, daughter of the Gargoyle. Which gargoyle? Does this gargoyle have a name? Is the gargoyle her mother or her father? No idea.

Anyway, as you can see she's pretty and cute. As with most Monster High dolls, her dress is entirely too short. I don't think its appropriate for dolls that are sold to little kids. When she sits you can see her crotch. It wouldn't be so bad if she came with a pair of black panties. 

Here are her accessories. A cosmetics compact, a smart phone(?), perfume bottle, purse and hair brush. She also came with a stupid Ghoul's Night Out pamphlet. 

She has cute ears and barrettes. 

Her hair is pink with blue stripes. It's past her knees and pretty good quality but it has constant static cling. 

Her shoes and her granite skin. The quality of her skin is what I like about her the most. 

Her very expressive hands. I like her hands. They don't look like claws. 

Her head tilts from side to side but not up and down. When she looks straight ahead her head is always tilted upwards so she's always looking up at the ceiling. This drives me crazy. 

Here are more photos so you can see more details of her face and clothes. 

Robotica

Lighting For My Third Dollhouse

This post is sort of by request. This will explain the lights I used on the dollhouse.

This is it with the lights turned off. 

I found this in front of my building one day. It's a cardboard dollhouse. I turned it into an 8 room house for my Mini Lalaloopsie dolls. 

It may have looked like this originally. The one I found didn't have the roof on it. 

Here it is lot up. During the holidays last year, I found some LED Christmas lights at the Dollar Store for $6. LED lights are great because they're very bright and they don't get hot so I don't have to worry about starting a fire. 

I got the idea to use these lights somewhere on the internet when I did a search for "lights for dollhouse".  

This photo isn't very good. The lighting is actually very bright. 

It's kind of hard to see here but these are the individual lights poking through holes I made in the dolls house big enough to fit one light each. I out 5 or 6 lights in each room. 

This is a photo of the back of the dollhouse. I think they're are 100 lights on this string of lights. On the bottom right is the control box that I tried to tape to the house but it keeps falling off. These lights have a regular plug that plugs into a wall socket or an extension cord.

I found this to be the cheapest way to light a free dollhouse. Dollhouse lights are very expensive. No way am I paying the prices I've seen on website that sell things for dollhouses. 

I've also bought battery operated LED lights that have 20 lights for a dollar. I used 3 of those on a didn't dollhouse the same way. I think I used a screwdriver to make the holes. The holes aren't neat at all. I'm sure there are better ways to make the holes. I don't know much about making stuff like this and I don't really have any kind of building tools. I was just doing it as cheaply as possible. 

I hope this helps. 

Robotica