French Article on Earring Magic Ken

Yes, I know A Philly Collector of Playscale Dolls and Action Figures is written in English. English is my native language. I LOVE English. But a journalist wrote to me last week about using my Flickr photo of Earring Magic Ken to illustrate an article about marketing flops. Alas, my photo was not used - a clearer one was found. Still I found the article, "read" it using my rusty French reading skills, and then used Babelfish to translate the article for a cough "more accurate" read. I am providing the link here for the Ken page of that article; you can read the original French Lacutalite article OR the Babelfish version for an eyebrow raising translation you won't soon forget.

By the way, do you think that Earring Ken was a marketing flop?

Veterans Day Salute

I thank the military veterans for their sacrifices and their dedication to keeping the American people safe.

African American Stardoll - Nevraforever ROCKS!

Doll enthusiast, Nevraforever, has photos of some of the new Stardolls including one that I think is an African American doll. No, I don't mean the one shown wearing the yellow blouse and navy pants. Per Nevraforever, the AA doll's name is Pret-A-Purple. I had mentioned seeing Pret-A-Purple (described by her outfit color ;-P) in an earlier post.

Thanks to LauraLA also for sharing this link and for mentioning that she saw these dolls at a Toys R Us store. I did not see them in one of the Philly Toys R Us stores I visited earlier today.

This Fall/Winter of 2011 promises lots of exciting new doll series.

Ken's Jacket of Bright Colors

For Ken fans or Ken foes, check this new outfit available at Target. My Kens AND my Joes AND my Power Team guys all fell down and laughed for about 15 minutes after they saw it. Poor Smarmy Ken. I must remember to be kinder to him when I speak to or about him.

I Recant ... He Can Be Cute

Remember, I wrote that I did NOT like the new Ken face sculpt? The one I have been calling Smarmy Ken, when I recognize him at all? Cough. Well, maybe I spoke and wrote too soon. I happened to be at a Walmart store today. My feet happened to wander over to the toy department ... Walmart's Super Saturday is this Saturday, November 5th starting at 11 a.m. ... I just wondered if they had anything that I could see before the big (cough, crowded) event. Nothing new to me. There seemed to be fewer things than I would have thought unless they were holding off on restocking and putting out new stuff. Then it happened. I saw him.

The Beatles "saw her standing there," but me, I saw him hanging there. On the Barbie pink pegboard. Hunky twelve-inch guy. Smarmy Ken with black hair brushed down. Oh my my. Come to momma. Picked him up - still intact in his clear plastic box. Lookee here. The Chiffons' "He's So Fine" starts up. (Okay, that is on the soundtrack of my mind - the story had started their annual ear torment of holiday ditties to force a buying mood on patrons - or to drive patrons running and screaming from the store?) Our eyes met and locked. (BTW, his are blue.) Oh he was smooth ... until he began singing Eddie Money's. "Take Me Home". Well, that was a fun song, but it snapped the spell. Maybe. Someday. But not today. But I did take his picture to share.

Nice, huh? Sigh.

Hot Links to New Mattel Doll Photos

Much gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair - kidding, joking, but darn there are photos of new dolls popping up. Bam, bam, bam! Here are links to some of them. Remember, don't shoot the messenger?

I glanced at a few pages on eBay. I had to see this beauty, the Brunette Stardoll in an actual photo. Can't wait to see an actual doll to the Black doll in the purple dress. Sigh.

From Facebook member Sandra B, frequent contributor to doll news, especially at The Doll Cafe. Two Barbie I Can Be doll sets that include KEN as part of the series. What? I While I want to ignore these sets because they have Barbie with Smarmy Ken, I am torn about them. So far, I have avoided buying Smarmy Ken. But these sets are too cute. Firefighter Ken and Police Barbie. Doctors Ken and Barbie in ONE set. Yes, for Ken's 50th birthday, Barbie is allowing him to work alongside her as either a firefighter OR as a doctor. Hmmm ... what do you think about that?

Moving along, let's see photos of the upcoming Dancing with Stars Barbies on Red Carpet Dolls blog.

New S.i.S. Marisa. As Tiffany Tran notes in the comments, this adult Marisa resembles the AKA Centennial Barbie. (My one who got away, lol.)

Just to keep you glued to your computer chairs. I know - wicked, wicked enabler am I!

Online Photo Updates

Added a few photos to my Flickr Photostream AND to my Webshots albums.