Tiny Review – Vanellope von Schweets talking doll!

Posted on February 21, 2013
by Beth Lynn

I will proudly admit that I am a huge fan of Wreck-it Ralph. I’m pretty sure that’s no surprise at all to anyone who follows my blog. I’ve got quite a few Wreck-It Ralph figurines – there was a set of them I received as a holiday present from a close friend, and there’s a couple of Vanellope figures I picked up, and I’ve also got an awesome Wreck-It Ralph poster – and a Vanellope plush as well! I’m eagerly awaiting March 5th, when the DVD comes out – of course I’ve got it preordered. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that when I found out Disney made a talking Vanellope von Schweets doll, I had to have one of my own.

It took a while to actually track one down – before the holidays, every Disney store I visited was out of talking Vanellopes. I visited three stores in two different states, and no luck! (I did manage to get the plush Vanellope in Syracuse, NY, however, so it wasn’t entirely a waste!) Then, when I finally did find a talking Vanellope…

…she was $50.00. And talked a lot about getting her hair done, and had some ridiculous hair extensions. Granted, yeah, this was the Toys R Us version, and not the Disney Store version I’d initially been looking for, but I was definitely shocked by the $50 price tag. I’m not going to lie – I almost bought her, but realized $50 would also buy a lot of My Little Ponies, and talked myself out of the purchase at the time. I’m glad I did, because I found the version I was looking for on the Disney Store’s website, for half the price of the crazy hair-extension version, and I had a 25% off coupon too! So, I picked her up, because it was a lot easier for me to justify dropping $20 on a talking doll instead of $50. And on my sick day at home earlier this week, she came!

I’m not going to lie, I de-boxed her almost immediately. I am a horrible toy collector, I de-box all my toys. It saves space, and honestly, why collect if you can’t have a little fun with your toys? So yes, I freed her of her box (which was a very nice box, definitely made for displaying, if you’re into that) and instantly started poking her to make her talk. She says around 10 different phrases, and they’re all straight from the movie, I think – definitely in Sarah Silverman’s voice. I recorded her talking a little bit, for those curious…

She’s definitely nice and loud, as you can tell, and she says some of her catch phrases from the movie. (Bryan and I are a little disappointed that she didn’t make any doody jokes, though. Yes, we are apparently eternally 10 years old, haha.) She’s put together really well, and stands on her own pretty well too. She’s got a lot of styling product in her hair, though, and some parts of it are tied into place – I guess that’s to help it keep its style? I’ve got no idea. I do know, though, that I thoroughly enjoy this Vanellope doll, and I’m definitely glad I picked her up! If you collect Disney memorabilia, or loved Wreck-it Ralph, you should definitely get one for yourself – you won’t be disappointed!

Sick day

Posted on February 19, 2013
by Beth Lynn

Well, it had to happen at some point – I’m home sick, due to various health issues I won’t get into too much here (let’s just say some PCOS-related issues, as well as a sore throat, and leave it at that). So, I’m having an honest-to-goodness sick day – not a “work at home” day, not a “oh I feel icky but I’m still going to go to work” day. I think the last time I’ve had a sick day was back in September, when I had bronchitis… Anyway, I’m spending this sick day cooped up on the couch, doing all sorts of relaxing, low-energy things.

So, what happens if you’ve got a sick day of your own? What kind of stuff could you do?

Catch up on TV shows you’ve always wanted to watch but never got around to. (Or rewatch some old favorites!) Some of my suggestions for the nerdy/geeky crowd, especially those with Netflix, include Merlin, The IT Crowd, Torchwood, Farscape, and the classic episodes of Doctor Who! (I highly recommend the Tom Baker episodes.) I’ve been doing a fair share of that today – I’ve watched so many episodes of 30 Rock today it’s ridiculous. It’s not especially nerdy, I know, but it’s hilarious. And Jack McBrayer makes me giggle, especially considering every time he talks, I keep picturing Felix from Wreck-It Ralph saying his lines.
Go through your pile of unfinished crafts and see what you can do from bed/flopped on the couch/curled up under piles of blankets someplace warm. Crocheting and knitting are especially low-energy, and if you’re working on a blanket, that’s a plus! It’ll help you keep warm.
Drink some tea! Tea always makes things better.
Play some old video games! Dig out that old Super Nintendo or PlayStation and play some old favorites. I might be hooking up my SNES and playing Street Fighter later. Or Super Mario Kart.
Maybe build a puzzle? I have a Sailor Moon one that’s been sitting under my coffee table for entirely too long…
Read a book! Books are perfect companions for long days in bed. Some of my suggestions include any of the Southern Vampire/Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris (quick and easy reads!), any of the Black Jewels novels by Anne Bishop (very gripping stories!), or Stephen King’s Under The Dome. And those are only the books I can think of right now!
Or you can do what I did, and take ridiculous pictures of your husband!

Bryan made a new friend today, hahaha.

What kind of stuff do you do with your sick days? Tell me in the comments!

Comics! My Little Pony and Adventure Time

Posted on February 10, 2013
by Beth Lynn

I’ve only very recently gotten back into the swing of collecting comic books again – when I was a kid, I used to collect Simpsons Comics pretty religiously, and collected stuff that Mixxzine/Tokyopop put out when I was a teenager. However, when I was in college, I sort of fell out of the collecting habit – I’d pick up a few comics here and there, like assorted Pokemon comics and the occasional manga, but not with any sort of regularity.

Then the Sailor Moon manga started being re-released, sometime last year, and I realized that I HAD to get them. I mean, they were re-translated, presented in their original right-to-left format, and published in a sturdier format than the Mixxzine/Tokyopop editions that would fall apart after one or two reads. And then from there, I was lost, haha. Especially when My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic started releasing a comic series. (For those that don’t know me, I am a HUGE My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan. I mean, come on, I’m sitting here writing this while wearing a Pinkie Pie hoodie and mismatched Twilight Sparkle and Derpy Hooves socks!) Of course I had to start collecting those. And in the process, I started picking up some Adventure Time comics, too.

Oh, so many comics – issues one and two of gender-bending Adventure Time, and a whole ton of ponies. (Plus a bag! Because one can never have too many pony-bedecked project bags, haha.)

When it comes to the MLP:FiM comics, I knew I was going to get those right from the start, as soon as they were announced. I wasn’t sure if they’d be good or not, but hey, if they weren’t, I could at least hang onto the first issue as some sort of collector’s item, right? I read the first issue as soon as I left the comic book shop, and it was good. I mean, really good. It picked up where season 2 left off with one of the villains from the series, Chrysalis (queen of the Changelings), and what she got herself up to in Equestria after our heroines last encountered her. I won’t talk too much about the content of these comics, especially for those who haven’t read them yet and want to – all I will say is that if you enjoy MLP:FiM at all, and enjoy comics, you’ll love the pony comics. And if you’re a comic collector, there are so very many alternate covers out there for each issue – I’ve only been collecting the covers from Hot Topic, but there are far more covers available. Issue one alone has 19 different covers, and issue two has 13! So, yeah. Definitely plenty of reasons to pick up some pony comics.

The Adventure Time with Fionna and Cake comics, those were something of a bonus. The comic shop I visit, Vintage Phoenix, tends to keep their MLP comics on the same rack as they do the Adventure Time comics. When I went in January to pick up my monthly dose of pony, Fionna and Cake were there on the next shelf down – and I love Adventure Time (not nearly as much as I love MLP, though), and figured, what the heck, I’ll give it a shot. I absolutely love the gender-bending story line, and seeing all the opposite-gender counterparts to characters like Princess Bubblegum and Marceline (Prince Gumball and Marshall Lee, respectively) made me giggle. So, when I came in to pick up my comics this month, I added Adventure Time with Fionna and Cake to the pile!

I might do a monthly post about my comic book haul – depends on how many comics I end up getting, whether or not I add manga to the mix (after all, I am still getting those Sailor Moon volumes every other month!), and so on – we’ll see how stuff pans out!