What's Nuevo???

New junk I just got around to scanning

EEK! Was it really February when I last updated?

Queen "I'm-a-dollie"

Just so's you know why I'm so behind on everything, it's Episode 1 mania keeping me busy! Last week, we braved mud, rain, more mud, and more rain with tens of thousands of other Star Wars geeks to celebrate our obsession in Denver. (From L-R, Chris G., Gus, and myself. Note mud and Yoda Soda in background. And thanks to Ron S. for the pix!) And, just because I'm having trouble finding any other nice images of these on the web, here are some pictures of my new Queen Amidala dolls.

Hidden Majesty Queen Amidala

Surprise, surpries, it's Amidala in disguise! By the way, if you're allergic to spoilers, don't look too closely at these dollies just yet. This is one of the "play doll" line, and it retails for around $25. I found all of these dolls at FAO Schwarz.

Royal Elegance Queen Amidala

Another "play doll," retail price around $30. If you remember the trailers (and of course you do), this is the dress with the lights sewn around the hem.

Queen Amidala in her Black Travel Gown

Get a load of that feather headdress! This is doll #2 in a series of 3 dolls for "collectors." (As a hint, #3 is the red dress, as seen below, and #1 is actually the Princess Leia in her ceremonial gown.) Here's a peek at the box. This doll retails for around $60.

Queen Amidala in her Red Senate Gown

Damn! I wanna be Queen when I grow up. A velvety robe over a taffeta gown, with the most amazing tasseled headdress. This is #3 in the series for collectors, and ought to set you back around $60. Here's a look at Amidala in her distinctive Episode 1 box.

Change girl!

Change Mer-Maid

"It's time to change," as the Brady Bunch told us. These two amazing dolls were made for the live action sentai series Changeman.

Change Phoenix

Sentai shows are usually centered around a team of typical teenagers who somehow acquire super-powers, large robots, and primary-colored spandex suits. They fight villains who wear ill-fitting rubber suits. In other words, this is where Saban go the idea (not to mention the footage) for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and all their descendants. Usually, toys based around the Japanese shows seem to consist of replicas of the mecha, and plastic action figures. I haven't seen many dolls, or more girl-oriented toys, even though the teams typically have one or two female members.

Just Plain Volks

Faye Valentine

This character is from the anime Cowboy BeBop, which I understand Bandai expects to have subtitled and dubbed for us non-Japanese speaking folks real soon. She uses the Volks shop's "Beauty and Sexy Type" body.

Sakura Kinomoto

Card Captor Sakura is a really cute, magical girl-type show based on a manga by CLAMP. Unfortunately, I haven't yet heard any plans to bring the show to the US, so you'll have to rely on fansubs. Meanwhile, we can enjoy the dolls. This doll was made by the same show, Volks, that made the Cowboy BeBop doll, and the bodies are very, very similar, but look how different the two dolls have ended up looking. Very cool.

Jenny, et al.

March Gem Series Calendar Girl

Last year's Calendar Girl series was based on precious stones, which gave Takara a great excuse to come up with some reprehensible outfits, but on the other hand, they also produced some dolls with really wild hair colors.

Ellie's Club 92 Kisara

When will I have enought Kisara dolls? Heck, I don't know! This older Kisara comes with oodles of curly blond hair.

Gatchaman cel

Couldn't go another month without some Gatcha-stuff. Here is one of Gus's cels, a dramatic picture of Ken.

Medicom Bruce Lee

Kick ass (as Cartman would say)! Medicom's gone to putting less kanji on the boxes, which I don't like. On the other hand, they're now using their own jointed body (insted of the Hasbro Japan body), so as a result, these cool dolls have now become somewhat cheaper. [P.S. D'oh! For some silly reason, I originally had this doll listed as a *Marmit*. Many apologies, and thanks to Brad for pointing that out!!]