Thrifted Treasures - Part 3

Hello and welcome to parte tres of thrifted treasures!

Since my last blog post I have shifted from languid student life to having an actual adult job, so my time for toys has decreased significantly. Even so I'm not planning on giving up and alas - here I am!

I have not been able to rummage through thrift stores as much as I would like, but luckily nothing stops me from treasure hunting at my dad's place! He's quite the hunter so treasures keep on coming even if I don't move a muscle ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In my childhood Hello Kitty was more so known for primary colors rather than pink, which is evident in this finger puppet trio from 1988. I cannot believe in how good condition these figures are despite their age! The Kitty herself, the mother (named Mary, I believe) and the sister Mimmy all seem brand new. I know for sure that the set is missing at least the father, both grandparents and three of Kitty's friends but I don't really mind - I'm already glad to have both the sisters (sister power!).

Zizzlinger princesses are always very very very welcome additions to my collection and I'm super happy to announce I got two more! Secondary outfits are my weak spot and Cinderella's mice-made pink dress is one of my all time favorites. So cute! So glittery! I really need to get my hands on a wedding dress one.

These tree stampers are causing me a bit of trouble. I know for sure that they are legit in my pocket merch by MEG but I can't find any information about in my pocket stampers ever been made. Any knowledge on the subject is sincerely welcome. Apparently puppy in my pockets come with a yellow stamp and jungle in my pockets with a green one.

I recently noticed that the Dolci Preziosi surprise egg pencil toppers (that I adore and collect with a passion) come both painted and non-painted (i.e. are just the right colored plastic). After this revelation I decided that I like the painted figures more just because they look better quality-wise but the figures that I had for toys before all this manic collecting and am not willing to pass on are all plasticky ones. So apparently I am now collecting both versions. The right side Clefairy and Pichu are panted and the left side figures are not. Which ones do you prefer?

Also, I noticed that Topps Pokémon figures can have color variations too. Uh oh. The Chatots in the background are clearly painted with a different shade of yellow and black/grey. I have no idea if this is common in Topps figures but as far as I know I haven't run into any differently colored figures before. For now, I'm keeping both and thinking that the other one is an accidental makeshift shiny ಠ◡ಠ.

I also got my hands on two electronic Pikachus that were made 15 years apart. The skinny-chu is a happy meal toy from 2011 and the chubby-chu is a Hasbro toy from 1997. Can you guess which one's still working? Light, sound and all (hint: it's not by McDonalds).

What else. Finnish summer has been sorta rubbish/ sorta ok thus far but I managed to compensate for the lack of photography sessions by putting my loyal Wacom tablet and Photoshop back to use. I also finally started watching Sailor Moon Crystal if you couldn't already tell. Moon prism power maaaake-up!

Until next time fellow sailor senshis! (and other people too, I don't mind if you don't enjoy magical girls [...much]).

✿Tuuli

A huge haul and a little DIY

Hello hello!

Twice a year my city holds a huge "flea market" event where hundreds of people fill up the central market square and sell their excess junk to other people who fill the place up even more. I attend every time I can and I've always had a blast!

This time around, me and my dad were lurking around the stalls even before the event started and managed to go through every single table in around five hours - time well spent! I was avoiding toy hunting for quite a while before the event so I could let myself loose and that is exactly what I did.

I bought way too many things to even consider a thorough episode of thrifted treasures so I decided to briefly show the things I found in a form of a haul. I'm super proud that I manned up and (succesfully!) haggled over most of the things I bought.

If there's something you want to know more about just let me know! Also, sorry about the pictures being a little blue. I couldn't resist taking pictures even though it was already quite late and the lighting was rubbish.

That aside, I totally scored with In My Pockets! I found two new kitties, two new puppies, four Jungle In My Pockets and five vintages! Tilt your computer screen to see the Baby Surprise swans...

I also got quite lucky on the Hello Kitty front. I don't collect PEZ (yyyyeeet) but the bunny on top of Hello Kitty's head is too cute to handle and also how could I not purchase anything My Melody? Right? The funky Kitties are Jakks Pacific, the tiny ones are the Sagittarius and the Libra from the zodiac series I've talked about before and the red one is a VINTAGE Kitty from 1987! I love the old-school look of it and it's awesome to own a perfect-condition Hello Kitty figure that is 4 years older than me. The astronauts are this year's Happy Meal toys from a set of four.

I also found a few new Natoons. The flocked cat and dog are missing their hug-partners, the baby ostrich and the leopard are from older sets and the puma, the gorillas and the dinosaur are from this year's releases.

I also grabbed a few derpy Disney princesses from the gold-dressed Zaini surprise egg line. I love how absolutely stupid these look. I mean, come on Cinderella ఠ‿ఠ.

Last but not least I found Pokémon! I found a dozen Topps candies that I was still missing (well actually 11, The Volbeat is an upgrade since my previous one did not have antennae). I'm most excited for the Bulbasaur, Clefairy, Vulpix and Charmander who are all from the late 90's and in A+ condition.

Not only did I find Topps figures but also Dolci Preziosi surprise egg pencil toppers! Yay it had been so long since the last time I found more of these! The Sceptile is a Tomy Choco Ball figure which is really cool too. If only it wasn't missing its stand, boo.

Definitely one of the coolest finds was this Tomy/Hasbro Deluxe Trainers Ash figure from 1999. It cannot have been played with much since it's in such good shape. The Meowth stamper is also from 1999 and it still works!

Nevertheless, my favorite treasure find of the day was this COMPLETE Zukan piece. Well, if one wants to nitpick, the plastic sticks that hold the figures in place are missing but I replaced them with toothpicks and that's just fine. Anyway, the whole set is in mint condition, it cost me only a few cents and the Spinarak is so cute and tiny that it breaks my heart a little a lot. I love the Zukan sets that come with a "personalized" stand instead of the basic circle and gen 2 Pokémon are very close to my heart so I couldn't have asked for a better find ♥.

But wait, there's more! The bug set wasn't the only Zukan of the day! I also got my hands on these Lotad, Mantine (impossible to photograph!), Noctowl, Seel & Dewgong (from the same set) and Huntail Zukans. I really like how these figures are in scale: I had no idea Noctowl was bigger than Dewgong!

The last figure finds were the plumpy Pikachu ornament, J. Franco & Sons Squirtle, the gorgeous Little Mermaid figure from 1992 and the neat tiger from Moomins.

So there you have it! I think I got very lucky this time around and I can't wait to go browse the market again next fall! Did you have favorites?

On a completely different note, making Barbie clothes from scratch has been on my Bucket list for the longest time. I'm decent at crochet but sewing has always been very difficult for me. Yesterday I finally dared to take on the challenge and made a brand new dress for my beloved Generation Girl Barbie... And I love it! So much so that I had to share it here in ze blog.

It wasn't at all easy, especially because I didn't want to use a ready-made pattern, but I'm really liking the end result! I had to make the corset four times before I got it right (enough) and hand-stitching the whole thing without using glue even to prevent the fabric from fraying but I think it totally payed off (✿◠‿◠). I would love to hear comments or tips on the subject! Is anyone else making or interested in making doll clothes? Maybe I should try to crochet a Barbie sweater or something!

Laters!

✿Tuuli

Daydreams

Am I the only one who keeps a list of "impossible wants"? You know, things that I would hardly even dream of getting in real life but yet enjoy making lists of. Some things are just too expensive or crazy rare in reality, but an excel file is more than nothing now isn't it?

I thought it could be fun if I, just for the heck of it, let myself loose and listed some (quite many) of these crazy, unrealistic wants that are on my list of impossibilities. After writing so many posts on the things I do own it might be refreshing to focus on what i don't.

Let's take baby steps first and start with the things that are (maybe) not MEGA CRAZY DIFFICULT to find. Things that come with a glimpse of hope, I might say.

1,2,3,4

Wouldn't it be cool to run into a shiny Pokémon? Around 70 Bandai Kid figures of the total ~2000 were made shiny and as you might imagine, I have never ever seen one anywhere outside the internet. If encountering a shiny toy is even half as fun as encountering an in-game shiny (and I imagine it is), the unusually colored Pokémon would instantly become the crown to my collection. But yeaaah I don't really think I'll find one anytime soon. If ever.

Speaking of soon, I found one item on my wants list last weekend!!! I dreamed of owning a complete Zukan figure set, stand and all, and I found one! Now I can proudly say I own a Zenkoku Collection 4, complete capsule 9 set of Ledyba, Ledian, Spinarak, and Ariados. And worry not, you will be seeing plenty of pictures, guaranteed. The Spinarak is so tiny I can't even! I found out that my zukan hunger only grows while eating since I could still imagine wanting the original ghost trio showcased up in the picture... and a few others.

I'll tell you, numero tres is pretty darn high in the impossible wants list. I owned that set of Love and sparkle Puppy in my pocket puppies in the 90's but my mom force-donated them to my younger cousin when I grew out of the playing phase. I LOVED those glittery dogs and I still do. To ease the pain I keep the lonely trophy (that I still have) in my collection cabinet, but I'm pretty desperate to find the puppies to go with it.

Number four is plain and simple: I would go crazy over anything Baymax. Big Hero 6 is awesome and Baymax is one of those love at first sight characters. He's on this list because either people don't own any Baymax merch or they don't want to sell it forward since I have never seen anything having even remote resemblance to him in thrift stores. Luckily the movie is fairly recent so there's still hope.

1,2,3,4,5

And then to the totally crazy business. First, it would be awesome to get my hands on the Pokémon pins that are coming out with the 20th anniversary trading card game Mythical Collection Boxes! I've watched many unboxing videos on YouTube and the pins look so nicely made and shimmery and glossy and everything ♡ The boxes are being sold in Finland, but they are not too cheap and I don't think the people who spend their money on them will be selling their pins anytime soon.

Because I'm a sucker for quality, I would love to own a few Amiibos such as the beauuuuutiful Princess Peach. I have a thing for figures whose dresses are not solid lumps but show some leg underneath ..but not in a perverted way. Also, I'm not even ashamed to admit that I'm a complete narutard and would love me some nice looking Naruto figures. I don't care what the rest of the world thinks: I'm cool for knowing jutsu hand signs!

When I found out the lucky people of the UK were getting Adventure Time Happy Meal toys I was super jealous! The whole set consists of 28 different Adventure Time characters and if you want to you can mix and match their heads and bodies to get even more cool looking figurines. I've seen these in videos, too, and as far as I can tell they look super nicely made! Adventure Time is one of my favorite things ever so these toys are definitely high up on my list.

High up is also Zootopia, or Zootropolis depending on where you live. Very much like with Baymax I would enjoy anything Zootopia related since the movie is in the category of the greatest things ever made. I even went to see it twice. If I could get any Zootopia merchandise I wanted, I would pick the Funko mystery minis simply because they look nice, feel nice and are nice (period).

1,2,3,4

Tokidoki figures are great as they are but when you combine tokidoki with Hello Kitty my impossible wants list catches fire (♡ o ♡). Just look at the Donutella Kitty (second row second) or the octo-Kitty (second to last), just LOOK at them!

Quite interestingly, also a Kinder Surprise figure got on my list. The golden hippo in the picture is Marylinchen, a limited edition surprise toy made to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Kinder eggs. Ferrero made 40K gold Marylinchens so it's not super extreme over-the-top rare but still, I don't think I'll find one thrifting.

I get really excited when I run into Sanrio figures other than Hello Kitty. Not because I don't like Hello Kitty but because she is so much more common than any of her friends. To be honest the famous cat isn't even my favorite of the bunch - 1st place goes to Gudetama, the lazy egg. The very concept of the character is so me that Gudetama climbed up on my list the first moment I saw him. Them. I don't know, it's an egg.

The latest addition to my unrealistic dream team is anything from the Disney Traditions line. I love the "old fashioned" finish of the figurines and just by looking at pictures I can tell that the quality is top notch. I would love to get my hands on Belle. Or Cinderella. Or maybe Aurora. Or Stitch. Every single figure is beyond words beautiful that's for sure.

So there you have it. These figures and toys may be mundane to some, but for me they exist firmly on the fun but unlikely realistic wishlist. And you know what, I don't really mind. Even though I drool over these things, I really don't feel like I have to own everything. It's so much fun to daydream and there's always YouTubers and fellow toy bloggers who share their finds and the resultant happiness with us☺

Speaking of finds, I spent half a day at a huge flea-market-type event last weekend and boy did I find things. I was already all settled for the next thrifted treasures and since I'm trying not to make my blog posts obscenely long (great success so far, pfft) I don't really know what to do, heh. Maybe a brief, haul-like thing? Here's a little sneak peek, yikes:

At least I'm not running out of things to write about!

Byes!

✿Tuuli