Listen, Shimmer wanted friends, okay? It's hard to say no to that face.
One of these is a brand seen before - the Philosopher has a post about the LuckyDoll ones. I'm including the brand she didn't get to - the Aiye Mermaid Island blind box dolls. Since I seem to be getting into the habit of backtracing these companies, of course I looked into both brands shown on the packaging. Koitake and Aiye both seem to be in the toy business; Koitake looks like they put out Nendoroid-style static figures based on Chinese series? It appears they do a lot of collaborating (like I thought Penny's Box was doing). So it makes sense they'd join up with Aiye (Insta page is all I could find for them and they only have two official released series?), whose specialty is BJDs. The result is the Mermaid Island dolls.
I got TianTian. No frills packaging; it's a big box mostly because of her chair, and everything comes in plastic bags. There are two copies of the instructions for some reason, so I get to show both sides. He character art card is definitely cute. Her bikini top is also a separate piece, but doesn't actually come off. It is a little loose though and can ride up or down if you're not careful.
I'm less a fan of TianTian's stringing than I am of anyone else I have constructed this way - her arms are fiddly as hell and won't really hold a pose. It's difficult to get her to stay in her little chair, too. Partly because it's smooth plastic on smooth plastic and partly because of the stringing issue. She has a lot of little molded details on her tail, but the transparency doesn't really add much. If they'd just left it on the tail fin it would have been fine, imho.
My really big beef is with her hair.
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| Hold my scalp, please? |
TianTian's unique among my crew in that her entire scalp comes off. If you zoom in on the instructions you can see this, and the fact that her head also opens up for eyeball access. The issue is the hairpiece itself feels aggressively, disagreeably rubbery. It's rubbery in the way water slimes are wet - you feel it, your nerve endings are telling you this hair is sticking to your hands and attracting every stray hair and lint molecule in a two mile radius...but when you drop it, you're not sticky and it isn't covered in fuzz. I kinda hate this, lol.
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| her eyes also go weirdly reflective from some angles. |
Granted this does open up a lot of avenues with her. The removable scalp means wigs are an option; I'd guess she would take whatever wig size an 11cm head does. The removable eyes are a big help, too. I could definitely repaint her tail, or con a friend into doing some 3d printing maybe. She has a cheerful little face, so there's that. It's mainly the hair and the stringing that kills it for me, I guess.
But that's not all! We have a little scholar in the house as well, since I'd had these sitting in my wishlist for ages.
I got The Librarian from the LuckyDoll/"ChuChu" series, and honestly? She's stinking adorable. I love her goldfishy fins. The ombre on her tail is well done, even if it's starting to show some friction rubs in the paint. I had to experiment with some clothing options because that joint at the waist really is distracting in the anatomically worst way.
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| Hiiiiiiiiiiiii~ |
She can wear Nendo clothes! So this little sailor suit is hers for now, I guess. She's much easier to pose than TianTian is, since her fins actually are jointed and will help to hold her up. Plus, I love the wide hipped proportions on these dolls. It's worth noting Libby here doesn't match her character art - she's purple on paper and pink in person!
Stupid cute. Her facial screening puts me in mind of another one we'll take look at some other Tuesday. For now, it's raining and I need to take the dog out. We're supposed to become Hurricane Buddies with Moon Girl in a couple days. The Cone currently covers both of us, haha.
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