Yes, thank you Eseme for posting this!
My story starts with this lovely lady, who was a gift from my husband. (I promise, this post does circle back to the thread topic!)
Unfortunately she has a manufacturing defect I didn't notice until after deboxing her. Her upper arms were installed on the wrong sides. >_< (And, as Playscale Poser pointed out, her hands are also on the wrong arms.) This limits the range of poseability on what should be a poseable doll. I wrote to Mattel Customer Service, hoping they would do an RMA.
The outcome was that Mattel didn't have a replacement available, so they sent me a voucher for the retail price. That was nice of them. I would have been alright with a replacement body (no head), but they'd already sent the voucher so I didn't ask. I didn't expect to find a The Look Sweet Tea at any retail store, so gave up on getting an exact replacement.
My 1:6 goals for 2018 are:
- keep figure acquisition to a minimum of 15
- focus on clothes and accessories
- more making than shopping (This is more about the time spent sewing/crafting/photographing vs online browsing, than number of items made vs purchased.)
With these goals in mind, and based on a few people's luck with findings (and sales!), I checked Wal-Mart. There isn't one near where I live, but I brought the voucher when I knew I was going by one on the highway. They were sold out of the Hello Kitty clothes, by the empty labelled space on the rack. They did have a few yellow accessory packs but the only one I wanted was the tech pack. I didn't buy anything.
Next I tried another Wal-Mart after work. It's out of my way, but closer to work than to home, and there's both a Wal-Mart and Toys R Us not far from each other. And success! They had 2 columns of small and a column of large Hello Kitty clothes packs! Including some pieces I hadn't seen online. Some of the large ones had Care Bears mixed in. But no turquoise Chococat dress. That and the Little Twin Stars waffle weave top were the items I wanted most. And there was no tech pack among the yellow accessory packs. So I tried TRU down the road.
TRU had no Hello Kitty fashions. (I thought they might be W-M exclusive, but have since read they're also at Target and some other stores.) No little yellow packs either. They had some different clothes, but not enough that I liked to make up the voucher amount. They had a Pink Top MTM, but it was $17. Nope. I put back the mint party dress for Curvy. I'd save the voucher, good until May, and hope one of the dolls from Papusile Mele's list
http://papusilemele.com/en/2018/01/05/l ... bie-dolls/ would be out in stores before then and I'd like it enough to buy. But I went back to Wal-Mart to at least get a few HK tops before they all disappeared.
So I'm picking out clothes, check the yellow packs again... and think, maybe there are more up high. No yellow. But! Above the HK, are three more stacks of those! I asked an employee for assistance. He came back with a ladder, and Success! The Turquoise Chococat Dress! *squee!*
(No, I didn't really squee aloud in front of the employee. Probably.)
He brought all of the front stacks down. After I thanked him and he left, I sorted what would add up to over the voucher amount, then filed the rest in the racks.
So with the voucher from Mattel and $1.49, this is what I got:
The two skirts had been up top also. Not Sanrio, but someone would wear them. (Mariko already claimed the red one.)
Beside being Chococat, and blue, the reason I wanted that dress pack so badly was the cat ears headband, for Kira, to replace the crude one I made.
My male figure population expanded nicely last year, but some came nude, and my collection was lacking menswear to begin with. Of the available selections, I picked one, mainly for the pants (which I should be making anyway). I didn't think any of my guys would wear the Malibu hoodie, but in retrospect I should have picked one up. If it would fit IT Homme, Abhishek (Anthony Julian) would wear it. Here is the one Ken outfit I got, modeled by Soldier Story Henry Kano.
Sweet Tea may be rebodied at some point; maybe to a Made To Move or Fortune Day body.
She may have just accidentally become my mini-me.