Mini Review: LPS Oona & Nona Owler

I never really cared for Littlest Pet Shop. Their style just didn’t speak to me. Collectible figures have never been my focus, too. And then, Littlest Pet Shop got a makeover… And I fell in love with a set of the cutest owls the world has ever seen ❤

Such happy colours!

LPS has exploded with new sets, new pets and new ideas, but the ones that really caught my attention and caught my heart belong to a particular series of two packs. I don’t even know if they have an official name, as it’s nowhere to be found on the package, but they each contain a parent pet and baby pet and cost 4.99$ on the official Hasbro store. The other available packs are indicated at the back of the package. They are all adorable and quite creative. There is a baby rooster that fits in an alarm clock, and an otter that’s learning to swim in a pool float 🙂

Now, back to our owls.

 

They are lovely in their own right, but for me, there was also a huge nostalgia factor at play. You see, when I was a kid, I had a baby alligator toy that could fit in a tiny egg, and I loved the idea. Tragically, the little gator got lost. This set brings back the fondest of memories:

The egg and the nest are separate. The eggs does close. I really like its baby blue colour.

Here is the youngster on her own. She is approximately the size of the fingernail on my thumb, and still fairly detailed and well painted:

 

She isn’t even the smallest part of the set. Look at this tiny mousie! It isn’t painted, but it’s still quite impressively detailed for its size.

 

In the real world, baby animals are the cutest in the animal kingdom. In this case, I’m not so sure 🙂 This is one precious mama-owl:

Would you look at her adorable eyes and sweet beak! The shaded paint on her is very well done, and the colours look great together. And have I mentioned her head bobbles? She would make a nice car companion… if I had a car, that is.

Oona’s stylish glasses do come off:

I do have a minor complaint here, there is a white smudge under her left eye.

Here is a fantastic bonus to offset the flaw – her glasses fit my dolls! What are the odds? The ‘lenses’ are spaced perfectly.

Here are Oona and Nona seen from the back. They both have “LPS” printed on their heads. Evidently, Hasbro isn’t afraid to take credit  for this cuteness.

The painted elements on these are slightly different to the touch, like for example Oona’s entire head. This gives off the impression that she is made of vinyl, but to the best of my knowledge, it is just hard plastic (other than the paint). It doesn’t look cheap or excessively shiny, though.

Owls in design may be a passing fad of the past few years, but cuteness is timeless 🙂

So this is Oona and Nona from the Littlest Pet Shop. Are they worth it? Before I answer, I must mention that in my area the prices on these are closer to 8-11$ (7-9€) in retail – isn’t that a great injustice? For me, the fact that you get two little figures for the price of a budget-but-nonetheless-a-doll takes some getting used to. It’s hard for me to answer whether they are worth this much from the perspective of manufacturing costs, but if we put a price on good design, creativity and decent execution, then I guess it’s acceptable. I am happy with my decision to buy these two, but unless the prices fall, LPS will be a rather occasional treat for me.

EAH Bunny to Bunny head swap

Not long ago I bought one of the recent dolls from Ever After High – The Archery Club Bunny Blanc. I did it specifically because I liked her reboot face more than the original:

Signature Bunny Blanc (left) vs Archery Club Bunny Blanc (right)

However, I found everything else to be far superior on the original release, and that including her body…

My intention from the start was to swap the heads on these two. I had never swapped heads before, so I was certainly a little nervous! I tried finding some advice online. I did find a few photos and videos, but all in all, I feel like nothing out there can thoroughly guide you through the process. You need to feel it for yourself to judge how much force you need to apply, and wiggle things around until the head comes off.

Nonetheless, here are a few tips that may make the process a little easier:

• Carefully heating the head will soften it – some people recommend using a hair dryer, or putting the doll in a plastic bag and dipping her head down in very warm water (I went with the latter method)
• Try removing the head from the ‘bad’ body first – the body is more likely to break (the parts inside the neck) than the head, so you probably want start with the poorer body for practice
• This is what the neck peg looks for Ever after High. See the plastic getting white from the strain? These are the most endangered parts. Also, it is these thin prongs that you will need to somehow wiggle out through the narrow neck hole, probably one at a time.

 

I make it sound scary, huh? It was a little scary for me, but many people do this regularly with no casualties 🙂 Pulling the head off is the difficult part. Slipping the new head on isn’t much of an issue.

Overall, everything went well for me – hurray!

Personally, I feel like this Bunny face-up is the prettiest and the most true to her character so far. I was expecting to see lots of head swaps with it, but I couldn’t find a single photo online. I do have a theory now why it may be so. Unfortunately, the skin tone match between the two dolls I used isn’t perfect:

Her body has a peachy undertone, and her face has a cool bluish undertone. The difference is easily noticeable when you look for it, but I feel like it isn’t particularly distracting otherwise. She kind of looks like some of us look like with make-up on, maybe? The difference is also less clear when she has her arms down, the white fluff of her vest obscures her neck.

Another thing worth taking into account is that her new head is slightly smaller, and her headband sits more loosely. If you move the doll it may slide off, but it stays on fine on display on the shelf.

Finally, the Archery head doesn’t have her ears pierced. I have seen a tutorial suggesting that it is possible to pierce them yourself, and I’m considering it. Frankly, though, her earring were never all that visible to begin with, so I’m not in a huge rush.

Overall, the re-headed Bunny is not perfect because of the slight colour discrepancy. It also bugs me that I reward the manufacturer’s mistakes with both releases by buying not one, but two dolls! But all in all, I feel like the resulting doll looks very much like the doll we deserved in the first place – both sweet like her character and properly articulated. A slight mismatch or not, I do enjoy her in this form way more than any of her official releases.

P.S. I almost forgot! This is what she would look like in her Archery clothes: