A Closer Look at Karito Kids Gia

Hey guys, so I recently acquired a Karito Kids Gia doll from an amazing friend of mine. On her blog she did an amazing in-depth review of Ling, and I figured that since she already did an amazing review of Ling and all her details, I could offer a closer look at my Gia and her features. 

Here is Emily's amazing review of Ling:

http://www.toyboxphilosopher.com/2012/03/charitable-dolls-part-2-karito-kids.html

Feel free to read her awesome review and come back if you want to see a little of Gia. 

So, before I get into Gia, I wanted to tell you a little bit about the Karito Kids line. The Karito Kids Dolls were made by the KidsGive company in 2007. They retailed at $100 each, but were only available through specific, small chain stores. There were 5 dolls in the line, and each came from a different country. There was Pita from Mexico, Ling from China, Lulu from Kenya, Gia from Italy and Zoe from the U.S. Each doll was 21" doll and came with stylish and fun outfits, amazing hair, unique face molds/skin-tones, and a fun chapter book. Here is a picture of their Original Release:

From the Left: Lulu, Ling, Pita, Zoe and Gia.

The very next year, Kidsgive brought in a whole new character to the line: Piper from Australia. Here she is with the first wave:

Piper is on the very left.

The next year in 2009, KidsGive decided that a new line might spark more interest. So they released a second wave. In the second wave however, the quality slipped a bit on the dolls, and tanked on the outfits. The dolls still looked nice, but their construction felt slightly cheaper, and their clothing was made from much lower-quality fabrics. Some of the dolls received similar looking versions of their original outfits with some of the pieces changing in color and style, while others received different outfits entirely. Here is the second wave. 

Once 2011 rolled around, Kidsgive became desperate.Their dolls were not selling well anymore. They released two girls, who were not country specific, had very cheap construction and outfits, and sold at stores like Costco for only $20. One of the dolls was named Lara, and the other Leza. Lara was a medium skinned brunette, and Leza a fair skinned blonde. 

Kidsgive also released fashion packs in an attempt to keep the company afloat, but I was unable to find pictures of them. Here are the two girls:

Lara

Leza

Later that year KidsGive shut down the Karito Kids, and sold their remaining  dolls to Tuesday Morning, who in turn sold dolls from all three lines for $29.99 each.

Despite their failed marketing, Karito Kids had a good run, with an original release of dolls that rival (and possibly even beat) American Girl. So how did the company go wrong? In my opinion, it was all in the marketing. Maybe if Kidsgive had made partnerships with corporations like Target, Walmart and Toys-R-Us, they would have made enough sales to pull through. Maybe even release more lines and start branching out into accessories and high-quality fashion packs.

Here is Gia. I have renamed her Emiline, partially in tribute to my amazing friend. Isnt she a cutie?

So Pretty!

I am going to take a look at Emiline's clothes and then the features that make her unique to the other dolls in the series. 

Emiline comes wearing a multi-piece layered outfit that is of very high quality. 

Her first layer consists of a pea-green short sleeved jacket. It has a collar, cuffed sleeves, ruffles in the back, working buttons and is made of a soft felt material. My camera does not like this fabric. Only the last picture is a good example of the true color.

Very Good Quality.

Every piece of the outfit is lined, and there are even working buttons!

Look at the Cute (and Lined) Button Holes!

And Button! Again, this is not the true color.

This last picture shows the ruffles that line the back of the Jacket. This is the only pic that shows the true color.

True Color.

The next layer is a cute light green turtleneck. In looks a little more pale in these pictures than it really is. It is made of a fabric you find in real Long Underwear. 

Emiline also wears a bright orange skirt with ruffles and a brown belt. The belt is made of fake leather and even works.

It even has a little notch like real belts! :D

Here you can see the ruffles and the light green ribbon-trim.

And here are her absolutely amazing boots. They are brown fake leather, and have light brown fur trim, real shoelaces, green decorative stitching and coral tassels:

A closer look at the fur trim:

They even have these amazing treads!! 

And here is the lovely Emiline herself. She has bright hazel eyes, an appropriately sized nose, and a warm, happy smile.

I think she has an amazing profile. It is very realistic with her eyes, nicely shaped nose and chin.

Her hair is so amazing, these pictures really do not do it justice. It is a dark cocoa brown with bangs. This hair is soft, silky, and realistic. It doesn't feel synthetic at all like some other doll's hair do, and it has a wonderful shape and style.

At this point I decided to take her outside. She is so photogenic, and my set makes her seem slightly washed out. Here are some shots of her in the outdoors that better show off how amazing she is:

Here she found a comfortable tree to sit and lean against:

But it wasn't long before she decided to take a walk:

And since walks are so exhausting, she couldn't help but sit against the tree again:

And go for another stroll:

Since I was unable to capture her amazing eyes indoors, I took the opportunity to show you how beautifully realistic they are:

Emiline then decided to climb a tree. I love the sort of "Halo" effect the light around her creates:

 

She even found some tiny mushrooms in the bark!

She was very stubborn about getting down though, and insisted that I let her stay there for hours. . . Yeah, that didnt happen :) She enjoyed the time that she had though:

All in all, Karito Kids are amazing dolls that are fantastic quality and are absolutely gorgeous. Though their price-tag might put you off, they are well worth it. A huge shout-out to Emily (A.K.A. ToyBoxPhilosopher) for hooking me up with this beauty. She truly is a stunner :)

Fun Finds At The Store :)

Hey Guys! Whenever I go shopping I am always on the lookout for fun stuff that my dolls can use. So today I'm going to show you two different finds. One is a mini artist's easel I found in the art section at Walmart, and the other are Squish-Land Animals. 

I'll start with the artists easel. This little doodad was only a buck, and it is just so cute! It is make like a table-top easel and is approximately 4 and 3/4 inches tall. 

I even drew a mini picture for the dolls to pretend they have drawn :)

Here are the Squish-Landers. These I bought at Five Below in two packs for 50 Cents each. Since they are two packs, that means each animal is 25 Cents... Not bad!

Front

Back

 I am a sucker for surprises, so these are so much fun! 

What could they be?!?!?

 YAY!! A red Vampire Bat and a purple bunny!

They also come with codes for their website, but since I have never visited it I cannot comment on its quality.

Here is a close-up of the Bunny. It is purple with cute little ears, painted blue eyes and a light pink painted nose.

The Vampire Bat is red, but doesn't have any painted detail other than his painted black eyes. This is also probably a good time to mention that they are accidentally printed offset to the upper right. This is actually cool as it gives him some personality.

In some other packages I also got a baby-blue otter (you can tell because of his little whiskers). His eyes are painted black, but one is printed twice close together.

I also got a repeat of the Vampire Bat, but this one is lime green and has more painted detail. He has painted black eyes (one is slightly larger), a brown nose and white fangs. Because of his color and his painted details, I like the green Bat better than the red one.

Here is the line-up of animals I got in these two packs.

And here Dessa (Wearing Ever After High's Getting Fairest Raven's Pj's) Shows off their doll stuffed animal potential.

I have, since first writing this review, been to the store to get some more. In those I found a Yellow spider, a Purple Owl, A Red Lobster, a Pink Pig, and a Green Frog (who, for an unknown reason, never made it into the group shot).

In conclusion, these fun finds offer a lot. The easel is perfect for an art room or for any art-loving ghoul (Looking at you Catrine De'mew ;) ). The Squshlanders are also fun ways to get new pets or stuffed animals for your dolls and if the surprise element doesn't make them irresistible, their incredibly cheap price will.

Dead Tired Wave 3 Lagoona Blue

Hey Guys! Here is a quick doll review of Monster High's Dead Tired Lagoona Blue. She is the wave three version, and came out relatively recently. I was very excited to recieve her in the mail though, and forgot to take a pic of her in her packaging. Whoops...  Anyway here she is:

The Dead Tired lines are pretty much the 'Slumber Party' Lines, so they come ready to party in their PJ's with their slippers, eye masks, and a party treat to share. The Dolls themselves have the standard body and articulation, but their features are all muted for a more 'natural' look for before bed.

I'll start with the hair. This Lagoona has mid to regular-length straight blonde hair with minimal blue highlights, with a middle part (Which is slightly off-centered on my doll). The hair in front is also pulled to the sides and tied in the back.

And as with most (if not all) Lagoonas, she includes the removable leg fins.

Lagoona has some of the most adorable ears ever, but when she first came her ears were covered up by her hair. So I pushed it back and tucked it behind her ears so you can see them better. They are so cute!

And now for the face. Lagoona has large, sort of droopy-looking eyes. In this Dead Tired version, because of the sleepy, more 'natural' look, her makeup is all pastels. She has purple eyebrows (which I find slightly strange considering her hair isn't purple. Shouldn't they be blue or something?), green freckles, and forest green eyes with a olive green section on the bottom. She wears green eyeliner and an aquamarine eye-shadow that (In my opinion) looks very good with her hair and overall aqua color-scheme. She also has muted pink lips, but mine came scuffed, so I may repaint them to a shade of teal to work better with her eye-shadow.

All the Dead Tired dolls come wearing pajamas, and Lagoona is no exception. She wears a black and hot pink shirt with a drooped sleeve, a supportive strap and a printed Lagoona skullete that wears an eye-mask. In addition, she wears a pair of aquamarine shorts with printed scales and bubbles, adorned with hot pink trim and a drawstring. Even though they look like pajamas, when paired separately, they could easily pass for regular clothes. The black top in particular (despite the eye-mask wearing skullete) could work great as a regular shirt.

She also wears a pair of furry, high heeled, teal slippers that have a printed face complete with yellow eyes, red fins, and a fanged smile. She also wears an aquamarine bubble-print eye-mask with pink dots, black trim, and elastic to fasten it in place.

 All the Dead Tired dolls come with a Slumber party treat, and Lagoona's is especially cute. It is a teal beverage that oozes down the sides of the hot-pink scallop shell cup and has marshmallows floating inside. Even though we dont drink anything like it, the marshmallows make me think that it is a monster-ized version of Hot Chocolate, which makes me love it all the more ;)

And that is Dead Tired Lagoona! In conclusion, this Lagoona is lovely with muted makeup and hair, a cute and versatile outfit, and an adorable drink accessory. Here is one last shot of her swimming through the air :)