Wheeled memories...

Current Mood : Happy shopping !

I was determined to stay home today. Not that it kept me from spending money (grin !) but that’s the privilege of a soon-to-be birthday girl with some fun cash to enjoy !

I knew I liked the Monster High ‘Roller Maze’ dolls, although I don’t know the backstory, just a few diary mentions of the roller maze itself. Skates take me back to my own teen years, because, darn it, I was good back then. I traded lessons with stunt kids and ballroom dancers, taught a lovely young woman with a mild case of Trisomy 21how to skate slowly, gently backwards, and was always lost in my own gorgeous dreams whenever the right music and the right motion carried me off. I kept up with it even overseas, hitting the base roads with an older pair, just to keep the sensation alive. My fat, fumbling attempts as a middle-age weirdo haven’t completely demolished those memories, but it’s been pretty bad. So when my favorite doll line gets put on skates – even if they are kinda over-designed character-specific ones with the requisite four-inch heel – you know I’m there.

Thing is, I still haven’t seen any of these actual dolls. TRU was still snoozing with first-run Dead Tired dolls, nowhere near anything that’s ‘new’ (i.e., out for everyone else last month). So I’ve been watching the skates and outfits on eBay. It’s the usual – the outfit and props are selling for about 90% of the price of the whole doll without shipping, but…

I don’t really like any of the skating outfits. The helmets are cute, but…well…last week, I found a seller who sold only the skates, and scored a pair of Lagoona’s. They arrived today. And DorrieBelle likes. Very much so. Yeah, all the complaints I had about ‘em are still there, but they really look good on the dolls. Not quite so ‘haute’ with the kinda lumpy toes – I rather like them being not quite so high-fashion sometimes. And they’re customizable. I mean, beyond Sharpie-customs. You can swap wheels around, they pop right in and out. The back wheels have a shorter axle, but say, you want Lagoona to have one yellow wheeled skate and one pink wheeled one, you can do that. More pair mean more color swap possibilities.

It does kinda bug me to spend nearly half the price of the doll on only part of the props, and not even get the outfit (although I may not like it, I can always take it apart for a pattern), but that’s the ongoing state of things, it hasn’t changed since, and probably won’t in the future. I should really just relax.

So I ordered the other three pair. Shipping and all, all four pair together cost me a little less than retail for two of the dolls, about $7. a pair. I also get the green stands, and trading cards. I’d been considering offering the LJournal group $8. a pair (including shipping) for them, so that’s pretty reasonable. Heck, most Mattel MH shoes run about $6. to $10. a pair on most collector haunts, even if they originally came with an $8. Mal-Wart outfit set, so I can’t help but think I did pretty good. Got what I wanted and nothing to find new homes for, or customize to what I do want. Even if it does spend up most of my birthday cash before the day is even here !