Alyrenee's Copious Spare Time

  It is that time of year again...to join the W Club.  I will definitely be getting a membership.  In previous years, I had gotten more than one but since they got rid of the coupon, I don't see the need.  Club membership gets you access to several made to order dolls and then right to buy lottery opportunities for others. Club members also get first access to new doll lines dropping so that they can potentially secure preorders before the general public.  Onto the upgrade dolls: I am WIDELY UNDERWHELMED by the upgrade dolls. Not just one, but all three of the dolls are color variations. And variations that possibly no one wanted. I don't even have words really. Just meh.  The only thing giving me hope is that Poppy will be mod again. That will be great. I am hoping that the Poppy "rewind" moment that David mentioned is a companion piece for the Alien Poppy or Black/White Poppy from Stay Tuned...or a friend sculpt for the Palm Springs line.    You can watch the video

  The 2023 Club year was a bit of a sloppy drunk.  Let's call her Sheila. Sheila is generally good fun, but occasionally she takes FOREVER, says the wrong thing, over-serves herself, and then spends a lot of time apologizing. Get a hold of yourself, Sheila! Here is a photo showing what I ordered from this year (though it is missing the Wildflower Misaki doll which I did order. This is easily the least amount of stuff I have ordered in a club year. I really liked all of the True Industry line up but was trying to be good. I already have versions that I love of all of those characters and don't want to repeat sculpts with them. I did not have a Jasper or an Auden though and I liked them both enough to enter in the lottery. I got Auden but not Jasper sadly (hoping I will find a takeover later). At the slightly reduced club pricing, the sticker shock of the new high prices was not as bad for what is basically the same Dynamite Girls dolls we used to get for like $60 back in the day

Yeah, so it has been a while.  Honestly 2023 was a weird one.  I had a lot going on with the job and the life.  I ended up getting a new professor job at UW-Madison and moved to Wisconsin in August.  I also bought a house!  So about 4 months were spent packing and unpacking and the rest was spent stressing out, painting rooms, about making so many changes.   I purged a few dolls in the process.  Though I am also currently MISSING two pricey Hot Toys action figures (The first Avengers Hawkeye and the Infinity War Captain America).  I keep hoping that I just shoved them in a weird place in the attic or basement or something (Its a big old four square style house in a super cute Wisconsin small town...very Barbie Millicent Rogers hometown origin story house).  In a true mark of obsessive collector insanity, I went ahead and re-bought Captain America via eBay.  I found the exact same figure for about $150 LESS than what I paid for him the first time (which was like $25 over retail as I de