I get the idea of Novi Stars being *ahead* of their time, but part of me wonders how well they would have done if they were released earlier, specifically during the early/mid 00s when tween culture was still really big. The colors, sparkles, lava lamp/shaker elements, lights etc. feel like they would do so well during the era that brands like Justice were popular but idk.
i actually remember them being advertised in justice catalogues, they might have even been sold in stores if i remember correctly? when i was little i got mine because i loved justice so much!
so true!! i would’ve loved this as a kid back in the 2000’s. by the 2010s tho, kids’ toy culture was becoming more mature. kids were all about emulating being older/cooler than their age, thanks to the rise of smartphones thus social media. platforms like musically/tiktok highlighted about as much, with pretty much any kid that as a tween you would deem popular and cool going viral and gaining a fanbase, like loren gray, obviously the d’amelio’s, etc. i don’t know how marketing teams completely missed that. then again, this _was_ a time of general moral panic (no doubt guided by the extreme political ideologies gaining headway in the public eye back then) where boomers/millenials were too busy pushing back against barbies/bratz being too fashionable/‘over-sexualised’ and stuff to notice we were in the great toy flop era…
I feel like even if they were released during the early/mid 2000s. They would still have a hard time competing against Barbie and Bratz. Bratz and Novi Stars were from the same company. Bratz was big during the time. So Novistars would have a hard time competing. There are kids who like aliens. But human or humanoid fashion dolls are more universally appealing.
For a second I was terrified you _wouldn't_ introduce us to every Novi Star. As a doll collector myself, I'm very pleased with your falling into the doll rabbit hole lately.
I wish Trashion Alley was fully realized, the body sculpts are absolutely gorgeous and there's just absolutely not enough experimentation with anthropomorphic dolls in the fashion market. Pinkie Cooper is a perfect example of how well it could work, I just adore em and wish we got more of them.
As a kid who absolutely LOVED space/alien themed things, seeing Novi Stars and Nebulous Stars being cancelled makes me wanna cry :( I know I'm not the only one! We space kids deserve our dolls!!
As a fellow space baby I adored the novi stars as well and am kinda shocked at their worth lol. I only had two Ari Roma and Caramela sweet. Ari Roma's still in my room and is somehow still scented, as for Caramela she was unfortunately most likely thrown out or lost during a move by my family members.
i have the one with transparent legs and it's the only doll i owned my little sister isn't allowed to play with. it's got no clothes bht it's so special it's still in nearly prime condition
Growing up as an undiagnosed autistic girl, I loved novi stars so much. I resonated with their "alien coming to earth" storyline as I (much like many other neurodiverse girls and people) felt like an alien visiting earth, trying to copy humans and trying to blend it. Plus, I was a bug-eyed child so I saw some representation there too lmao
As a fellow autistic kid I also really loved Novi Stars for those reasons! I also feel like the toys appealed more to autistic kids because they focused more on looking cool rather than play factor. Their lack of articulation made them near impossible to play with like normal dolls, but as an autistic person I much preferred admiring the pretty dolls rather than actually playing with them, so I didn't mind it. I can imagine neurotypical kids who valued play over appearances didn't like them as much because of their stiffness, which was likely a factor of why they weren't super popular.
The only Novi star doll i ever had growing up was Mae Tallic, and i was obsessed with her. Partly because of all the reasons you mentioned, but also because of her stutter. I grew up with a speech impediment, and then suddenly I had a doll who was not only gorgeous but like me. I'd never seen anything like it before, even now she holds a special place in my heart
I relate to this so much as one of the many "undiagnosed autistic alien kids". I also felt like an alien trying to figure out how to act human. Also, bc I'm a nerd I have to correct you on this: neurodiverse and neurodivergent do not mean the same thing. Neurodivergent typically refers to neurodevelopmental disorders and some neurological conditions that cause "atypical" behavior and processing. Neurodiversity is the idea that the human brain doesn't have a default and that each person has a unique way of perceiving the world, even if some neurotypes are treated as a deficit rather than just a normal difference. Therefore, everyone is neurodiverse as each person has a unique brain, but not everyone is neurodivergent.
The makeup look is really reminding me of the giant Lisa Frank sticker book I refused to ever take stickers out of as a kid so that I could hoard all of the rainbow sparkly glory in one central location.
I once got a bunch of Raul dhal books (think that's how you spell it) from mcdonalds and I kept them in the same order that I got them, I kept them on the mattress down the side of my bed (I had a mattress sideways down the side of my bed) and I feel it has the same sort of feeling as your comment.
The Novi stars dolls look sick as hell, if they were released again im sure people would go crazy for them because of how unique they look. Maybe not for kids but like I'm sure theirs a bunch of adults and teens that would love how weird they are, hot topic girlies would go crazy honestly
The very maximalist and complicated designs go really hard, they have a *lot* of features instead of just being a generic blue girl with purple hair like some alternative dolls are. I can see why they didn't fly as tweens dolls but as collectable figurines I can definitely see the appeal.
Based on the toy aisle at my local target and walmart I think this doll would do excellent with children today. The flashiness and maximalism of them sort of remind me of like those cute fidget toy dolls that I see all the time or the color palette of Mermaze for example. Also gimmicky “girl” fashion dolls are still popular, I mean look at Poopsie surprise, absolutely cursed toys but very popular! I think all they need to do is add some articulation and boom you got a great doll for the nerdy space kiddies and an awesome one for tweens and teens alike
Me and my sister had a couple Novi Stars. They definitely felt more like figurines, pretty things to look at, but they were so well made and detailed. I wish we got more of them tbh.
Yeah I never played with mine at all. I had Uni Verse and I can only remember a handful of times I ever actually played with her. I was too afraid of breaking her antennae and tangling her hair. I distinctly remember the material the hair was made out of was super difficult to detangle without ripping it out.
It's honestly really sad to me that all of the space/alien-themed doll lines seem to be the ones that fail/get cancelled the most; like Novi Stars, Nebulous Stars, Milky Way & The Galaxy Girls, etc. like, I didn't know about any of these dolls when I was a kid, but I've always loved space and alien stuff, so I would have loved them! and also Novi Stars look so cool and unique and fun to play with!
I find deep dives into toy culture like these so fascinating. I collect action figures myself and as part of the community I can assure you there's a surprising amount of drama, controversies, leaks, arguments and flame wars in every corner of the hobby, whether you like dolls or action figures or cars or whatever, there will be spice.
honestly i’m not remotely involved in the community and i’m still super fascinated 😭 i’m a sucker for lost/obscure media, and it’s also intriguing that such a seemingly unassuming thing as dolls has such a bustling community with infighting and stuff
"What's-Her-Face" was a particularly weird doll line! They came with blank, featureless heads that you could customize with special markers and stamps. The tops of their heads were made of velcro to attach a variety of wigs. I had a second-hand one that somebody drew on the face with permanent marker so I never got to experience customizing it lol
thats actually so cool! i wish more people would market towards over teens/adults when it comes to dolls. theyd make absolute bank. especially if novi stars came back theyd end up selling out so fast. doll collectors are so popular now adays. Especially that dragon model? oh my lord-
Ooooh yeah I love my What’s-Her-Face doll. I immediately gave her big anime eyes and promptly never changed them. They were so much fun though with the concept of changing their hair and face whenever you wanted.
The novi stars seem extremely intricate, their production can’t be standardised. One dolls has multiple arms, others have hollow legs, others are made of rubber etc. It’s a huge cost.
If you love Novi Stars and this kinda aesthetic, Star Darlings was a very cool Disney doll line themed around space and zodiacs with an over-arching storyline and tv specials that ultimately failed. Would love to hear what you have to say about them. Once Upon A Zombie, Laloopsy Girls, (a spin off of laloopsy where they’re high schoolers) and MLP Equestria Girls are also very interesting doll lines-
God, I totally forgot about lalaloopsy, I think that line came out around 2010ish, because I remember being in that short phase of my life where I had decided I was too cool for toys; I had specifically noticed that they were cute, but outwardly made fun of them with my brother… Me 11: I’m gonna sell all my Barbie’s and pet shops cause I don’t need toys… Me 13: wow I love Monster High dolls, I wish I had enough money to collect them all.
I totally thought they were talking about star darlings at first!! I was so surprised because I remember those dolls being a decent quality but then I realised I was thinking of star darlings and not novi stars- I’d love to know what happened to star darlings though!
I'm shocked at the creativity and detail of the Novi Stars, I've never seen retail market dolls that went that hard with that much effort into a design gimmick. Most modern doll lines could never
I love the designs of the Novi Stars dolls, they had very colorful and fun themes to play around with. One downside about them is that they aren't articulated. They were made to compete with Mattel's Monster High dolls but these dolls didn't have any joints to make them posable! That's why Monster High dolls stood out more because you could pose them and they are fun dolls to customize for ooak designs. But Novi Stars dolls are a little harder since you have to remove their eyes and for me, it was frustrating to make my own looks for them. But I still loved their designs and gimmicks that made them a bit different from MH. Nowdays, I customize anime style bjds which are easier to customize but can cost a chunk of cash since I'm unemployed.
I remember holding a Mimi Merize doll at a toy store BEGGING my mom to let me get it. She said I was too old. Now, that I'm older, the pricing of them on ebay along with the other Novi Stars makes me want to cry. Thanks mom..
As someone who grew up on IMVU and has real memories that seemingly take place in those chat rooms, I’m shocked we haven’t gotten a deep dive on it from you
There's a super obscure doll line(ish) made in around 2007 called Pocket Full of Posiez, created by an artist called Queenie Black. The dolls have this super cool gothic look, and there were 3 dolls made out of like the 20 characters that there were. The Pocket Full of Posiez brand however dates back as early as 2003, we know this because if you enter the website in the wayback machine, it goes back to that year. The first doll, Lyllionia, was sold at Hot Topic in around 2007, but the other 2 dolls, Panzy the Pirate (she might have been sold at Hot Topic, I'm not entirely sure) and Delilah, were produced but not sold by Hot Topic due to a dispute.
Queenie Black is still an active creator! She’s got an Etsy page called Posiez where she sells lots of artwork and other merchandise. Unfortunately, as far as I know, she doesn’t make those specific dolls anymore but she does have a couple of dolls on her page for sale (beware, they’re like $2,000, extremely beautiful dolls tho)
As a man in his mid twenties I’ve never once owned or cared about dolls (beyond the odd action man if that counts) yet here I am absolutely invested in these deep dives and trashion alley updates, Izzzyzzz could make a video on literally anything they’re interested in and I would eat it up like a hungry victorian orphan boy being given a stale piece of bread
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who went “NOVI STARS RE-RELEASE?!” When I saw Zooey. I have her and she would look so cute with some Novi Stars next to her.
I definitely think there is going to be a re-release! They’ve been gaining a lot of popularity lately and I noticed many large doll creators are promoting Zooey with novi stars as if it’s a brand deal. (Of course this could just be for the rainbow high line but it seems weird considering they haven’t really done it with any other doll) Not only that but when I was on a live stream of a creator who did one of the posts and asked if they thought they were coming back they said they “couldn’t comment on it” 🙏
Same here!!! I wasnt sold on Zooey when her leaks first came out but then I saw the cool giant coat and the Novi Stars patch on it and her shirt and I NEEDED her. I loved Novi Stars despite not being able to get the dolls (Parents knew I was more into EAH and MH) because they were so awesomely weird and cool!!!. I hope at least reproductions will come out like how Lalaloopsy got them for their 10th anni!
I let out the most devastated sigh at the Nebulous Stars dolls 😭 after all of that gorgeous artwork, oh my gosh. I can’t even imagine seeing your character designs and art turned into… those. It’s like they had the complete opposite problem to Novi Stars, obviously it might not be possible to make the designs as intricate as the artwork, but they could do a whole lot better.
This isn’t a cancelled or lost doll line, but I would love to see you do a deep dive into the rise, fall, and “comeback” of the bratz dolls!! Their outfits, animated movies, and character types were my favorite as a kid and the only doll line that didn’t creep me out.
Omg yes bratz dolls are amazing! I was surprised that they actually have joints (only in the knees) with its bend and snap function and the hair quality is actually so amazing I almost thought it was human hair 💀 the clothes are so trendy rn too they were wayyy ahead of their time
I’m a 35-year-old guy who has never had any interest in dolls. I really enjoyed your video coming in as a complete outsider you never left me hanging assuming I knew anything about the topic and made it interesting and entertaining. I love your videos and how passionate you are about the topics cover and how they actually mean something to you. 10/10
Seeing the Nebulous Star dolls actually made my jaw drop (in a bad way) how can you have such beautiful art that exudes such dreamlike beauty, and then throw this out?? The art already looks like dolls, how did they miss this shot by so far
god, I remember being absolutely obsessed with novi stars when I was a kid. I never owned one, but I saw a lot of commercials on tv and I literally wanted one so badly. unfortunately, my family never got them for me, saying that they were expensive. at least now, years later, that I'm a working adult with money and stuff, I decided to fulfill one if my childhood dreams and bought myself one with floating glitter I inside of her body on ebay, since it's the one I wanted the most. literally the best investment in my whole life, I love her so much
I’m begging you, on my knees here, to tell me where I need to go to buy a Doe A Deer doll. I need her so badly And I need to curb my impulse buying, so please exaggerate how expensive she is so I’m not tempted to blow more money than I already have this month .-.
Man I got so excited when you were talking about discovering the head prototype for the rat dolls. Something about tracking a cancelled doll line through "leaked" prototypes is so fascinating. And I agree, the head design is nice and not too uncanny valley! Haha.
the nebulous stars dolls were literally a jump scare how did they fuck them up so bad 😭 the art is stunning, I dont understand why they couldn’t put more effort into making the dolls look like the art. I’m sure it was a budget thing or something but the dolls would have been a huge contender in the doll industry.
I don't really know if this is a lost/cancelled doll line, but I remember getting a weird, uncanny valley-type doll for my birthday one year. I think the brand was Only Hearts Club. The doll's eyes and head were extremely detailed and hyper-realistic, down to little freckles on her nose and glass eyes, but the rest of her body was soft and stuffed, with wire in the limbs so you could pose her. She was so creepy, and I was totally obsessed. I want to say she came with a book about being a good kid and respecting your parents or something. It's like it was a christian mom's idea of what Barbie dolls should be.
A doll line you might be interested in is Zom-baes Forever! They’re 3” plastic zombis girls with swappable legs and hair, glass eyes, rooted lashes, squishy brains, and AI generated concept art that looks.. very AI generated. The characters are very high concept like Novi Stars. Mourning Workout is an 80s workout themed girl, Rock in Peace is a metal singer with her tongue sticking out, Cold Hearted is a 50s ice cream parlor worker and has ice cube hair.. That kind of thing. They hit store shelves late last year and are mostly in blind boxes (which are shaped like coffins!) but there is at least one playset, which is a wedding between two girl characters, and a smaller cheerleader two-pack. Art suggests a pet store, dog show, and a two-pack featuring two dolls with a bunch of cats are/were in the works. I don’t see them sticking around long just because they are so high concept, but it’s worth checking out if you want an obscure doll line with really weird concept art.
I love these dolls actually! I have cold hearted and Miss Everlasting! I have no idea how to get to the brain tho, i didnt even know i could access them
Other short lived doll lines that would be fun to look into: once upon a Zombie (Zombie themed fairytale dolls), Star Darlings (Star and Zodiac themed dolls), kuu kuu harajuku (Harajuku themed dolls, if your understanding of harajuku stopped at Gwen Stephany), LIV Dolls (Dolls with good articulation and changeable wigs). That’s all I can think of atm, but I’ll reply to this later if I remember any more.
Kuu Kuu Harajuku dolls were honestly so much fun to play with, I remember having the best time mixing and matching their accessories when I was younger. Obviously Gwen is… questionable, in general honestly, but those dolls were the bomb
I would kill to see someone recreate the Nebulous Stars dolls through a custom. The art really fits with most OOAK dolls you would see in the community and would love to see them do the intended style justice. I always thought the packaging looked really beautiful and pretty for a kids' activity product whenever I would see them in stores. They also reminded me of the 'Style Me Up' activity products if anyone even remembers those (I'm surprised I even remembered the name tbh)😅
I remember waking up one day to my mom bringing me Ari Roma as a surprise! It's one of my favorite childhood memories, I remember being super excited and crying from happiness, as I didn't get dolls often and it wasn't a holiday that day!! Her hair actually had a very pleasant bubblegum aroma :3 Really sad I couldn't save her, just like most of my childhood dolls. I absolutely adore Novi Stars and hope to buy some in the future ^^
I was around the doll fandom when Novi Stars came out, I remember people loving the idea and designs but being very disappointed in the lack of articulation. A lot of people re-bodied them with G1 Monster High bodies, which were setting the standard for kids' doll articulation at the time and also came in lots of appropriately weird colours. I feel like if Novi Stars had added even one more point of articulation at the elbows, the line could have been a lot more popular, at least with adult collectors.
Novi starz honestly were so ahead of their time in the design aspect and ideas. I have all of the main four aliens and the cyclops and they’re to this day one of my favorite dolls in my collection. People don’t understand, these dolls had everything you described, glitter eyes, glitter eyelashes, details in the pupils like tiny planets, and even their stands that glow in the dark are shaped like tiny Saturns. I was lucky to get them all dirt cheap back in 2015, same with Bratzillaz. Legit $12 usually per doll. Or $20. At that time nobody cared about them and it was an afterthought to most people. Nowadays they’re ridiculously expensive, and without them, we wouldn’t have the juggernaut that is Rainbow high/ shadow high we have today. Small note, I have multiples of Zooey from shadow high cause she’s too stunning to only have one💖
If you ever want to do a third video, look into the Mystix line. I had the vampire one, and it came with a handful of outfits and two wigs. The gimmick, however, was the fact that the head had a "human" face on one side and a "vampire" face on the other. You were supposed to make the doll transform between the two forms, and the outfit choices were meant to be for each form. I found them on a monster high hunt and never saw them again after that.
had to look them up bc I've never heard of this line before, but now I'm SO intrigued, they look soo sick and the idea of a face on both sides of the head..... ngl it looks creepily amazing
Hey girl, I'd love to see you cover Winx Club dolls by Mattel! Only a couple of years after Mattel discontinued them the prices went absolutely crazy. Ebay listings of €500 or more weren't rare and people actually bought them. I remember I'd started collecting them again around 2011 and that it used to be war haha especially finding rare lines like enchantix glam magic and ballgowns. I think it could be an interesting video :)
I'd love to see you cover Zodiac Girlz. It feels like a weird fever dream, but I remember receiving the Scorpio doll for Christmas as a little girl, but none of my friends my ages have ever even heard of them. The brand even had one of those early 2000s sites where you could look up your horoscope and stuff. It felt like a gimmick that could go far, and they were pretty diverse for early 2000s dolls, including girls of different ethnicities and even Aquarius (I think it was her?) who was the first wheelchair-using doll I'd ever seen.
li speaks made a rlly good video ab it! id say the diversity was good but definitely feels very stuck in the 2000s, like the only native american character not having any specified tribe and the spanish-speaking brown girl basically being a spicy latina
I actually almost cried remembering Novi Stars!! I had the Mae Tallic doll and the voice lines literally unlocked a piece of my memory. Thank you for making this video
The trashion alley mystery feels like a treasure hunt. I haven't seen your first video about it but I was immediately hooked. It's so cool, I never would have thought that prototypes would appear on Ali express. I'm looking forward to finding out more about how they were going to paint the dolls.
The head sculpts to me look like they might've were gonna go for how they paint Littlest pet shop (at least with the eyes) and maybe the ears were gonna be flocked (judging if the miscolored ears were from plastic testing then different color to flock which would be weird). But I do agree, the mystery is pretty crazy lol, I hope more lost doll lines will resurface this way again but I do doubt it lol.
Trashion Alley looks so nice already, they need to bring it up, maybe have like interactive making clothes outta newspapers or magazines for their dolls too?
I'm not really a doll person. I never even played with dolls as a kid. But I want a trashion alley doll so bad! I'd be happy to throw $30-$50 into the void to have one.
Whats-her-face, Betty Spaghetty and The G.U.R.L.Z are three doll lines I remember most fondly from growing up! I saw the snippet of the Whats-Her-Face ad at the start of the video and got really excited that they'd be included hah
I bought my best friend an Una Verse doll for her birthday when they first came out and she still has it on display in her childhood bedroom 😂 The lack of articulation wasn’t too much of an issue because we were a bit older when the dolls came out (16-17) so it was just meant to be decorative. I can imagine how frustrating it was for people who wanted to actually play with the dolls though, or even for collectors who just like using different poses.
I have several Novi Stars! A couple of the heads I've put onto Monster High bodies and they're honestly fantastic. I think if the line had gone in the direction of taller, more articulated bodies like the later designs it could have taken off. Fun fact, the talking Novi Stars made for Canadian distribution also have space catchphrases in French!
Do you think you’ll ever talk about the Kuukuu Harajuku dolls that Gwen Stefani was a co-creator and brand ambassador for? She first had a perfume line called “Harajuku Lovers” and the perfume bottles were little dolls made to resemble traditional Japanese Kokeshi dolls but with more modern clothes and artsy flair that was clearly inspired from harajuku fashion. Later in like the mid to late 2010’s the actual fashion doll line (Kuukuu Harajuku) came out and they were really cute and well designed but they obviously didn’t last very long. I think it would be a really cool topic for a video because there were actually way darker implications to the perfume and doll line than initially meets the eye. Gwen Stefani was so racially insensitive and weird about the “Harajuku girls” and mentioned them in many of her songs. In the song Rich Girl (released in 2004) she mentioned she would “get me four Harajuku Girls to inspire me and they’d come to my rescue, I’d dress them wicked, I’d give them names: Love, Angel, Music, Baby” the latter being the actual names for both the perfume fragrance characters and the dolls from the doll line. Obviously that’s kind of weird because the song predated the dolls and the perfume, so in the context of the song she’s talking about acquiring 4 fully grown women from Harajuku Japan, giving them names, and dressing them up as though they weren’t people who already had names and could dress themselves. At one point she actually did just that and literally paraded around different events and red carpets with 4 Asian woman as her background accessories and ooof it just was really not cute and NOBODY TALKS ABOUT IT! She was clearly fetishizing asian women (fetish was also mentioned in the song Rich Girl) and used actual human beings as fashion accessories (it’s kinda giving slave owner vibes like she owned these people and named them and dressed them up like???)! And then this later turned into a doll line? Like yikes! This is a topic that has fascinated and haunted me for years, I was like 6 years old when the song Rich Girl came out and I listened to it a lot growing up because my mom was a Gwen Stefani fan. When the perfume line came out I was a kid still but I knew about it because my grandmother worked at the perfume counter in our local shopping mall and we went to visit her at work very frequently. I remember asking for free samples of the Harajuku Lovers perfume often, and I was obsessed with the bottles because I was a kid who loved dolls and they literally looked like little dolls. I was a also an artsy weird kid so seeing these beautiful and creative perfume bottle doll designs with bright colors and striking hairstyles absolutely captivated me. I know that there was an accessory line for the Harajuku Lovers brand because my grandmother received a purse from them at her job and later gave it to my little sister and I was VERY jealous. The artist that did the art for the purse had such a unique style and flair I would really love to know who that was, and the illustrations of the Harajuku Lovers characters that were used in the accessories line (there might have been a small clothing line too but I don’t remember) were the clear inspirations for the stylization of the Kuukuu Harajuku dolls, more specifically in the face and head shape department. I have literally never talked about this topic with anyone so I’m sorry that this comment is so long and disjointed!
holy shit i completely forgot this existed. i can hardly remember anything but the name itself and some designs, but i DO clearly remember one thing: the build a bear collab. it was a really standard panda plush, it just had heart shaped eyes and came with a pink dress with its head as a pattern on it and black lace. i was maybe around 7-8 when it came out, and being obsessed with pandas as i was, i immediately got it lmao. still have it somewhere in storage.
i had one of the perfumes and a crossbody bag! my aunt gave them to me cuz she knew i was into anime and japanese things lol. i used the hell out of that bag until i think the strap started to tear away from the bag. i bet i could sew it back on. i never wore the perfume much cuz i was like 13 and felt like perfume was too fancy for anything i ever did. i still have both in my room right now actually. the perfume is on my dresser and the bag is hanging from my bed. i have the lil angel perfume and the cherry crossbody canvas bag. i too remember being weirded out by the line in the rich girl song, but i liked the stuff from the fashion line.
holy crap, IMVU deserves a video of its own. I remember their ads plastered EVERYWHERE on the early internet. Insane that you got a sponsorship from them!
The Nebulous Stars character artwork lends itself well to a lot of custom doll artists I've seen - I'd love to see somebody take a crack at making more on-model dolls using molds from other doll lines with lovingly rendered watercolor face-ups and body blushing!
Girl I literally LIVE for these videos. Please please please keep making them!! I have been so fascinated with this community for such a long time but you do such a good job at covering it. Truly cannot get enough!
I think you should cover Living Dead Dolls. They're not exactly a fashion doll line, but they have this dark and macabre vibe that seems right up your alley.
the doll customizer, dollightful. i have a feeling she would be head over heels for Nebula Stars and Novi Stars. i really wanna see what she would do to make a real good doll for Nebula Stars. in her own way ofc. (honestly, she would love all 3, i vibe with all of them)
Ok can I just say that the QUALITY of your videos is so impressive! Down to the clips and B-roll you use, all the images are so crisp and clear. A delight to watch you and your amazing content!!
I have a very clear memory of the year when Novi Star dolls were advertised. I remember how I saw a picture of them in this one toy catalog they published every Christmas. I kept that catalog for weeks and just stared at the picture, wishing to get a chance to play with them. Needless to say, I really liked the concept but I never actually got one for Christmas. I also remember the TV commercial for these toys.
I love seeing people talk about Novi Stars! I began collecting BJDs at 12 but before I could get the money for such an expensive doll I bought myself a Novi Star because their inset eyes and high fashion appearance really appealed to me. I ended up getting the lava lamp one from the first release and gave her an angled Bob with Elvira bangs and made multiple other outfits for her. I'm sure I got rid of her somewhere along the way once I got my peaks woods Gouldie, haha! Love these videos Izz!!
As a member of the doll community...it's as crazy as any other community. One of the big things are the bots on the Mattel Creation's website and Mattel's failure to do anything about it. I would love to see Trashion Alley come to fruition. Rat dolls are exactly the type of thing I would love.
Holy Primes this video unlocked a lost memory for me. When I was little, I received a Novi Stars doll. I remember that it was the coolest doll that I owner! I loved that doll to death, especially her pet. The moment I saw Una Verse's pet, I recognized it immediately. Thank you for reminding me of a lost but loving memory.
I love Novi Stars, they honestly deserve a second chance. The doll designs and concepts are just so creative and I’m a sucker for the alien aesthetic! I would die to own one now.
I had all the main 4 NoviStar dolls + 2 others, they were my absolute favorite! I loved how odd and cute their designs were, I was so sad to see them discontinued when I got into late elementary school. :( They really were dolls ahead of their time - the team who came up with the storyline and concepts were so creative. I loved how they had their own little channel with vlogs.
I was honestly shocked to hear novi stars weren't popular, as a kid I didn't keep up with anything past the initial release but I remember ADORING my Alie Lectric doll and taking her with me everywhere. I kept begging for more of them but never got any other than her lmao.
I just wanna say that novi stars weren't a total miss with kids! I owned one and absolutely ADORED her. I wanted every single doll they released, especially either nita light or una verse (I owned one and REALLY wanted the other - can't quite remember)
I have liked Novi Stars since they came out and I have three dolls (Una Verse, Ina Ferna and Doe Deer), they are really pretty. Back then I felt so weird bc so many people tried to gaslight me into thinking they were ugly, it is really nice people finally see their beauty and uniqueness
“As always on this channel; my curiosity is now your problem” At least you know what you do to us 😭😂 I love your topic choice, whether I know it or not, you (and your team) do it so well!
Oh my gosh I had 3 Novi stars dolls when I was younger and absolutely LOVED THEM, I remember they used to have little animated TH-cam videos with the main 4, they were structured like vlogs. Each one of them had the characters updating us on what they were learning on earth and get into lil shenanigans and I ate it up as a kid.
A video idea for you! As a kid, I got addicted to and did the typical "kid with phone" thing of spending over £200 on a website called Ponystars. One day the website totally vanished and I never knew why. Turns out it was a case of them being a massive scam and even traced all their art from a different website? Anyway, I'd love to see your investigation so I can get that sweet, sweet closure.
Oh my gosh yes someone else who remembers this site! Ponystars was my childhood! I spent so many hours on there and I was devastated when they shut down!
i’ve heard people say “i’m going to unlock a memory for you” before and never have ever felt anything crazy but the absolute WAVE of a feeling I’ve never felt before when you started talking about Novi Stars is something I will never forget. I completely forgot that those dolls had ever existed!
I'd love to hear you cover Bleeding Edge Goth dolls (BeGoths)! They were a line of dolls with the basic 5 points of articulation with (obviously,) gothic fashion! Aside from being a little obscure, I think you'd get a kick out of them because a lot of them have OTT makeup, cool hairstyles, and sometimes piercings. Also they came with little information cards which I find rather comical, likes being like.. "dying her hair", "popcorn with pickles", "History Channel".. and dislikes include things like "IKEA", "ABBA", "boba" and "dragon slayers". They also each had favourite colours, and a pet (for example, Atara has a dragon named "Marshmallow"), but the dolls didn't come with pets, and I'm not sure they were ever drawn? LOL Despite not being well known, they managed to release a whopping 8(!!) series' of twelve inch fashion dolls! As well as the dolls, they also released 5 series' of seven inch non-articulated figures, and there was another series by Bleeding Edge called "Kinder Goths" which were soft plush toys. Some of the dolls and figures had special variants too.. a good point of reference to look at these dolls in one place is WackyStacker's website. The BeGoths website is now defunct, but I do have a link to an archive of what I think to be that website. I'd paste it here but I'm unsure if TH-cam allows that. Aside from the dolls, figures and plushes, there were also two BeGoths comic books sold. Bleeding Edge had a second doll line named Princess Ai which had a similar model of releasing twelve inch dolls and seven inch figures, which were based off the manga with the same name. The most fascinating thing to me about the BeGoths doll line is that they were incredibly before their time, in my opinion. The first series of dolls released way back in 2002, and the first comic launched in 2006. I'm not certain when exactly these dolls stopped their production, but it seems to be in the early-mid 2010s, which would make sense since I can't see them competing to the then up-and-coming Monster High, who had more articulation, the tie-in web series, and Mattel behind them. I understand my comment is a whole essay, so to anyone who read this: thankyou for reading, and please check out BeGoths! I'm honored if anyone learns about them from my comment because I think they deserve more love, and I love talking about them despite being yet to own any myself. :)
... dolls, and learning about obscure doll lines is a big ol' fixation of mine. If anyone wants other lesser known dolls to go and look at.. aside from BeGoths, I recommend Mystikats (teenage half girl half cats with powers and detachable ears/tail LOL), Hook-Ups (soft poseable dolls - the name sounds sus, but they were sold with a luggage clip to go on your backpack!), and Secret Central (which I recommend because although they aren't fashion dolls as such, their faces are kind of hilarious and somehow did the whole now-finally-dying-down trope of mystery dolls). I like keeping a document of all the doll lines I know so this barely scratches the surface of the weird lesser known doll world, but I love sharing my knowledge :)
thank you for this comic ive been seeing begoth dolls a lot more recently and googling them hasnt really given my the info i want so this is so cool to know!!
I was going to suggest BEGoths too! I was an avid collector and really active on their forum. I actually helped the team behind the graphic novel ensure that Fiona’s British English sounded convincing.
Whoa, the shock of nostalgia that Mae Tellic's voice lines gave me was intense. I specifically remember having her and Nita Light, which DEFINITELY didn't work as a nightlight like you said. I didn't even remember what dolls I had until I watched this video, but now all the memories of the super loud burrings of the night light are soaring back. Regardless, I remember adoring these dolls and specifically buying them from Justice, where they were sold right alongside Monster High dolls. I sure hope I didn't get rid of them.
You mentioned before that you wanted to do an OOK deep dive video, and you absolutely should! I have an extremely surface level understanding of the artform, but know nothing else besides taking a basic doll and turning them into something new. I am excited to see what kind of things I could learn from you in a video about them!
I was obsessed with Novi stars and monster high as a child, and so were all kids in my kindergarten. I remember kids my age playing with those dolls and associating themselves with their favourite ( For example, I was Metalic, my friend was Cyla and so on). This video brought back so much great memories and I'm a bit sad that they stopped releasing them, I hope they'll be back
I personally have no knowledge of dolls, being a guy(sorta). But I find these videos FASCINATING. I love weird, esoteric communities like this and your videos make it really entertaining. You havea great narrating voice.
Gotta thank you for talking about novi stars! I adored the series as a kid and even had three of them (which meant a lot to me as I grew up without a lot of money and didn't get a lot of on-brand dolls)! I had no clue they were worth so much now which is super cool to me, as I remember being made fun off by other kids for liking them haha I hope they do consider reviving the line, they were super cool and if they received a decent budget I bet they'd end up really popular
I would absolutely love a Novi Stars revival! There designs are right up My alley and I sadly wasn't a collector during their original run. If they made them more articulated I'm sure they'd be a hit.
OH MY GOD I had metallic!!! I used to press her ear button all the time and half of the time I couldn't understand what she said, but I thought she was so cool!! I used to take off her wig a lot, I thought it was a bit too easy to take it off plus it got tangled really quickly lol Her design was so cool but she was SOOO much shorter than all my other dolls, but what peeved me off more is that she had moulded roller skates that didn't move!! Thank you Izzzyzzz, rediscovering my childhood has been way cooler now 😭🙏
It would be interesting if you covered Liv Dolls. They discontinued about 10 years ago and I’d be interested in why they got canceled. They had detachable wigs and I used to love swapping them round …
Omg I have one of these! My boyfriend's mom got me one a year or two ago because my name is Olivia and everyone calls me Liv. I had no info about them but now I have to look them up, haha
no omg i had some when i was in first grade and I almost burned my house down because I washed one of the wigs and let it dry on my lamp (the lightbulb)
I remember those! I have one collecting dust in a drawer somewhere lol, I believe her name was Daniella. I recall spending lots of time just putting her in different poses cuz she had so many joints. Good times
I managed to get loads of clothes and wings from a scrap warehouse as a kid- I wonder if it was from this line!? All the clothes had Velcro on the back for the wings.
Hearing you talk about Novi Stars was a total throwback, me and my sister were actually pretty big Novi Stars fans in 2012-2013 haha. Back when i was like, 9 or 10 or something, I'd spend hours on the Novi Stars website, playing the little planet simulator game and watching the Novi Stars vlogs and the official music video. Even though it's a shame they didn't last long, I really did love them. They were perfectly wacky and experimental and ahead of their time. I'm not really into dolls/doll collecting, but my all-time favourite Novi Star as a kid was Mimi Merize, to the point where I vividly remember dressing up as her for one Halloween! Learning that she's not only one of the rarest and most sought-after Novi Stars these days but she ALSO made a cameo appearance on a recent Rainbow High doll really brightened up my day and took me back to my childhood. It also gives me some hope that the line could be rebooted...c'mon, MGA Entertainment, some brand-new Novi Stars would be so cool!!!
I love your doll videos SO much! I would love to see you deep dive into Breyer horse models, there's SO much lore, like cancelled models, one that sold at auction for 22 THOUSAND dollars, a priceless rare model stolen from a show, model horse customization (seriously, like this alone is HUGE), live model horse shows etc!
If they'd made Nebulous Stars dolls that actually resembled the artwork, chances are high I'd have bought pretty much all of them. The artwork and designs are so stunning and the aesthetics are so up my alley. How they fucked them up that bad is beyond me.
I had the NOVI STARS Ari Roma doll as a kid (i actually still have her little pet lying around... somewhere) and she was my absolute favourite doll growing up! I had never seen a doll with curly hair like her and she indeed smelt AMAZING even after having her for three years. I really wanted to collect them all because I loved their unique designs but there were on the rather expensive side for dolls that could barely move.
I definitely recall when Novi Stars came out (I was in college at the time and lived near a Toys-R-Us). They did come off a cheap at that time, which really sucks to think about, because it was in that Bratz 2010-2014, when they had pretty cheap hair and such (though I will say some Brats from that time I still have, their hair isn’t that bad, but then a couple more are; Mattel has had some bad hair too more recently, like the BTS dolls and the hair that was then used on Fashionista Barbies). Honestly, the best way they could have done well was waited. If they came out around the time of LOL Surprise dolls, they would likely have done better, since LOL has very similar articulation and they could work like higher cost collecting dolls in blind boxes. On the topic of Articulation, MGA at that time seemed to be very Anti-Articulation, but for a reason. The 2010/2011 Bratz era did have it, but it was the hollowed out kind, and I can tell you my friend’s doll lost her arm from the elbow to the hand very easily. So I think that’s why a lot of the dolls didn’t have it. I even recall Project Mc² having it as well, though I think it was more of a body mechanic (like how they looked rather than being high quality), because those dolls, even with off proportions, are some of the more realistic look to human bodies I have seen on dolls. Also Also, MGA has this bad habit of making main staple black doll characters have bright colored eyes. Even with the mentioned Project Mc², where Bryden has ice blue eyes, despite her actress has brown eyes. McKayla also has bright color eyes while her actress has brown eyes too, but if you look at Bratz (with Sasha), and other black dolls that were first releases, they have bright colored eyes, which I’m not against (my own grandfather is mixed race and has blue eyes), but knowing how black dolls aren’t as well stocked as other races dolls, it’s sad that MGA has a bad track record of not having dolls that cover the majority of black girls with brown eyes; I think everyone should have a doll that looks like them in a way.
I used to own a Novi Star from the first doll line when I was younger :D My mom got me the purple one with the afro puffs for Christmas and I absolutely adored her. Her eyes were so shiny and her helmet could come off almost like cracking an egg in half ^_^ sadly I gave a lot of my dolls away but it was so fun and comforting having a doll that looked similar to me
I get the idea of Novi Stars being *ahead* of their time, but part of me wonders how well they would have done if they were released earlier, specifically during the early/mid 00s when tween culture was still really big. The colors, sparkles, lava lamp/shaker elements, lights etc. feel like they would do so well during the era that brands like Justice were popular but idk.
i actually remember them being advertised in justice catalogues, they might have even been sold in stores if i remember correctly? when i was little i got mine because i loved justice so much!
so true!! i would’ve loved this as a kid back in the 2000’s. by the 2010s tho, kids’ toy culture was becoming more mature. kids were all about emulating being older/cooler than their age, thanks to the rise of smartphones thus social media. platforms like musically/tiktok highlighted about as much, with pretty much any kid that as a tween you would deem popular and cool going viral and gaining a fanbase, like loren gray, obviously the d’amelio’s, etc. i don’t know how marketing teams completely missed that. then again, this _was_ a time of general moral panic (no doubt guided by the extreme political ideologies gaining headway in the public eye back then) where boomers/millenials were too busy pushing back against barbies/bratz being too fashionable/‘over-sexualised’ and stuff to notice we were in the great toy flop era…
im late but i literally bought a novi star from justice when i was really into fashion dolls so you hit it RIGHT on the nail
I feel like even if they were released during the early/mid 2000s. They would still have a hard time competing against Barbie and Bratz. Bratz and Novi Stars were from the same company. Bratz was big during the time. So Novistars would have a hard time competing. There are kids who like aliens. But human or humanoid fashion dolls are more universally appealing.
I want one now though, since its like retro and people are saying that old trends are coming back, which makes sense because I like them now
For a second I was terrified you _wouldn't_ introduce us to every Novi Star. As a doll collector myself, I'm very pleased with your falling into the doll rabbit hole lately.
Me too, now I’m just hoping MGA might reboot novi stars because of the recent novi star reference in Zooey Electras outfit
Novi stars brings back so many memories for me because I remember owning the mae tallick doll when I was younger
@@lalaloopsyyay7828 god I hope so
Glaggle 🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂
@@lalaloopsyyay7828DO I HAVE SOME NEWS FOR YOU! 🎉
I wish Trashion Alley was fully realized, the body sculpts are absolutely gorgeous and there's just absolutely not enough experimentation with anthropomorphic dolls in the fashion market. Pinkie Cooper is a perfect example of how well it could work, I just adore em and wish we got more of them.
They did find the head though
The faces are adorable!
@@medicaoctavia8002 they are!
As a kid who absolutely LOVED space/alien themed things, seeing Novi Stars and Nebulous Stars being cancelled makes me wanna cry :(
I know I'm not the only one! We space kids deserve our dolls!!
As a fellow space baby I adored the novi stars as well and am kinda shocked at their worth lol. I only had two Ari Roma and Caramela sweet. Ari Roma's still in my room and is somehow still scented, as for Caramela she was unfortunately most likely thrown out or lost during a move by my family members.
i have the one with transparent legs and it's the only doll i owned my little sister isn't allowed to play with. it's got no clothes bht it's so special it's still in nearly prime condition
Fr i wish i could have one of those dolls
@@suneater_zeef050 i used to have the same one 😭 i wish i still had it so bad
Your Cure Star pfp really matches you then!!
I cannot describe how invested I am in Trashion Alley despite never having owned a doll in my life
LMAO ME TOO
Same Idec about dolls, super not my thing, but I AM INTRIGUED HON
It looks they would have been really cute
Me too.... I liked doll content previous to this but not ever deep into it... Trashion Alley fascinates me
I need the little freaks!!
Growing up as an undiagnosed autistic girl, I loved novi stars so much. I resonated with their "alien coming to earth" storyline as I (much like many other neurodiverse girls and people) felt like an alien visiting earth, trying to copy humans and trying to blend it. Plus, I was a bug-eyed child so I saw some representation there too lmao
what do you mean by "undiagnosed autistic girl"?
As a fellow autistic kid I also really loved Novi Stars for those reasons! I also feel like the toys appealed more to autistic kids because they focused more on looking cool rather than play factor. Their lack of articulation made them near impossible to play with like normal dolls, but as an autistic person I much preferred admiring the pretty dolls rather than actually playing with them, so I didn't mind it. I can imagine neurotypical kids who valued play over appearances didn't like them as much because of their stiffness, which was likely a factor of why they weren't super popular.
The only Novi star doll i ever had growing up was Mae Tallic, and i was obsessed with her. Partly because of all the reasons you mentioned, but also because of her stutter. I grew up with a speech impediment, and then suddenly I had a doll who was not only gorgeous but like me. I'd never seen anything like it before, even now she holds a special place in my heart
I relate to this so much as one of the many "undiagnosed autistic alien kids". I also felt like an alien trying to figure out how to act human.
Also, bc I'm a nerd I have to correct you on this: neurodiverse and neurodivergent do not mean the same thing. Neurodivergent typically refers to neurodevelopmental disorders and some neurological conditions that cause "atypical" behavior and processing. Neurodiversity is the idea that the human brain doesn't have a default and that each person has a unique way of perceiving the world, even if some neurotypes are treated as a deficit rather than just a normal difference. Therefore, everyone is neurodiverse as each person has a unique brain, but not everyone is neurodivergent.
Like 626 - an autistic enby who loves "Lilo & Stitch"
:)
The makeup look is really reminding me of the giant Lisa Frank sticker book I refused to ever take stickers out of as a kid so that I could hoard all of the rainbow sparkly glory in one central location.
You sound adorable
no because you're so right omg
I once got a bunch of Raul dhal books (think that's how you spell it) from mcdonalds and I kept them in the same order that I got them, I kept them on the mattress down the side of my bed (I had a mattress sideways down the side of my bed) and I feel it has the same sort of feeling as your comment.
@@lolmiser you mean Roald Dahl?
ur so real for that
The Novi stars dolls look sick as hell, if they were released again im sure people would go crazy for them because of how unique they look. Maybe not for kids but like I'm sure theirs a bunch of adults and teens that would love how weird they are, hot topic girlies would go crazy honestly
The very maximalist and complicated designs go really hard, they have a *lot* of features instead of just being a generic blue girl with purple hair like some alternative dolls are. I can see why they didn't fly as tweens dolls but as collectable figurines I can definitely see the appeal.
I'm a kid I want them
Am a teen can confirm would want all these dolls
I owned one as a kid and I LOVED her, I'm sure they'd be so successful nowadays
Based on the toy aisle at my local target and walmart I think this doll would do excellent with children today. The flashiness and maximalism of them sort of remind me of like those cute fidget toy dolls that I see all the time or the color palette of Mermaze for example. Also gimmicky “girl” fashion dolls are still popular, I mean look at Poopsie surprise, absolutely cursed toys but very popular! I think all they need to do is add some articulation and boom you got a great doll for the nerdy space kiddies and an awesome one for tweens and teens alike
Me and my sister had a couple Novi Stars. They definitely felt more like figurines, pretty things to look at, but they were so well made and detailed. I wish we got more of them tbh.
Yeah I never played with mine at all. I had Uni Verse and I can only remember a handful of times I ever actually played with her. I was too afraid of breaking her antennae and tangling her hair. I distinctly remember the material the hair was made out of was super difficult to detangle without ripping it out.
It's honestly really sad to me that all of the space/alien-themed doll lines seem to be the ones that fail/get cancelled the most; like Novi Stars, Nebulous Stars, Milky Way & The Galaxy Girls, etc. like, I didn't know about any of these dolls when I was a kid, but I've always loved space and alien stuff, so I would have loved them! and also Novi Stars look so cool and unique and fun to play with!
They were way ahead of their time but I think right now would be great for them to make a comeback! The trends rn seemed to be y2k and cyber inspired
MWGG will always be one of my favorite doll lines
I find deep dives into toy culture like these so fascinating. I collect action figures myself and as part of the community I can assure you there's a surprising amount of drama, controversies, leaks, arguments and flame wars in every corner of the hobby, whether you like dolls or action figures or cars or whatever, there will be spice.
I agree
honestly i’m not remotely involved in the community and i’m still super fascinated 😭 i’m a sucker for lost/obscure media, and it’s also intriguing that such a seemingly unassuming thing as dolls has such a bustling community with infighting and stuff
i can't imagine model car drama. i don't deny it exists but i wonder what they get mad about
@@shinypaintf588 There’s was an argument about modifications to some model car at one point.
I love starglider. my silly goblin brain got some cardboard stargliders the other day and i've been hyperfixated ever since
i'm not a fashion doll person, but oh i wish trashion alley had gotten to really exist, they're SO charming in concept
"What's-Her-Face" was a particularly weird doll line! They came with blank, featureless heads that you could customize with special markers and stamps. The tops of their heads were made of velcro to attach a variety of wigs. I had a second-hand one that somebody drew on the face with permanent marker so I never got to experience customizing it lol
Ok wait that's so sick
thats actually so cool! i wish more people would market towards over teens/adults when it comes to dolls. theyd make absolute bank. especially if novi stars came back theyd end up selling out so fast. doll collectors are so popular now adays. Especially that dragon model? oh my lord-
@@ChaosIsDeadd its good that ghosts dont exist, right? right?
Ooooh yeah I love my What’s-Her-Face doll. I immediately gave her big anime eyes and promptly never changed them. They were so much fun though with the concept of changing their hair and face whenever you wanted.
My little sister had one it was weird but fun and very frustrating trying to stamp the eyes evenly
The novi stars seem extremely intricate, their production can’t be standardised. One dolls has multiple arms, others have hollow legs, others are made of rubber etc. It’s a huge cost.
Capitalism ruining cool art once again
If you love Novi Stars and this kinda aesthetic, Star Darlings was a very cool Disney doll line themed around space and zodiacs with an over-arching storyline and tv specials that ultimately failed. Would love to hear what you have to say about them. Once Upon A Zombie, Laloopsy Girls, (a spin off of laloopsy where they’re high schoolers) and MLP Equestria Girls are also very interesting doll lines-
God, I totally forgot about lalaloopsy, I think that line came out around 2010ish, because I remember being in that short phase of my life where I had decided I was too cool for toys; I had specifically noticed that they were cute, but outwardly made fun of them with my brother…
Me 11: I’m gonna sell all my Barbie’s and pet shops cause I don’t need toys…
Me 13: wow I love Monster High dolls, I wish I had enough money to collect them all.
Man I used to have just about every equestria girl doll
I totally thought they were talking about star darlings at first!! I was so surprised because I remember those dolls being a decent quality but then I realised I was thinking of star darlings and not novi stars- I’d love to know what happened to star darlings though!
love once upon a zombie! those are so fun! star darlings are super fun too.
The star darling dolls aren't as unique as the Novi Stars.. the Star Darling dolls look very human like and plain
I'm shocked at the creativity and detail of the Novi Stars, I've never seen retail market dolls that went that hard with that much effort into a design gimmick. Most modern doll lines could never
YEAH !!!
Fr, Like?? 😭❤️ They really went all out on the designs.
I love the designs of the Novi Stars dolls, they had very colorful and fun themes to play around with. One downside about them is that they aren't articulated. They were made to compete with Mattel's Monster High dolls but these dolls didn't have any joints to make them posable! That's why Monster High dolls stood out more because you could pose them and they are fun dolls to customize for ooak designs. But Novi Stars dolls are a little harder since you have to remove their eyes and for me, it was frustrating to make my own looks for them. But I still loved their designs and gimmicks that made them a bit different from MH. Nowdays, I customize anime style bjds which are easier to customize but can cost a chunk of cash since I'm unemployed.
honestly, I feel like if they had been better articulated they probably could've been really popular
I remember holding a Mimi Merize doll at a toy store BEGGING my mom to let me get it. She said I was too old. Now, that I'm older, the pricing of them on ebay along with the other Novi Stars makes me want to cry. Thanks mom..
Have you shown your mum how much they cost now?
As someone who grew up on IMVU and has real memories that seemingly take place in those chat rooms, I’m shocked we haven’t gotten a deep dive on it from you
same I used to troll furries on imvu when I was like 14 lmfao
i have so many bad memories of that place.
Also Second Life, I'd love to collab with Izzyzzz if she ever made an SL video.
honestly i bet she hasn’t bc she’s sponsored and wouldn’t be able to talk bad about them
It's had so much sex stuff in it
There's a super obscure doll line(ish) made in around 2007 called Pocket Full of Posiez, created by an artist called Queenie Black. The dolls have this super cool gothic look, and there were 3 dolls made out of like the 20 characters that there were. The Pocket Full of Posiez brand however dates back as early as 2003, we know this because if you enter the website in the wayback machine, it goes back to that year. The first doll, Lyllionia, was sold at Hot Topic in around 2007, but the other 2 dolls, Panzy the Pirate (she might have been sold at Hot Topic, I'm not entirely sure) and Delilah, were produced but not sold by Hot Topic due to a dispute.
These are super interesting, I never heard of them before so I'm glad I saw your comment :)
Queenie Black is still an active creator! She’s got an Etsy page called Posiez where she sells lots of artwork and other merchandise. Unfortunately, as far as I know, she doesn’t make those specific dolls anymore but she does have a couple of dolls on her page for sale (beware, they’re like $2,000, extremely beautiful dolls tho)
I think if Novi Star released today, it would be a lot more popular, especially with adult collectors, and they are just so cool
As a man in his mid twenties I’ve never once owned or cared about dolls (beyond the odd action man if that counts) yet here I am absolutely invested in these deep dives and trashion alley updates, Izzzyzzz could make a video on literally anything they’re interested in and I would eat it up like a hungry victorian orphan boy being given a stale piece of bread
Not the hungry victorian orphan 💀
Precisely, I don't even like dolls, or Pixel Chix, or any of their latest upload genres. But, it's garfield lord so I watch regardless.
ykw me too.💀
i really agree with the last sentence especially
Leave the victorian orphans alone y'all 💀
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who went “NOVI STARS RE-RELEASE?!” When I saw Zooey. I have her and she would look so cute with some Novi Stars next to her.
I definitely think there is going to be a re-release! They’ve been gaining a lot of popularity lately and I noticed many large doll creators are promoting Zooey with novi stars as if it’s a brand deal. (Of course this could just be for the rainbow high line but it seems weird considering they haven’t really done it with any other doll) Not only that but when I was on a live stream of a creator who did one of the posts and asked if they thought they were coming back they said they “couldn’t comment on it” 🙏
Same here!!! I wasnt sold on Zooey when her leaks first came out but then I saw the cool giant coat and the Novi Stars patch on it and her shirt and I NEEDED her. I loved Novi Stars despite not being able to get the dolls (Parents knew I was more into EAH and MH) because they were so awesomely weird and cool!!!. I hope at least reproductions will come out like how Lalaloopsy got them for their 10th anni!
It's like that doll would be Novi stars little sister
Release date wise.
I let out the most devastated sigh at the Nebulous Stars dolls 😭 after all of that gorgeous artwork, oh my gosh. I can’t even imagine seeing your character designs and art turned into… those. It’s like they had the complete opposite problem to Novi Stars, obviously it might not be possible to make the designs as intricate as the artwork, but they could do a whole lot better.
I really hope Trashion Alley gets made into a proper doll line, I want one of those silly little rats so badly
Yeah me too
This isn’t a cancelled or lost doll line, but I would love to see you do a deep dive into the rise, fall, and “comeback” of the bratz dolls!! Their outfits, animated movies, and character types were my favorite as a kid and the only doll line that didn’t creep me out.
Omg yes bratz dolls are amazing! I was surprised that they actually have joints (only in the knees) with its bend and snap function and the hair quality is actually so amazing I almost thought it was human hair 💀 the clothes are so trendy rn too they were wayyy ahead of their time
I would also really love a video on the my scene dolls, i had all of them. I loved Chelsea and got all the magazines, played the computer game ❤
**RETURN**
I want the Flavas dolls to come back. I'd sacrifice all Bratz in the world for just one more wave of Flava.
bratz's social media presence really shocked me ngl. they even made a 3d animated euphoria meme. it's crazy
I’m a 35-year-old guy who has never had any interest in dolls. I really enjoyed your video coming in as a complete outsider you never left me hanging assuming I knew anything about the topic and made it interesting and entertaining. I love your videos and how passionate you are about the topics cover and how they actually mean something to you. 10/10
Seeing the Nebulous Star dolls actually made my jaw drop (in a bad way) how can you have such beautiful art that exudes such dreamlike beauty, and then throw this out?? The art already looks like dolls, how did they miss this shot by so far
it's like they just walked up to some chinese bootleggers one day and payed them a few cents to make their dolls.
god, I remember being absolutely obsessed with novi stars when I was a kid. I never owned one, but I saw a lot of commercials on tv and I literally wanted one so badly. unfortunately, my family never got them for me, saying that they were expensive.
at least now, years later, that I'm a working adult with money and stuff, I decided to fulfill one if my childhood dreams and bought myself one with floating glitter I inside of her body on ebay, since it's the one I wanted the most. literally the best investment in my whole life, I love her so much
I’m begging you, on my knees here, to tell me where I need to go to buy a Doe A Deer doll. I need her so badly
And I need to curb my impulse buying, so please exaggerate how expensive she is so I’m not tempted to blow more money than I already have this month .-.
Man I got so excited when you were talking about discovering the head prototype for the rat dolls. Something about tracking a cancelled doll line through "leaked" prototypes is so fascinating. And I agree, the head design is nice and not too uncanny valley! Haha.
the nebulous stars dolls were literally a jump scare how did they fuck them up so bad 😭 the art is stunning, I dont understand why they couldn’t put more effort into making the dolls look like the art. I’m sure it was a budget thing or something but the dolls would have been a huge contender in the doll industry.
I don't really know if this is a lost/cancelled doll line, but I remember getting a weird, uncanny valley-type doll for my birthday one year. I think the brand was Only Hearts Club. The doll's eyes and head were extremely detailed and hyper-realistic, down to little freckles on her nose and glass eyes, but the rest of her body was soft and stuffed, with wire in the limbs so you could pose her. She was so creepy, and I was totally obsessed. I want to say she came with a book about being a good kid and respecting your parents or something. It's like it was a christian mom's idea of what Barbie dolls should be.
Oh, I searched them. The realistic look makes them so creepy.
It's the length of the legs that gets me. They look like noodles. 💀/lh
you just unlocked a memory for me! i had one of the little kid dolls who came with a purple bunny!
These are horrifying; I love them. th-cam.com/video/UQ7J-kfmvtk/w-d-xo.html
omg I also had one of these, I’d totally forgotten!! I still have the stuffed puppy but not the doll and I’d wondered where they came from
A doll line you might be interested in is Zom-baes Forever! They’re 3” plastic zombis girls with swappable legs and hair, glass eyes, rooted lashes, squishy brains, and AI generated concept art that looks.. very AI generated. The characters are very high concept like Novi Stars. Mourning Workout is an 80s workout themed girl, Rock in Peace is a metal singer with her tongue sticking out, Cold Hearted is a 50s ice cream parlor worker and has ice cube hair.. That kind of thing. They hit store shelves late last year and are mostly in blind boxes (which are shaped like coffins!) but there is at least one playset, which is a wedding between two girl characters, and a smaller cheerleader two-pack. Art suggests a pet store, dog show, and a two-pack featuring two dolls with a bunch of cats are/were in the works. I don’t see them sticking around long just because they are so high concept, but it’s worth checking out if you want an obscure doll line with really weird concept art.
I love these dolls actually! I have cold hearted and Miss Everlasting! I have no idea how to get to the brain tho, i didnt even know i could access them
@@benjaminsmit781 Cool! I have Lovestruck and Rock in Peace, and you pop the hair off. Just pull straight up.
Other short lived doll lines that would be fun to look into: once upon a Zombie (Zombie themed fairytale dolls), Star Darlings (Star and Zodiac themed dolls), kuu kuu harajuku (Harajuku themed dolls, if your understanding of harajuku stopped at Gwen Stephany), LIV Dolls (Dolls with good articulation and changeable wigs).
That’s all I can think of atm, but I’ll reply to this later if I remember any more.
Omg. I FORGOT ABT ONCE UPON A ZOMBIE
I loved the LIV Dolls sooo much!
Kuu Kuu Harajuku dolls were honestly so much fun to play with, I remember having the best time mixing and matching their accessories when I was younger. Obviously Gwen is… questionable, in general honestly, but those dolls were the bomb
Yes !! I’ve never heard anyone else talk about liv dolls. I had so many as a kid and loved how detailed they were
There were star darling dolls?! I only ever had books!
I would kill to see someone recreate the Nebulous Stars dolls through a custom. The art really fits with most OOAK dolls you would see in the community and would love to see them do the intended style justice. I always thought the packaging looked really beautiful and pretty for a kids' activity product whenever I would see them in stores. They also reminded me of the 'Style Me Up' activity products if anyone even remembers those (I'm surprised I even remembered the name tbh)😅
omg imagine HeXtian doing that!
@@hillaahonen3399 Oooh! HeXtian could definitely do Nebulous Stars justice, I'm sure of it.
Yeah a repaint of a Monster high doll would look amazing!
That would be so awesome! I'm hoping to find one
I remember waking up one day to my mom bringing me Ari Roma as a surprise! It's one of my favorite childhood memories, I remember being super excited and crying from happiness, as I didn't get dolls often and it wasn't a holiday that day!! Her hair actually had a very pleasant bubblegum aroma :3 Really sad I couldn't save her, just like most of my childhood dolls. I absolutely adore Novi Stars and hope to buy some in the future ^^
Can we just appreciate how fascinating Izzzy's makeup design is for every video? I LOVE YOUR WARDROBE AHHHHH
they have a completely different look for every video and im so envious of the diversity in their looks 😭
righttt they’re so creative wtf
The nebulous stars drawings looks like they could translate perfectly into OOAK dolls, it really reminds of custom/art dolls I've seen around
I was around the doll fandom when Novi Stars came out, I remember people loving the idea and designs but being very disappointed in the lack of articulation. A lot of people re-bodied them with G1 Monster High bodies, which were setting the standard for kids' doll articulation at the time and also came in lots of appropriately weird colours. I feel like if Novi Stars had added even one more point of articulation at the elbows, the line could have been a lot more popular, at least with adult collectors.
Novi starz honestly were so ahead of their time in the design aspect and ideas. I have all of the main four aliens and the cyclops and they’re to this day one of my favorite dolls in my collection. People don’t understand, these dolls had everything you described, glitter eyes, glitter eyelashes, details in the pupils like tiny planets, and even their stands that glow in the dark are shaped like tiny Saturns. I was lucky to get them all dirt cheap back in 2015, same with Bratzillaz. Legit $12 usually per doll. Or $20. At that time nobody cared about them and it was an afterthought to most people. Nowadays they’re ridiculously expensive, and without them, we wouldn’t have the juggernaut that is Rainbow high/ shadow high we have today. Small note, I have multiples of Zooey from shadow high cause she’s too stunning to only have one💖
If you ever want to do a third video, look into the Mystix line. I had the vampire one, and it came with a handful of outfits and two wigs. The gimmick, however, was the fact that the head had a "human" face on one side and a "vampire" face on the other. You were supposed to make the doll transform between the two forms, and the outfit choices were meant to be for each form. I found them on a monster high hunt and never saw them again after that.
I remember those, very very vaguely!
I think she covered them earlier in the monster high deep dive video, but a more in depth look on them would be very cool regardless.
had to look them up bc I've never heard of this line before, but now I'm SO intrigued, they look soo sick and the idea of a face on both sides of the head..... ngl it looks creepily amazing
Hey girl, I'd love to see you cover Winx Club dolls by Mattel! Only a couple of years after Mattel discontinued them the prices went absolutely crazy. Ebay listings of €500 or more weren't rare and people actually bought them. I remember I'd started collecting them again around 2011 and that it used to be war haha especially finding rare lines like enchantix glam magic and ballgowns. I think it could be an interesting video :)
Jakks Pacific, Witty Dolls, and Bambina also made some really cool dolls for the Winx Club doll line!
The people who designed Novi Stars are frickin awesome! I love how much creativity went into them, and every single one is so interesting and pretty!
I'd love to see you cover Zodiac Girlz.
It feels like a weird fever dream, but I remember receiving the Scorpio doll for Christmas as a little girl, but none of my friends my ages have ever even heard of them. The brand even had one of those early 2000s sites where you could look up your horoscope and stuff.
It felt like a gimmick that could go far, and they were pretty diverse for early 2000s dolls, including girls of different ethnicities and even Aquarius (I think it was her?) who was the first wheelchair-using doll I'd ever seen.
Hey Li Speaks actually made a video about both the site and the dolls!
li speaks made a rlly good video ab it! id say the diversity was good but definitely feels very stuck in the 2000s, like the only native american character not having any specified tribe and the spanish-speaking brown girl basically being a spicy latina
I actually almost cried remembering Novi Stars!! I had the Mae Tallic doll and the voice lines literally unlocked a piece of my memory. Thank you for making this video
The trashion alley mystery feels like a treasure hunt. I haven't seen your first video about it but I was immediately hooked. It's so cool, I never would have thought that prototypes would appear on Ali express. I'm looking forward to finding out more about how they were going to paint the dolls.
The head sculpts to me look like they might've were gonna go for how they paint Littlest pet shop (at least with the eyes) and maybe the ears were gonna be flocked (judging if the miscolored ears were from plastic testing then different color to flock which would be weird). But I do agree, the mystery is pretty crazy lol, I hope more lost doll lines will resurface this way again but I do doubt it lol.
Trashion Alley looks so nice already, they need to bring it up, maybe have like interactive making clothes outta newspapers or magazines for their dolls too?
A little booklet with instructions for making your own clothing for the dolls would be such a cute gimmick
I'm not really a doll person. I never even played with dolls as a kid. But I want a trashion alley doll so bad! I'd be happy to throw $30-$50 into the void to have one.
Could slip in some "reduce, reuse, recycle" messages in there too 👀
Whats-her-face, Betty Spaghetty and The G.U.R.L.Z are three doll lines I remember most fondly from growing up!
I saw the snippet of the Whats-Her-Face ad at the start of the video and got really excited that they'd be included hah
I bought my best friend an Una Verse doll for her birthday when they first came out and she still has it on display in her childhood bedroom 😂 The lack of articulation wasn’t too much of an issue because we were a bit older when the dolls came out (16-17) so it was just meant to be decorative. I can imagine how frustrating it was for people who wanted to actually play with the dolls though, or even for collectors who just like using different poses.
I have several Novi Stars! A couple of the heads I've put onto Monster High bodies and they're honestly fantastic. I think if the line had gone in the direction of taller, more articulated bodies like the later designs it could have taken off. Fun fact, the talking Novi Stars made for Canadian distribution also have space catchphrases in French!
now officially obsessed with these novi star dolls omg, also love getting doll updates on here
Do you think you’ll ever talk about the Kuukuu Harajuku dolls that Gwen Stefani was a co-creator and brand ambassador for? She first had a perfume line called “Harajuku Lovers” and the perfume bottles were little dolls made to resemble traditional Japanese Kokeshi dolls but with more modern clothes and artsy flair that was clearly inspired from harajuku fashion. Later in like the mid to late 2010’s the actual fashion doll line (Kuukuu Harajuku) came out and they were really cute and well designed but they obviously didn’t last very long.
I think it would be a really cool topic for a video because there were actually way darker implications to the perfume and doll line than initially meets the eye. Gwen Stefani was so racially insensitive and weird about the “Harajuku girls” and mentioned them in many of her songs. In the song Rich Girl (released in 2004) she mentioned she would “get me four Harajuku Girls to inspire me and they’d come to my rescue, I’d dress them wicked, I’d give them names: Love, Angel, Music, Baby” the latter being the actual names for both the perfume fragrance characters and the dolls from the doll line. Obviously that’s kind of weird because the song predated the dolls and the perfume, so in the context of the song she’s talking about acquiring 4 fully grown women from Harajuku Japan, giving them names, and dressing them up as though they weren’t people who already had names and could dress themselves. At one point she actually did just that and literally paraded around different events and red carpets with 4 Asian woman as her background accessories and ooof it just was really not cute and NOBODY TALKS ABOUT IT! She was clearly fetishizing asian women (fetish was also mentioned in the song Rich Girl) and used actual human beings as fashion accessories (it’s kinda giving slave owner vibes like she owned these people and named them and dressed them up like???)! And then this later turned into a doll line? Like yikes!
This is a topic that has fascinated and haunted me for years, I was like 6 years old when the song Rich Girl came out and I listened to it a lot growing up because my mom was a Gwen Stefani fan. When the perfume line came out I was a kid still but I knew about it because my grandmother worked at the perfume counter in our local shopping mall and we went to visit her at work very frequently. I remember asking for free samples of the Harajuku Lovers perfume often, and I was obsessed with the bottles because I was a kid who loved dolls and they literally looked like little dolls. I was a also an artsy weird kid so seeing these beautiful and creative perfume bottle doll designs with bright colors and striking hairstyles absolutely captivated me. I know that there was an accessory line for the Harajuku Lovers brand because my grandmother received a purse from them at her job and later gave it to my little sister and I was VERY jealous. The artist that did the art for the purse had such a unique style and flair I would really love to know who that was, and the illustrations of the Harajuku Lovers characters that were used in the accessories line (there might have been a small clothing line too but I don’t remember) were the clear inspirations for the stylization of the Kuukuu Harajuku dolls, more specifically in the face and head shape department.
I have literally never talked about this topic with anyone so I’m sorry that this comment is so long and disjointed!
holy shit i completely forgot this existed. i can hardly remember anything but the name itself and some designs, but i DO clearly remember one thing: the build a bear collab. it was a really standard panda plush, it just had heart shaped eyes and came with a pink dress with its head as a pattern on it and black lace. i was maybe around 7-8 when it came out, and being obsessed with pandas as i was, i immediately got it lmao. still have it somewhere in storage.
The TH-camr cyber.grl did a video on that era a few weeks ago
@@Tundrea3 omg really? I will have to check that out! Thanks for the heads up!
I REMEMBER THE NICK SHOW FOR THAT DOLL LINE... they used the word kawaii like.. super frequently
i had one of the perfumes and a crossbody bag! my aunt gave them to me cuz she knew i was into anime and japanese things lol. i used the hell out of that bag until i think the strap started to tear away from the bag. i bet i could sew it back on. i never wore the perfume much cuz i was like 13 and felt like perfume was too fancy for anything i ever did. i still have both in my room right now actually. the perfume is on my dresser and the bag is hanging from my bed. i have the lil angel perfume and the cherry crossbody canvas bag. i too remember being weirded out by the line in the rich girl song, but i liked the stuff from the fashion line.
Izzy is falling deeper and deeper into the doll community, not much longer until she's one of us forever lol
I'm absolutely obsessed with the Novi Stars!! If I had been just a few years younger when they came out I would have eaten up every release
holy crap, IMVU deserves a video of its own. I remember their ads plastered EVERYWHERE on the early internet. Insane that you got a sponsorship from them!
I would absolutely die for a deep dive of IMVU, it was such a huge part of my childhood and no one knows about it these days.
MamaMax has done a deep dive….
IMVU looks like another great tool for giving girls eating disorders and plastic surgery addictions. But I guess most of these dolls kinda are too.
All I need is the GASR forum deep dive. That forum was my life before IMVU deleted the whole thing cos people spent more money on it than IMVU itself
That ad jumpscared me ngl 😆😆
The Nebulous Stars character artwork lends itself well to a lot of custom doll artists I've seen - I'd love to see somebody take a crack at making more on-model dolls using molds from other doll lines with lovingly rendered watercolor face-ups and body blushing!
Girl I literally LIVE for these videos. Please please please keep making them!! I have been so fascinated with this community for such a long time but you do such a good job at covering it. Truly cannot get enough!
I'd kill to see doll customizers take on the Nebula Stars line. There would be so many gorgeous dolls made by individual creators..
I think you should cover Living Dead Dolls. They're not exactly a fashion doll line, but they have this dark and macabre vibe that seems right up your alley.
Krypt Kiddies as well!
the doll customizer, dollightful. i have a feeling she would be head over heels for Nebula Stars and Novi Stars. i really wanna see what she would do to make a real good doll for Nebula Stars. in her own way ofc.
(honestly, she would love all 3, i vibe with all of them)
Ok can I just say that the QUALITY of your videos is so impressive! Down to the clips and B-roll you use, all the images are so crisp and clear. A delight to watch you and your amazing content!!
omg please check out their first deep dive as well! it’s just as high quality
we stan clawdeena9
Omg!!! Clawdeena9!! ♡♡♡
I have a very clear memory of the year when Novi Star dolls were advertised. I remember how I saw a picture of them in this one toy catalog they published every Christmas. I kept that catalog for weeks and just stared at the picture, wishing to get a chance to play with them. Needless to say, I really liked the concept but I never actually got one for Christmas. I also remember the TV commercial for these toys.
I love seeing people talk about Novi Stars! I began collecting BJDs at 12 but before I could get the money for such an expensive doll I bought myself a Novi Star because their inset eyes and high fashion appearance really appealed to me. I ended up getting the lava lamp one from the first release and gave her an angled Bob with Elvira bangs and made multiple other outfits for her. I'm sure I got rid of her somewhere along the way once I got my peaks woods Gouldie, haha! Love these videos Izz!!
As a member of the doll community...it's as crazy as any other community. One of the big things are the bots on the Mattel Creation's website and Mattel's failure to do anything about it. I would love to see Trashion Alley come to fruition. Rat dolls are exactly the type of thing I would love.
Vermina is an icon, a legend, and the moment. I can't believe she was found.
Holy Primes this video unlocked a lost memory for me. When I was little, I received a Novi Stars doll. I remember that it was the coolest doll that I owner! I loved that doll to death, especially her pet. The moment I saw Una Verse's pet, I recognized it immediately. Thank you for reminding me of a lost but loving memory.
Novi Stars is absolutely amazing looking, I'm surprised it was cancelled. Seriously, Mimi Merize is an absolute masterclass in character design.
I love Novi Stars, they honestly deserve a second chance. The doll designs and concepts are just so creative and I’m a sucker for the alien aesthetic! I would die to own one now.
I had all the main 4 NoviStar dolls + 2 others, they were my absolute favorite! I loved how odd and cute their designs were, I was so sad to see them discontinued when I got into late elementary school. :( They really were dolls ahead of their time - the team who came up with the storyline and concepts were so creative. I loved how they had their own little channel with vlogs.
I was honestly shocked to hear novi stars weren't popular, as a kid I didn't keep up with anything past the initial release but I remember ADORING my Alie Lectric doll and taking her with me everywhere. I kept begging for more of them but never got any other than her lmao.
The hollow legs with liquid inside sounds so creative to me, i have never seen any doll like this before :0
I just wanna say that novi stars weren't a total miss with kids! I owned one and absolutely ADORED her. I wanted every single doll they released, especially either nita light or una verse (I owned one and REALLY wanted the other - can't quite remember)
I have liked Novi Stars since they came out and I have three dolls (Una Verse, Ina Ferna and Doe Deer), they are really pretty. Back then I felt so weird bc so many people tried to gaslight me into thinking they were ugly, it is really nice people finally see their beauty and uniqueness
“As always on this channel; my curiosity is now your problem”
At least you know what you do to us 😭😂 I love your topic choice, whether I know it or not, you (and your team) do it so well!
Oh my gosh I had 3 Novi stars dolls when I was younger and absolutely LOVED THEM, I remember they used to have little animated TH-cam videos with the main 4, they were structured like vlogs. Each one of them had the characters updating us on what they were learning on earth and get into lil shenanigans and I ate it up as a kid.
A video idea for you! As a kid, I got addicted to and did the typical "kid with phone" thing of spending over £200 on a website called Ponystars. One day the website totally vanished and I never knew why. Turns out it was a case of them being a massive scam and even traced all their art from a different website? Anyway, I'd love to see your investigation so I can get that sweet, sweet closure.
Oh my gosh yes someone else who remembers this site! Ponystars was my childhood! I spent so many hours on there and I was devastated when they shut down!
@@dabycat1 a kindred soul! 🫂
i’ve heard people say “i’m going to unlock a memory for you” before and never have ever felt anything crazy but the absolute WAVE of a feeling I’ve never felt before when you started talking about Novi Stars is something I will never forget. I completely forgot that those dolls had ever existed!
The Trashion Alley doll head is just adorable. I had pet rats so I'm definitely biased but I wish those dolls had been released!
these novi toys really feel like they'd explode in the early 2000s more than the 2010s cus they give y2k vibes! they're very cool designs too!
I think so too.
I'd love to hear you cover Bleeding Edge Goth dolls (BeGoths)! They were a line of dolls with the basic 5 points of articulation with (obviously,) gothic fashion! Aside from being a little obscure, I think you'd get a kick out of them because a lot of them have OTT makeup, cool hairstyles, and sometimes piercings. Also they came with little information cards which I find rather comical, likes being like.. "dying her hair", "popcorn with pickles", "History Channel".. and dislikes include things like "IKEA", "ABBA", "boba" and "dragon slayers". They also each had favourite colours, and a pet (for example, Atara has a dragon named "Marshmallow"), but the dolls didn't come with pets, and I'm not sure they were ever drawn? LOL
Despite not being well known, they managed to release a whopping 8(!!) series' of twelve inch fashion dolls! As well as the dolls, they also released 5 series' of seven inch non-articulated figures, and there was another series by Bleeding Edge called "Kinder Goths" which were soft plush toys. Some of the dolls and figures had special variants too.. a good point of reference to look at these dolls in one place is WackyStacker's website. The BeGoths website is now defunct, but I do have a link to an archive of what I think to be that website. I'd paste it here but I'm unsure if TH-cam allows that.
Aside from the dolls, figures and plushes, there were also two BeGoths comic books sold. Bleeding Edge had a second doll line named Princess Ai which had a similar model of releasing twelve inch dolls and seven inch figures, which were based off the manga with the same name.
The most fascinating thing to me about the BeGoths doll line is that they were incredibly before their time, in my opinion. The first series of dolls released way back in 2002, and the first comic launched in 2006. I'm not certain when exactly these dolls stopped their production, but it seems to be in the early-mid 2010s, which would make sense since I can't see them competing to the then up-and-coming Monster High, who had more articulation, the tie-in web series, and Mattel behind them.
I understand my comment is a whole essay, so to anyone who read this: thankyou for reading, and please check out BeGoths! I'm honored if anyone learns about them from my comment because I think they deserve more love, and I love talking about them despite being yet to own any myself. :)
... dolls, and learning about obscure doll lines is a big ol' fixation of mine. If anyone wants other lesser known dolls to go and look at.. aside from BeGoths, I recommend Mystikats (teenage half girl half cats with powers and detachable ears/tail LOL), Hook-Ups (soft poseable dolls - the name sounds sus, but they were sold with a luggage clip to go on your backpack!), and Secret Central (which I recommend because although they aren't fashion dolls as such, their faces are kind of hilarious and somehow did the whole now-finally-dying-down trope of mystery dolls).
I like keeping a document of all the doll lines I know so this barely scratches the surface of the weird lesser known doll world, but I love sharing my knowledge :)
thank you for this comic ive been seeing begoth dolls a lot more recently and googling them hasnt really given my the info i want so this is so cool to know!!
Speaking of dolls that never had pets (even though they're shown on the art), z e l f s.
I was going to suggest BEGoths too! I was an avid collector and really active on their forum. I actually helped the team behind the graphic novel ensure that Fiona’s British English sounded convincing.
Dislikes IKEA and Abba? Damn, what do these dolls have against Sweden lmfao! XD
Whoa, the shock of nostalgia that Mae Tellic's voice lines gave me was intense. I specifically remember having her and Nita Light, which DEFINITELY didn't work as a nightlight like you said.
I didn't even remember what dolls I had until I watched this video, but now all the memories of the super loud burrings of the night light are soaring back.
Regardless, I remember adoring these dolls and specifically buying them from Justice, where they were sold right alongside Monster High dolls. I sure hope I didn't get rid of them.
You mentioned before that you wanted to do an OOK deep dive video, and you absolutely should! I have an extremely surface level understanding of the artform, but know nothing else besides taking a basic doll and turning them into something new. I am excited to see what kind of things I could learn from you in a video about them!
The Nebula Stars design reminds me of Qinni’s art style and how much I loved it.
Plus I am always a sucker for a pretty galaxy. 😊
Wish a reputable brand picked up on her style and made a line of collectable dolls based on her art and give part of the profits to her family
I was obsessed with Novi stars and monster high as a child, and so were all kids in my kindergarten. I remember kids my age playing with those dolls and associating themselves with their favourite ( For example, I was Metalic, my friend was Cyla and so on). This video brought back so much great memories and I'm a bit sad that they stopped releasing them, I hope they'll be back
IZZY ACUTALLY CALLING THE AFRO PUFFS, AFRO PUFFS MADE ME SO HAPPY!!
SO MANY PEOPLE DONT TO THAT AND IT WAS REALLY NICE TO HEAR!!
I personally have no knowledge of dolls, being a guy(sorta). But I find these videos FASCINATING. I love weird, esoteric communities like this and your videos make it really entertaining. You havea great narrating voice.
Gotta thank you for talking about novi stars! I adored the series as a kid and even had three of them (which meant a lot to me as I grew up without a lot of money and didn't get a lot of on-brand dolls)! I had no clue they were worth so much now which is super cool to me, as I remember being made fun off by other kids for liking them haha I hope they do consider reviving the line, they were super cool and if they received a decent budget I bet they'd end up really popular
I would absolutely love a Novi Stars revival! There designs are right up My alley and I sadly wasn't a collector during their original run. If they made them more articulated I'm sure they'd be a hit.
now those daisy freckles are an absolute look!
yess
OH MY GOD I had metallic!!! I used to press her ear button all the time and half of the time I couldn't understand what she said, but I thought she was so cool!! I used to take off her wig a lot, I thought it was a bit too easy to take it off plus it got tangled really quickly lol
Her design was so cool but she was SOOO much shorter than all my other dolls, but what peeved me off more is that she had moulded roller skates that didn't move!!
Thank you Izzzyzzz, rediscovering my childhood has been way cooler now 😭🙏
It would be interesting if you covered Liv Dolls. They discontinued about 10 years ago and I’d be interested in why they got canceled. They had detachable wigs and I used to love swapping them round …
These were one of the last dolls I every got. I still have 3 of them
Omg I have one of these! My boyfriend's mom got me one a year or two ago because my name is Olivia and everyone calls me Liv. I had no info about them but now I have to look them up, haha
no omg i had some when i was in first grade and I almost burned my house down because I washed one of the wigs and let it dry on my lamp (the lightbulb)
I remember those! I have one collecting dust in a drawer somewhere lol, I believe her name was Daniella. I recall spending lots of time just putting her in different poses cuz she had so many joints. Good times
I managed to get loads of clothes and wings from a scrap warehouse as a kid- I wonder if it was from this line!? All the clothes had Velcro on the back for the wings.
I’m not a doll person at all, but the Novi Stars designs go so hard, oh my god. I think I would actually buy them if it was feasible for me
Omg same here!
Hearing you talk about Novi Stars was a total throwback, me and my sister were actually pretty big Novi Stars fans in 2012-2013 haha. Back when i was like, 9 or 10 or something, I'd spend hours on the Novi Stars website, playing the little planet simulator game and watching the Novi Stars vlogs and the official music video. Even though it's a shame they didn't last long, I really did love them. They were perfectly wacky and experimental and ahead of their time. I'm not really into dolls/doll collecting, but my all-time favourite Novi Star as a kid was Mimi Merize, to the point where I vividly remember dressing up as her for one Halloween! Learning that she's not only one of the rarest and most sought-after Novi Stars these days but she ALSO made a cameo appearance on a recent Rainbow High doll really brightened up my day and took me back to my childhood. It also gives me some hope that the line could be rebooted...c'mon, MGA Entertainment, some brand-new Novi Stars would be so cool!!!
Holy crap those Novi Stars designs are awesome and super unique! If they weren't cancelled I definitely would've been tempted to buy one.
I love your doll videos SO much! I would love to see you deep dive into Breyer horse models, there's SO much lore, like cancelled models, one that sold at auction for 22 THOUSAND dollars, a priceless rare model stolen from a show, model horse customization (seriously, like this alone is HUGE), live model horse shows etc!
ohhh lawd the model horse hobby deserves its own channel with the amount of drama there is LMAO
Who eagerly checks out Izzzyzzz new videos just to see their impeccable style
If they'd made Nebulous Stars dolls that actually resembled the artwork, chances are high I'd have bought pretty much all of them. The artwork and designs are so stunning and the aesthetics are so up my alley. How they fucked them up that bad is beyond me.
I had the NOVI STARS Ari Roma doll as a kid (i actually still have her little pet lying around... somewhere) and she was my absolute favourite doll growing up! I had never seen a doll with curly hair like her and she indeed smelt AMAZING even after having her for three years. I really wanted to collect them all because I loved their unique designs but there were on the rather expensive side for dolls that could barely move.
I definitely recall when Novi Stars came out (I was in college at the time and lived near a Toys-R-Us). They did come off a cheap at that time, which really sucks to think about, because it was in that Bratz 2010-2014, when they had pretty cheap hair and such (though I will say some Brats from that time I still have, their hair isn’t that bad, but then a couple more are; Mattel has had some bad hair too more recently, like the BTS dolls and the hair that was then used on Fashionista Barbies). Honestly, the best way they could have done well was waited. If they came out around the time of LOL Surprise dolls, they would likely have done better, since LOL has very similar articulation and they could work like higher cost collecting dolls in blind boxes.
On the topic of Articulation, MGA at that time seemed to be very Anti-Articulation, but for a reason. The 2010/2011 Bratz era did have it, but it was the hollowed out kind, and I can tell you my friend’s doll lost her arm from the elbow to the hand very easily. So I think that’s why a lot of the dolls didn’t have it. I even recall Project Mc² having it as well, though I think it was more of a body mechanic (like how they looked rather than being high quality), because those dolls, even with off proportions, are some of the more realistic look to human bodies I have seen on dolls.
Also Also, MGA has this bad habit of making main staple black doll characters have bright colored eyes. Even with the mentioned Project Mc², where Bryden has ice blue eyes, despite her actress has brown eyes. McKayla also has bright color eyes while her actress has brown eyes too, but if you look at Bratz (with Sasha), and other black dolls that were first releases, they have bright colored eyes, which I’m not against (my own grandfather is mixed race and has blue eyes), but knowing how black dolls aren’t as well stocked as other races dolls, it’s sad that MGA has a bad track record of not having dolls that cover the majority of black girls with brown eyes; I think everyone should have a doll that looks like them in a way.
I used to own a Novi Star from the first doll line when I was younger :D My mom got me the purple one with the afro puffs for Christmas and I absolutely adored her. Her eyes were so shiny and her helmet could come off almost like cracking an egg in half ^_^ sadly I gave a lot of my dolls away but it was so fun and comforting having a doll that looked similar to me