Shanelle Onyx from Shadow High Series 1 by MGA Entertainment arrived in April. I just opened the shipping box this past weekend, but after the doll arrived, I recorded the following description in my Excel spreadsheet based on the manufacturer's description.
It was Harper Dune's Burberry-inspired fashion that brought her here. This 11-inch articulated vinyl doll wears a cap, a sleeveless crop top, and panties made of Burberry print with off-white shorts that have a gold-tone RH belt-loop charm. She also has painted-on beige briefs and wears gold strappy sandals. This doll is my first Rainbow High purchase. The other dolls that preceded Harper Dune's arrival were gifts.
Articulation: Harper Dune has the usual five points of articulation. Additionally, the elbows, wrists, upper thighs, and knees are articulated.
A close-up in-the-box photo of Harper Dune illustrates her alluring eyes... it's something about those huge brown eyes that are enticing.
Harper Dune is seen on the back of the box with the other dolls in this series.
Once out of the box, I photographed the accessories first.
Sunglasses, a vinyl tote bag, and a beach towel were separately boxed on the right side of the box.
Care instructions, a registration card, an extra pair of legs, a three-piece doll stand, and a comb were also in the extra box.
The doll's hair was gelled, hard, unruly, with uneven ends.
Why MGA Entertainment feels the need to apply heavy gel to Rainbow High dolls' hair is a mystery to me. Even they know, based on the care instructions on how to remove it, that the gel is undesirable.
The care instructions for the hair read, "The doll has a light coating of gel in the hair. [Nah, Harper's gel was heavy.] If you would like to style the doll's hair, ask an adult or under adult supervision follow the steps below to remove the gel. Please note that the doll's hair will not appear the same after washing." (Insert eye roll here.) Their suggested instructions on how to remove the gel followed this statement.
Harper Dune tries to relax on her beach towel, but her heavily gelled hair was annoying to her, too.
I let her know I would remove the gel as soon as the initial out-of-the-box photos were taken. So, she cooperated with the next photos.
Harper poses on the doll stand wearing her sunglasses.
Removing the gel
Using cold water, the gel was rinsed out of Harper's hair.
Except for her sandals, Harper was undressed. The hair was rinsed with cold water and lightly shampooed with liquid hand soap. After the hand soap was thoroughly rinsed out and all the gel removed, the hair was combed to remove all loose hairs, snarls, and tangles. According to the care instructions, optionally, I could have added conditioner, but I opted to skip this step at this time.
Being modest, Harper wrapped herself in her beach towel and prepared to get her hair braided.
Four braids were added to Harper's hair while it was damp.
Harper's pierced ears.
The Rainbow High dolls, at least the ones I own, have significant-sized holes in their ears for earrings; however, earrings were not included with my dolls.
The next photos were taken after the hair dried and the braids were taken down.
The braids created a wavy look, but the ends still felt firm.
I added conditioner to the ends of the hair and allowed that to dry for a couple of hours.
The conditioner loosened up the waves some and softened up the ends, but they were still uneven. I trimmed the ends for this final look.
Harper Dune posed with her friends, Phaedra Westward and Daria Roselyn.
Rainbow High dolls are cute with well-made clothing. Will I buy more? It is highly doubtful.
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There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
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Part of the Queens line of LOL Surprise O.M.G. dolls, Sways recently arrived as an early birthday gift from a dear doll friend. In this blog post, an unboxing video is shared first followed by a written description of the doll. The post ends with additional photos and captions.
Unboxing Video:
Description: Sways is a 9-inch vinyl doll with dark pink,
yellow, and green rooted braids styled in three Bantu knots on the top accented
with a gold-tone hair ring in the front of the center Bantu knot. The hair is
worn loose in the back.
Sways has the signature oversized head and eyes and curvy figure of the LOL Surprise O.M.G dolls.
Pink diamond-shaped painted accents are above the eyebrows. Yellow
diamond-shapes accent the lower eyelashes.
Sways wears a pink, green, yellow, and black-striped mesh
jersey-style dress, which has two deep
side slits. OMG in white letters is on the bodice. The dress has a knee-length hemline in the
front and a full-length hemline in the back.
Underneath the dress, Sways wears a black bra that has a black and pink geometrical print on one side. The bra has gold-tone straps. Black shorts are black on one side and black and green on the other. Underneath the shorts are paint-on fuchsia undies. Black thigh-high tights are trimmed with pink,
yellow, and green horizontal stripes. She wears pink and black boots.
Other accessories, some of which were in the surprise packages, include a
pink and gold choker, a fused yellow/gold/pink bangle bracelet, a waist purse,
sunglasses, a doll stand, and a garment bag with a hanger that held a black faux fur jacket. Visible in the box were a party invitation and a Sways paper photo.
Articulation: Sways has the usual five points of articulation at the neck and at the arm and leg sockets. Additionally, the elbows and wrists are articulated. For ease of dressing, the hands are removable (but they must be removed slowly to avoid breaking the stem.) Sways has stiletto fingernails painted dark pink on one hand and bright green on the other.
Photos:
Additional in-the-box photos
Three Bantu knots are accented with gold thread. A gold-tone hoop is attached to the front of the center Bantu knot.
The doll's name is on a side panel of the box.
An in-the-box angled view prevents the flash from the camera.
A close-up and still in-the-box photo illustrates the white OMG letters on the bodice of the dress.
A Tween OMG doll is illustrated on the opposite side panel with a bubble caption that reads, "Hey Sis!"
Sways is depicted in a headshot illustration on the back of the box with a description of the Queens line written in English and several other languages. "Queens embrace who they are, strut fierce, style, and celebrate differences." (Alright-now Queens!)
Out-of-the-box Photos
In this close-up, sways wears her sunglasses.
Sunglasses, choker, fused bangle, waist purse, and her boots were all part of the packaged surprises.
The faux black fur jacket was another surprise enclosed in a garment bag on a hanger.
Sways has stiletto fingernails painted pink on one hand and bright green on the other.
The colorful braids hang loose in the back.
Underneath the jersey-style mesh dress, Sways wears a black bra and shorts, both of which are accented with gold-tone zippers. The bra straps are gold-tone chains that extend across the neck.
The pink, gold, and yellow bangle consists of three fused shapes.
A party invitation and a paper photo card of Sways are illustrated here.
The inside of the invitation is shown along with the back of the photo card, which reads, "Queens straighten each other's crowns & support their BFFs."
In the final photo, Sways is shown with her one and only BFF (a prior gift from the same dear doll friend.)
LOL Surprise O.M.G. Sways and Miss Glam—Sways is from the Queens series and Miss Glam is from the Party Surprise series.
MGA Entertainment, the makers of the LOL Surprise O.M.G. dolls is giving Mattel a run for their money where collectors of playline dolls (adults and children) are concerned. These dolls offer much more than the Pink Label Barbies. The quality of the dolls, clothing, accessories, and extra surprises* far exceed what Mattel offers in their playline dolls. MGA Entertainment's LOL Surprise O.M.G. dolls cost three times the price of a Pink Label Barbie, but as they say, "you get what you pay for."
*The 20 surprises advertised on the box only amounted to the seven surprises as shown in the video. Those seven items plus the two-piece doll stand, hair brush, garment bag, and everything Sways wears including her hair ring total 20 items.
Buy LOL Surpise Sways below:
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There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published, so don't waste your time. To contact me directly regarding dolls or any of my posts, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
If you're not already a subscriber, visit, "like" and follow the Black Doll Collecting Facebook page or bookmark the Black Doll Collecting home page and visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays when typically new posts are published.
L.O.L. Surprise O.M.G. Present Surprise Miss Glam's box front
The text in the left upper corner of the back of the box is printed in English and seven other languages. In English, it reads: O.M.G! It's time to CELEBR8! Miss Glam is throwing herself the most outrageous surprise birthday PAR-TAY! and everyone is invited.
Close-up of the aforementioned box text.
I wrote about a mini LOL Surprise O.M.G. Present Surprise doll in the post, Christmas Dolls 2021 Part 2 of 5. The doll featured in this post is my first 9-inch O.M.G. Surprise doll. This one is another gift from Telisa Spain. (Telisa gave me my first Rainbow High Doll, Phaedra Westward that was featured in the previous post.)
View Miss Glam's YouTube unboxing video:
In the video, I mistook her choker for a bracelet, forgot to mention the sunglasses; and at the end, I mistakenly referred to her as Miss Sass.
Her name is Miss Glam. The description cell of my doll spreadsheet for Miss Glam reads:
9-inch vinyl doll has brown rooted hair styled in two curly pigtails with side-swept bangs with one silver hair clip attached to the bangs. Dressed in a shimmery silver top, mini skirt, and black over-the-knee stockings with silver glitter embellishments, the surprise accessories include three empty gift boxes, confetti, a blue jacket and a crop top with PAR-TAY on the front, a turquoise tutu, two hangers, black sneaker boots and a shoebox, a shoulder bag and a round storage box, black fingerless gloves, sunglasses, silver earrings, extra hairclips, silver choker, a hairbrush, and a large blue hairbow, a turquoise doll stand with three waist attachments, a flip-out booklet that illustrates the stand assembly, and a party invitation.
Out of the Box Photos
Miss Glam wears her two-piece shimmery top and skirt and black thigh-high stockings with the black high-top sneaker boots that were included with her fashion surprises.
She styles an extra hair clip, her surprise fashion, and her shoulder bag in this photo.
The banana curls of her two pigtails have been fluffed out to create fluffier curls.
Miss Glam poses with all her surprises.
Here she poses with MGA Entertainment's Rainbow High Phaedra Westward (the other gift from Telisa Spain, reviewed in the previous post).
Including the Tweens, Telisa shared pictures of the LOL Surprise dolls that are considered ethnic in her collection. Because MGA Entertainment does not assign ethnicity to these dolls, the collector or child can choose their ethnicity. She shared several pictures that I will share in separate blog posts. The final picture of this post is Telisa's Miss Glam.
This is Telisa's Miss Glamm. She's holding a tambourine that goes with one of the dolls from the Remix series.
Thank you again, Telisa for my first LOL Surprise! O.M.G. 9-inch doll. She's a cutie! With all the surprises, I understand the thrill of wanting to own the entire series. It was fun discovering her surprises.
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There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published, so don't waste your time. To contact me directly regarding dolls or any of my posts, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
If you're not already a subscriber, visit, "like" and follow the Black Doll Collecting Facebook page or bookmark the Black Doll Collecting home page and visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays when typically new posts are published.
This is Phaedra Westward of MGA Entertainment's Rainbow High Pacific Coast series.
Because she wanted me to have this doll to review and because she is an avid collector of MGA Entertainment's Rainbow High Dolls, Telisa Spain sent Phaedra Westward to me as a gift. I must admit that I've been "sleeping" on the Rainbow High dolls because I didn't want to begin another collection and as a rule, I avoid dolls with oversized heads and eyes. But after seeing Phaedra Westward up close and personal and actually owning the doll now, an exception to the oversized head/eyes rule has been made.
Before the doll arrived, Telisa told me she was sending a Rainbow High doll, but she did not say which one. Before I opened the Amazon shipping box, I made a video and uploaded it to Tiktok. View the video at this link.
Phaedra Westward's spreadsheet description reads as follows:
Part of the Pacific Coast series of Rainbow High Dolls, Phaedra Westward is 11-inches tall, made of articulated vinyl, and has the deepest complexion of these colorful dolls. She has brown painted alluring eyes, rainbow-colored rooted hair styled in two side ponytails with painted rainbow baby hair. She is dressed in a one-piece purple snakeskin bathing suit. A purple, yellow, fuchsia, and white chiffon wrap is worn at the waist with purple high-heel mules that have purple snakeskin block heels and "Rainbow" written across the vamp. Included are an extra pair of legs with flat feet (but no extra shoes that fit these feet*), a beach terry-cloth towel, a tinted visor, satin scrunchies, gradient tote with Rainbow High logo, sunglasses, and a purple doll stand.
Below are additional in-box and out-of-the-box photos and captions of my doll.
While still in the box, this close-up photo of Phaedra was taken.
The back of the box features all the doll characters of Pacific Coast High School.
From L-R on the first row are Simone Summers, Bella Barker, Margot De Perla, and Phaedra Westward. On the back row, from L-R are Finn Rosado, Harper Dunn, and Hali Capri.
The text at the bottom of the back of the box reads: Meet the students of Pacific Coast High, the most elite fine arts high school on the west coast. Here the days are sunny, the classes are poolside, and the drama rolls in and out like the tides.
Released from the box, Phaedra poses on her purple stand holding her purple tote. Her Malibu beach towel and comb lie below.
Her big brown eyes are almost entrancing. Rainbow is on the front of her visor, on her shoes, and on the front of her tote.
With her sunglasses on and the doll stand put away temporarily, Phaedra strikes another pose.
The feet of the extra set of legs are arched.
To swap out the legs, you pull down on each below the knee and snap the others in place. That sounds easy enough, but it wasn't so easy for me to do.
In this photo, Phaedra's legs have been changed to the extra legs.
It was difficult snapping the left leg in place. In fact, I was unable to position it all the way inside the knee cavity, which left a gap between the knee and the upper calf. I didn't try to force it inside for fear of causing damage.
*According to Telisa Spain, dolls in the previous series have had extra shoes that fit the feet of the extra legs and most have had an extra outfit.
Her original legs and the shoes that fit them were replaced as seen in the next photo.
After combing each ponytail to remove the stiffening gel applied by the manufacturer, I gave each ponytail several double-strand twists. (I'll redo these later because they were hurriedly done and are not perfect.) Rubber bands at the end of each twist hold them in place. Phaedra models her new hairstyle. All her accessories, including her wrap, are inside her tote bag.
Back on the doll stand, not wearing the visor or the wrap, Phaedra strikes a final pose. Without the visor, the baby hair is better visible.
By the time this post publishes, Telisa will own all the Rainbow High dolls released to date. For this post, she shared photos of all the Black and Latina dolls from each Rainbow High series that were already in her possession. Her photos and captions will end this post.
This is Vanessa Tempo from the Rock Star series (a Target exclusive).
Vanessa Tempo, Rock Star series
This is Skylar Bradshaw from series 1, Winter Break series, and the Cheer series.
Skylar Bradshaw wears her extra outfits.
This is Sunny Madison from Series 1, Winter Break, and the Cheer series.
Sunny Madison, Series 1, wears the two outfits she comes with.
These two lovelies are Krystal Bailey from Series 2 and Georgia Bloom from Series 3.
Above are Daria Roselyn in two different outfits from Series 3 and Robin Sterling from the Slumber Party Series. (The Slumber Party series is a Walmart exclusive.)
These three are Hali Capri, Harper Dune, and Phaedra Westward from the Pacific Coast Series.
Thank you again, Telisa for the gift of Phaedra Westward. Your kindness and generosity are greatly appreciated.
To learn more about Rainbow High dolls and the many different series/collections, navigate to the Rainbow High wiki here.
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There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published, so don't waste your time. To contact me directly regarding dolls or any of my posts, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
If you're not already a subscriber, visit, "like" and follow the Black Doll Collecting Facebook page or bookmark the Black Doll Collecting home page and visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays when typically new posts are published.
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I am a Black-doll enthusiast, doll historian, freelance writer, author of The Definitive Guide to Collecting Black Dolls; Black Dolls: A Comprehensive Guide to Celebrating, Collecting, and Experiencing the Passion; and The Doll Blogs: When Dolls Speak, I Listen. 
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