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Almost half a year ago I went a little off the rails and dived head-in into COME4FREE’s Bonnie Bunny Series. As one does, I also looked into C4F’s other offerings, which at the time was only the older Bonnie series and the Minty series (they’ve since opened up other lines of dolls). What is Minty? I think it started off as a spin-off of sorts to Bonnie that gradually became its own thing, but the two toy lines have very different design philosophies. While the Bonnie series was originally meant to be anthropomorphic bunnies that over time morphed into human-rabbit hybrids and finally humanoids with vaguely rabbit-like features, they always seem to have a more casual, modern and stocky/cartoony vibe. By contrast, entries in the Minty series are all elf-animal hybrids, having more of an ethereal/fantasy vibe, and the bodies are longer, more mature, and semi-realistic. Minty 1: Fantasy Forest was forest animal-themed, while Minty 2: Ocean Gem was aquatic animal-themed. The latter (which was 1/8 scale) recently made a comeback in 1/12 scale for a collab with the children’s game Aobi Island. Minty 4: Poem of Feathers is avian-themed, but Minty 3: Little Lucky Spirits and Minty 5: Childhood Memories seem to have ditched the animal theme… This post is about Chisu (the blue one) from Minty 3: Little Lucky Spirits. If you follow Chinese or Japanese doll social media, you’ve probably seen her around because she’s everywhere and everyone seems to have one. She seems to be the most popular regular edition doll, third only to the small and big hidden editions (yes, this series had two hidden editions, and no, I probably won’t get either of them). She comes with all the standard fare—clothing, accessories, extra hands and feet, an instruction manual, certificate of authenticity, and a card with her artwork on it. As the series name implies, this particular series is based on good luck charms, with each entry granting luck for various things. Chisu here offers academic luck, but some of the charms are really funny, like the “eat without gaining weight” charm and the “get paid to chill” charm 😂  Here are her head/hair shells and accessories. The twin tails are detachable, which I appreciate since I think I prefer her without them. I really like the translucent pink/blue gradation on her hair—in fact, it was these shells that sold me on her. Here are all the hand and foot parts. As mentioned above, the Minty series seems to have semi-realistic hands and feet, which I’m not a fan of. The body is scrawny and emaciated. One thing I found interesting is that the chest size can be altered by swapping out different sized chest shells, but they only seem to sell small chest pieces in their Taobao store, so I guess if you want a larger bust you’re out of luck… Here are the clothes she came with. The default outfit has this kind of weird virtual idol vibe that feels at odds with her academic theme. She also came with these plastic snow boots that I couldn’t be bothered with because I knew they would be a nightmare to put on and take off, which seems to be a series staple in my (limited) experience. And here she is in all her glory! I find it hilarious that the cat ears on her headband are made of geometry rulers and that she comes with googly nerd glasses. Unfortunately both are a bit fiddly to put on her. I couldn’t get the headband to sit flush, and the glasses need to be fitted into the sides of the hair pieces to stay on. The concept is funny but the execution is a little lacking. Here she is next to Stella from Minty 4: Poem of Feathers (whom I plan to introduce in a later post). Like the Bonnie series, body size and scale varies wildly from one series to another. Minty 3 is 1/8 scale while Minty 4 is fashion doll scale (Special 1/6). Despite the size difference, I was able to fit Chisu into a dress for 1/12 size dolls. This was the only one I could finagle her into, so don’t take this as proof that all 1/12 scale clothing fits! Here she is in the 1/8 size Twilight Wisteria (薄暮紫藤) outfit by C4F. They’ve been ramping up production of clothes in all sizes for all of their product lines recently—about a year ago they were selling 1-2 outfits a week, and now they consistently sell 3-4 outfits a week in different sizes. The prices are quite reasonable and the clothes are capable of fitting other similarly sized dolls, so it’s worth looking into if you want affordable well-made doll clothes. Just be aware that there are counterfeit versions floating around on Taobao… ☹️ Unfortunately, rumour has it that Minty 3 is being discontinued soon, so if you’re interested in picking one up, I recommend doing so soon. I was on the fence about another one in this series and bit the bullet as soon as I heard the news. She’s not here yet, but she’ll probably make an appearance in a later post ☺️

I think some girls are in for a treat. 😅  Awesome setup 👍

I think it is the new 30% increase, plus all of the other DHL rate increases of the last year or longer that Volks did not apply yet (there's been three or four). Which apparently results in effectively a 100% increase for USA-bound packages. I assume for Europe it was even worse, and Volks concluded that it was too much.        

I got the boots! And new hands 🥰