July 13, 2016

Mermaid Princess Minami arrival

I finally got my Mermaid Princess Minami home~ She was shipped nearly two weeks ago by EMS, so I was getting worried that she might've gotten lost or something, but thank god she arrived safely in the end! Usually EMS from Japan takes only a few days, so this wait was quite nerve-wrecking ^^;

Pre-ordering her wasn't as easy as I had hoped. Well, sure I had been prepared for a huge fight since I had the feeling that she might be really, really popular and be sold out very fast. The only similar pastel-colored cutie that Azone has released so far is the Kinoko Juice Chiika, which was sold out in seconds and has ridiculous second-hand prices - she now costs like 3 to 4 times the original price x_x I thought that this Minami might end up just as popular and hard to get, so I was determined to pre-order her, no matter what.

I had set my alarm clock to wake me up at 5:58am, as the pre-orders were supposed to start at 6am my local time. BUT, some stores had actually started taking pre-orders like an hour too early and obviously, she was already sold out on those places! >3< I pretty much woke up to a complete online chaos, lol. Next I stalked Amiami like crazy, I kept refreshing the front page once in a minute or so for like a hour ^^;; Then I see someone posting on Facebook that her sales page is up, I rush to the page and she's already sold out... The doll never even had time to appear on the front page before she was gone >.<

My next place to stalk was Hobby Link Japan. When Minami was up for pre-order, the whole site started crashing and giving error messages when trying to sign in or add something to the cart... At some point I had 5 Minami in the cart lol. I was ready to throw my laptop out of the window when I finally managed to order the doll that I had in my shopping cart, although the sales page claimed that the doll was sold out. In the end, turned out that the website had allowed too many people to order and they had to cancel some of the orders - including mine. I was really desperate at that point, since she was now sold out on every single site that I knew of. When I browsed through Yahoo Japan I saw one that cost much more than the original price, but thought that it might be my only change to get this doll without having to pay even more... So I bought it :D I was anxious the whole time I waited for her release date, worried that my order might get cancelled yet again, but luckily this time everything worked out.

I already rambled more than enough, so let's move on to the box opening! (Though I don't have any photos of the outer box, since Sarg's big Pokémon plush arrived in the same package and she opened the outer box :D)

The box design is super pretty~ 

Look at those jellyfish!! ♥

There's even an adorable drawing of a mermaid Minami ;___; ♥




And as always, I took photos of the leaflet and accessories before the doll itself :'D 

The cover of the leaflet





The outfit and accessories piece by piece

Now let's get you out of there, girl!

Cute shoes, handbag and a hair accessory. At first I didn't recognize what the heck it is, had to take a look at her photos XD

Mermaid Minami in all her glory! ♥ I decided to name her Yume, which means "dream" :3 It's a cute name and this doll is pretty much like a dream for me~ When I saw the first photos of this girl, I was like NO WAAAY - it was almost like Azone had gotten inside my mind XD Pastel colors and mermaids are something that I love deeply, not to mention that Minami was released on June 24th, just one day before my birthday!! Even many of my friends told me that "this looks like your doll/character" hahah XD So yeah, she's perfect for me! ♥♥

The outfit is just gorgeous and has many tiny cute details~ It's so big and poofy XD


I really love her shy expression~ Somehow I already feel a strong emotional bond with this doll ;___;

I took off the chiffon coat thing and played around with her hair a little bit~ ♥ She's probably have this hair-do for a while now, since I fell in love with how she looks like this x3

A bit later I couldn't resist trying my other Minami's glasses on her and oh my... I think I need to buy a pair of light-colored (white?) glasses for her now ;3; She looks so adorable with glasses!

Now after Yume's arrival, me and Sarg have all three different Minami releases in the house :D Malla (on left) is Sarg's and the dark-haired Janna is mine. I love how different they look, even though they have the same face. I'm also considering swapping Yume to a S sized body (she's now on M), so that she'd be shorter than Malla and Janna who are her cousins :3

I also compared the hair color to some other pink-haired Azone girls that I have at home. This Minami has truly pastel pink hair, the other girls' hair have more of a peachy shade. Tiinyan also got Mermaid Princess Minami and shared a hair comparison photo on her blog :)

I can't even put down in words how happy I am to finally have Yume at home, hopefully I can take more photos of her soon~ Just looking at her gives me a lot of inspiration, just need to decide what kind of a photoshoot I could do with her :3 Though the default outfit is gorgeous, I can't wait to sew some other clothes for her as well. She most likely won't stray far from pastel colors ;D

21 comments:

  1. Totta on että jos odottelee jotain, niin lyhyt aikakin on pitkä! Kiva että söpöliini tuli perille! Onneksi olkoon! :)

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  2. congrtas!! She's lovely!!
    I think white glasses would look the best on her!!

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    1. Thank you~
      Yup, I was thinking of white glasses too! ♥

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  3. You finally got her! Yay! I also adore all pastel Neemos and that Chiika release was the first one I liked, but since that one seems quite hard to obtain I actually gave up on Neemos, haha! :O
    Anyway, Minami is so pretty and the hair style you gave her is just perfect for her!

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    1. YES finally! >3< I hope that Azone would make more of these pastel Neemos, they must've noticed by now that these few releases have been insanely popular!

      Thank you dear~ ♥

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  4. On se vaan niin söpö! >3< ♥ Etenkin tuolla uudella kampauksellaan! VAU! *o* Pitäisi varmaan itekin ihan oikeasti alkaa harjoittelemaan kampauksien tekoa niin nukeille kuin ihmisillekin (töissä lapset siis repii pois mun tekemiä ponnareita, kun ne kattoo peilistä ja näkee lopputuloksen :'D En vaan osaa... X''D )

    Ihana nähdä Minamit tuossa yhteiskuvassa!

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    1. Kiitoksia kovasti :3 Oma tukka on aina ollut tosi ohut ja lyhytkin, niin nuket on kunnon terapiaa kun pääsen laittamaan edes niiden hiuksia nätisti XD Vaikka tämäkin viritelmä näyttää nätiltä vain edestäpäin...

      Tajusin vasta itsekin tämän tytyn saavuttua, että meillähän on nyt kaikki julkaistut Minamit!

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  5. Onneksi olkoon! Voi ei miten upea tuo ruusukampaus on, sääli etten itse osaa tehdä nukkejen hiuksille ponnaria kummempaa. u__u'
    Jos päädyt vaihtamaan kropan pienempään, olisi kiva saada kuvia. Olin suunnitellut samaa, mutta jäin ilman merenneitoa - toistaiseksi. >8D

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    1. Kiitoksia! Eipä tuo mikään kummoinen kampaus ole, pienet letit vaan pyöritetty nutturoiksi ja takaata rumasta klipsillä kiinni :D

      Joo täytyy tässä katsoa miten kropan kanssa käy. S:n ja M:n välillä ei loppujen lopuksi ole hirveästi eroa kuin pituudessa, joten kropan vaihtaminen ei ole mikään ongelma ja näyttää aina hyvältä :) Voin ottaa sitten vaikka uudemman kerran Minami-vertailun jos Yume päätyy S-kroppaan!

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  6. Suurenmoiset onnittelut ihanuudesta! Yume on niiiin söpö! Ja vielä söpömmän siitä tekee nuo palmikkopampulat. <3 ^^ Kaikki yksityiskohdat ja kivat tarvikkeet mukana vielä. :D Ihana! Vaaleat lasit sopisi varmasti Yumelle tosi hyvin! Ja kaikki muutkin ihanat Minamit <3 Olipa kiva nähdä niistäkin kaikista yhteiskuva. *u*

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    1. Kiitos paljon ^^ Tämä söpö pastellisuus kyllä upposi meikäläiseen täysillä~ Toivottavasti vielä löydän vaaleat lasit Yumelle, kruunaisivat lookin!

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  7. Congrats! I'm glad you were able to get her! She was quite popular wasn't she? I knew I wasn't going to be able to get her because the day she opened for pre-order was a work day for me so I wasn't home when the it opened. I did go on the waitlist email and got an email to say HS had opened up pre-orders again but once more, I got the email during the day while I was at work and didn't see it until I got home later that night.

    You would think given the popularity of dolls in these sorts of colour schemes that Azone would release more girls like this. But they never seem to. Like Kinoko Juice Chiika, I think this version of Manami will go for high prices second-hand also.

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    1. Thank you :) Yeah she was gone so fast that it was insane... I've seen a few for sale on Yahoo Japan though (even for a reasonable price), so there are still chances to get her. The price might raise a bit later.

      I wonder if Azone is going to make more pastel-themed dolls like this in the future... They must've seen by now how popular they are :/ There is a new Miu in the Otogi no Kuni series coming up actually - she has pastel hair and her clothes are mori girl style.

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  8. Congrats again so much Sherimi!!! ^3^she is a great addition on your little cutie pie azone crew! Her whole design is pretty and those colors ahh <3 and it was quite interesting to see all the pink colors so far <3

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    1. Thanks so much dear ;3; ♥ I really do love her~ I wish there were more Azone dolls like this, pastel colors are always so pretty!

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  9. Congrats!!! She is lovely and so cute!!
    Love her colors <3

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  10. Oh my gosh, I love her hair so much! She's got such pretty color! *_*

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    1. Oh yes, it's such a pretty color <3 Thanks!

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  11. Hi! I want to thank you for sharing your photos and experience! Thanks to your blog I've decided to buy Swan Lake Raili and I'm SOOOOO happy with her! I received my mermaid Minami earlier than you, but I'm glad you now own this beauty too, and want to agree with you - she is gorgeous, I even call her sea goddess Minami 8) love your blog!!!!

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    1. Awww thanks so much for your sweet words! ^^ I'm really happy to hear that you've found my photos and blog posts useful~ Aaand I love it if my photos inspire people to buy a specific doll (like Swan Lake Raili), it's one of the reasons that I enjoy sharing photos of my dolls :3

      We keep calling this Minami as "princess", even though she's not really a princess or anything in our stories XD But she's just so pretty! ♥

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