#AD – Items gifted for review. This post contains affiliate links
Have you heard about the NEW Blume Dolls yet? The girls both absolutely love collectible toys, and as a parenting and lifestyle blogger, I am usually pretty on the ball when it comes to hearing about new toy releases and able to start mentally preparing myself for when they start adding them to the wishlist. When I first saw a sneak peak about Blume Dolls Series 1 – the magical collectible growing dolls that actually *bloom* out of their pots when mixed with water, I knew that these would be right up the girls street.
We were recently send a selection of Blume Dolls Series 1 to put through their paces, and I have to admit, with these being labelled as the hottest toy of 2019 by Good Housekeeping.com, I was pretty keen to see them in action too!
What are Blume Dolls?
Blume Dolls come with the tagline “Water, Blume, Play” and as the tagline hints, they are magical growing dolls that quite literally bloom in front of your very eyes.
Sprinkle on the water using the little watering can and watch as the hair ‘blumes’ before you, bursting out of the top of your flower pot.
Pull out the doll to reveal your Blume character – will your friend be rare or super rare? You don’t know until she blumes!
There are 22 different Blumes dolls in Series 1, and looking at the collectors sheet, we love the look of Gemma and her gem stone like hair, Kit with hair like a tower of cupcakes, and Skye with her rainbow hair do.
The fun doesn’t stop there – each pot becomes a mini play set, which children can decorate with the stickers inside to match their doll’s style. Inside you will also find a choice of clothes and a miniature friend. Outfits can be swapped and mixed and matched to create a whole range of different looks with the hairstyles being interchangeable too!
Our Experience of Water, Blume, Play
Erin hadn’t heard of Blume Dolls before, which is quite rare these days with the likes of YouTube and demo videos online, so the fact that she didn’t really know what to expect made the big reveal of Blume dolls even more exciting.
The first (and by far the most challenging part) of opening the Blume Dolls was getting the outer plastic packaging off so that we could get started. The pack does state that it requires scissors, but I have to be honest that even I as a 37 year old female struggled to get the entire thing off without a bit of a battle. Once this part was done however, it was pretty much plain sailing from there onwards.
The pot itself represents a little flower pot, and they come in a variety of different colours – we had both a pink and gold – the outer colour of your flower pot gives you a hint as to their level of rarity! First things first, you lift of the little lid to reveal a mini watering can inside. This is filled with water in order to trigger the “blume” process.
When you are ready to water your Blume doll, you simply pull the foil wrapper off the flower pot.
Removing the foil reveals a small sheet of stickers which your child can use to decorate the pot once opened, and a collectors sheet with pictures of all the different Blume dolls and their names.
As with most collectibles, the Blume dolls you reveal vary in terms of how common they are with some rare (7), some SUPER rare (4) and others are Adorable (10). There is also one Mystical Blume doll to collect, which is the most rare of them all and there is no image of this one just a silhouette. Erin was really hoping to get this one!!!
Using the small watering can, you then suck up some water (the lid doubles up as a handy little tray for the water) and sprinkle it on to the surface of the can.
This is where Blume dolls are pretty impressive. As the paper gets wet, the foam like hair of the Blume dolls starts to expand, and breaks through the surface – Erin was absolutely amazed when this happened!
You can then pull out the doll by its hair to reveal which character you have found. They have giant hair styles (a little Amy Winehouse esque!) which are fairly soft and squidgy to the touch.
Lastly, you can clip open the flower pot to reveal the hidden surprises inside, each of which is hidden under a little paper sheet which you have to break to reveal. Inside Erin found a little outfit (one was a dress, one had a skirt and top, and some shoes, as well as a little character ‘friend’ for each Blume Doll.
The dolls themselves are a little bit bigger than LOL Surprise dolls, and Erin loved the fact that the outfits AND HAIR could be mixed and matched. Erin is also a big fan of the soft and slow squishies, so the fact that the hair has a similar texture to squishies was a real positive.
There are a few cons of Blume dolls for me as a parent, and the obvious one is that obviously there is a lot of plastic involved here. Whilst the toys themselves being plastic isn’t my main concern, the amount of plastic that does immediately become surplus to requirements (including in reality the pot and the spring board the dolls sits on) is quite high and therefore a little on the wasteful side.
Out of the 22 Blume dolls, the hair styles themselves are repeated somewhat only in different colour schemes, and I would have personally have preferred to see 22 unique hairstyles, as I think this would have made it a little more exciting than getting two that are fairly similar bar a slightly different shade of hair. For me that would also be a bit more embracing of “personal differences” and highlight the fact that you don’t have to be the same as any one else!
That said, Erin has really enjoyed playing with the Blume dolls, and the reveal process itself is pretty impressive. A bit of a gimmick perhaps, but I can see these being very popular with little ones on the run up to Christmas, and at a similar price point to other similar products on the market, it will be interesting to see whether this reveal element sways children in their favour!
Blume Dolls are available to buy in store now at The Entertainer and on Amazon (Affiliate Links)
*Disclosure -We were gifted some Blume Dolls in exchange for our honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own*
