I’ve had my eye on this desk set at Wal-Mart. Here is the picture from their website. The model available at my local store had a
somewhat different color scheme.
When I saw the set discounted on clearance, I snatched it up. My set has blue and salmon accents.
Everything is constructed from sturdy plastic. There is also
a salmon-pink rug, not pictured here. The bulletin board in the middle of the desk is a cardboard backing which provides some nice colored contrast. I might eventually remove it but I like it for now.
It came with stickers, a cardboard calendar, and other
things. I was somewhat disappointed in these. Sets from other lines such as Our Generation have included "real" journals with pages. Here, the journal here was just a folded piece of
cardstock with lines on the inside. The fashion magazine, made of a folded piece of cardboard, didn't have anything on the inside. It would have made sense for the birthday card to be a similar folded piece, but that's just a flat piece of cardboard! I'm sorry - I've been spoiled by OG.
My family had some young guests the other day for a birthday party and they were very impressed by the lamp, which does light up. It turns off on its own after a few seconds.
The drawers and cabinets all open, which was lovely, and
great for storage. The drawers can slide right out, and it can be a little tricky to slide them back in. My visitors had some trouble and had to ask me for help.
The chair can spin around, but that's about all it does. The wheels do not move. It looks very short compared to the dolls, but it allows them to have their arms over the desk at a somewhat normal height. When I tried a taller chair, Larkin was looming over the desk.
My visitors also seemed to like the laptop. I was a little
disappointed in the laptop at first. Although images showed it standing like a normal
laptop, in real life it had no way to stay up unless you propped it against
something. It would just lie flat like so.
One of my visitors told me encouragingly that they could just lean it against the back of the desk to keep it open, but I still wasn't satisfied. I added two small dots of hot glue to support it, and was much happier with the results. It can now stand on its own.
Overall, I got this set mainly for the desk itself, the lamp and the laptop. The sheer amount of cardboard gives it a somewhat chintzy feel, but those are mainly for decoration. The plastic pieces are nice and overall I was pleased with this purchase. I'm looking forward to getting more stuff from the My Life As line - particularly one of those little shopping carts. Are those cute or what?
