Sonny Angel Dolls: The Big Gamble

My Sonny Angel Collection's rapidly growing

I never was a gambler at home. I've been on the roulette tables a total of three times in my whole entire life. The closest I came to serious gambling was the 2p slot machines at Whitby arcades. This avoidance is mostly due to my disastrous luck. The only time in my 26 years on earth that I won a raffle, I was told to give the prize back as it was for the roller derby team's fundraiser and I was the 7th player in a row to win. To avoid looking like it was a fix, I reluctantly gave my prize back. But in Korea something's changed me.

Sonny Angel dolls. They are these grotesquely cute, nude babies with wings on their backs and weird things on their heads. They disgust me so much that I've actually started to like them. They come in different sets, there are animal sets, fruit sets, vegetable sets everything you could imagine, sculpted in cheap plastic and attached to their naked baby bodies.

There are 12 different dolls in each set. The problem is, it's like roulette as to which doll you'll get. It's all a big secret about which model is in the box. You don't find out which one you've got until you've bought it, taken it home and unwrapped it. Or, in my case, until you step out of Artbox where you wildly rip the box to shreds.

This is where my gambling has started, and at 6,000 (about 2.50) a pop, it's not a cheap habit to have picked up. At the moment I am currently putting all of my money on the Animal Series 3 where, if you're lucky enough, you can get a French Bulldog headed angel or, if you hit the jackpot, an alpaca headed angel. Only, so far I've got the buffalo and a weird lop eared rabbit.

I think Tasha has spotted my addiction and bought me one for my birthday. Looking at all of the possible models I could get, I stated, 'As long as it's not the pig, I don't care'. I've mentioned what my luck's like so no doubt you can guess which doll I had when I opened it. There was the little angel piggy face looking back at me. What were the chances??

So until I get the French Bulldog and the Alpaca, you can probably find me in Artbox, desperately hopping from foot to foot, waiting for the check out man to take my money so I can tear open the packaging.

There are tight regulations on gambling in Korea, so it seems that teenage girls (And I) have found another way to roll the dice.

Artbox's tempting display...