Out of the Box: Corolle Les Chéries Cécile

Today we're finally down to the final member of my smaller play doll lineup! Being unboxed today is The "Paris Party en fête" version of Cécile from Corolle's Les Chéries doll line.

The Les Chéries dolls are 13"/33cm fully vinyl dolls with rooted hair. Unlike the other lines in this size range that I've been posting about over the past week, these ones have sleep eyes. The line is aimed at children ages 4 and up, and generally retails at around $40 USD, depending on the outfit.

Out of the Box: Paola Reina Las Amigas Carol (FCB version)

I don't know how many of you were like me and spent all of yesterday watching the three Euro matches and then the Copa America final with all their highs and lows (from Batshuayi's celebratory backflip to Messi hiding his face in his shirt), but if you did, I'm sure you can understand how I felt the need to share a football/soccer-related doll.

And it's not completely random because we're also continuing with the smaller playline doll theme, as being unboxed today is a doll from Paola Reina's Las Amigas line - in particular, the FCB version of Carol, complete with jersey and cap.

Out of the Box: Wellie Wishers Ashlyn

Less than 24 hours after commenting on my own (and other) blogs that I was on the fence about the new 14" doll line from American Girl I found myself back in the store picking one up (if my auto service place was in a different location this would never have happened).  It was a moment of weakness, I suppose!

The Wellie Wishers are aimed at a slightly younger target market than the standard American Girl line, and as such are smaller, fully vinyl, and lower priced. I picked up Ashlyn, who has brown  eyes and hair (with bangs/fringe) and the medium skin tone.  Other than the hair/eye/skin options, all of the dolls have the same body (I'm not sure about the face moulds - there may be three of them? I don't have a great eye for that, so if you know for sure, please correct me!).

Out of the box: Ellowyne Wilde - A Dream of Marigold & Cinnamon

Last week Tonner was having a cross-line sale for 25% off any of their dolls, so I took advantage of the opportunity to bring home the new(ish) "A Dream of Marigold & Cinnamon" Ellowyne Wilde release. She arrived in the middle of a rainstorm, but luckily (despite the shipping box being soaked), the inner layers weren't wet at all.

Because of the rain, the lighting isn't ideal for photos, but since we're not due to have a non-rainy day for a week, I decided not to wait to share - so apologies for that!

Project Update: Sew Your Own My Best Friend

The final product.

As I mentioned in last month's Projects for Lazy People post I picked up a deeply discounted children's doll-making kit from Studio Girl called "Sew Your Own My Best Friend" a few weeks back.

Last weekend my husband went out of town, so I decided to settle in to a marathon viewing of Black Sails (if you're looking for a solid action series and aren't easily offended, I recommend it!) and wanted an easy and brainless project to do as I watched. Since this kit is recommended for kids 3 and older, I figured it wouldn't be too challenging for an adult devoting less than 10% attention to it.

Out of the Box: Batwoman (Tonner's DC Bombshells Series)

Batwoman

Even though I'm always complaining about the hinge-jointed knees on dolls from Tonner, every now and then they release something that overrides my aversion.  This time the exception is Batwoman from their DC Bomshells line.  While the original retail price ($179.99 USD) struck me as being too high, when the doll popped up on Zulily at a decent discount I decided to pick her up.

The DC Bombshells line included three characters (Batwoman, Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn and Supergirl), each designed to have a 1940s pin-up style version of their traditional costume. For whatever reason, Batwoman's outfit is baseball themed, which seems a bit like a silly pun (she has a baseball bat, because she's the bat-woman, buh da bump!), but at least it got her some interesting accessories.

Out of the Box: Dhara (Prettie Girls Tween Scene)

Pretty Girls Tween Scene Dhara

Back in November of 2014, I posted about Dahlia from the then-new Prettie Girls fashion doll line. In 2015, thanks to a collaboration with Robert Tonner, the same set of characters were released in the style of Tonner's Little Miss Matched line (although this time around Dahlia has been renamed Dhara - she still has the dual braids and the South Asian designation though).  Although they were released in October 2015, I'm not a huge fan of this particular stylized face sculpt, so I held off on picking one of these up  until a recent price drop (they normally retail for around $30 USD, but are now offered at Wal-Mart for $23 USD).

Unlike the first series which were fairly standard 12" fashion dolls, this line is on a taller 15.5" (almost 40cm) body. Although I don't own a Little Miss Matched doll, from photos I've seen, this body is similar but not identical to that line (the face style on the other hand is very much in the same style).

Because of the size difference, it actually took me an embarrassingly long time to find these dolls in store - due to the large boxes, they turned out to have been shelved with baby dolls rather than fashion dolls. So if you're like me and have been looking in the wrong section, now you know!

Out of the Box: DC Super Hero Girls Bumblebee

The DC Super Hero Girls are a cartoon that involves teenaged versions of heroes and villains from DC comics in a high school setting.  Full disclosure: I haven't watched it, but even so it's been hard to miss the merchandise.  Mattel has put out two versions of the six main characters (Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Bumblebee, Harley Quinn) - an action figure and a fashion doll (which is being branded as an action doll).

This line seems to be bringing up a lot of the old discussions about the line between dolls and action figures (and about gendered toy marketing), which I'm thinking about making a separate post about, since it's such a huge topic.  But in the meantime, let's take a look at the action figure version of Bumblebee. I'd actually planned on picking up Batgirl, but they'd actually sold out of every other figure at my local store - although they still had all the dolls, which makes me wonder if the figures are benefiting from more of a crossover market.

Out of the Box: Dragon Age Alistair (ThreeZero)

I've posted a few times now about this Alistair figure from ThreeZero: while at first it was excitement about finally seeing a 1/6th scale Dragon Age figure, as the release was pushed back from November to the new year, to January, to late February some of that excitement had started to turn into frustration.  But the wait is over, and he arrived today!

ThreeZero is a Hong Kong-based company that produces 1/6th (and some larger) figures from a variety of game, TV, and movie franchises (you can check out some of their past and future releases here on their Facebook page). The figures are similar in size and style to the same-scale figures from Hot Toys and Sideshow and sit at a similar price point.

This particular figure has 15 points of articulation (head, chest, waist, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, ankles) and is wearing a well-constructed fabric outfit. His accessory set included a large shield and sword and two pairs of option hands (one pair with sword grips and one pair of fists).

Review: Grace's Bistro Set (American Girl)

Every year American girl puts out a new "Girl of the Year", a limited one-year doll with a number of tie-in books and accessories.  Some of these sell out before the year is over, but the ones that don't usually go on sale.  I happened to be wandering through the American Girl Place Houston shop in December, and came across the 2015 doll's bistro set at a 30% discount.  Given my great love for doll chairs, it ended up coming home with me.

Grace's Bistro Set

Out of the Box: Monster High Finnegan Wake

I've said it before, but every time I think "No more Monster High after this one", they release another doll that catches my attention.  This time the release that brought me back to the line is Finnegan Wake, the blue merman in the black and red wheelchair.

In addition to the uniqueness of the wheelchair (a first from the line), the doll also has a unique body: the torso is both larger than the standard MH boy body and smaller than the SDCC exclusive Manny Taur body, while the fish tail lower body is distinct from those of the soon-to-be-released Scarrier Reef mermaids.

Doll Clothing Review: Yoga Chic (My Life As)

American Girl Kaya in the "My Life As" Yoga outfit.

I was wandering through Wal-Mart's toy section the other day planning to take photos of a ridiculous Barbie (the subject for a future post), when I spied the "My Life as a Yoga Instructor" doll on the opposite shelf.  I was tempted to pick up the doll just for the mini yoga mat that was included with her, but saner heads prevailed and instead I picked up one of the tie-in outfits, called "Yoga Chic".

The "My Life As" is a line of 18" play dolls that retail in the $25-$30USD range.  They're similar in size to American Girl/Our Generation/Maplelea/and other dolls of that style.  The individual outfits are generally less than $10USD, which puts them in a significantly lower price range than comparable pieces from American Girl, so I was curious to see how they would compare.

Out of the Box: Titans' Dragon Age Mystery Minis

It was just a few days ago that I was saying it would be a while before I added any more vinyl mystery minis to my collection; But those were apparently famous last words, because almost immediately after posting that, I realized that Titan had released their Dragon Age blind bag series.  And given my love of Dragon Age, I had to bring a few of them home.

Titans' Mystery minis. L-R: Fenris, Anders, Isabela, Morrigan

Review: Sew-Dolling's Sew-Able Madison

In the package

The Sew-Able doll line has been around for a good decade now, but somehow reviews are still thin on the ground - I've seen maybe one or two, but that's been it.  And that's also what made me hold off on ordering one of these dolls for a solid 7 years.  So I thought I'd share a more detailed overview of this doll than I usually do, just in case someone is like me and waiting to hear more about these toys.

Sew-Dolling's dolls are 18" play dolls similar in size to the American Girl line (the company also sells outfits that fit dolls of this size).  The Sew-Able dolls come with two options: bald, or with prosthetic legs (one above-knee, one below knee), and Madison (the doll that I have) is one of the latter. 

There are boy and girl versions of the doll, with three hair/eye choices for the girls and one of the boy (the bald dolls obviously only have eye choices).  There is only one skin tone available, a pale colour similar to AG's light skin (there will be additional AG comparisons further along).

The doll's packaging is solid: cardboard with a plastic front panel.  The doll and her accessories were firmly attached to the inner layer (which has a cartoon-y hospital design) but simple enough to remove (not as simple as an AG, but less complicated than most store brand dolls).

Out of the box: doll and accessories

The included accessories include an outfit (this particular one included a dress, turtleneck top, socks and boots), crutches, a backpack and a teddy bear. 

The clothes are a little cheap-ish (you can see that the button on the left overall has come off), but the boots are of a decent quality.  The teddy is cute, well-stuffed and is actually jointed, which I thought was lovely.  And the crutches are fantastic - realistically designed, and solid quality material.  They could easily be used as an accessory with more detailed dolls and not suffer by comparison.

There are two other default outfits available for the girls - a hospital gown, and a khaki pants set - and a khaki shorts set for the boy doll.  The teddy and crutches come with all versions of the doll, while the backpack (functional, although the material is a bit thin) is replaced with a suitcase for the hospital gown version.

With her legs off

Foot blushing

The prosthetics are made of the same material as the dolls regular limbs and are held on with a belting system (which strikes me as a little old school, but does make the doll more versatile if you're looking to make a historical character out of her).  I was surprised to see that she also came with stump socks, and thought that that was a nice additional feature.  Amusingly, the feet are blushed in the same "realistic" style as the hands, which strikes me as a bit of an odd choice.

A better view of the body's construction

This doll's body construction is very similar to an American Girl doll, with a plush body and plastic limbs.  I'm less that thrilled by the seam placement running right down the middle of her chest (on AGs the seam runs down the back), but she's well-stuffed and her limbs are well-attached, so she is a well-constructed doll (although it's hard to get her to sit upright without her prostheses on).

Her head is tied on with a thick zip-tie, rather than the strings that some similar dolls have in order to allow for easier head removal/cleaning/restuffing.  On that note, I have noticed that some of her body stuffing has started to pop out around the neckline.

Another Sew-Dolling outfit

The braids struck me as a little messy, so I took them out and was fairly pleased with what I found. The doll has hair of a good thickness and looks like it would hold up to hair-play.  It's a little dryer than some doll hair, but not to an extent that worries me about breakage.


The photo on the right also shows one of Sew-Dolling's general outfits.  The dress isn't the best material, but it's cute (and better constructed than the default dress).  The necklace and bracelet are a cute touch, but a little tighter than I think they should be (and again, not great material).  The outfit also came with a clutch purse and a pair of black dress shoes.  For the price point (lower than AG outfits, slightly higher than Springfield), I thought the outfit set was a solid value.

In an AG chair, holding an AG mini

One of the main questions I hear about these dolls is how they compare to American Girl, and my general answer is that they're quite similar in terms of construction and size but a bit different stylistically.  The most noticeable difference is the face - the Sew-Able dolls have a face sculpt that's reminiscent of a porcelain doll more-so than a play doll in that they have pursed lips and a heavily blushed face.  Some of that difference could be minimized by customizing the face paint, but these dolls will always clearly look a little different.  I will say, for the people who are turned off by the face, that I've found the doll to be quite a bit cuter in person than I expected from the sales photos.

Since taking my original box opening photos, I've kept this doll on display primarily in American Girl brand clothes, which I would take to be a good indicator of compatibility.  And this week I had the opportunity to compare her to my sister's childhood AG dolls, so I've taken some comparison shots for anyone who is interested (with the caveat that these are AGs from the early '90s, and are thus a bit wider and a slightly different style than the current ones).

In an American Girl outfit.

Next to AG Kirsten

AG Kirsten on the left/S-A Madison on the right

A list of differences: The old AG body is slightly longer and more rectangular than the Sew-Able doll, and the Sew-Able doll's arms and legs are slightly skinnier.  The AG has a narrower neck, while the Sew-Able Doll has a broader stance.

In this photo, the Sew-Able doll appears to have a significantly larger head, and while it is slightly more round, most of that extra width is static in her hair (I'd just taken off the knit cap that she's wearing above).

In low light the two appear to have similarly coloured heads and bodies, but in full light the Sew-Able doll is slightly darker skinned, with more of a red-brown tone, as opposed to the American Girl doll's yellow tone.

From behind, the most obvious difference (aside from the prosthetics, of course) is that the Sew-Able doll has a large tag sticking out of her back seam.

Overall, I'd say that Sew-Dolling has done a fantastic job with these dolls, in that they're well-made and compatible with popular dolls of this same size.

It's a shame they couldn't offer more skin colour options (as the Extra Special Dolls manage to do), and the faces aren't going to be to everyone's taste, but I think they're a wonderful addition to any doll posse, whether your dolls are for play or display.