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!

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!

Shopping for Dolls: Wilde Imagination

The "Bitter Cold" outfit

Back at home at last!  But my camera seems to be MIA, so please forgive today's photo quality!

A few weeks ago I ordered a pair of outfits during the one of Wilde Imagination's regular sales; The "Bitter Cold" outfit and the "Seeing Red" dress.  Both items were on sale already, so that was an additional bonus.

As you might remember from my review of my Ellowyne Wilde line Lizette Spice, I liked the doll and her basic outfit, but didn't adore them, so I was curious to see what the non-basic outfits would be like.

The package arrived within two business days (as happened with the doll), so again I'm very impressed with their packing/shipping times.  I wasn't home to open it up that early, but it's still solid service that's worth mentioning.

Upon coming home and picking up the box, the biggest surprise was the sheer size of it:  the box for these two outfits was just as large as the one that had come when I ordered a doll!

Look at the size of this box!

The size of the box was somewhat excused by the size of the inner packaging (although there was quite a bit of extra space as well) - each outfit had an additional thick cardboard box inside:

The second layer of packaging

Within each of those was another box, this time the decorated Ellowyne Wilde-branded ones:

The "Seeing Red" Dress box

Inside the dress box, was an inner layer of thin board to which the dress was stitched to.  That part was wrapped in a layer of tissue:

Seeing Red Dress

The Seeing Red dress is simple in style but is a lovely colour and a solid quality material.  The dress portion isn't lined, but the top is.  The buttons on the front are non-fuctional; the dress closes via a series of snaps up the back.  Being a fairly simple piece of clothing, it's easy to get on the doll, and has a classic look:

Lizette in the Seeing Red Dress

The Bitter Cold outfit, containing more pieces, came in a larger inner-box (and one with a clear plastic window):

The Bitter Cold outfit

The top adds too much bulk.

As with the red dress, this outfit was stitched to an inner layer of board.  The full set included leggings, a top (which turned out to be leotard-style), a coat and boots. 

I quite like the style of this outfit, but unfortunately the quality was hit-or-miss.  The leggings on their own are fabulous:  they're a nice quality material, an in-scale print and they're lined which is wonderful.  On their own, they fit the doll perfectly.  Unfortunately though, because this outfit's top is a leotard, there's extra bulk on the doll when the two pieces are worn together, and because of that it's near-impossible to get the leggings to close.

The too-small left boot

The boots were even more disappointing.  the colour (a dark blue) goes perfectly with the colours in the leggings, and the style is an eye-catching one - lace-up high heels, slightly higher than ankle-length.  Unfortunately though, the quality doesn't live up to the appearance.  The first challenge was just getting the books on as the zippers on the backs are both weak and stick easily (I had a similar problem with the boots on my Tonner DW Martha Jones).

The tip of the heel.

Even after getting the zippers unzipped, only one of the boots went on as the right boot turned out to be too small for the doll's foot.  And then to top it off, it turned out that the glue on right heel tip had started coming off, and the tip was hanging off of the boot.  That's an easy one to fix at least!




All of that said, the coat didn't disappoint, and is a solid thickness, is nicely lined and has solid details.  Still, with all of the other issues with this outfit, I'm very pleased that I didn't pay full price for it.

The Bitter Cold outfit (minus the boots).

New Arrival: All Natural Lizette Spice (Ellowyne Wilde)

Lizette "Spice" from Ellowyne Wilde

As I mentioned during the invasion of the fashion dolls, I've not been hugely impressed with the Tonner releases that I've come across - I fully understand why other people love them, but somehow they just don't seem to be my thing.  And it was that feeling that kept me from picking up anything from the Ellowyne Wilde line - I liked the way they looked in the photos, but was afraid that I wouldn't be a fan in person.

But then there was a sale (15% off and free shipping) and I decided to take the plunge, and ordered a basic Lizette in the "Spice" colour (the same sculpt is offered in a lighter "honey" colour as well).  The doll came with two wigs (on straight and one curly), a saddle stand, a pair of shoes and a simple dress.  The sculpt is painted in a fairly neutral style, and has inset (I believe acrylic) eyes and attached eyelashes.  The left eyelashes were crushed slightly, so I'll need to reattach those (naturally I only noticed after I'd taken photos).

I have to say that I was impressed with the shipping time: I ordered this doll on the final Monday of the sale, and yet she shipped out almost instantly, arriving in only two days.  The doll was packed in the standard fashion doll style, with ties at the neck, waist and feet.  She arrived with one wig on, which unfortunately stained her head.  She came dressed, but with the shoes packaged separately.

In the box.

Since the outfit and shoes are part of the "basic" release, I'd wondered about their quality, but I needn't have, since while they're simple pieces, they are very well made.  The wigs are also both solid quality and seem to be both soft and sturdy.

She can reach her hair.

This is as close as she can get to
reaching her face.

The doll is nicely jointed, and has more flexibility than I expected, but she still doesn't have the full range of motion that one would expect of a ball-jointed doll or figure.  For example, her hands can be positioned to touch her hair, but not her face.  The knees have even less flexibility as they are simple hinge joints.

Still, given the limited posing of Tonner's Doctor Who dolls, I was pleased to see that this doll offers a broader range of movement possibilities.

Overall, I'd say I'm pleased but not thrilled with this doll - she has a more expressive face than a painted-eye fashion dolls, which is wonderful.  And proportionately she can fit in well with a variety of other dolls and figures of this size, so with a different outfit, I think she'll be a nice display piece (I've also found a huge number of patterns for this size of doll, so the possibilities are almost endless).

The curly wig.
The crushed eyelash is causing the left eye to
look a bit strange here.

In comparison to the Martha Jones doll from
Tonner's Doctor Who line.

Invasion of the fashion dolls

Opening the boxes

I've never had any fashion dolls - even as a kid, they were just not my thing (sure, the occasional barbie-type gift might pass through my hands, but ultimately they would be passed along to my sister).  But having seen so many interesting ones lately (the perils of meeting BJD collectors whose entry to doll collecting came through fashion dolls rather than action figures), I've found myself tempted by a few.

And now that I have access to more dealers and more reasonable shipping costs (crossing the border does have its benefits!) I found a couple of dolls on sale and decided to see what they're like.


The dolls in question:  "TJ" from Integrity Toys' mid-range Dynamite Girls line and "Martha Jones" from Tonner's Doctor Who licensed line.  Interestingly, despite the difference in size and company, they were packed in exactly the same fashion.

Dynamite Girls TJ

I was most impressed with the Dynamite Girl - she's tiny, but the face paint is still quite detailed.  The articulation is fairly natural, her hair is decent and the outfit is fantastic - loads of detail, decent materials, and so many individual pieces!  Just the details on her tights are worth raving about - I was very impressed at the quality for something so small scale.

She also fits nicely on the included stand, which is always good (the stand itself had both saddle and waist attachments)  I'm not sure if the differences between this line and Integrity's higher priced Fashion Royalty line are worth it though - from what I've heard the differences are primarily in the accessories rather than the dolls and clothes, and that doesn't strike me as a huge selling feature. In any case, I was very pleased with this doll, and would probably have been happy with her even at full price (I ordered her at 25% off).

Tonner Doctor Who Martha Jones

Unfortunately, I was less than thrilled by the Tonner.  The doll itself is of good quality - a nice smooth plastic with an even colour,  but it looks nothing like the actress.  In fact, the face is so undetailed that it could be anyone - she's a pretty enough doll, but you don't look at her and automatically recognize the character.   That would be forgivable if the focus of the doll were the outfit, but the details on the clothing were minimal.

Considering that this is a fairly large doll, the simplicity of the jeans and jacket was disappointing - there are really no details on either (there is a simple pattern on the tank under the jacket, but again: standard quality).  The zippers on her boots were also a challenge to unzip (they needed to be opened in order to get them on the doll).  As with TJ, she came with a stand, but it's saddle-type only and because of the thickness of the denim, the doll doesn't actually fit on the stand.

Because of all of that I'm not really certain that she was a good value, even at the 60% off price that I paid.  I certainly would never have wanted to pay the $175.00 sticker price.  Still, she's not a bad quality doll - just a bit generic.