Saturday, July 26, 2014

An 18" My Twinn Face Mold Guide

I don't know what it is about My Twinn, but they're ridiculously good at sidetracking me.  I had a completely different review planned for this weekend, but here I am writing about My Twinn again.  This is actually more of a project than a review, though, so let me back up and explain.

The other day I got an email from AJ, admitting that she had been bitten by the My Twinn Adopt-a-Friend bug during the most recent $49 sale.  Hearing about AJ's experience in picking her new doll (which you can see on her blog) sent me scurrying over to the My Twinn site myself.  Before I knew it, I was back in my old habits--hunched over the computer, entrenched in the process of peering at tiny pictures, trying to find some treasures amidst about a thousand discounted Adopt-a-Friend dolls.

The most recent sale was for the newer, smaller, 18" Adopt-a-Friend dolls, and I found the process of choosing one of these characters more difficult than it was for the older 23" Friends.  I think the biggest problem is that the facial features aren't as distinct.  I ended up spending most of my time just trying to identify the different face molds, which was really hard for me.  I searched the internet looking for clues, and couldn't find a single resource on these new faces--there certainly isn't anything on the My Twinn site (there should be).  So, for this post, I am going to share some of the faces I've deciphered, with the ardent hope that many of you will know more than I do, and will pitch in to fix any mistakes and help me create a complete, accurate resource.

18" (left) and 23" (right) My Twinn Katie faces.
To start, let me give you an overview of the 23" My Twinn faces.  The best source of information for these older dolls is the Westport Dolls website.  It offers an incredible face mold reference with lots of large, beautiful pictures.  In addition to providing this valuable resource (and lots of other information about My Twinn), Peggy of Westport Dolls is an extremely talented repaint artist.

My Twinn faces are traditionally identified with names given to them by the collecting community. Using the Westport site as a guide, I managed to identify all of the 23" My Twinn faces that appear in my old 2004 catalogue (Peggy helped me with this--thank you, Peggy!):


These faces are (from top left to bottom right):

101 Catherine                                              
102 Rosemary
103 Kate
104 Madison
105 Danielle
106 Denika
107 Lenora
108 Wendi
109 Audrey
110 Ariel
111 Emma
112 Berkeley
113 Micale
114 Tasha
115 Teresa

There are over 40 faces that have been used by My Twinn through the years, so the faces above are just a start.  For example, not shown in the 2004 catalogue are:

Note: I could not have done this post without the help of linked pictures.  The two sites I link frequently are Westport Dolls (mentioned above) and Dolleanne.com, which is my favorite site for purchasing wigs and eyelashes for My Twinn dolls.  Many thanks to Peggy and LeAnne for their wonderful pictures!

Here are three more My Twinn faces that aren't in the 2004 catalogue, but that I own and can show you personally:

Michelle (mine is a boy, "Mitch"):


23" My Twinn with the "Michelle" face.
Mallory (one of Peggy's gorgeous Denver era repaints):


23" My Twinn with the "Mallory" face.
 Look at her gorgeous, crystal-blue eyes and amazing eyebrows:


And Wilma (another one of Peggy's wonderful repaints):

23" My Twinn doll with the "Wilma" face.

Now, let's start looking at the 18" faces.

My system for organizing the faces was to pull thumbnails of the 18" dolls from the My Twinn site and group them with other faces that I thought were the same.  It was like a big game of matching and memory.  Once I had a large, diverse group of pictures, I would try to figure out the name of the face.  

I'll show you three examples of each of the 18" faces that I was able to isolate.  I'm showing three versions because each face can look quite different with the various hairstyles, vinyl colors, and eye colors that are available.  I'll also pair each 18" face with the 23" face that I think it matches.  Again, please step in and make corrections if you see mistakes.  

Here we go!

The "Catherine" face:

 18" Catherine dolls.

And the 23" version as a reminder:

23" Catherine.
Catherine seems to be a common, but less popular face.  I think the face mold translated well into the smaller scale, though, and is easily recognizable.

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The "Rosemary" face:

18" Rosemary dolls.

23" Rosemary.
Rosemary is identifiable because of her bow-shaped upper lip and her round cheeks.  The 18" Rosemary's cheeks look fuller, the lines around her mouth are more pronounced, and her eyes seem narrower on some of the dolls.  I like the 23" Rosemary, but the smaller version is not as appealing to me--the features look too pinched.

My 23" Adopt-a-Friend doll that I named Hazel has the Rosemary face.  She has gone to live elsewhere, but here's her picture as a reminder:

23" My Twinn doll with the "Rosemary" face.

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This is the "Kate" face:

18" Kate dolls.

23" Kate.
Kate has a full, rounded lower lip, a slight smile, full cheeks, and close-set eyes.  She has little bit of smugness in her expression that helps me identify her.  The Kate face translated pretty well into the smaller scale, although I slightly prefer the larger version.

Here's my 18" doll with the Kate face.  I call her Frances:

18" My Twinn with the "Kate" face.
I also have a 23" Denver era Kate that I rescued from eBay.  She's still got some battle scars from her previous life, but I re-wigged and re-lashed her and think she's wonderful:


23" My Twinn with the "Kate" face.
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Here's the "Madison" face mold:

18" Madison dolls.

23" Madison.
The Madison face has a very subtle smile with full cheeks and lines extending from the nose to the edges of the mouth.  This is the face that my 18" custom doll Annie has:

18" My Twinn with the "Madison" face.
The Kate and Madison faces are quite similar, and as a result, my Annie and Frances make good twins:

Kate face (left) and Madison face (right).
Here's an old picture of a 23" Madison (a 23"My BFF doll), who never made it out of her box:

23" My Twinn with the "Madison" face.
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I think this face is "Danielle":  

18" Danielle dolls.

23" Danielle.
This is the face I wanted for my custom doll, Annie, but I got Madison instead.  Danielle has a shy smile with a relatively flat upper lip, a pouty lower lip and few facial lines.  Her eyes are set quite far apart.

Assuming I have this identification correct, the 18" Danielle doesn't look much like the larger version.  This is too bad because I think the Danielle face is my favorite out of all of them...at least in the larger scale.  I have a gorgeous Denver era Danielle that I got from eBay for a very good price.  I still call her Danielle because I love the name:


23" My Twinn doll with the "Danielle" face.
Danielle has stunningly beautiful eyes:


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Here is the "Denika" face:

18" Denika dolls.

23" Denika.
This face is very distinct in the 23" scale.  It has a big smile, a very large chin, pronounced smile lines around the mouth, symmetric eyes, and ears that stick out a bit.  I haven't seen one of the smaller versions of the Denika face in person, but the smile does not look as warm to me in pictures.

My 23" Adopt-a-Friend (Kalliope) has the Denika face mold:


23" My Twinn with the "Denika" face.
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After some deliberation, I think this next face is different from the Denika mold.  I'd love to know what you guys think.  It's very similar to Denika, and I had it grouped with these dolls at first, but if you look closely, I think the ears are closer to the head, the smile is slightly narrower, and the lower lip juts out more.  Here's Denika (left) and the new doll (right) side-by-side:


Given how small the pictures on the My Twinn site are, I guess it's not so surprising that these two got grouped together as one face for a long time.  

Could it be "Vanessa?"

18" Vanessa dolls?

Here's a reminder of what the larger Vanessa looks like--sorry I don't have one for side-to-side comparison.  

This face looks a lot like Wendi to me, too.  In the smaller scale, I like this face even better than Denika, and will definitely be on the watch for it next time I'm browsing the 18" My Twinn dolls.

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Here's the "Theresa" face:

18" Theresa dolls.

23" Theresa.
She has a wry, asymmetrical smile that's easy to pick out of the crowd in both size categories.  This face mold looks a lot like "Pearl," too, but I find Pearl's expression slightly more serious.

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This is "Berkeley":

18" Berkeley dolls.

23" Berkeley.
Not only do her fine features and wide-set almond eyes make Berkeley easy to identify in both sizes, but they make her one of my favorites.  I like almost all of the dolls with this face, and I might like the smaller version of the face even more than I like the original.  It's very sweet and innocent.  I had about four Berkeley dolls in my cart at one point during my last shopping adventure.

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Here's the "Helen" face:

18" Helen dolls.

Here's another link to a 23" Helen if you want to double-check.

The full cheeks, close-set eyes, and little smirk fill this face with character.  Since finding character faces was my primary goal this time around, I actually ended up purchasing a Helen doll. 

Here's my redheaded Helen, who I call Ramona:


18" My Twinn with the Helen face.
Ramona's hair is a darker red than Annie and Frances' orange-red hair.  It has lots of very dark lowlights mixed in. 

I am not crazy about her bangs, but they hide the poorly-drawn eyelashes quite well!


Here's Ramona's face with a sock lifting the bangs out of the way:

18" My Twinn with the "Helen" face...and wonky eyebrows.
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This next face is called "Ariel":

18" Ariel dolls.

23" Ariel.
The Ariel face is easy to distinguish because of the lopsided mouth--it pulls down in the right corner and makes the doll look vulnerable and half-sad.  It is not one of my favorite faces for some reason.  In the small scale, I found this face easy to confuse with Danielle.

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I think this face is "Lenora": 

18" Lenora dolls.

23" Lenora.
This doll has a serene expression that I really like.  It also seems to be a fairly versatile face, because the 18" Lenoras were hard to group together--they can look quite different from one to the next.  The redhead in the middle, above, was very tempting, but those blue eyes are just a little bright for my taste.

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Here's the "Audrey" face:

18" Audrey dolls.

23" Audrey.
I am a little uncertain about this identification, mostly because the lopsided mouth seems more pronounced in the 18" dolls than it does in the 23" Audrey dolls I have seen.  However, the narrow face and long distance between the mouth and nose seems right.  In general, I like this face a lot but tend to get it confused with Mallory.
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I love this face, and think it's "Wendi:"

18" Wendi dolls?

23" Wendi.
I didn't even notice this face until late in my search.  There aren't very many dolls with this face mold, and their fine features can get lost in the mix.  If I had bought another doll, it would have been the redhead in the middle.  I think she's beautiful!

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This is "Cookie":

18" Cookie dolls.

Cookie isn't in my older catalogue, either, but here's another link to pictures of her.

I originally thought that this doll had the Caitie face (I often get the 23" Caities and Cookies confused...), but Peggy came to my rescue.  Cookie dolls have full cheeks and a slight smile on thick lips.  Unlike Caitie, though, this face mold doesn't look at all mad (Caitie has a bit of a temper).  I like these small Cookie faces better than the larger ones.  I've never given the 23" Cookie dolls much attention, but the olive-skinned brunette with bangs on the far left, above, was one of my overall favorite 18" dolls during my search.

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This is "Cai":

18" Cai dolls.

The Cai face mold is relatively new (2008) and is another character face that I find very appealing...although not necessarily in the pictures, above!  The thumbnails on the My Twinn website make most of these dolls look a little scary.   

In person, I think this is one of the few cases where the 18" face is more attractive than the 23" face (you can see the 23" face on the Westport Doll page).

I also bought an 18" Cai (the sale was one doll for $49, two dolls for $88...) whose name is Sabrina.  She's really wonderful:

Big hair, no pants.
I posed her without pants because that is how she arrived.  Her pajama bottoms were in the box, but for some reason she chose not to wear them.

The presentation on some of the Adopt-a-Friends dolls isn't great.  They come with only a single ribbon around their necks to secure them, and are often rattling around in the box.  If you want to purchase one of these dolls as a gift, I highly recommend de-boxing the doll to look it over and tidy it up (maybe put its clothes on?) before you give it away.

18" My Twinn doll with the "Cai" face.
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Here's "Beth:"

18" Beth dolls.

And a link to a larger Beth.

The 23" Beth's face is very unique.  Some of the smaller dolls capture enough detail to look like Beth (the middle doll, above, for example) but for others, I think the bright eyes and orange-toned makeup overwhelm the features and make Beth look generic.  I like the well-painted 18" Beth faces a lot, but find some of the others very odd.

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Maybe this is "Emma?"

18" Emma dolls.

23" Emma.
This was one of the harder faces to identify for me.  The small Emma dolls seem to have very close-set eyes and more character in their smiles.  I might even call them a little bit silly.  The larger Emma isn't at all silly.  She looks calm and beautiful.

I'm not absolutely certain about this face, but when I look at one of the Emma dolls that was offered for sale through Westport Dolls last winter, I see a resemblance.  If you want to see what I mean, that Emma is still viewable at the bottom of the page here.
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I thought this was "Karen," but I need help!:


Here's a link to the 23" Karen.  A few people have said this isn't Karen...so I want to change it, but I don't have a better guess yet!  Caitie was a suggestion, but the area above her mouth looks very different to me, and Caitie doesn't have any smile lines.  Please let me know what you think!  I have never seen the 23" Karen or Caitie in real life, so this is all guessing based on photographs.

Whoever she is, this is a cute, round, happy face.  It didn't stand out from the crowd right away, but after a while I got better at recognizing the slightly squinty left eye. This is endearing to me because I have a squinty left eye when I smile, too.  After I noticed the eye, I got much better at finding more examples of this face--it's very common.

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And I think this is "Allison:"



As far as I could tell, the Allison face is the rarest in this round of Adopt-a-Friends.  I might have missed some during my hunting, but the three above were the only ones I found.  

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18" My Twinn Face Summary

 
Catherine                                         Rosemary                                               Kate

 Madison                                          Danielle                                              Denika

Vanessa                                           Theresa                                            Berkeley

    Helen                                                  Ariel                                                Lenora

Audrey                                          Wendi                                                Cookie

    Cai                                                     Beth                                                Emma

Karen??                                     Allison

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I am told that there are "Kim" and "Lois" faces among the 18" dolls, too, so I might have to go back and search for those faces.  They were quite rare in the 23" mix!

I really, really wish My Twinn would update their search feature so that the dolls could be filtered by face mold, but until they do that, perhaps this guide will save a few people some time in choosing their next doll. *Update: My Twinn has recently updated their custom doll page so that you can select from any of the 25 different face molds (25!  So I missed quite a few...).

Now that the work is done, I'll share a few more pictures of my newest My Twinn girls:


Here, Sabrina is wearing a purple Journey Girls shirt, tweed My Salon Doll shorts and Extra Special Doll shoes.  Ramona is wearing a striped Journey Girls shirt, green Journey Girl leggings and Maplelea sneakers.



And, here are a few pictures of the girls in natural light, starting with Ramona (the Helen face mold):


Notice all of the different shades of red in Ramona's hair:


Ramona has "green/brown" eyes that are quite nice.  These particular eyes are more green than brown, and look great against the forest backdrop.

Lots of glue residue, though.
Here's Sabrina (the Cai face mold):

She looks smart and sassy.
She has pageant hair, but it's better than Frances' tangled mess of disorganized curls.


Sabrina has regular "brown" eyes.  These don't have a lot of visible detail (even in the sun) but they have enough color contrast to avoid being completely dull and flat.

Someone got a little carried away trimming her upper lashes, I think.
And last, here are a few pictures of Frances (the Kate face mold):


She also has green/brown eyes, but hers are not as vibrant as Sabrina's.  They look a little cloudy:



I am happy with my 18" My Twinn custom doll, Annie, but I always assumed that she would be my only 18" My Twinn.  I have no interest in going through the customization process again, and even when the first 18" Adopt-a-Friend dolls started to appear on the website, I wasn't interested in purchasing one.  They all looked similar to me, the painting seemed off on many of the dolls, and there just wasn't much of a selection.  This latest experience was much better, though.  The sheer number of dolls made it possible to find more than six little faces that I would have happily added to my collection.  My mission of choosing character faces this time was especially fun, and I am very happy with Ramona and Sabrina--they have tons of personality and no glaring flaws.

I have always appreciated the My Twinn face diversity, but as I worked on this project it struck me how truly unique this range of expressions is in the 18" doll world.  Given that the large face selection might be My Twinn's biggest market advantage, it's baffling to me that they make it so hard for shoppers to identify and select dolls with specific faces.  I think they should update and expand their My BFF customization tool so that it offers the full range of faces.

I don't know what it means that there are so many imperfect (rejected?) dolls in the 18" Adopt-a-Friend section after such a short period of time in production, but if My Twinn keeps offering to sell these pre-made dolls for $44-50, I'll keep going back for another look.

*Update 9/22: My Twinn has changed their Custom Doll Designer page to include a full grid of all of the face molds!  There are 25 faces.  It is now possible to select the face you'd like for your custom doll.  Hurrah!  If only they'd put the names of all of the faces...

**Update 2 7/18/2015: My Frances (Kate face) whose eyes looked a tad cloudy in the last few pictures of this post now look like this:


They look purple and very, very cloudy.  At least they match her shirt!  But seriously, it's quite depressing.  Doll eyes are so important to me, and these are completely ruined.  Frances wasn't even sitting anywhere near the sun.  Poor thing was actually in a dark corner.  I know this happens a lot to Hearts 4 Hearts dolls, but had only seen it happen to one other My Twinn.  Now I'm watching the rest of my group very carefully.  I think Ramona is next because her green eyes are fading.



Here is my little group back before the eyes changed:

39 comments:

  1. Wow! I had no idea My Twinn had so many differences, and that so many of them were so subtle.

    I stared at the Denika and Wendi molds a good bit to see if I could spot significant mold differences, but it's tough. I'd swear the jaw is more rounded on Wendi, but it's subtle enough that I don't know that it's a mold difference.

    Anyway, thanks for the comparison chart! I love picking out facial features.

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    1. Hi Kristy! I didn't realize that so many of the older molds had been transferred to the new scale! It was pretty neat to see all of the different faces on the website...although it took a while before I could see some of the differences! Many of them are similar.

      I totally agree with you about Denika and Vanessa (who I identified incorrectly as Wendi first...oops!) and their jawlines. Denika has a very prominent chin, and Vanessa's is a bit more rounded. But man...they looked the same to me for a while. Let me know if your keen eye spots anything else! :)

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  2. I remember a few years ago when I looked at the My Twinn catolage. I didn't know then there was so many face molds. This review and charting has me looking at the My Twinn website. I love Annie's imperfect freckles and red hair.
    Bye!,
    Zoë from Glowyzoe.blogspot.com

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    1. Thank you, Zoe! :D I think My Twinn doesn't do a great job of promoting how many face molds they have, which is a shame! It's an impressive inventory with 42 faces in the 23" scale (I think) and at least 22 faces in the smaller size.

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  3. My god, that is a lot of face molds! I hadn't realized they were so extensive! Holy smokes. Of course, I sat here and tried to figure out where my soon-to-be doll fits into this chart, and if I have to guess, I'm going to say Wendi. Could be Denika, but I'm pretty sure it's Wendi. I'll send you a picture when she gets here - or if Neth takes one when she gets to Robot Hell - and maybe you can tell me definitively.

    The whole My Twinn thing is certainly addicting. I have such a quandry about this. Their clothes for the 18" girls are nothing less than fugly. Makes me happy I have an extensive collection of clothes for the girls I already have so I don't have to rely on My Twinn for clothes. But the dolls are so addicting. Some of them are weird. On some of the blonde 18" dolls, the really light blue eyes make them look like the Children of the Corn. But so many of the others are so cute. I probably easily could have done a twofer purchase on my own if I'd thought I had the room for them.

    So, I'm excited to see what all's in store. Neth'll be shipping my girl sans box because there's other things to ship besides her, so hopefully she documents my unboxing for me! We shall see! I'll let y'all see what I got when I get her!

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    1. Well, I messed up the Wendi identification at first, so it's probably Vanessa that you have. That's a wonderful sculpt, and I was eyeing a doll very similar to the one you got! I hope you like her!! I hope she's wearing pants!

      Children of the Corn made me laugh out loud...how true! The eye colors in the smaller dolls are disappointing, especially given the gorgeous eyes in My Twinn's past. I tend to filter my search to include only green/brown, light brown, brown or sometimes dark blue eyes. The others are unnatural. However, that search filter tool is far from perfect, so I do get the occasional Corn Child in the mix! ;D

      Thank you for the inspiration for this post, AJ.

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  4. This is brilliant. Every time I've looked at the My Twinn site I've felt that I never had a real sense of what the faces would fully look like in person, and this is a huge step in clearly that up, so this is perfect (I'm baffled that the company didn't think it would be sale-making to have these kinds of details available already).

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    1. Thank you so much! I'm hoping I can add better pictures to the guide over time and rely less on the thumbnails, but this is a start. I'm baffled by the de-emphasis on the faces, too. I think collectors would love face-based shopping (I know I would) and kids would probably be excellent at memorizing all of the subtle differences in the faces!

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  5. Are Mallory's eyebrows painted on? They look so realistic! Thank you for this guide. I think my favorite face mold is Madison but I still get it confused with Kate. I still haven't taken the plunge and ordered one.

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    1. Hi Aileen, yes--they're painted! Aren't they magnificent? Peggy from Westport Dolls painted them. This kind of realism in the eyebrows was started by one of the early My Twinn factory artists, Connie Marshall.

      I get Madison and Katie confused, too! They are very similar.

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  6. OMG thank you soo much for listing out all the different face molds! I'm hopelessly in love with your Frances. Everything about her is perfect! I love how her face looks childlike and innocent with her bright red hair (Oh, the glory!) and realistic blue eye color! She's really gorgeous~ Now I just wish mytwinn would list out their dolls by face molds because I'm now pretty sure that my favorite is the Kate mold! :)

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    1. Thank you for this post! As always, your blog made me all happy for the rest of the day :D Now I think back of it, maybe it's because all of my 18" dolls have black hair and brown eyes... And the next time I'm gonna get a doll is going to be next year at the soonest :(

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    2. Hi Jenny! Thank you so much! I am really glad you enjoyed seeing all of the faces. It would be so nice to be able to go to the My Twinn site and just search out all of the dolls with the Kate face, wouldn't it? Sigh. Maybe some day. Frances is a cutie, for sure, but that curly hair is a mess! Whoa! I love the Kate face, too. Some of the faces have a cartoon-like quality, but Kate is just sweet and realistic. Thank you again for your nice message. :)

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  7. loved the post as usual, it was fantastic! i just wanted to ask if you had seen the new 2014/15 disney store classic princess dolls, there's a new rapunzel that i want to get my hands on but unfortunately i live in Australia and they don't have a disney store here. i hope you can do a review on them because id love to see one. thank you for another amazing post.

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    1. Oh, yes! I have seen her--and the gift set version, too! I am ramping up for a bit of a Disney extravaganza here on the blog. Probably not this week (doll room organization and visitors...) but maybe next week? It's high on my priority list. The new dolls look great! Thank you for the suggestion!

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  8. Berkely face is soooo pretty < 3

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  9. Frances's eyes look purple from a distance.
    ...
    ME GUSTA.

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  10. I'm thinking about getting a Madame Alexander 18-inch doll to use as Anna from Frozen. (I have the perfect one bookmarked on ebay XD) My question is, which doll would you recommend more for Elsa- Journey Girls or My Salon Doll? I know the Salon Dolls cost more, but how is the quality compared to a Journey Girl?

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    1. Oooh...fun question! The quality of the My Salon Dolls is better (if you can avoid wonky eyes) and the hair is really fun. I was pretty disappointed with the quality of my Journey Girl Dana dolls. Lots of body staining, and the hair is a mess.

      However...there's more facial expression and face diversity in the Journey Girls and so you're more likely to find one who reminds you of Elsa. Also, the eyes are rounder, which seems more typical for Disney characters. Maybe the biggest consideration for me would be which style of dolls goes better with the Madame Alexander you picked for Anna. I think the Journey Girl head size and face style is closer to the Favorite Friends. Oh--and one last thing is that you can probably get a Journey Girl with longer hair. My Salon Dolls don't have a ton of hair (at least mine didn't).

      So, in general I'd rather buy a My Salon Doll than a Journey Girl, but for your project, the Journey Girls might be a better fit! Sounds very fun! :D

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  11. Oh, I obsessed over that website for two days during that recent promotion. I have two 23" My Twinn Adopt-a-friend girls that I couldn't be happier with, so I was happy to peruse the site. Twice. I put a blonde, olive-skinned Berkley face-mold in my cart but I didn't commit. I was frustrated with how poorly MyTwinn markets these dolls: the hair is messy in half those photos, its not clear how long (or short) the hair is, and the lighting doesn't flatter the doll's facial features. Thank you for the link to where you purchase your wigs. Your MyTwinn girls are fabulous! I didn't bite on the promotion this time, but maybe next time, armed with the information you provided in this post, I will.

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    1. Thank you, CypressDoll! It's such an addictive sale. I lost about two days to obsessive browsing, too! :) That's an excellent point about the poor photographs! I should have mentioned that. The biggest problem, like you said, is that there's no way to tell what kind of hair you're getting! My Sabrina has completely different hair than what I thought. The element of surprise might be kind-of fun, I suppose, but only at the discounted price. At $80 per doll, I want to see exactly what my choices look like, in big, clear pictures. And I want to know the names of the head molds! ;)

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    2. I quite agree about the marketing; it's impossible to see how long a doll's hair is. It was clear from the picture of my girl that she had hair longer than chin length, but I wasn't expecting it to be all the way down to her ankles! That's a lot of hair to manage, even for my adult hands! I wish My Twinn would make it clear how long an individual doll's hair is.

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  12. I'd no expert by far, but I do know Karen and none of those are her. There haven't been any on the 18" Adopt a friend page recently which is probably why you didn't find any. I got my first 23" after reading your excellent reviews of them.

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    1. Thank you so much for this input!! I would change the Karen label immediately, but I don't have a better guess for that face (yet...I'm working on it!). Caitie was suggested and seems possible, but I do notice some differences there, too (maybe just from shrinking the mold, though?). I'm worried that maybe another doll is wrong here, and that's thrown off the labels somehow? We'll get it figured out!

      I hope you like your 23" My Twinn! Those are still my favorites. :)

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  13. What an impressive review! I appreciate all the time and effort it must've taken you to put this all together :) Prior to this, I don't think I would really consider buying one of these dolls as their faces are a bit "different", but I am finding that they are growing on me a bit. I really like the 23" Madison and Lenora faces and feel as those almost all of the 23" faces are a bit more appealing then their 18" friends. Each doll seems so unique and I enjoyed your previous reviews of this line as well as they seem to be a very well and made interesting doll. I am almost afraid to go onto their website as I don't need any more dolls on my wish list, lol... Thanks again for an amazing review!

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  14. Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    These Dolls have WAY more face mold options that any other doll I have seen .

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  15. Ramona's eyes are exactly the same color as mine!

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  16. Hours of entertainment! There are 125 pages of 18" Adopt-a-Friends. Are these dolls returns? I don't get the description of them--they may or may not be dressed, may have freckles, pierced ears, etc. Are they seconds? Good thing for my husband I read this review too late to load up on the sale. I adore the Berkeley face, and they are several others (I said several?) OK, lots of others I can't sort out yet by face mold, that I like. How to pick just one? Some look like doubles. I agree with Cypress Doll; why are there only head shots? Hard to see the hair and get an overall impression. I love your Sabrina; would it be possible to see your girls with some other 18-inchers, Saila, AGs, etc, to compare? Thank you for the detailed review!

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  17. Great job! Spent the summer in hospital and had begun collecting these 18" impish faces before I fell ll. I have an olive skinned Emma with platinum blond hair, crystal blue light eyes, and kissed by moles and freckles. In 23" size - my personal favorite is Bernetta who is rare, but a Latina Bernetta just popped up on Ebay. I am lucky enough to own 1 of my own. With me it was the 18"Cai I was after. I have her African American with hair to her ankles and (sorry) my brown-eyed Cai with bright red layered locks. So, the bug has bitten me as well. Choosing my first 3 brought me great joy and a hearty hug for this project - something I had planned to do this summer before the craziness. I love your face work - it is impeccable. Please Please review Via-e Alexis - a new girl in town. She's quite a little fireball herself . . .

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  18. This has been really helpful. Thank you so much for putting this together. I've been trying to figure out which face mold was used for my daughter's MT doll. Pretty sure she's "Emma" based on your article. :) Now just trying to figure out the rest of the face molds on MT's customization page comparing them to your list.

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  19. Now if only they'd switch to a more affordable international shipping method, then I'd clear out all the Adopt a Friends!

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  20. Poor Frances, I can't believe her eyes have changed so dramatically. Have you contacted My Twinn about the issue?

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  21. JMHO see if Peggy or one of the other repainters on the My Twinn Collectors FB site would redo them. MT will still charge shipping and at one point were replacing faded eyes with the same old stock that faded in the first place. one of their service reps said they have new stock now but who knows, given their QA track record. I find the lack of a holiday catalog and the number of dolls on the Friends pages rather discouraging on a Company Survival mode.

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  22. Hi Emily, Love your presentation of the Twinns. The 18" girl you called Karen?? is really Caitie who has a longer chin than Karen. I can take some comparison photos tomorrow when I have daylight. I can also supply photos of the "missing links" - Karen, Kim, Lois, Pearl, and Tasha if you would like to add them. There are 25 18" faces, and I have at least one of each, although some of the eyes have faded. Let me know if you want them to add to the write-up. Joan F - joancrombie@yahoo.com

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  23. If you think Ramona's eyebrows are bad, you should see my Xenia's! They're heavy and thick like Ramona's, but they're also askew. This post has been extremely helpful for Xenia's review, by the way. It's greatly appreciated.

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  24. What glue should I use to apply eyelashes? Thank you.

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  25. Thanks so much for comparing the little 18" dolls with the bigger 23" dolls - with photos of each, because it is so difficult for me to identify facemolds. Especially the 18" ones, as they sometimes do not look like the bigger dolls at all, in my opinion. I have looked on other sites, but they do not do side-by-side comparisons like you did here. I am just so bummed that My Twinn went out of business though, so these great dolls are no longer available at all, except 2nd hand! Although we were talking on You Tube & this is the 3rd time the company has went out of business, so perhaps they will revive again - soon. Let's hope ^_^

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  26. I'm looking to sell a my twinn doll and I'm trying to detail the accuracy of her face mold. Could you help?

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