Friday, September 7, 2018

Wizarding World Hermione Granger by Mattel

Well, I'm finally back with a Wizarding World Hermione review!  I was going to try and keep this post a little shorter than it is, but I wanted to throw in some comparisons to other Mattel Hermione dolls (one of which I've never shown on the blog), and that took a little longer than I anticipated.

I've also finished the Lenora My Twinn restoration and am just waiting for a sub-90% humidity day so that I can get her outside for a few final pictures.  I think you'll be surprised by how she looks.  Predictably, that project prompted about six more My Twinn makeovers, but I doubt I'll chronicle those on the blog.  I've also invested in a few Hairdorables.  I haven't been keeping up with new doll releases the way I used to, so I had no idea what Hairdorables were until several of you told me about them in the Boxy Girls review.  Thank you!  Those seem like a perfect Sunday Surprise.  All in all, I've been working on several different things, which is great for keeping my mind off the empty nest. However, today will be all about Hermione!

I bought all four of the Wizarding World child dolls (Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny) and, of the four, decided to review Hermione because I have a bit of a tradition reviewing Hermione dolls on this blog.  You can see another Mattel Hermione review here, and my two Star Ace Hermione reviews here and here.  There's no mistaking that the Wizarding World version of Hermione was made by Mattel (she looks like Barbie), but the iconic hair and outfit immediately conjure the spunky and inimitable Ms. Granger:

Wizarding World Hermione Granger doll, $20.97.
I bought all four of my dolls at a nearby Walmart.  I haven't seen them anywhere else in person yet, although they're available online, usually at a noticeable mark-up.

I actually bought two Hermione dolls, one to review and the other to give as a gift.  I find it interesting that the two are not identical.  

Here's one of the dolls:

Hermione #1
This one looks great in her box.  Her clothing is smooth and in place, but her hair is very red and straight!

Hermione #1
Compare that to the second doll:

Hermione #2
This one has a sock falling down and the collar of her shirt sticking up on one side.  She also has a visibly scrunched hem at the front of her sweater (notice how uneven the stripe gets at the very front).  However, her hair is dark brown and has a lot of Hermione-like crimping:

Hermione #2
Here are the two dolls side-by-side:

Hermione #1 (left) and #2 (right).

I kept the redheaded Hermione with the nice clothing in her box and decided to review the darker-haired, sloppy clothed version.

Because of the variation I noticed in these two dolls, I recommend choosing your Hermione in person if you can.

Here's the doll I opened:

Hermione #2
I like the simple packaging in this line.  The dolls come in blister packs with a mostly unobstructed window that gives a great view of the doll.

Off to the side, there's a photograph of Emma Watson as a young Hermione Granger:


Others might be able to identify the vintage of this photo better than I, but it looks like it's from the second movie, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

The sides of the box are also plastic, further showing off the doll.  There's a molded bolt of lightning on the upper right corner of the window:


And a molded "Harry Potter" on the opposite edge:


The back of the box has a photograph of the doll and a small description of Hermione:


The description of Hermione is in both English and French:


At the bottom of the box, there are tiny photographs of the five other dolls in the series:


I saw Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall in the store.  They're both great, but Dumbledore's combination of molded beard and rooted hair didn't quite work for me, so I decided to stick with the kids for now.



The photos are too small to show much detail, but since I bought all of the kids, I can show you some close-ups of the actual dolls in their boxes.

First, here's Ginny as she appears on Hermione's box:


And here's the actual doll:


My Ginny has a strand of hair stuck across her right eye, but you can still get a good idea of how she looks.  

Like Hermione, she has multi-toned hair with a mix of red, brown, and auburn:


The reddest parts of Ginny's hair seem to be confined to the very front of her hairline, with maybe some more patches underneath?


Ginny's eyes are startlingly blue.  I couldn't remember right away if Bonnie Wright (the actor who plays Ginny) even has blue eyes, and it's hard to tell from the photograph on the front of the box:


It turns out that Bonnie Wright does have blue eyes, but they're definitely not as bright blue as they are on this doll.  While we're on the subject, Rupert Grint (the actor who plays Ron Weasley) also has blue eyes.  

Here's the Ron doll as he appears on the back of Hermione's box:


And here's my actual Ron doll:


He has molded red hair and bright blue eyes:


The eyebrows look a little funny to me, but they got Ron's smirk just right!


Last but certainly not least, here's Harry himself:


And here's my Harry doll:


This is one of my favorite dolls in the series.  I think Mattel did a very nice job with him:


The tousled, molded hair and glasses are great, but the lightning bolt scar looks too much like an "N."

Huskers fan.
Here's the photo of Daniel Radcliff that's on the front of the box:


But let's de-box Hermione!


The plastic part of the blister packaging pulls easily away from the cardboard backdrop:


The backdrop itself is decorated with tons of text from what looks like the Daily Prophet:


Some of the text--like the headlines--are easy to read:


But all of the smaller sections are illegible and almost look like a different, mystical language: 



Hermione was fairly easy to detach from the backdrop, although her robe was riddled with those tiny little plastic ties.  Here's everything that was in the box:


I had a hard time getting Hermione to balance on her own.  She feels sturdy enough, but her joints are stiff and I struggled the get her legs positioned squarely underneath her.  That's probably why she looks a little awkward in these pictures:



The back of her hair and the back of her outfit both came out of the box looking rumpled:



The disheveled hair reveals a pattern: it's layered with straight red strands underneath and crimped brown strands on top:


I brushed Hermione's hair to even out the color and texture, smoothed her outfit, and made and effort to get her to balance more naturally.  

Here's take 2:


She still tips to the side when she's standing on her own.


review

Hermione comes with a wand rubber-banded to her right hand:


The wand has a thumb ring so that she can hold it even when the rubber band is removed:


The wand is all one color and has molded decorations that are accurate to the movie:


I think Hermione's face is very appealing.  She looks more like Barbie or Skipper than she does like Hermione, but that's fine with me.  Often when companies try to replicate an actor's features exactly, things go horribly wrong (Disney Belle).  Even top-of-the-line action figure companies can get it wrong (Star Ace Teen Hermione).


The two chunks of red hair at the edges of Hermione's bangs don't look very natural to me, but again, there's variation between dolls, so this is something that can probably be avoided.


She has a toothy smile (with only a subtle band of teeth showing), thick eyebrows with some layered paint detail, light brown eyes...and freckles!



It's a good face.  I like that the expression is happy, but not too happy. There's a bit of intensity there, maybe just because of the strong eyebrows.

Hermione's outfit consists of a top (made to look like a sweater over a white shirt and tie), a pleated skirt, knee-high socks, shoes, and a black robe.


The shirt is fairly convincing.  In promotional pictures, I assumed that it was a separate sweater and shirt.  One problem with my doll's top is that the right side of the collar is always sticking up...and it's hard to get it to lay flat for pictures.


Another problem with this top is that the hem is bunched up too much across the front, which obscures the stripe pattern:


I like that the sweater part of the top has a stitched hem and stitched cuffs, though.  The cuffs look especially nice:


The top opens all of the way down in back with velcro.  My doll's top came crumpled, with the velcro seam lopsided:

Oh, good grief.
The velcro closure was easy to straighten out, though:

Much better.
Here's a peek at all of the finishing on the inside of the shirt:


Even the edges of the tiny collar are finished, but of course this collar has that pesky corner that always flips up:


The skirt is pleated all of the way around (or it would be if it wasn't so smashed at the very back) and closes at the top with velcro:


From the front, it's very neat and looks well-made:


Under the skirt, Hermione is wearing grey knit socks and school shoes:


The shoes are all black, with some molded stitching:



Now let's take a look at Hermione's robe:


The fabric on this robe is very stiff, so much so that the robe can actually balance upright on its own!

It's alive!
The robe has a full hood, which is the only part of the garment that's lined.  Unfortunately, the lining isn't Gryffindor's signature crimson color, but just plain black:


The robe fits Hermione pretty well, although the sleeves seem short::


The robe does not have any closure in the front:

review

The fabric of the robe is heavy and feels durable, but the stiffness means that it has no drape and tends to capture creases:


There's a detailed Gryffindor crest appliqué on the left side:


Here's a better look:


It's an excellent crest.

The hood would fit...if it weren't for Hermione's poofy hair!


She can wear the hood up if her hair is swept to one side:


Although even then, the hood refuses to stay up without being held in place:


Hermione can also wear the hood up if her hair is trapped behind the back of her robe:


The fabric is so stiff, the hood still sticks up in the air a little like this, but with few tendrils of hair pulled out at the sides, it looks ok:


Overall, the clothing looks accurate to the movie.  Some little details have been lost (like the robe lining and the separate sweater, shirt and tie pieces) but these shortcuts help make the outfit easy to play with.  I wish that the presentation had been a little better, and wish I'd looked more carefully to find a doll with fewer little defects.  This Hermione seems to have more than her fair share.

I was very eager to get a closer look at Hermione's body style.  Mattel's grand success with Made to Move Barbie always makes me optimistic about their new body designs!

Hermione's feet have a slightly elevated heel, so she cannot stand on her own when she's barefoot:



Hermione is just under 10 inches tall with her shoes on.  Her body is made out of hard plastic and softer vinyl and has eleven points of articulation:


The body has a narrow torso with a small chest and a Monster High or Ever After High style swayback:


The lower back is covered with copyrights and maker marks.  The underwear area has a molded dot pattern but no color:


The shoulders, elbows, and wrists are all rotating hinges with a good range of motion:





Hermione's hands can be removed for even easier dressing and undressing:


She has a loose-gripping right hand and a splay-fingered left hand.  Her left hand is the same as the Ever After High left hand.  I find this hand much more attractive and versatile than the gripping hand.

Wizarding World Hand (left) and Ever After High hand (right).
Hermione's knees are similar to her upper joints (rotating hinges), but her hips are more limited.

The hips hinge out a little to allow Hermione's legs to move from side to side, but she can't come anywhere near full splits:


The upper part of the leg tips inwards and hits the inside of the torso, at which point it can't move any further:


Hermione can do full front-to-back splits...


...but her legs are at a funny to angle to one another when she's in this pose, with her front leg pointing inwards and her back leg pointing outwards:


Her knees have a nice range of motion.  She can bend at the knee to about 90 degrees:


And can kneel unassisted:


She sits in a chair nicely:


And can even partially cross her long legs:


Overall, I would say that Hermione's joints are great, but her hips fall short.  They have limited, unusual movement. All of my difficulty in getting Hermione to balance on her own was because of the hips.  They don't allow the legs to spread apart very much while still keeping the feet underneath the weight of the body.  They're not terrible joints by any means, but they don't measure up to the standard of the rest of the doll.

Hermione is nicely in scale with Barbie, and would make a perfect younger sister for the Made to Move dolls:

Wizarding World Hermione with Made to Move Barbie.
I wish I owned a Skipper doll for comparison, but I don't.  I imagine that she and Hermione are roughly the same size.

The body is more similar to an Ever After High body than it is to a Barbie body, but it's not exactly the same as a standard Ever After High body.   A few of your comments prompted me to take some more comparison pictures:

Wizarding World Hermione and Ever After High Apple.
Hermione's upper torso is wider than Apple's, and her swayback is not as pronounced:


Check out Barb's review for even better pictures and a comparison to Maddie Hatter: My Little Doll Corner review.

I re-dressed Hermione at this point, and accidentally gave her the wrong wand:

This is not my wand, Emily!
I did this because...well, I was just ridiculously spacey the whole time I was working on this review.  You'll notice several silly mistakes like this.  I haven't been sleeping very well because of old dogs and a very young dog.  And it's been crazy-hot.  But it was also easy to get confused simply because I had three Mattel Hermione dolls kicking around at various times throughout the review.

Here are all three Hermiones together:

Mattel Hermione dolls, from left: Hogwarts Heroes, Wizarding World, and Hogsmeade Hermione.
The first doll is Mattel's 2001 Hogwarts Heroes Hermione, in her full school uniform:


I reviewed this doll in January of 2016.  You can read that review here if you want.  She's meant to represent Hermione in the very first Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

I mistakenly put the Hogwarts Heroes robe on the Wizarding World doll at one point in the review, too, but that mistake worked out well because now I have pictures so you can see that it doesn't really fit the new, taller doll:

Wizarding World Hermione wearing Hogwarts Heroes robe.
Wizarding World Hermione wearing Hogwarts Heroes robe.
The older doll has more pieces in her uniform, including a sweater vest, a separate collared shirt, and an elastic-necked tie:


Both dolls have crimped hair, but the Hogwarts Heroes Hermione has no color variation in her hair.  Neither doll looks much like Hermione, if you ask me, but the new one comes closer.  I like both faces.  I appreciate the character in the older doll's features, but the newer doll is more conventionally pretty.


The Hogwarts Heroes doll has twelve points of articulation.  She has ankle joints and a torso joint that the newer doll doesn't have, but she's lacking wrist articulation and does not have any rotation in her knees: 


Mattel's different interpretations of this character are fascinating to me, especially with the 17 year time gap that separates the two:

Hogwarts Heroes (left) and Wizarding World (right) Hermione dolls by Mattel.
In fact, I'm so fascinated by this type of contrast that I purchased yet another Mattel Hermione doll just so that I could compare it to the Wizarding World doll:


This doll is called Hogsmeade Hermione (Mattel really likes alliteration, don't they?).  She's from 2003.  Her outfit, the Time Turner, and the Hogsmeade reference make this doll representative of Hermione from the third movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

She doesn't look much like Hermione, nor does she look like either of the other two dolls!


Her brown hair is thick and layered, with no crimping.  This is appropriate for the third movie.

Here's a look at the Hogsmeade Hermione's face next to the Wizarding World doll's face:


I really like the detail and realism in the older doll's face, but her eyes are really faint.  I wonder if her face would look better if her hair weren't so over-the-top?

While this doll is meant to depict an older version of Hermione, she's not that much taller than the Wizarding World version...and her head is smaller.  That means all three of these Mattel Hermiones were made in slightly different scales.

Wizarding World and Hogsmeade Hermione dolls by Mattel.
Because I've never done a formal review of this doll, I'll quickly run you through some of her features.


She comes wearing a casual outfit under her school robes.  This is an odd combination.  

She's also carrying a Honeydukes shopping bag.  The bag is filled with cardboard products that were punched out of the back of the doll's box:


There's a chocolate frog:


Some Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans:


Glacial Snow Flakes:


Exploding Bon Bons:


And this, which I think says Madame Borboleta's Sugared Butterfly Wings:


Hermione's robe is made out of slinky synthetic fabric and is lined with crimson:


It has a Gryffindor crest decal:


And a full hood:


The crimson lining is on the side panels of the robe, in the sleeves, and in the hood.  There's no lining at the very back of the robe.  It doesn't feel overly bulky.


This is easily the best robe out of the three I've shown here, although the Wizarding World robe has a better Gryffindor crest.


Happily, this robe fits the Wizarding World Hermione!

Wizarding World Hermione wearing Hogsmeade Hermione's robe.
I love the full sleeves, the smooth drape, and that lining!

Wizarding World Hermione wearing Hogsmeade Hermione's robe.
It would be better if the decorations on Hermione's sweater were darker red so that they matched the robe, but it still looks great.

Wrong wand again, darn it!
Wizarding World Hermione wearing Hogsmeade Hermione's robe.
Under the robe, Hermione is wearing a striped sweatshirt and brown corduroy trousers:


The sweatshirt has a full hood, and the Time Turner is worn outside of the hood:



The Time Turner itself is made out of vinyl, but it has a metal chain that comes stitched to the sweatshirt.


Even the front pocket of this sweatshirt is functional, but sadly Hermione's arms aren't flexible enough to use it!


The sweatshirt does not have any openings, so it has to be slid off over Hermione's head:


With the sweatshirt gone, you can more easily see the shape of the brown corduroy trousers:

'

These have a small velcro seam in back and working pockets in front:



Despite the velcro, the tight pants are hard to slide off over Hermione's rubbery legs.


Under the pants, Hermione has grey, soft vinyl sneakers:



Hermione has flat feet, but she still can't stand on her own without her shoes because her legs are rubbery and soft:



Overall, she has eight points of articulation, including internal click knee joints.


She also has an extraordinarily long neck!

Her torso joint spins around and tips back and forth, but this area feels loose and moves a bit too freely.


In the interests of time, here's a quick summary of all eight joints:

Neck: allows side-to-side and a bit of up-and-down movement.
Shoulders: rotating hinges.  Nice range of motion.
Waist: ball joint that allows the upper body to spin around...a bit too freely.
Hips: only allow legs to move forwards or backwards.
Knees: internal click joints with two bent options.  Not much flexibility.

A nice perk with the Hogsmeade Hermione doll is that all of her well-made clothing fits the Wizarding World Hermione almost perfectly:

Wizarding World Hermione wearing Hogsmeade Hermione clothing.
Not only do the clothes fit, but Wizarding World Hermione is articulated enough to use all of the working pockets!

Wizarding World Hermione wearing Hogsmeade Hermione clothing.
Wizarding World Hermione wearing Hogsmeade Hermione clothing.
Wizarding World Hermione wearing Hogsmeade Hermione clothing.
Until Mattel comes out with clothing packs for their new Harry Potter dolls (which I hope they do!) the 2003 line is a great place to look for some extra outfits!

Wizarding World Hermione wearing Hogsmeade Hermione clothing.
Wizarding World Hermione wearing Hogsmeade Hermione clothing.
So, here's a little summary of the three Mattel Hermione dolls I own:

The Wizarding World doll has the best articulation of the three girls.  I'd say that the 2001 Hogwarts Heroes doll is second best, and the 2003 Hogsmeade doll is last.

Mattel Hermione dolls from left: Hogwarts Heroes, Wizarding World, and Hogsmeade Hermione.
It's a little harder to rank the dolls for costume quality since the Hogsmeade doll is not wearing a complete school uniform.  I would say that the two older dolls both have higher-quality clothing in general, although I prefer the Wizarding World robe to the Hogwarts Heroes robe because it has a full hood.  The Hogsmeade doll wins overall for her costume's detail and construction.  Her robe is wonderful.  My only complaint is that some of the pieces are hard to use.

In terms of face mold and face paint, I like the Wizarding World doll the best, even though her facial features are the least original.  She actually reminds me the most of Hermione.  I really like the other faces, too, and fell like both of them are more realistic than the newest doll.

Here are all three dolls back in their clothes again, although I can't figure out why I don't have the Wizarding World Hermione wearing her robe for this shot:

Mattel Hermione dolls from left: Hogwarts Heroes, Wizarding World, and Hogsmeade Hermione.
While I'm already on a colossal tangent, I might as well share one more little thing with you.

During one of my trips to Walmart to check the Wizarding World doll stock, I noticed this little blind box wand!  How fun!


These are made by Jakks Pacific, not Mattel.  The packaging matches the Mattel dolls perfectly, though, and these were displayed right next to the dolls.

The boxes cost $5 and each contains a die cast mystery wand!


My eldest son thought that this was a silly purchase, and so I almost walked away without it, but the text on the frot, "The Wand Chooses You!" reeled me back in.  

I had to know which wand would choose me!

Here are the options:


Of course I want Harry's wand the most, but I'd also love to have Dumbledore, Hermione, or Voldemort's wands.

Let's see which one it is!

I opened the box at the top...


And started to slide out the enclosed bag.

I see something blue!


Each wand also comes with a stand, but since the stands are not pictured on the outside of the box, seeing the color or shape of the stand does not give away which wand this is!


I mean, maybe all of the stands are the same?

In any case, the wand I got is very dark, but I couldn't see much more right away:


I took everything out of the plastic and...


...um.  I don't know which wand it is.

I re-checked the picture on the back:


I guess it must be Snape's wand?  It's pretty indistinct.



Here's the best picture of the handle detail that I could get:


It's cool to get Snape's wand.  I love Snape.  I just wish the wand was more detailed.

It looks great in its stand:


I love surprise toys, but these wands fall into a strange scale category.  They're not large enough to be used as wands for real kids, and they're too big to be used for the dolls:

Wizarding World Hermione holding Jakks Pacific blind box wand.
Many of you asked if the wand would work for dolls like American Girl, and I finally got around to taking a picture of that for you!


It's not as bad of a fit as I thought it would be!  Now Keira wants to go to Hogwarts.  The wands might be perfect for the WellieWishers, but I no longer have any of those dolls in the house.

I guess they're meant to be collectible display items?  In that case, I really wish that my wand had more detail.  Oh well.  Maybe I'll try another one some day and see if it's better.

For now, let's take another look at Wizarding World Hermione in her full outfit:


Here she is sitting in a chair (which is completely hidden by that stiff robe!), and it looks like she grabbed the wrong wand again:

Facepalm.

I really like this doll's hair, although I'm confused by the massive amounts of red.  I don't think of Hermione as having any red tones in her hair.


I mean, the box picture makes Hermione's hair look red, but that's just a trick of lighting:


Maybe they designed the doll from this picture alone?  That's possible.

If the top layers of hair are brushed forward, Hermione looks like a regular brunette...


...but if the top layers of hair are pulled back, she's as redheaded as Ginny!

A Weasley?
Since I forgot to mention it before, the rooting on this hair is nice and dense.  It's difficult to expose a large section of scalp:


Hermione's right hand also gave me a bit of trouble.  It's in a gripping position, but it looks really awkward when it's not holding something:


Even when it's holding the wand, the grip of this hand is nowhere near tight enough:


I suppose she can use the hand to hold her robe closed...


...or roll up her sleeve:


But a lot of the time I found myself trying to position that hand out of the way so that it wouldn't look weird.



Hermione is fun to pose, but she can get caught in some awkward positions.  For instance, she looks a little gangly when she's trying to sit on the ground:

Those legs are really long.
Although if I zoom in and cut out her legs, this is a pretty nice shot!


She can also strike some interesting action poses, but she can't balance on her own in very many of them.


Another thing I noticed is that I had a hard time getting Hermione to point her wand straight forwards.  The thumb ring grip is not conducive to this position.


She can pull the wand back to prepare her spell...



...but then she can only point off to the side:



This pose, if you don't look too closely at Hermione's gripping hand, is pretty convincing:


I think this doll looks even more like Hermione from the back!  That hair is great:


Despite my little complaints, I had a wonderful time playing with Hermione.  Here are some of my favorite shots:

Toy Box Philosopher

Toy Box Philosopher



Toy Box Philosopher

Bottom line?  This doll strikes a lot of balances really well.  

First of all, her clothing is accurate to the movie and looks good, but it's been simplified enough to make it easy to use.  The generous velcro seams and one-piece top make this ensemble easier to get on and off than any of the other Hermione doll clothing I've encountered.

In addition, this doll is recognizable as Hermione (mostly because of the outfit and the crimped hair), but Mattel kept her face fairly generic, neatly avoiding a poorly-done likeness.  After seeing quite a few terrible interpretations of Emma Watson in the doll world, I think this was an excellent choice.

I also like how the doll strikes a balance between being dramatic and being cheerful.  Her strong eyebrows, dark robe, and abundant, fiery hair give her a commanding presence, but her subtle, familiar Barbie-like smile makes her relatable and endearing.

I can't think of any balances that her articulation strikes, but it's worth noting that this doll has better articulation than any of her predecessors.  Her upper body and her knees pose beautifully, and I only take small issue with the design of her hips.  Even here, my critique is mostly because the hips prevent me from easily balancing the doll on her own. I imagine that kids who are actively playing with this doll will be unconcerned about small imperfections in the hip joints. 

I guess the simplest way to summarize Wizarding World Hermione is to say that she looks good enough to be displayed proudly by Harry Potter fans of all ages, but at the same time she's clearly designed (and priced) strictly for play.  And oh, how I love to imagine all of the magical games that she and her companions will inspire!

review

36 comments:

  1. Dammit, Emily, I haven't even started reading the review, but now have to go find some of those Hairdorables. Isn't it bad enough that I got into Tonner dolls, LOLs, Monsters High, Ever After High, and a bunch of other stuff because of this blog? Now I've got to add a new temporary addiction? :D Well, the kids around here do think I'm the cool mom, partly because I keep buying dolls...

    Back to the review....

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    Replies
    1. LOL! You do sound like the cool mom! Glad I could help with that! ;D Spoiler alert (if it helps): I'll confess that I already opened one Hairdorable and found her a little weird! There's also WAY too much packaging. But of course any surprise doll is my Achilles heel, so I'm in no position to talk! I've already bought three of them...

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  2. That is definitely Hermione from Chamber.

    That Ron doll is adorable, and I really like Ginny. Harry looks a little older than the other two, but the mold is easily identifiable as Harry. But his eyes are GREEN!!! Not blue!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In the films, they're blue. They didn't give Daniel Radcliffe contacts to make it more true to the books.

      Delete
    2. There is one scene towards the end of the first movie where his eyes are green, but apparently Daniel Radcliffe had a bad reaction to the colored contacts. His eyes are blue in the rest of the movies.

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  3. You know, the Star Ace Teen Hermione looks like she was meant to be a mold for Snape. Picture that mold with black hair.

    I'm disappointed that the sweater is a printed knit It could have been made as a one-piece without being just printed, and the back is sloppy. When the stripe is lined up, the left hem is higher. I hate those removable hands They're too easy for kids to lose.

    Part of me wants to say that the is a bit too developed on top, but my daughter, who is shy of 9, is already developing. When I was a kid, I was ahead of the curve by having breasts, but these days, it's normal. So I guess Hermione not being flat is correct for a kid who would...12. Wow. Easy to forget they're tweens when the movie starts.

    The 2001 Hermione looks like she'd made a good Topanga (Boy Meets World).

    The Hogsmeade version looks like her head is too small and like she was based on an old woman. With that sweater hood up, she looks like Pensatucky/Doggett (Orange in the New Black).

    This is the one time a plastic doll brush would be handy! Those suckers frizz up doll hair pretty badly, which is perfect for this doll! Give the recipient of the other doll a cast-off plastic brush from another doll, and let that child have at it! :D

    You know, back when I got my first Harry Potter book, the second book wasn't planned. Everyone asked why an adult would want to read a kids' book. But I loved it! It's so cool that this franchise is still so popular and only getting moreso. Sure, I was an adult when this series came out, but it's coo to get to share it with kids today, kids who don't see this series as dated or anything. It's awesome!

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  4. Hey! Thanks for the review <3
    I just wanna say your reviews are amazing, I love reading your thoughts/comments and you have the most wonderful pictures of the dolls :)
    Keep up with the good work, I am a fan!

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  5. Maybe it's just me, but with the differing levels of realism in the faces, the 3 Hermiones look like a daughter, mother, and tiny grandma trio!

    Are Hermione's hands compatible with Ever After High? The grip hand could be a really cool one to swap in for photos.

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    1. Totally! I thought they looked like 3 generations of Hermione too ;)

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  6. Thanks for sharing! I saw these at walmart last week, but I'm not sure I want to go down that rabbit hole. You would need at least the main trio. I've also been considering looking for the older Tonner dolls instead.

    Hogsmeade Hermione's face almost looks more like Ginnie from the movies.

    Do the blind bag wands work with a larger scale, like 18-inch dolls?

    Also, I'd love to see before/after pictures of your other My Twinn makeovers even if you (understandably) don't document the process.

    I hope you are able to get better sleep soon.

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    1. Thank you, Rebecca! I will try to post a picture of the die-cast wand with AG Keira a little later in the day. I think the wands are a bit small, but might look ok anyway. The proportions of AG dolls are funny, so they can get away with a lot!

      I'll share a few of the Twinns, but I got too lazy to take before pictures for many of them, so the after pictures will be underwhelming. :/ Maybe I can get permission to use some auction photos?

      I was JUST thinking about hunting down some of the older Harry Potter Tonner dolls, too! They're pricey. I have the big ones, but I think the small ones were better.

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    2. Try the wands out with the big Tonner HP dolls! Deborah Steinmetz commented below that the scale should be better. XD

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  7. Maybe the blind bag wand is in scale with American Girl Dolls?

    I have been eyeing these dolls but feel if I get one I need to get them all and you're not helping Emily! I already got Wonder Woman, Leia and Rei after reading your reviews and now I'm thinking I should get Hermione and just make an "Ass Kicking Ladies" Shelf in my doll cabinet. I'm going to need someone to make a Shuri doll

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    1. Check out myfroggystuff on YouTube, they did an awesome custom shuri!

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    2. If I remember correctly, the wants are too small for 18" dolls but perfect for 16" Dolls like those Tonner makes. :-)

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    3. Yeah, the die-cast wand seems a bit small for American Girl dolls, but I'm bad at judging that since so many of the AG accessories seem too small to me! I'll try to get a picture of Keira with the wand a bit later in the day. BTW, I also love the idea of an ass-kicking ladies shelf. :)

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  8. From looking at your pictures, I'm pretty sure that Wizarding World Hermione is on an Ever After High body.

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  9. I'm relieved she doesn't have the mattel "gappy" body, that's a relief. But I find the one piece blouse with printed decals just unforgivable. If they'd used two fabrics and stitched the shirt collar piece to the sweater as one piece it'd have looked way better than this weird printed collar, there's no 3dimensional illusion and it just ruins it for me. Also the price point for that level of quality is ludicrous imo. These dolls are like £20 here in the UK, which is obscene. It's just not acceptable.

    I think she does kinda look like Emma Watson though, it's cartoonish but I think she looks more like the actress than most dolls of her do.

    Maybe if they end up on clearance I might get a couple, but at full price? The shirt is just a major dealbreaker for me.

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  10. Every time I see a Hermione doll I think of you :)

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  11. If you want more ideas for what she can wear, ever after high and some Stacy clothes actually fit her pretty well, as can Skipper’s clothes I found out.I also had that exact problem with balancing, but after a bit it will loosen up, well mine did anyway. Great review as usual.

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  12. I always love your reviews and this is another great one! You always have all the pictures that I want to see! If only you could have review all the purchases that I have made. :) Many have notice more quality problems with Mattel problems over the past 2-3 years and it doesn't look like it is being addressed. Back to the dolls, I have never seen the older version of Hermione way back! She is also very nice! can you switch heads onto the new body? What other shoes can the new body wear? Love, love, love the action shots! I have Ron, which I love and was vacillating between her and Harry. You have made up my mind for me!

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  13. I'm bemused... They changed Ron's eye color, the actor clearly has brown eyes. They probably made them blue to match the books, but then Harry has blue eyes like his actor, when his are supposed to be green like his mother's. It's a small change and the blue/brown is a much more distinct difference but I still find it weird. Nonetheless, the boys have nice head molds. I'm kinda tempted to get Ron just because but I wish he had brown eyes instead because the blue is too bold.

    And I suspect they cut costs by using the same hair in different positions for Hermione and Ginny! Just put the brown in front for the former and the red in front for the latter, so they don't have to switch hair strands.

    Btw, regarding the legs, I've realized recently that a lot of current dolls have their knees in the wrong place (it's too high up the leg, most people have longer thighs than calves) and whenever I notice it kind of gets on my nerves because it really is kind of weird. I think because you know she's based on a real person, this difference stands out more than it normally would, which is why she looks so leggy and kinda gangly in some poses. :P

    Oh, and I'm glad you looked into the Hairdorables! They are a bit weird, I honestly wish their bodies were bigger or had proportions closer to the Shoppies, but I love their hair and although they all use the same face mold, I really love it. I want more but I also want to give them body swaps. :P

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    1. Rupert Grint actually has darker blue/green eyes.

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  14. I love your reviews of Hermione dolls. I have the oldest and the newest type. I wish to get the 2003 doll too. I think that it is strange that they gave her a 1987 type body, when they designed a new body of that size ca 2001. But it might be because of the articulated waist, which the 2001 body does not have.
    When it comes to wanting to compare 2018 Hermione with Skipper: both the 2001 body and the 2010 body are very similar in height to the 1987 body used on 2003 Hermione.

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  15. I forgot to say that the boy dolls can fit Skipper doll jeans, as they are so skinny.

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  16. I bought the Ginny doll solely for the body. I was hoping to give my babysitting Skipper dolls the articulated body, but the bodies are really not similar at all in size, or shape. Also, it appears the only shoes that would fit Ginny and Hermione are the ones that they came with. I wrote a detailed comparison review if you are interested.

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    1. Great review, Barb! I linked it into my text, above. Hope that's ok!

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  17. What a fantastic review, thank you Emily! I haven't come across any of this line in stores yet but I loved the look of the stock photos, and now I think I'm pretty much sold! Maybe not for a full £20, but waiting for holiday or clearance sales will certainly be worth it.

    Hermione's splayed-fingered hand looks very much like an Ever After High mold, I'm extremely curious to know if it's been reused! Would you be able to compare the two?

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    1. Look at Barb's review (The comment above yours) to see how similar it is to EAH.

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  18. Great review, as usual. If I buy Hermione, the first thing I do will be to trim that underneath hair to match her crimped hair in length. It bugs me that it is not only a different texture, but longer.

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  19. I added in some more pictures (finally)! There's now a comparison picture with Ever After High Apple White and a shot of Keira with the die-cast wand. Thank you for all of the great ideas and suggestions here!! :D

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  20. Hmm maybe her gripping hand could also hold a small book? Thanks for the review! I've been curious about these guys and expected I'd go for Hermione, but I think, looking at them all, that I'd probably go for Harry first. The faces are all adorable!

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  21. Those photos are from Prisoner of Azkaban, not Chamber. The uniforms had red lining added for PoA.

    Great review! I have the Hogwarts Heroes Hermione and the Wizard Sweets Hermione, and I was looking forward to you showing how that line compared to this one.

    My main gripe is that the new Harry has blue eyes! Makes me think you're right that the designers based the dolls off photos of the actors rather than the characters themselves. But you would think that SOMEONE in the Harry Potter design team would notice Harry's eyes- they're kind of an important plot point. I'll be curious to see if anyone repaints them. I've never attempted a repaint, but I might consider it just to fix his eyes.

    A comment above mentioned that Rupert Grint has brown eyes, not blue. Google says he has blue-green eyes, so blue eyes on Ron doesn't seem odd to me.

    Honestly, I'd originally planned to just get Ginny and McGonagall, but now I kind of want all of them. Even Dumbledore, because he looks more like Richard Harris rather than Michael Gambon, and I adore Harris' portrayal of the character.

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  22. I've been really curious about these dolls since they appeared in Walmart, so it's great to see a review! I can't help but wonder what the Harry and Ron dolls are like, though - could they be at all similar to the EAH guys, since Hermione and (presumably) Ginny have similarities to the EAH girls?

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  23. Hi Emily,
    I've posted some photos of a 16 inch doll holding one of the Jakks Pacific Harry Potter Wands over on my blog, Fashion Doll Memoirs, if you'd like to see the scaling.
    Signed, Treesa

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