Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween!

Once Upon a Zombie Belle
I have been working on a different review, but here are some pictures of Belle before she escaped off into the woods.  These Once Upon a Zombie dolls have terrible hair, but they're still very fun!  You can see my more thorough review of Rapunzel here.



Belle has very red lips, which is an unusual color choice for a zombie.  I'm willing to bet that zombies aren't super-accurate with their lipstick application.  I would have gone with something a little more subdued and dead-looking.  


This doll has a different scar pattern than Rapunzel.  As many of you pointed out, it's odd for a zombie to have stitches.  That's more of a Frankenstein thing.  Are these zombies stitching themselves back together?  I like Belle's putrid green eye shadow, though:



Belle has bright red hair in a high ponytail, with two (scraggly) long curled tendrils on either side of her face:



She has a little gold plastic tiara tied into her hair:



Her dress seems too bright for a zombie dress.  I tried to bleach it for Halloween, but had no luck.  I even tried Rit color remover.  The bright red color is there to stay.  It didn't even fade.


The underskirt is made out of black lace with a chaotic stringy pattern: 



I like that one of the sleeves is missing:


The skull detail is a little off.  I mean, if we're meant to imagine that Belle was going about her provincial business, when all of a sudden she got turned into a zombie, why would her dress have a skull ornament?  

That girl is strange, no question.
Is Zombie Belle self-aware enough to make little fashion adjustments?  




The jagged hem of the dress looks good, but the jagged neckline looks more scarecrow than zombie.  I might have to go at it with a pair of scissors...




The hair is pretty bad.  It's very long and the ends are frizzy and rough.  I don't know if this is intentional or not.  Probably not, but at the same time, perfect, smooth hair would be completely wrong for a zombie.  

My doll's hair was not helped by the fact that I tried to bleach it, too.  I think the fiber must be nylon, because neither chlorine bleach nor Rit color remover could budge this flaming red hue.  I even tried to dye it black, but it stayed exactly the same color.  


Here's Belle with her hair taken down:



The rooting density at the back of her head is about right for zombie hair...




I can't decide if I should trim and boil rinse this hair, or just accept the crazy:






I don't like Belle's dress as much as I like Rapunzel's darker, shimmering gown.  Also, Belle does not have the same eerie melancholy look that Rapunzel has.  She is more spunky and crazed, with vibrant coloring that seems ill-chosen for something that's undead.  I like both dolls, but despite Belle's striking red hair and green eye combination, Rapunzel is still my favorite zombie.  

Have a fun and spooky Halloween!


27 comments:

  1. Happy Halloween! :D I love Halloween (and Christmas) themed-dolls. Though I guess zombies are more of a general-spooky than Halloween-spooky? I'm super excited to see if I can find the new Halloween Lalaloopsies out this year!! I'm all in a holiday frenzy~

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love your review, perfect for haloween, this beautiful doll makes me think of an evil clown, and the hair reminds me of bratzillaz, I had tried to make a cute hairstyle

    ReplyDelete
  3. If that truly is nylon hair then I think we've found a good place for it! It looks appropriately crazy on the head of a zombie doll. Happy Halloween to you and yours!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Emily, that first picture is super! Happy Halloween!

    ReplyDelete
  5. You and Belle have an spookily undead Halloween, alright!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think that she looks like she is about to ask a question.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Happy Halloween back to you and your dolly crew!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yay! I just loved that Rapunzel Zombie doll you reviewed so I was very excited to see this one today. While I don't like her as much as Rapunzel, I really enjoyed the review. That first picture is fantastic :D and it was almost like a zombie story reading all of the crazy things that you did to this poor girl - bleaching her hair and dress. Like any true zombie girl, she just kept coming back for more!

    ReplyDelete
  9. The first picture blew me away! :D Good job Emily!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Happy Spooky Day, Emily!

    I don't like Belle as much as Rapunzel, either...she was really cute! I do like the concepts of these dolls, but they could be executed sooo much better. Like so many have pointed out, the stitches don't really add a lot of "zombieness", but I did like Rapunzel's stitched-up smile. Maybe painted areas of decaying flesh would be better? Or the dolls could be missing patches of hair and have places of exposed brain (it would work, given the rooting pattern)? I also like face paint that is made to look like skin around the mouth has decayed and so the back teeth are showing, like this blogger did...she is beautiful but also creepy and screams zombie, like these dolls could have!: http://24.media.tumblr.com/78daba5ea513a78f88243bd39edd31a1/tumblr_mvfuwqiKV11scy4uko1_500.jpg

    These dolls are still a lot of fun, though. Your pictures are great! Love the first one. 。◕‿◕。 Looking forward to your next review!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I loved it, but I would have liked to see the beautiful rapunzel costume dress and beautiful in rapunzel

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. belle dress in rapunzel rapunzel and in belle apology is the translator

      Delete
  12. Wow Emily, I loved that first shot!
    I like these zombie dolls, I think they came out quite cute -even better than their promotional pictures, unlike EAH. Out of the 6 dolls Rapunzel is my favourite too.
    It seems like they're doing well in sales, right? Because I've seen that they're going to come up with quite a few more dolls (Peter Pan, Alice, Tinkerbell...)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Happy Halloween! (Or Happy Day of the Dead since I'm commenting on November 1).
    Love that first picture.
    Another fun review; I agree, Belle looks a bit too lively for a zombie.

    ReplyDelete
  14. That first picture is really cool. Did you actually immerse her in a puddle, or is it photoshopped?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Mark! It's a real puddle, or actually it's the stream in my back yard. Very cold and taken right at dusk. That's the best time for zombies, I think. ;)

      Delete
  15. I think unless you're planning on intense makeovers that accepting the red as-is is your best bet. After all, some days you're Jessica Rabbit, other days you're Buckwheat.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Have you done any reviews of the Zeenie dolls? I've been trying to find one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Moo, I bought three Zeenie dolls (excited about their environmental theme), but I returned two of them and plan to review the one I kept. I was not overly impressed with them at first glance, but the positive message makes me want to de-box one and give her a fair shake. :)

      Delete
  17. Happy Halloween!!Sorry, I commented too late.You actually putted Belle in that puddle?COOL!!!Anyways, I cant wait for your next review!!!
    Do you remember the Novi Stars?They got released yesterday(where I live), but they didn't impress me very much.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a cold puddle, too! ;D I am lucky I didn't go for a swim myself that day...

      I keep trying to give the Novi Stars another chance, but I'm afraid they're not for me, either.

      Delete
  18. At first her dress really bothered me. Not at all close to the Belle I know and love. UNTIL I realized that it is almost a perfect match for Gaston's clothing. So she probably ate him and slapped that dress together out of his clothes :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL! That's awesome, Cate. Best giggle of the day, by far. :)

      Delete
  19. I know how to straighten their hair with flat iron, and furniture polish as follows:
    to straighten your hair you will need ...

    1-Polish furniture (product for the smell and shine on glass metal wood and plastic)

    2 - Flat Iron with temperature up to 120 degree

    how to do:
    wash the hair of her doll desembarece and allow to dry then divide the hair into thin slivers for a better result. after that apply in a number of mecha furniture polish deiche the damp hair slightly wet and then roll the iron for several veses until you reach the desired resutado, it is important that you turn off the iron when you feel she's not super heated to melt the fibers

    Important tips:
    capriche to pass the iron on the ends of the hair up to restore all the tips.
    2 - Pass two veses furniture polish on the same strand

    ReplyDelete
  20. Maybe the skull ornaments are the source of the "curse"? And the princesses are still princess enough to try and look tidy by sewing themselves together? Or they sew each other for fun...

    ReplyDelete
  21. Belle's hair is impossible to save. The best thing to do is leave it in its original hair style. I tried boiling it, and had to end up cutting a great deal of it because the boiled water made it look even crazier.
    Don't boil her hair!
    Also, nice photo in the woods! And of course, awesome review.

    ReplyDelete