Saturday, January 1, 2022

Articulation Update: Rainbow High Jett Dawson

Happy New Year!  Cheers!  Here's hoping that the first few hours of 2022 have treated you well.  For me, the year is starting with an attempted migration to WordPress.  As some of you might have noticed, I suddenly stopped being able to comment on this blog about a week ago and can only manage to comment if I'm using Chrome (I typically use Safari).  I'd love to know how many other people are having this problem--but of course, if you are, you can't tell me because you can't comment!  In any case, WordPress is a superior blog platform for many reasons, and I've been meaning to migrate for years.  So please excuse any issues over the coming weeks as I figure out how to move this behemoth.  It shouldn't cause any change or disruption to how you access the site.

The best thing about 2022 for me so far is that, because of you, I managed to reach my end-of-year goal of 30 Patrons over on Patreon!  Woo hoo!  Thank you so much!  I'm incredibly grateful for all of the support and enthusiasm, and it's been fun to connect with more people over on that site.

The beginning of a new year is a great time to tie up loose ends, so I figured in the next week or so I'd deliver on some of the update reviews that I promised in previous posts.  In my first Rainbow High review, I mentioned that Jett Dawson has more points of articulation than the other Rainbow High dolls.  Today I'm going take a quick look at Jett and see how much those extra joints add to the appeal of this brand.

Rainbow High Jett Dawson, $57.99.
Jett comes in a larger box than the standard Rainbow High dolls, and she also comes with a few more accessories.  At nearly $60, her MSRP is significantly higher than a regular Rainbow High doll, although I think the market has rebuked this insanity.  It's currently possible to get Jett on sale at Amazon and Target for $27.99, which is a reasonable price.


My understanding is that some of these dolls were in a numbered edition of 1000.  If I'd gotten a numbered doll, the number would have been printed in gold at the bottom of that black hang tag.

To be clear: the dolls are not limited in their production at all.  This exact set in this exact packaging is not a limited release.  The only thing that's limited is the black hang tags--and I think maybe the tags on the clothing have a written number.  Needless to say, I was completely unconcerned about whether or not I got a numbered tag.

The back of the box has a colorful, shimmering illustration of Jett and all of her accessories:


Jett is described as an "up-and-coming fashion icon" who is about to debut her first collection:


The corners of the box have gold plastic decorations that are meant to look like trunk corners:


These seem completely unnecessary and over-the-top to me.  They also make the box a bit harder to open.

Jett and all of her accessories come mounted on a shiny gold backdrop with the word "rainbow" written in dripping rainbow colors:


Jett comes with an extra fashion (a fancy dress), two transparent plastic chests, a sewing machine, a fashion form, a measuring tape, extra shoes, a stand, and two hangers:


Most Rainbow High dolls come with two hangers, a stand, extra shoes, and an extra outfit, so what makes Jett's set different is the fashion form, measuring tape, chests, and sewing machine.  These are not enough to warrant the intended $20 price difference.

The fashion form is a styrofoam torso mounted onto a gold plastic stand:


The styrofoam torso is covered with white, slightly iridescent stretch fabric.  It is printed with "Rainbow High 2021" on one side and is blank on the other side:


The wheels of the stand actually roll, and they spin around on castors just like real wheels:


However, the stand is very lightweight, so the form slides around when I push it; the fancy wheels never engage.

The measuring tape looks realistic and feels like it's made out of flexible fiberglass ribbon--just like a real measuring tape:


At first it seemed like MGA had given the measuring tape completely arbitrary inch markings, though.  Look at how it doesn't line up at all with my real tape:


But then I realized that they just didn't line up the beginning of the tape correctly.  There's about a quarter of an inch of extra space at the end:


It would have been really cool if they'd scaled the inch markings down to a 1:6 size.

The sewing machine has a very simple shape, but I was delighted to see that when I turn the golden knob at the back, a little plastic needle lifts up and down!


Here's the back side of the machine:


So many accessories these days are just hollow plastic shapes, so it was a refreshing surprise to find that this machine has moving parts.

Jett's two plastic chests contain the extra pair of shoes and one of the hangers:


The chests open and close easily, but don't latch shut securely.  They're just cheap plastic boxes with unevenly-painted gold decoration:


These would be ok for housing a few hangers or other accessories, but they're not large enough to be practical storage for anyone who has a Rainbow High collection of more than two or three dolls.

Both the shoes and the hanger come mounted on clear plastic forms:


The shoes have white ribbon laces with "Rainbow High" printed many times in block letters.  The soles of the shoes are rainbow-colored and the ultra-high heels are made out of the letters "R" and "H:"


The rainbow pattern continues on the bottoms of the shoes:


I like how these shoes look, but they're a pain to get on.  The laces are small and slippery and hard to keep tight.  I can never make these things look as good as they do right out of the box:


Who ties all of the perfect little bows in the Rainbow High factory, I wonder?

The shoes are pretty loose, even after my most valiant effort:


Here's Jett herself...with her left arm sticking out awkwardly to the side:

Everything I own in a plastic chest to the left.
Her arm is sticking out like that because I couldn't get it to move correctly while it was inside her stiff white jacket.

Her hair is rainbow-colored on one side and black on the other side.  It looks more scraggly than the other Rainbow High hair that I've seen up-close:


Here's Jett from the back again with her hair swept to one side:


Jett doesn't strike me as an especially pretty doll the way Georgia did.  Maybe it's because of her bangs?  I don't tend to like dolls with bangs.  I also look at her and think "fish eyes."  Her eyes are wide-set and very round:


Here's a comparison with Georgia so you can see what I mean:


Another thing is that most of the Rainbow High characters look better in the television show than they look in doll form.  Here are some screenshots of Jett for comparison:



Jett's hairstyle from the show has been replicated accurately with this doll.  There's a cute twist at the top of her head that mixes the black with the rainbow hair:


My doll's twist was already slightly messy when I got her out of the box, though.

Jett's eyes are a bit different from how they look in the television series.  The doll has a lot of different colors and reflective designs in her irises:


While the television character's irises are mostly purple:

And much prettier.
Jett's primary outfit is great.  It's made entirely out of black and white fabrics with black and white decorations and lettering:


Most of the details (even little creases) are printed onto the fabric in simple strokes, presumably to make it look like the entire outfit was drawn, like it would be in a comic book.

This will date me horribly, but the outfit makes me think of Ah-Ha's Take on Me video from 1985.


Jett is wearing two tops: a white jean jacket over a black printed hoodie sweatshirt.  The jean jacket has a belt with working belt loops along the bottom edge:

A ribcage belt.
This is the second time I've seen belt loops on the bottom of a jacket.  I guess that's a thing, although I'm never looking to cinch in my ribcage.

The belt unfastens:


It's hard to see what's going on with this top because everything is black and white!  Here's another angle on the opened belt:


The cuffs of the jacket also have straps with buckles, but these are not functional:


Jett is wearing imitation leather gloves on her hands, with two "Rs" embroidered on each glove.  


I had to remove Jett's hands and gloves in order to get the jacket off:


The fabric of this jacket is quite stiff, so it holds its shape (and wrinkles!) even when it's off the doll:

Pale jacket with nobody inside.
The cuff buckles have a yellow tinge, as though glue or some other product was used to tame those thin strips of fabric:


I like Jett's outfit even more when the white jacket is gone:


The black hoodie sweatshirt is covered with white "Rs" and has an embroidered Rainbow High logo in the middle.  This particular sweatshirt has unevenly-sewn trim along the front, but the cropped style lets us get a peek at Jett's torso joint!


Here's the sweatshirt on its own:


Both the body of the sweatshirt and the hood open all of the way down the back with velcro, so this piece is easy to take off and put back on again:


When I looked at Jett online, I thought that her actual legs were painted with a zig-zag pattern, but in fact those marks are just a design on her tights:


The tights have a pretty good skin color match, but they can look baggy at times, and these tights have a small hole in the right leg:


Here are the tights on their own:


The skirt has functional belt loops (but no belt) and working front pockets:


The buttons and creases on this skirt are all printed:


The skirt has a small velcro seam in back, and a printed, nonfunctional pocket:


Jett's shoes are high-top sneakers that match the style of the jacket:


They have a few gold accents along the front and around the shoelace grommets.  This is the only splash of color in Jett's entire ensemble!


There's a detailed tread on the bottoms of these shoes, and a "Rainbow" label at the back of the heel:


As I was taking Jett's shoes off the first time, I noticed how loose her ankles are.  This surprised me, even though I knew that she had joints in her ankles.  The second time I tried to remove Jett's shoes, I heard a "crack" noise in one of her ankle joints.  I was very, very careful using the shoes after this.

Okay!  I wanted to briefly cover those details of Jett's outfit and accessories just in case anyone is thinking of purchasing her, but what I'm really here to do is get a close look at the new articulation!

Here's Jett's body:


It has the addition of an upper torso joint and ankle joints.  Here's a side-by-side comparison with Vanessa Tempo's body:


Jett came covered in black fuzz from her sweatshirt:


After I cleaned away most of the fuzz, I could see that there is also some staining along Jett's arms from her dark jacket:


This type of thing is pretty hard to avoid with black clothing:


I did a quick check of Jett's full articulation, just to make sure her joints behave the same as the other dolls I've looked at.  For the most part, all of the joints behaved exactly as I expected them to.

One thing I didn't notice before is that Rainbow High arms can't extend into a completely straight line.  Notice how Jett's arms remain slightly crooked at the elbow:


This is even more noticeable when her forearms are rotated downwards:


Otherwise, the arm articulation is exactly how I remember it.


But let's take a closer look at this torso joint:


The joint allows for a bit of side-to-side movement that you can see in this GIF:


It doesn't allow Jett to lean forward at all, but she can arch her back like this:


The arched back is nice in sitting positions.  This is how Jett lounges on the ground without bending her torso joint:


And this is how much further back she can lean because of the new joint:


She can also twist ever-so-slightly at the torso, although I'm not sure if this is intentional or just a mild wobble in the joint:


If you look at Jett's side seams in this picture, you can see that her chest is rotated a tiny bit back from the rest of the midline:


Jett's other special joint is a rotating hinge at the ankle.

The joint doesn't allow Jett to flex her foot much (she can't become flat-footed), but she can point her toes to much more of an extreme:

Notice the crack in her ankle seam.
The feet can also spin around:


There's not a huge need for rotation at the ankle since Jett already has rotation in her upper thigh.  But the new joint allows her to flatten the tops of her feet against the ground when she's in a kneeling position, like this:


This pose, which I also used for the cover shot, basically shows everything Jett can do that other Rainbow High dolls can't do:


She can lie on her side more gracefully than Georgia or Vanessa, since the torso joint has some side-to-side movement:

Would we call that graceful?
She can also lift up her head when she's laying on her tummy:

A good pose for reading on the beach.
Although she can't prop herself up enough to look at the camera in this position:

I'm more interested in my book, thanks.
I like the addition of the torso joint.  I think it adds valuable flexibility to Jett's body without any negative side-effects.  I'm not as sure how I feel about the ankle joints.  They don't add a ton of posing options to Jett's repertoire, and they make me nervous.  Some of the Rainbow High shoes are really tight and hard to remove (I broke Ruby Anderson's shoe when I was trying to get it off...) and the extra fragility in this area might result in some snapped ankles and sad kids.

After I'd gotten a good look at Jett's articulation, I decided to take down her hairstyle.  My doll's hair twist was already messy, and I wanted to get a sense for how versatile the rooting pattern is.

The hair did not look good immediately after I took it down:



The twisted section of hair has its own rooting pattern, with a part that runs along the width of the head.  I wasn't sure how this part would behave with the hair let down:


The rooting at the back of Jett's head is pretty nice.  The scalp is painted black on one side and pink on the other, so the areas without hair don't look too bad:


The rooting pattern is perpendicular to what we saw on Georgia's head, but the density is similar:


It was hard to work with the top of Jett's hair while it was still crimped, so I gave her a quick boil-wash:


Jett looks a bit deflated without the twist at the top of her head.  That style added some welcome shape to an otherwise overly-round cranium.

But the hair itself looks nice when it's straight and loose:


The problem is that the hair on the very top of Jett's head is not rooted densely at all.  It's only rooted at the bangs and along the part:

Not good.
So, Jett basically has to keep a version of her original hairstyle, with a section of hair pulled up onto the top of her head in a ponytail, braid, or twist.

I put the hair back into a simple ponytail:


Here's how it looks from the back:


It was quite difficult to recreate this part:


I had to move through the area with a toothpick, carefully sorting bits of hair to one side or the other.  Even after all of that work, the part is still messy.

So, I would strongly recommend not taking Jett's hair down, and if you do, don't wash the hair and disturb the original part--just put it back into a fresh ponytail. 

The only thing left for me to look at is Jett's extra outfit.  This is a mermaid-style ballgown:

It's very ambitious!
The dress closes in back with velcro and has a big bow to conceal the seam:


The fabric of the dress is a metallic-backed dark red, with lettering at the bodice and on the peplum ruffle.  There are black ribbon spaghetti straps and a black accent bow at the waist:


This dress has too much going on for my taste.  With the big peplum at the top, the big bow in back, the extra ribbon bow at the waist, an asymmetric detail at the neckline, and then that huge ruffle at the bottom...it's a lot.  Especially with the busy print of the fabric.

The balance of the whole thing is off to my eye, but I'm no fashion icon.  I wonder how the dress would look if the peplum was moved down below the hips--just above the flared skirt?  

Anyway, the best part of the dress is the intricate underskirt, which has at least twenty layers of densely-packed ribbon ruffles.  The skirt has a Spanish vibe and looks like a big, beautiful flower.  The problem is that this part of the dress is never visible!

Buried treasure.
Here's a closer look:

I wish the whole dress looked like this.
The dress doesn't flatter Jett, either.  It clashes with her coloring:


The dress isn't a true red color.  It's more of a muted, rusty red.  This doesn't match the rainbow tones of Jett's hair at all.

The underskirt has some true red in it, so--again--I wish that this was a bigger focus of the outfit:


That underskirt might literally be the most spectacular feature I've ever seen on play doll clothing.  It's amazing.  What a shame that it's hidden away.

I get that, coming from the point-of-view of the television show, Jett is a fashion designer and not a model.  And so the dress isn't made for her to wear, necessarily, it's simply one of her creations.  However, since this is an expensive play doll and the dress is an accessory, it would have been nice if the dress worked with the doll.

The third problem with this dress is that it's so tight through the legs that Jett can barely move when she's wearing it.  It was hard to get her to balance because I could't shift the position of her legs much at all.

About to tip over.
I still have my Ruby Anderson doll kicking around the house, so I decided to see if the dress looked any better with her red-themed coloring:


Ruby's hair is such a bright red that this doesn't work well, either, although it's an improvement.


The hint of bright red in the underskirt is what makes it work.  I wish the dress was black and silver with a slightly higher hem and that amazing bright red underskirt peeking out more.

As an aside, one thing I noticed about Ruby in this outfit that I hadn't paid much attention to before is that the color of her head doesn't match the color of her body.  I don't know how well you can see that in these pictures: 


The head is paler, with a yellow cast, while the body has more pink in it.  Just a random observation.

Jett was happy that Ruby was wearing this dress, because it gave her a chance to measure for some minor alterations!

Loosen the skirt, Jett!  I can't walk.
The red dress fits onto the fashion form, too:


I like Jett much better in her original outfit.  The black and white ensemble makes her rainbow hair into a highlighted feature instead of something lost in the noise.  

It's fun to pose Jett so that very little of her rainbow hair is showing..


...or so that a lot of her rainbow hair is showing!


Rainbow High dolls are good at posing even without the extra torso and ankle joints, so I didn't find too many new positions for Jett to demonstrate, but here are a few:

The torso joint can turn an ordinary pose like this...


Into an arched-back drama pose like this:


Although that arched back also opens up some less attractive options:

  

Jett's ankle joints allow her to do this:


Which is a pretty basic pose, but it involves the toe of her sneaker pointing downwards:

Other Rainbow High dolls can't do that.
She can also strike this pose...although it's not necessarily recommended:


What the ankle joints are best at doing, however, is helping Jett balance.  I found it easy to make her stand on her own in many different positions.

It was fun to pose Jett with a few of her accessories, too.  The plastic boxes are probably the least interesting of these items, but they're a good make-shift chair:


The dress form is the best accessory since the proportions are the same as they are on the doll.  This form could legitimately be used to tailor a new Rainbow High dress--if only the stand was more substantial.


Bottom line?  I have two bottom line topics to discuss here; whether or not Jett's articulation is preferable to that of the other Rainbow High dolls, and whether or not Jett and her accessories are worth the investment.

For the first question, I have a mixed response.  I like the addition of Jett's torso joint, even though it doesn't allow for a huge number of new poses.  The side-to-side tipping of the torso is nice, and Jett's ability to arch her back can add drama to an otherwise ordinary pose.  I'd like this joint even more if it allowed Jett's torso to rotate from side to side.  I'm not as excited about the ankle joints.  I never thought I'd write these words, but I feel like the dolls with unarticulated ankles are preferable.  Rainbow High shoes can be stiff and hard to remove, and I almost broke Jett's foot trying to get her sneakers off.   The ankle joints definitely add something to Jett's balance and flexibility, but because there's already rotation in the upper leg, I don't think this benefit outweighs the added fragility. 

As for whether or not Jett is worth her price, the simple answer is no--not the original retail price of $57.99.  No way.  But she is probably worth the current sale price, especially if you like her appearance and accessories--or love her character from the show.  I don't find her to be as attractive as Georgia, Vanessa, or some of the other dolls I've seen in-store, but she has a lot of good features.  Her original black and white outfit is unique and flattering, especially without the stiff white jacket.  Several of the accessories are fun, especially the realistic tape measure, movable sewing machine, and dress form.  But the busy red dress, cheap plastic chests, and hard-to-use extra shoes do not have much value in my eyes...with the exception of the red dress' underskirt, which is spectacular, but tragically hidden from view.  Despite her impressive eighteen points of articulation, Jett is not my favorite Rainbow High doll.  

Having seen Jett's enhanced articulation, I can safely say that while I wouldn't mind if other Rainbow High releases included torso and ankle joints, I wouldn't choose a doll specifically based on whether or not they had this feature.  Instead, I'd choose the doll with the coloring and accessories that appealed to me the most--regardless of the articulation.  And that's saying a lot for me.

36 comments:

  1. I also don't like the bangs in Rainbow High dolls,they have such a wide head that makes the bangs lay weird ( like on Violet). But I do like bangs on some dolls like Monster High ( Cleo and sometimes Frankie).
    I wonder if Jett is supposed to represent the color black her name is Jett after all. If that is the case, I'd rather they had left all of her hair black. That would have worked with both of her outfits.

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    1. Oh, good observation! You're right that if Jett's hair had been all black, so many more things would have worked with this set. Totally agree. I mean, I love rainbow hair (a lot), but that feature is covered by other characters in this series (Amaya).

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  2. Thanks for another great review! Rainbow High still does very little for me but I enjoy seeing all the details.

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    1. Hi Rebecca, thank you for the honest comment! I like looking at these popular dolls a lot, mostly because I feel like it tells me what kids are looking for and excited about these days, but I have to admit that Jett made me less impressed with the line, not more.

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  3. Every time I see that black and white outfit, I want to colour it in with fabric markers.
    It’s a shame, I think the accessories are great, but the red dress looks like it was made from garbage bags and Jett herself, is just a bit disappointing. I really want to like her, rainbow hair is awesome, but compared to other dolls from the line, she strikes me as a bit blah and generic.

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    1. I hear you, Rachael. I love your idea, though, that the black and white outfit could have come with bright rainbow fabric pens and been more of a project doll! I'd have been all-in on that!

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  4. I think it's the bangs that make Jett's face less attractive than Georgia's. Georgia has visible eyebrows, and for me that makes her more engaging.

    LOL, I love the A-Ha reference! That lead vocalist has some range!

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    1. Yeah! An Ah-Ha fan! The singing range is amazing, and the video was mind-blowing in its time. :)

      But you're totally right about the bangs. The eyebrows are important, and also the bangs truncate the face, which is not appealing. Good call.

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  5. Happy New Year, Emily!

    Although I really don't like the way the dolls look (I think Pullip and Blythe pull the doe eyes and big heads better!), I still appreciate how they cater to the more fashion-savvy end of the doll lovers spectrum. Playline Barbie's been looking frumpy and awkward with mediocre clothing construction, so it's nice that kids who are more into fashion can have dolls with clothes that are trendier and good quality because kids have always had diverse interests!

    On an unrelated note, have you seen the Monster High 2022 leaks? They look very promising �� Great review as always!

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  6. I love the rainbow hair and the intricate black and white outfit, but super pass on that red monstrosity of a dress, oof!

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    1. Yeah, I hear you. The dress is too much. And I read online after my review that many of the red dresses didn't even fit onto the dolls?! That's unacceptable, even if the fashion happened to be awesome.

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  7. Happy New Year Emily ❤️ Oh, I‘m also not a huge fan of the bangs. The only RH doll I have with bangs is the purple one from series one. It gives them a really weird face.

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    1. Hi Sév! I'm glad that you agree about the bangs. The faces can be really pretty, but the bangs make something strange happen!

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  8. I still haven’t gotten hooked on this line, but I can see the appeal. This particular set *cough* *cough* “Jett Set 😂...I like what is going on with her hair, but everything else is So Very Busy. I think there are a lot of neat design ideas with all the drawn-on details, but at some point the marker should have been pulled from the designer’s hand. And the dress ??? (((((((Shudder)))))))). In my defense, I do have one of these, purchased out of curiosity, but there just seems to be so much much-ness, especially with Some version of RH stamped on absolutely everything.
    And bangs? I actually like them on some dolls, probably because I always had them as a kid...and they were always crooked because my mom wasn’t very good with scissors ;)

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    1. I like the idea of crooked bangs being a positive thing because of childhood memories (I had those bangs, too!!). I actually love that vibe for a certain kind of art doll...but not for these fashion-obsessed characters. You're right: the designs are often just too much.

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  9. Good luck with the move! I would be very interested in a technical post about these platforms. I've been unhappy with blogger myself. I was having computer problems and for a while relied heavily on my phone for all my online activity. The blogger app is a joke and the mobile site is cumbersome. They are ok for reading blogs, but useless from an author's perspective. When I was finally ready to write a post, I discovered a bunch of problems that you didn't mention:
    1. The image uploader. I used to upload everything in a buffer first and pull them one by one as I reached the relevant paragraph. Now I have to upload each image, interrupting my thought process, or upload and insert all at once and struggle with alignment as I unjumble the images and make room for the text.
    2. They removed the "follow by email" module, which I used exclusively while my computer wasn't working. My reading list is a mess because I can't open it on the phone. It also means that my followers from other platforms or who don't use the blogger reading list have no idea what I'm up to unless I figure out how to install a third-party service and find the subscriber list to migrate it.
    3. I'm missing more and more comment notifications. Luckily I'm still able to post, both on my blog and on others, and I can delete spam comments.

    I hope WordPress treats you better! You deserve all the support for the work your doing. I'd love to join your patreon if I had a source of income. I returned to your old posts many times for their wit and relevance. Thanks to your blog I bought dolls like Josephsplatz, Kurhn (for the niece) and the last doll before your hiatus, Eva Marie, and they have all been well researched and I have no regrets. It makes me very happy that you are reviewing new dolls again and helping people decide if they want to buy them. I'm certain I don't want any RH, but I love seeing them in detail anyway and their clothing has a lot of effort put into it. I'm getting a Barbie extra dressed in RH clothes and that sounds like the best of both worlds. Thanks again for your blog and have a fantastic New year!

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    1. BlackKitty, thank you so much for your nice words. I value your comments and insights here tremendously, and you should not worry about Patreon. I'm touched that you want to contribute, but your comments over the years are contribution enough.

      As for the migration, it's been a process, and I share your frustrations with Blogger. My routine was to slog through every change that Blogger imposed on me and try to make the best of it, but I'm at the end of my patience. I will definitely share all of the things I did and learned with this move--provided that it all works! So far I am very happy.

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  10. As someone else who has an extensive blog on here, I too have been meaning to transfer to WordPress. I'm looking for someone who can do it - I could myself but it would take hours of learning I don't feel like doing. On the plus side, it seems that dolls are harder to move these days; So many at Target that would retail for 40$ are constantly on sale for 25$ or 23$.

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    1. Yes! The doll sales are putting the ridiculous prices in their place. I'm a big fan of that.

      As to the migration, I don't know what to say yet because I haven't completed the process. I put in many hours on my own, paid for a migration plugin, and then eventually caved and asked for professional help. So far it's going really well, and I will share all details if the final product is as good as I think it will be! :)

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  11. Oh I'm in love with her!!! Her hair is so pretty!!! I was doing really good avoiding Rainbow High, but I swear your reviews are going to be the death of my wallet.

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    1. I'm so sorry, Cari! I was not going to put her in the shop, but I will if you want my used one?

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  12. Oh Emily! If it makes you feel better, her outfit also made me think of the Take On Me music video (especially those shoes!) and I'm 22. ;)
    -Cink

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    1. Thank you!! I feel validated...and also young ;)

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  13. I actually really love the ballgown! It reminds me of dresses from project runway. If the dress was in my size I would totally buy it and just wear it around my house hah.

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    1. Well, you are epic, Caroline! I see what you mean about the Project Runway vibe, and the thought of somebody wearing that dress around the house for fun makes me love it. :)

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  14. Hi Emily, have you seen the Unusual Eyes dolls? They have strange, lens-like eyes that appear to always look at you. Have a look at reviews on youtube to see the effect in motion. I’ve never seen anything like it.
    I’ve had real trouble commenting, I hope this one posts.

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    1. Oh, how cool! I want to review one! Thank you for the tip!! I can't find where to purchase one, though. Will keep looking! Thank you for the clarification, Luis. ;)

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  15. Dear Linda, thank you so much for your kind words! I have the huge Rainbow High doll here, but haven't figured out how to review her yet! She's really big for my set-up.

    One of my primary goals with the blog migration was keeping the comments. I feel like the comments add so much depth and knowledge to this site. But it isn't easy! I attempted to migrate the blog a few times on my own (with some paid plugins, too) and the comments kept being lost. So I finally paid somebody outright to help me. The fee was not a lot, and depending on how it goes, I'll post my review of that here! It's such a daunting task.

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  16. I recently bought Jett at her Target sale price. I LOVE her. I just think she is so unique in my doll line-up. I did not even know she had a hoodie on under her jacket until your post, though, and she looks SO much nicer without the jacket, so thank you for teaching me about that. :) Her second dress is hideous, I agree. It really doesn't make sense with the rest of her look... it would have been so much nicer had they made it more functional, more flattering, and more stylish.

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  17. Happy New Year Emily!

    Thanks for this excellent review. I actually really like this doll and her sewing room accessories but neither of her outfits. She's beautiful and an all black outfit with colourful accessories would have been better suited to her looks.

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  18. Here's a comment from WigglyWogglyWaffles that got lost in the WordPress fiasco:

    "This doll was quite appealing but her price point certainly feels a little exaggerated; also, that limited edition numbered tag stuff was bewildering and useless LOL. I believe I read somewhere that in order to accommodate that style of topknot, Jet’s hair rooting had to be done in a special way? Not really sure if that wasn’t just a defense for MGA’s cost cutting measures though. Her monochromatic sketchy outfit that contrasts so well with her hair is based on the Moschino Spring 2019 collection, particularly those scribble tights. That second outfit is really well made, but the design definitely could have jelled better with Jet’s color palette. Maybe something in silver would have been nice, I dunno haha."

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  19. Rainbow High are some of my favorite dolls right now. I collect them (have all of them so far except one Slumber Party doll and the new Pacific Coast dolls that are about to come out) and I customize them and I love doing so.
    I will preface this by saying I can understand people being annoyed with the quality control gaffs that do happen and I don't see the point in Jett's ankle articulation (though it is less flimsy than Made to Move Barbie's) among one or two other minor things.
    I bought my first one (series one Skyler) in 2019 and was blown absolutely out of the water by the sheer number of pieces in her outfit, the fact that she came with -socks- and a pants hanger, and I found her face adorable and her hair lovely. After collecting through 2018-19 and watching Barbie's quality even in collector dolls dip way, way down, with no real actual fashion doll competition to give them a reason to bump it back up again, Rainbow High was and is a welcome change.
    I always appreciate honest reviews, I just wonder if I'm missing something sometimes because the majority of the small flaws some of my dolls have had haven't really bothered me much compared to having to take apart and resew half the outfits on recent Barbies I've bought. And when I say anything about it, I get my head bit off - I've left two different Rainbow High groups in the last two days because I cannot with the drama. I love the dolls, cannot in general stand the Rainbow High specific fandom groups - reeks of early 00s Bratz fan groups and the vitriol they were known for.

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    1. Hi Bailey! Aren't the socks and pant hangers amazing!? I totally agree with you! I was really charmed by those details, in addition to the number of outfit pieces--as you said. And while I haven't noticed a decline in the quality of Made to Move Barbie, as you have, I recently bought a Disney Store doll (or two...) and was absolutely dismayed by the drop in quality. So overall, I totally hear what you're saying. Most of my RH dolls have had only minor flaws, and lots of great qualities to make up for those flaws. I hope you're not feeling alienated by my assessment of Jett. She's not my favorite of these dolls by far, but that's just personal preference. I thought Georgia and Vanessa were great! And there are several others who tempt me. ;) Enjoy your beautiful rainbow of dolls and don't let anyone take that away from you!!

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    2. May just be my luck with the play line made to move dolls' ankles, but all of them have to wear boots in order to not have their feet backwards or floppy. It wasn't (until this past year) the dolls themselves that had declined as much as the clothes and accessories where Barbie's quality is concerned. This past year, several Fashionista Barbies had cheap polypropylene hair that feels coarse and weird to the touch and some super pixel-y paint. And some of the collector dolls' clothes follow the playline route of only having patterned fabric on one side/ruffles only on the front/plastic bodices that just don't cut it for me/etc. But Made to Move has stayed decent in general and I LOVE the Signature Looks dolls.
      Quite honestly, I haven't bought a Disney Store doll since 2018 and already wasn't entirely enthralled with the quality. But I did grow up on the Disney Classics Collection dolls of the 90s which while they weren't as cartoon-accurate, had multiple full fabric fashions available plus accessories with painted detailing and such so...I might be spoiled?
      Truthfully, my rainbow high dolls gave me a passion for doll collecting I haven't had since My Scene left shelves. I still find myself amazed over the socks and pants hangers. Your review was truthful, Emily. I was just in a sensitive spot and it's all good!
      Hey, on that note, the Pacific Coast Rainbow High dolls are beginning to drop on shelves at WalMart already - if you get hold of one, I would like to see your opinion on the new feature these dolls have - the lower half of their legs are removable and they each come with two sets, a pair of legs with flat feet and a pair made for wearing heels. It's not ankle articulation, but it seems like a kind of cool feature to me, given that I've seen a lot of collector level dolls come with interchangeable hands/feet/chestplates for customization and posing purposes.

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  20. It's insane that Jett's price remains around $60 on Amazon after two years of people complaining! She was definitely one of the special editions that was a hit or miss. Ankle joints never struck me as necessary on Rainbow High dolls since they have the extra swivel movement in the thighs. You bring up a really good point that ankle joints can make shoes difficult to get on and off. I would wonder how the ankle joints perform in the fabric boots being produced more recently. MGA should definitely invest in chest joints. The added mobility that you demonstrated is worth it. I mean, Monster High is doing it and they're only a few dollars less than Rainbow High. They should definitely try putting chest joints on more dolls than just select, special editions.
    Really thorough review! It's good to know I'm not the only one who thinks her second outfit clashes horribly with her colors. I love how honest and down to earth you are in all of your posts!

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