Be Fashion Academy Dolls by Kids Hits

After getting back from Scotland and recovering from all of the wedding excitement, what I really wanted to do is look at something new.  You know, like a doll from a brand that I'd never heard of, or something that's different or unique in some way.

I get into moods like this every so often, and it usually launches me into a random internet search.  This time around, I typed "fashion doll" into the search box at Amazon, and scrolled through the top suggestions.  I got a lot of promoted products at first (Bratz and Barbie, mostly), but when I filtered for "newest arrivals," the results were more interesting.  Among them was an eye-catching doll from a company I'd never heard of called Kids Hits, with a brand that I'd never heard of called Be Fashion Academy.  But what clinched it for me was that their doll has a cat draped over her shoulders, like a fashion accessory.  That's definitely not something I've ever seen before:

Be Fashion Academy doll, Balam, by Kids Hits ($34.99).

Okay, but before I tell you more about this girl and her cat, I have to share a few of the other things that popped up when I searched for "fashion doll" on Amazon and filtered for new arrivals.

First of all, there are some new Jem and the Holograms dolls from The Loyal Subjects that might be interesting.  They look really well articulated, with intricate outfits:

Not sure about that hair, though.

The prices on these dolls are high, ranging from $35 to $55.  And they won't be released until early next year.  I still might have to pre-order one for review.

I also found this unusual duo of pregnant dolls:

Creepy pregnant twins.

The articulation looks pretty good, with double-jointed knees, and they're cheap ($11.37).  But the baby, from what I can see, looks like a roast chicken:

 

I think I'll pass.

I also found this terrifying Wednesday Addams styling head:

"Fashion Girl."

There's a lot of Wednesday Addams merchandise on the market these days, because of the new season of the television show, and this is perhaps my least favorite example.

And then...there was this:

This is a life-sized "realistic adult companion doll."  Guess you really can get anything on Amazon these days.  She costs $448, which honestly seems low for a fully-articulated (metal skeleton) mannequin.  I have to admit, I'm intrigued by her realism and articulation, but why is she wearing a hat?  Maybe if she zipped up her shirt she'd be warmer.

So, perhaps you can see why, when I saw the Be Fashion Academy dolls during my search, they felt like a safe and obvious choice.  Also, Amazon had them tagged as being from a small company, which is a nice thing to support.

The cat-themed doll that I chose is named Balam, which is the Mayan word for jaguar.  It's a very cool name that I've never heard before.  

Balam came in a large blister pack with a blue background:

There's a cartoon version of Balam at the bottom of the plastic window, along with the Be Fashion Academy logo:

I have three things to say right off the bat.  One: I keep forgetting the name of this brand.  It's frustratingly unremarkable.  Balam's name is more interesting and memorable than the brand.

Second, why is Balam's skin tone so different in her box art?  The skin tone on cartoon Balam seems much better-suited to her character than the paleness of the doll.  Especially with her cool Mayan name. 

Third thing: in the cartoon, Balam looks like she has one of those long cigarette holders from the 1930s:

She's meant to be holding a long pencil, to sketch her ideas for fashion outfits...but I'm sorry.  It looks like a cigarette holder.

On the back of the package, at the top, there's a larger version of totally not smoking Balam, along with some text:

Here's a closer look at the text:

It says: What's our passion?  The Be Fashion Academy is a team of friends and we are all obsessed with style and self-expression.  We're always sketching and texting each other new and exciting things that would really set off the "lewk."

Okay, even when I remember the name of this brand, I don't like it much.  It sounds too much like "B Fashion Academy" as in a grade.  Like second best.

Underneath that, there's a smaller paragraph that's specific to Balam.  It says: my style inspiration is all about my love for animals.  These prints are all hand-painted, baby!

It's cool that she hand paints her animal prints.  That's certainly better than going full-on Cruella de Vil.

At the bottom of the package, there's a sketch pad area where kids can design their own lewk:

I tried my hand at this activity.  I think it would be more fun with some colorful pens, but I enjoyed myself using only simple digital tools:

She's definitely smoking.

Surrounding the sketch pad, there are cartoon versions of the other four Be Fashion Academy characters:

There are five characters in this collection.  There's a nice mix of skin tones in the box art, but no such diversity in the dolls themselves.  

Here's a promotional photo of the five pale dolls:

From left: Hera, Kelia, Bryce, Cassie, and Balam.

At least there's a fun mix of hair and eye colors to choose from.  Balam and Kelia are my favorites, but I didn't think Kelia's green hair would go well with my backdrop.

Cassie is also cool, since she has heterochromia iridum:

Not wild about those purple lips, though.

Cassie isn't available on Amazon right now.

I was hoping that all of the girls would have names that are as unique as Balam.  Kelia and Hera are rare, but Cassie and Bryce are more mainstream.

While I'm on a promotional photo kick, I have to share this promo of Balam:

That little girl's headband is insane!  It's gravity-defying.  But at least it isn't an AI image.

I explored the Kids Hits (shouldn't it be Kids' Hits?) page on Amazon briefly, since I don't know anything about this company.  They seem to have mostly wooden baby toys, plus two doll lines: the Be Fashion Academy and Beauty Star:

But look closely at the photo of the Be Fashion Academy dolls in that last picture:

Who are those dolls?  There are six of them and they have *nothing* to do with the actual dolls for sale.  They're pretty cute, though, with what looks like Gigi Barbie bodies (?).  Still no skin tone diversity, though.

The Beauty Star dolls are 18 inches tall and look like they have Journey Girl bodies:

Balam's body looks familiar to me, too, so I'm getting the sense that this company puts new heads on old bodies.  That's disappointing.  I was hoping for something completely new.  Reviewing a brand-new, highly-articulated doll body is one of my favorite things to do.

Anyway, I opened Balam's package by pulling off the plastic shell in front.  As I did this, I admired the metallic cardboard border.  There are images of the characters hidden amidst a lot of glitter and shine:

I like Balam's cat eye glasses in this image:

I wish she'd come with glasses like that!

As it is, Balam came with her cat, a pair of heart-shaped sunglasses, and a dress form mannequin with 

an extra outfit:

There was a collector's sheet packaged with the base of the dress form, too.  But Balam didn't come with a pencil, which surprised me.  That would have been an obvious accessory for this line.  Maybe even a tiny working pencil to use with the sketch pad activity?

The de-boxing was fairly easy, since the backdrop is nice and flat, making all of the plastic tethers easy to access.

Here's everything that was in the box:

One side of the collector's sheet has cartoons of the five girls (all of them smoking holding pencils) with little blurbs about each:

Balam's blurb is the same as what we saw on the back of the box:

Bryce's blurb says: Hello!  My inspiration is all about the feeling I get when music flows through me on stage.  Fringe, wind + the energy of live events gives me LIFE!

Okay, so we have the animal lover and the musician.  What other clichés can we expect?  We need the sporty girl and the STEM girl, right?  And what else...hm.  Usually it'd be the fashionista, but they're all fashionistas.  So maybe the outdoorsy girl?  Or the social butterfly?

Let's find out:

Cassie's paragraph says: Hey-hey!  My style inspo is out of this world...literally!  I love the cosmos, science, and all of the magical, unexplainable things in-between!

I can't tell if she's into astronomy, astrology, or fantasy.  Maybe all three?  She was also clearly meant to have dark skin.  So strange.

Kelia is next:

She says: What's up?  My style stems from the love I have for my city and all of the creative spirits living here.  We screen print, stencil and make our own fabrics for fashion and so much more!

That's a little vague, but at least it's not a cliché.

Last is Hera:

She says: Hiiiiii!  My style is fully inspired by my friends and the events we plan together!  I love organizing fun things and sharing stories with amazing people.

So, Hera's the social one.  The descriptions aren't quite as predictable as I imagined, but we still got most of the expected tropes.

The other side of the sheet has what they call a "fashion instruction booklet:" 

This has directions for how to make your own collection.  You get an idea, make a pattern, cut and sew the pattern, and then mix and match your results.  It's that easy!

The real point of the sheet is to show all of the different ways that the outfit elements included with this doll can be rearranged.  There's supposed to be more information online using a QR code, but when I followed that link I got the message "this QR code has been deactivated for some reason."  Bummer.

Still, I was excited to try out all of those different looks, which I'll do in just a little while, after I've looked at Balam.

For now, here's a closer look at the dress form and extra outfit elements:

And here are the non-cat eye sunglasses:

I honestly cut those glasses away from the backdrop and then completely forgot about them.  Literally as I'm writing this sentence, I realized I didn't take a single picture of Balam wearing her glasses.  I'll go back and do that at some point before publishing.

I think I forgot about the sunglasses because I was too fixated on the cat.  Here's Balam with her cat:

Balam doesn't balance very well on her own.  Her hips are loose, so she tends to tip backwards.  Also, right away I noticed that her body is incredibly similar to an older Kurhn body.  She has hands and a torso joint that are very familiar.

The cat is molded around Balam's shoulders so that he stays in place even without any rubber bands:

Here's Balam from the side:

You can see the cat's face better from this angle.  He has closed eyes, but there are two black dots on his face that look like open eyes.  So it's a little confusing:

Both closed and open in a Schrödinger-like way?

The cat should have come with a name.  I like the name choices with this brand, and wish that the same people who named Balam had also named her cat.

We have an orange kitten at the shelter right now who we call Affogato, and he's adorable, so I'll use that.  I like this name because not only is it my husband's favorite Italian dessert, but it contains the word "gato," which is Spanish for cat.

Here are Balam and Affogato from the back:

I love how Affogato's little paws are draped down Balam's back:

You can also see the remnants of a plastic tie in her hair.  I guess I didn't do a great job of cutting that out.

The Kids Hits logo is molded into the back of Balam's head

I removed Affogato from Balam's shoulders, and discovered the problem with a cat that's been molded to fit somebody's shoulders:

Not only is his vinyl body hollow, but he has a big ol' neck-shaped hole in the middle of his chest.

Here he is from the bottom:

And from the back:

His tabby markings are a little strange, but his face is very cute:

Despite Affogato's odd shape, I still think he's probably the best fashion doll accessory I've ever seen.  Or one of the best, anyway.  He's certainly worlds better than a small vinyl purse that doesn't open.

And he fits onto other dolls' shoulders better than I thought he would:

Be Fashion Academy cat on Barbie Basics shoulders.

Be Fashion Academy cat on Rainbow High shoulders.

He's made out of flexible vinyl, which helps him adjust to other dolls' neck shapes.

Here's Balam without Affogato, balancing precariously on her own:

Balam has long, auburn red hair that's tied back into a high ponytail.  The ponytail is decorated with a metallic gold tie...that doesn't stick straight up into the air, thank goodness:

She has a riveting face, with bright orange inset eyes, red lips, pitch-black eyebrows, and some whisker-like decorations on each cheek:

Or are those scratch marks?

I really like dolls with inset eyes.  Maybe because they remind me of LIV dolls.  And these eyes are very nice, with realistic iris detail and long applied lashes:

I also like the band of orange eyeshadow and heavy black eyeliner.  But Balam's red lips are painted outside the molded contours, which looks odd, and has some strange reflective effects.  I'd love to see what her molded lips look like on their own.

In profile, Balam has a fairly flat face, with a tiny upturned nose.  Her ears are pierced (or at least partially pierced) but she doesn't come with earrings:

Balam's face has a lot of familiar elements.  She reminds me a little bit of the Zeenie Dollz from way back in 2014.  Maybe with some Star Darlings vibes?  She looks like somebody else, too, but I haven't been able to put my finger on it.  Maybe it's the Spacepop Girls?  Or maybe I'm thinking that just because there's a Spacepop character named Hera.  I don't know.  But I should review the Spacepop Girls someday.  I've had them kicking around for ages.

Balam's outfit consists of a shiny red bikini top and leopard print flare-leg trousers:

The top has a decorative tie in front that obscures a lot of the shape underneath.  Also, some of the white lining is visible around the edges:

At least there's a lining.

Here's the outfit from the back:

Both the bikini top and the trousers close with velcro:

Here's the top on its own:

The construction is nice and neat, with pretty ribbon straps.  There's a tiny hem on top, but the bottom edge is unfinished, which is why the lining is visible:

That lining is actually a separate piece of mesh--not just the backing of the red fabric.

Here are the trousers on their own:

They have a great shape, and the stretchy fabric has a glittery sheen on top of all of those leopard spots:

Hand painted, baby!

The finishing on these pants is pretty good:

Balam's shoes are bright red vinyl sandals:

They have cutout sides and lace-up detail on the front:

Underneath her clothing, Balam's body is, indeed, one that we've seen before:

It's a Kurhn body.

It even has a Kurhn mark on the back:

Here's Balam next to my Glamorous Kurhn doll, Hua:

Be Fashion Academy doll (left) and Glamorous Kurhn doll (right).

Hua has the exact same mark on her back:

If you asked me whether or not Kurhn bodies needed a head upgrade, I'd say absolutely not.  Why would you want any face other than this one?

Glamorous Kurhn 6125, Butterflies Love Flowers.

I did a bit of reading, curious how other companies are allowed to use the Kurhn body so blatantly, and it turns out that the Be Fashion Academy dolls are manufactured by Kurhn.  So that explains it.

Incidentally, I have another doll who's manufactured by Kurhn in my collection.  She's sold under the brand name Ella Superstarr, and is distributed mostly in Europe:

This particular doll is called London Girl Ella Baxter:

She's really lovely, and has the classic Kurhn face and a Kurhn body.  I should probably review her someday, too.

So, even though I've looked at Balam's body type before, I'll run through her joints so that you don't have to go hopping back and forth between different reviews.

Her neck joint is extremely flexible.  She can look up, down and from side to side:

And she can tip her head back and forth, too, although this movement is limited:

Her shoulders are rotating hinges that allow her to raise her arms up and away from her body to about 75 degrees:

Her elbows are also rotating hinges that bend to just shy of 90 degrees:

She has no articulation in her wrists.

Her torso joint is rotational, and allows her upper body to twist from side to side.  This movement stops just shy of a quarter turn:

So Balam can't spin her upper body all of the way around, which is true of most humans.

Balam has elastic hips:

Not true of most humans.

So her leg flexibility is great.  She can do full side-to-side splits:

Not true for me.

And full front-to-back splits:

Not even a little bit.

Balam's knees are hinges with no rotation.  But they bend enough to allow her to sit in a chair nicely:

I wish this body had better balance, and wrist articulation would be welcome.  I also worry about the long term durability of the elastic hips.  Kurhn has made better bodies, but this one is good enough.

Rather than immediately putting Balam back into her original outfit, I decided to take this opportunity to test out the extra outfit pieces and all of those combinations that were advertised:

There are three pieces included: a mini dress, a tulle overskirt, and a pink ribbon:

I wasn't sure if these clothing pieces would be sewn together, or just pieces of plain fabric like with the Harumika fashion design toys.

They are, in fact, finished items of clothing.  The dress is very simple, but it closes in back with velcro:

The construction is basic, but I'm relieved that it's a fully functional dress:

The tulle overskirt is gathered with a loop of pink elastic string:

Underneath the clothing pieces is the most elaborate doll dress form that I've ever seen.  It's quite beautiful!

The form has a ball-jointed connection to its stand, which is interesting.  This single point of articulation allows the form to tip back and forth quite a lot:

I'm not sure why that's necessary, but there you have it.

I tried the dress on Balam...

And it's extremely loose:

It actually doesn't stay up at all, unless I get it into just the right position and then don't move or breathe at all.

When I tried to put the overskirt on, things got even worse:

The elastic is really tight and barely fits over Balam's hips, but I finally wrestled it into place:

That's a pretty cute look!  And the elastic in the overskirt keeps the pink dress from falling down.

I scanned the fashion guide to see what else I could try:

I slid the overskirt up to Balam's chest, which also keeps the pink dress in place...but makes it extremely short!

I didn't bother with the ribbon at this stage because I was eager to see what other ways the overskirt could be used.  It makes a decent veil, actually:

Or a cape:

When I attempted the next look, though, the pink elastic string broke:

Or came untied.

I tried to assemble some looks without the elastic, but it was harder to keep everything in place.  I definitely needed the ribbon:

Or a little clip:

I had some fun with this activity, but there were a lot of disappointments.  I wish the pink dress fit, and I wish that the elastic on the tulle had been more robust.

One of the things that bugs me about the extra outfit pieces is that none of them match the gold hair bow that's sewn into Balam's hair.  So I snipped it out:

I wanted to take the ponytail down and examine the hair more closely, too.  

There was a section of hair looped around the base of the ponytail, so I had to snip the thread holding that as well:

The hair didn't look especially great when it first came down:

I didn't feel like doing a full boil wash, so I used a hair dryer to try and smooth out some of the kinks:

The hair looks fine, and the texture is nice and silky, especially in the middle.  The ends of the hair feel dry and look messy, though:

I'm not sure what the fiber is.  My first impression of it was good, but the dry ends and messy-looking texture give me second thoughts.  Also (spoilers) I've looked at another doll from this line with hair that doesn't feel nearly as good.  So I'm thinking it's polypropylene.

The rooting is a bit sparse, and there's no rooted part, which makes it hard to style the hair into anything but a ponytail:

That golden thread is left over from the hair bow.

When Balam's hair is down, individual strands get caught in her long eyelashes all of the time.  So I was frequently dealing with this type of situation:

The hair is dramatic because of its length and volume (and that beautiful bronze color!), but it looks too messy when it's down:

So I pulled the hair back into a basic ponytail for Balam's final portraits:

She's quite photogenic, especially with those piercing eyes:

Oh!  But I said I'd snap a photo of her with the sunglasses, so let's look at those:

It looks like I positioned the glasses low on Balam's nose on purpose, doesn't it?  Like she's peering over her glasses at us.  Unfortunately, that's actually the only way that the glasses fit.

I could not get them to sit straight on her nose:

I was able to perch the glasses on top of Balam's head, but only because the ear pieces are tucked tightly into her hair:

Without the help of her hair, the glasses slide right off.

Affogato is far and away Balam's best accessory:

It's too bad that she doesn't have enough arm articulation to reach around and pet him:

She can give him a kiss, though!

She can hold Affogato in her arms, too, with the help of the gaping hole in his body:

But he's definitely more of a shoulder cat:

And these two are really cute together:

I wanted a second doll from this collection, just to get a more thorough look at the brand.  I was torn about which one to choose, though.  As I mentioned, Kelia is my second favorite, but her bright green hair is not a good match for my grey background.

I decided to buy Hera, since I like her Marilyn Monroe style dress, and her extra outfit pieces look interesting:

Her hair is more yellow than blonde, though, so it's probably not going to work well with my backdrop, either.  Sigh.

Cartoon Hera from the front of the box looks pretty, and she's holding her own long, cigarette-like pencil:

The back of the box is similar to what we saw with Balam, but with Hera at the top and the rest of the girls clustered around the sketch pad section:

I was hoping that the sketch pad model would be in a different pose, or have something different about her, but she's exactly the same as the model on Balam's box.

Hera doesn't have a cat, but she has earrings, a necklace, and a clutch purse.  Her extra outfit includes a long silver dress and a pink floral wrap:

Here's Hera free from her box:

Her balance is even worse than Balam's, strictly because of the shoes.  Hera's shoes do not have sturdy heels.

But I like her face, and the jewelry is a nice touch:

Nowhere near as good as a shoulder cat, though.

Hera's hair is definitely more yellow than I expected.  It's extremely bright and unnatural:

The hairdo is odd, too.  There's a rooted side part, with a braid on one side that's pulled back along with a section of hair from the opposite side:

The hair is also tied with yellow thread above the ears, which looks unusual:

And there are metallic gold threads (not tinsel) mixed in with the hair on the right side of the part:

Without Hera's elaborate hairstyle, especially those sections tied back with thread, all of that yellow hair would probably get caught up the long dangle heart earrings:

Here's the jewelry on its own:

The neon pink necklace is made out of vinyl, but the earring studs are metal, with plastic golden beads and plastic pink heart gemstones.

Hera's other accessory is this pink plastic clutch purse, which looks like it will open!

It does open, but not in a good way.  The two halves of the purse come apart, but I'm not sure they're supposed to:

oops.

Hera's accessories are so boring compared to Balam's cat.  I'd have preferred a doll brand that was all about girls who love cats.  Or maybe young witches who all have cats as familiars.  The Cat Academy, perhaps?  That has a nice ring to it.  And all five characters would come with their own unique shoulder cat.  I'd have bought every single doll.

Dreaming aside, I'm pretty sure Hera's face has the same mold as Balam's, with huge eyes and a tiny nose and mouth:

She has purple inset eyes and deep plum lips.  She also has an expressive shape to her brown eyebrows:

Her makeup is quite fancy, with two layers of pink eyeshadow on top of black eyeliner:

And she has a little pink heart painted under her left eye:

Hera is wearing a dress with a micro-pleated skirt and glittery pink tulle accents:

The off-the-shoulder ribbon sleeves have tulle ruffles on them, and there's a matching tulle underskirt:

Hera is also wearing white underpants, which is something that Balam doesn't have:

The dress closes in back with velcro:

There's also a pink imitation leather belt that sits a little high on Hera's waist:

This belt is sewn onto the dress at the back seam:

The dress is easy to take off and put back on again:

It has nice princess seams in the bodice, but the top edge is unfinished, which might not wear well over time:

Hera's unstable shoes are bright pink vinyl pumps with bows on the straps:

And unfortunately these have caused faint stains on both feet:

At this point, it's clear that I don't like Hera as much as I like Balam.  I don't like her coloring as much, and she doesn't feel as special somehow.

But let's see if her extra outfit pieces can make up for that!  

She has a long silver dress with a chiffon-like pink print wrap:

You can probably tell from how the wrap is sticking out in that picture how stiff the material is.  It's not like actual chiffon which would have drape and flow.  It's two rectangles of stiff fabric sewn together.  The double layer just makes the whole thing even more stiff.

The silver dress has tied straps at the top and a long slit on one side:

It closes in back with velcro:

Here are both pieces off the dress form:

The fashion guide that came with Hera shows several suggestions for how to mix and match these pieces:

There's also a lesson at the top for how to refine your style by making a scarf.  It not much of a lesson, but more of a good suggestion.

The silver dress fits Hera pretty well.  It's loose-fitting and a bit sack-like, but at least it doesn't fall down in front!

It's a tad see-through as well.

Clearly, the dress form has different proportions than the doll.

I tried criss-crossing the straps over Hera's chest, and this looks good, but it's a bit risky in terms of accidental exposure:

The straps can also be tied in front, bandeau style, for a strapless look:

The wrap adds a nice pop of color, but that stiff fabric is hard to work with.  It slips all over the place and sticks out unless Hera is holding it down:

I like the wrap best as a head scarf...if Hera's arms keep the ends of the fabric from popping up awkwardly:

The pink of the wrap doesn't match the pink of Hera's pleated dress, which limits the versatility of the pieces:

Hera's second outfit is certainly better than Balam's.  I was able to find a few fun combinations, and nothing fell apart.  However, there's still a lack of thought.  Had the scarf/wrap been more drapey and flowing, it would have been easier to use and resulted in better-looking ensembles.

Here are Hera and Balam together in their original outfits:

For a few seconds, at least.

Thunk.

Once I'd gotten that comparison photo of the two girls, I decided to take Hera's hair down.  It took a few minutes to get all of the threads and rubber bands out, and this was the result:

The rooted part in this hair makes it easier to style than Balam's hair, but as I mentioned earlier, the hair fiber doesn't feel very good.  It's dry and crisp, not silky and smooth.

And those gold threads look very messy:

I wish I could get the memo out to all doll companies: it's never a good idea to add tinsel or anything metallic to a doll's hair.  Don't be seduced by that idea.

I held Hera's head under the blow dryer for a few minutes to get some of the kinks out, and I think she looks better:

The hair doesn't feel any better, though.

And the rooting is about the same as what we saw with Balam:

One other little observation is that those threads that were holding sections of Hera's hair left holes in her head, just below the hairline:

One of the holes on the other side of the head still has thread stuck in it that I can't get out, which is irritating.

I clipped Hera's hair back away from her face, but it was hard to get it to look as neat and tidy as it did with the factory style:

And this hair fiber tends to look messy no matter what I do:

But if I zoom in to edit out the scraggly ends, Hera looks better:

But I think Balam is hands-down the better doll of the two:

Bottom line?  I set out to find something unique and different for this review, and what I got was a little bit of something new mixed with something more familiar.  The Be Fashion Academy dolls have interesting new heads on old Kurhn bodies.  They also have fashion-themed accessories that are at least trying to deliver a fun and original experience.

The new heads are appealing, and I can even see the Kurhn DNA in those features now that I know to look for it.  I especially like the inset eyes, with their realistic iris detail and interesting colors.  The long, applied lashes are nice, too.  Plus, each character has a special little design on their face to match their personality.  It's a shame that the ethnic diversity in the box art didn't translate to the actual dolls.  I find this is especially true for Balam, with her cool Mayan name.  There's a fun variety of hair and eye colors, though, and even a character with heterochromia iridum.

Aside from the fun colors, I'm not super excited about the hair on these dolls.  Balam's hair is a beautiful color and feels nice and silky--especially in the middle of her ponytail.  The ends are a bit dry, though, and the texture looks messy, particularly when the hair is down.  Hera's hair is less nice.  The color is a jarring yellow, and the little gold threads look bad when the factory style is taken down.  Also, somehow the fiber seems different than Balam's hair; it's more dry and synthetic-feeling.

The Kurhn body is a solid choice, but if the company was going to re-use one of their existing bodies for these dolls, why not opt for a newer, more highly-articulated version, like the body on Kurhn Little Panda?  That would have been amazing.

These girls are all meant to be students at a fashion school (the forgettable Be Fashion Academy), and to that end they all come with beautiful dress forms and extra outfit elements that can be arranged in different ways to simulate the process of fashion design.  It's an excellent concept, and reminds me of the outstanding Harumika fashion toys that I reviewed years ago (or the more recent Rainbow High imitation of that product).  The execution of this idea is not as good as it could have been, though.  Balam's pink dress is way too loose and falls down all of the time, and her tulle overskirt had elastic that was way too tight and ultimately broke.  Hera's silver dress fits her well and has some fun strap options, but the accompanying wrap is made out of stiff fabric that limits its versatility.  That said, the dolls' primary outfits are nice.  I like Balam's slinky leopard print pants and Hera's elaborate pleated dress.

Overall, these dolls are pleasant, and make nice, wholesome additions to the fashion doll market, but I'm not sure there's enough quality or originality to justify the $35 price.  Balam's shoulder cat, despite his simplicity, is literally the best thing about this new line for me.  He's the most original fashion accessory I've seen in a while, and he elevates Balam from a borderline generic fashion-themed doll to something quite special.  I wish all of the Be Fashion Academy dolls had come with cats.