It's advent calendar time again! I had a lot of fun last year with this series, but got overly ambitious by opening ten calendars throughout December and part of January. This year I decided to take a different approach: I'm only going to look at three calendars, each of which is geared towards a specific brand of 18-inch doll.
One of the reasons I chose this approach is that I've been neglecting 18-inch dolls lately. I can't even remember the last time I reviewed a doll this size. Part of that is because when we moved to New Jersey from Maine (five years ago now!), I gave away or sold most of my 18-inch dolls. They take up a lot of space. I miss them, though, and was eager to add a few back into my collection.
Each of the three reviews this month will take a brief look at an 18-inch doll, and a more in-depth look at her associated calendar. Does that sound like fun? I hope so, because I'm ready to kick things off with My Life As Peyton and her 2024 advent calendar:
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| My Life As Peyton, $29.88. |
I couldn't find a My Life As advent calendar for this year (maybe there isn't one?), so I searched eBay for last year's version. It cost me $40, which is a lot for this type of thing. The original retail was about $20.
The only other My Life As calendar that's floating around these days is the one from 2020, which has a Rudolph theme and tends to be $50-70 on the secondary market:
But before I dive into the calendar, I want to see what the current My Life As dolls are like. I haven't reviewed this brand since Cititoy dolls replaced the Madame Alexander versions way back in 2014. Here's a photo from that review:
The doll I chose to look at this time around is a redhead (of course) named Peyton. She cost $29.88:
Peyton's green eyes have squiggly iris details with some black lines drawn on top. Her thin eyebrows and some of her eyelashes are painted in a light reddish brown that matches her hair nicely:
Peyton's eyes close when she's lying down to reveal long, dark, applied lashes:
Basically, the new dolls are the same as the old dolls, but without an armature in their legs. I don't necessarily miss the armature, since it bends the legs in strange ways. I wonder if the leg armature was trouble for Walmart? Like with wires poking out and causing injury? Or maybe the wires just broke over time with repeated bending. That wouldn't surprise me.
So there are a few different molds, but Peyton's seems to be the most common. As much as I love investigating facial diversity, it's time to open the advent calendar!
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| Cititoy My Life As doll (left) and Madame Alexander My Life As doll (right). |
The My Life As doll that I purchased back in 2014 cost $27.97. So the price has only gone up $1.91 in the last eleven years. That's way less than what inflation would predict. I checked an inflation calculator and it said that $27.97 in 2014 would be equivalent to $38.28 in 2025.
There are also some licensed dolls at Walmart that are more expensive. For example, this Glinda costs $39.94, which is closer to the inflation estimate:
Anyway, the packaging on these dolls has changed a little over the years. Most notably, the boxes have open fronts with no plastic window:
The design on the back of the box is simpler now, too, with a large oval of text in the middle and some small photos of other dolls at the bottom:
Compare that to the 2014 design, where there's a large picture of the doll, several areas of text, some smaller photos, and eleven other dolls shown at the bottom:
Peyton's box only has five dolls at the bottom, one of whom is Peyton herself:
On the upper right hand corner of Peyton's box is says "I am posable!" which is an exciting thing to see:
The 2014 dolls have five standard points of articulation, plus wire armature in their legs. So we'll see if the modern dolls can keep up.
Peyton has great coloring, with bright red hair and mossy green eyes. I'm still not sure how I feel about the face mold, though. It's very round, with a high hairline, and the mouth has a stressed shape:
The bottom of the box has a 2024 copyright and Walmart distribution credit:
Random fact: back in 2014, the Walmart copyright was written as "Wal-mart," with a hyphen. Now it's just "Walmart." Now you know.
Here's Peyton out of the box:
She balances on her own fairly well, but her upper body tips to one side. She's wearing a three-piece outfit that consists of a lime green vest, a grey long-sleeved tee shirt, and black leggings.
Here she is from the back:
Her wavy red hair comes tied up into two pigtails, with a braid running across the top of her head:
The braid looks very pretty, but it made me nervous that we might have a Wednesday Addams type of situation going on:
Fortunately, the braid is part of a separate, removable headband! How clever is that!
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| Take note, LDD. |
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| 2025 My Life As eyes. |
The eyebrows and eyelashes looked the same on my 2014 doll, but the green eyes were quite different back then:
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| 2014 My Life As eye. |
I like the 2014 eyes better; the color might be bright, but the iris detail is more realistic.
This is also a good angle to appreciate the paint defect in Peyton's mouth. The left side of her upper lip (her right side) is too small:
I guess the shortened lip gives her a unique expression, but it's definitely not meant to be like that.
I removed Peyton's green vest so that I could take a look at the underlying shirt. The vest is lightweight, but well constructed, with neat, reinforced edges:
There's pink piping around each arm hole, and the interior is partially-lined with pink:
The underlying grey shirt and black leggings are basic but versatile:
And the boots are made out of stiff brown vinyl with brown painted laces:
Underneath her clothing, Peyton's body looks very similar to the one I reviewed in 2014:
She has vinyl arms and legs, and a vinyl neck and chest. Her lower torso is fabric.
Here she is from the back:
She has a 2013 Cititoy copyright on her back, and a large tag on the left side of her cloth body:
Peyton's articulation is almost identical to the 2014 dolls. She can spin her arms around, and also lift them up and away from her body to about 30 degrees:
Her legs also spin all of the way around, so she can sit on the ground with her feet far apart:
And she can do nice front-to-back splits:
She does not have armature in her legs, though, so she can't cross her legs like the older dolls:
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| 2014 My Life As doll. |
I like Peyton better than the School Girl doll that I reviewed in 2014, mostly because of her red hair, and because the waviness of that hair frames her round face nicely. I prefer the older style of eye, though.
All right! Now it's time to open up that advent calendar:
There are also some boy molds (or there used to be) and this face, which is clearly different from the others:
This calendar is quite large, measuring fifteen inches wide by eleven inches tall.
The numbered doors aren't hidden within a scene, but rather randomized across the space, each door with its own size and color scheme:
It can be a little tricky to find some of the numbers. For example, I had a hard time finding the two and the twenty three:
The back of the calendar has the same oval of text that we saw on Peyton's box, and a larger collection of other dolls on display:
Let's take a closer look at the dolls for a sec. I see some pink-haired fairy-like girls on the right side:
And there's another redhead on the left, in addition to what looks like an Asian character?
I was curious to see if the Asian character (Quinn) has a different face mold, so I found a close-up promotional photo:
She has different eye makeup, but her face shape is very similar to Peyton's. The lower lip looks different, though: it's more full and rounded.
The Black dolls also have a slightly different face mold:
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| She's smiling more than Peyton. |
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| I love her science outfit! |
There's a cardboard sleeve on top of the box that sides off...and the design under the sleeve is exactly the same as the design on the sleeve:
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| I'm seeing double. |
But on the calendar itself, all of the numbered flaps are perforated:
Number one was pretty easy to find, right above the My Life As title:
And inside that flap I found...
Headphones! Or...ear muffs?? No, I think it's headphones:
These have a light blue headband and bright red ear covers.
They fit Peyton's head well, and even stay in place when she's being moved around:
That's a good start! It's a fun, modern, useful accessory that can be played with throughout the year--not just around the holidays.
I hope that whatever's behind door number two is just as good!
Is it cake?
It's a cake! It's a cheap-o cake, though. It's made out of hot pink plastic, and has some thin white paint on the sides and a crooked sticker on the top:
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| Hot pink frosting probably tastes gross. |
The cake is cheaply made, for sure, but the biggest problem is its size. It's not much bigger than Peyton's hand:
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| I might eat this whole thing myself. |
The size works much better for 1:6 scale dolls like Barbie:
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| There's plenty to share! |
What do you have for us next, number three?
Number four looks pretty big. I wonder what it could be?
It's a pair of hot pink shoes!
Shoes of any kind are much better than a too-small cake.
These flat slip-ons fit Peyton well, although boots might have been more appropriate for winter...at least in New Jersey:
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| Christmas in California! |
It's a present!
What a perfect thing to include! But I assume its empty:
Yep, empty. But at least it opens and hopefully we can find some things that will fit inside:
Small as it is, the cake doesn't fit:
The box is a decent size for Peyton, though, and will surely hold some of her other accessories:
Maybe whatever's behind door number 5 will fit in the box?
Oooh, this looks like a cup of coffee (or some other hot beverage):
Sure enough! And it's quite realistic:
The lid even comes off:
And the cup is about the right size for Peyton's hand:
This cup would certainly fit inside the gift box, but gift-wrapping a hot drink isn't the best idea in the world.
Six is my favorite number, so I have high hopes for this next surprise:
It's...well, it's a ball of tissue paper:
The paper prolongs the surprise, which is awesome, but it also looks a bit like a used Kleenex:
There's something colorful poking out, though, so let's see what it is:
It's three colorful butterfly barrettes. They don't look very sturdy, though with obvious white stress lines along the hinged areas.
In order to test out the barrettes, I first had to remove the braided headband from Peyton's hair:
I love the idea of this headband, but I can already see that the braid will get messy with play or repeated use. And there's no easy way to re-braid it.
The barrettes are large for Peyton, but they work:
And they fit inside the gift box!
The barrettes aren't my favorite surprise so far, but they certainly invite hair play with the dolls, and they could be used in a child's hair, too.
Here's lucky number seven!
I see more tissue paper:
The presentation here isn't elegant, that's for sure, but the tissue paper is eco-friendly, and probably helps to keep all of the toys in their correct location.
What could this be?
It's a fidget spinner!
And it actually spins.
It fits inside the gift box, too, although it looks very lonely in there:
Peyton can hold the spinner without any help, and it seems like the right size for her:
So far I don't detect any kind of theme here--other than a random collection of things that might be given as gifts. I expected more holiday-themed items, like gingerbread men or a stocking, but it's nice to have everyday things that kids could use with their dolls all year round.
We'll see if that trend continues with door number eight!
Yes it does! I see red glasses!
This is by far the most exciting surprise for me so far. The glasses are great. I love the shape and the color, and they're such a fun and useful accessory!
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| Yay for glasses! |
For some perspective, American Girl glasses cost $13, so the glasses alone almost make this calendar worth its original $20 price.
Now the stakes are high. Can number nine keep up?
I had a hard time opening a lot of these doors--or I should say I had a hard time opening them neatly. I almost tore the top of this flap completely off:
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| Calm down, Emily. |
And I found more tissue paper.
The tissue paper was hiding two swirly lollipops:
These feel Christmas-themed to me. And they don't fit inside the gift box:
But Peyton seems pretty happy with them:
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| Yummy! |
I was very careful to open door number ten without ripping anything:
And I found more tissue paper! I can see a bunch of smaller items inside this bundle:
It's four glazed doughnuts!
They have bright blue and red glaze on them, which are not super-appetizing colors. I'd prefer chocolate or plain white, thank you very much. But these are quite festive.
Here's the back side of one doughnut, where you can see a molded cake-like texture:
The doughnuts fit inside the gift box with room to spare:
But they're very small for Peyton:
Or maybe Peyton's hands are just huge? The doughnuts seem about the right size for her mouth, but they look tiny when they're near her hands.
The eleventh door is long and narrow, which is intriguing:
There was no tissue paper to conceal the surprise, but I still wasn't immediately sure what I was looking at here:
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| A bunny purse? |
It's a face mask for sleeping! I think:
And I'm guessing that's a llama face? I did not have "llama face sleep mask" on my bingo card.
On the back of the mask, there's an elastic strap with a pink ribbon sewn to it:
The mask is extremely tight on Peyton, but I managed to get the elastic over her head:
We're already at the halfway point! How did that happen so fast?
Here's door number twelve:
There was no tissue paper behind this door, and I could see something that looks like a pale peanut butter cup:
It's a pie!
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| Sort-of. |
I'm not impressed with this pie. First of all, it's very small. Also, there's no texture on the top, it's hollow on the bottom, and there are little scuffs and marks everywhere:
It's a little bit larger than the cake, but that's not saying much:
The cake and the pie are probably my least favorite surprises so far.
For some context, Our Generation has a cake set, and the cake is small, but not laughably small:
And The Queen's Treasures has some amazing-looking, well-scaled pies for 18-inch dolls:
The Queen's Treasures also has a fourth advent calendar that I seriously considered for a while. It's a beautiful Little House on the Prairie wooden calendar with little drawers for each day, and a larger compartment for the last day:
This is a gorgeous piece that would look great on display, but it's very large, and there aren't surprises in each drawer. The only surprises are the seven items shown:
The rag doll is incredible, and almost tempted me to splurge on this set, but I couldn't make the $130 price work. And I have never been tempted by the 18-inch dolls from this company.
So, moving on. Number thirteen has to be better than the pie, right?
There's some tissue paper to keep us guessing...
Oh, cute! It's a notebook and pencil:
I like the red poppy design on the cover of the notebook, and there are usable blank pages inside:
But the pencil is fake.
Don't tell Peyton about the pencil, though, because she looks pretty happy with this set!
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| I'm going to write a book! |
Maybe door number fourteen will be hiding a puppy? It's a little small:
There's more tissue paper...
Not a pet, sure, but still a decent accessory. It would have been even better if the brushes had bristles and actually worked, but it's fine.
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| A hamster, perhaps. |
And a set of paint brushes! I'd love to see a gift like this under my own Christmas tree:
The brushes are a nice size for Peyton, too:
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| Now I can illustrate my book! |
Maybe door fifteen has a little pet?
The phone has a sticker screen on the front, with little app symbols. And there's a handle on the back so that it can be held:
That scrunchie will come in handy for a lot of dolls, so I'm happy to have it. We're back on track after the lipstick!
Nope, this is definitely not a pet:
It's a phone!
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| That's a nice gift. |
Peyton can grip the phone reasonably well:
And it even fits inside the gift box:
Peyton has already gotten quite a few excellent gifts. What else could she possibly want? I'm still holding out hope for a pet, but perhaps the llama mask will have to satisfy the animal category.
Let's see what sweet sixteen has to offer:
Whatever it is, it's trying to get out of that compartment:
It's lipstick:
I don't care much for this surprise. The lipstick is all one molded piece, with no moving parts, and it's taller than the freakin' cake:
Given the size of the cake, it's not surprising that the lipstick is about the right size for Peyton's hand, and she can even hold it by herself:
But how old are the My Life kids supposed to be? They feel too young for makeup. That said, I certainly had fun with makeup at my friend Krissy's house when we were about six, so I shouldn't talk.
Door seventeen isn't likely to have makeup. That would be too repetitive:
I see something made out of fabric that's very shiny:
It's a silver scrunchie!
This might have worked really well for other My Life dolls, but because Peyton has two pigtails, she can only wear the scrunchie on one side:
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| Better one scrunchie than none, I guess? |
Here's door number eighteen, which is pretty big:
Honestly, it's hard to see what kind of surprise will top the camera, but let's forge ahead to number nineteen:
It's a compact:
The lipstick and the compact fit into the gift box together, which would make a cohesive present:
For anyone who's curious, June 21 fell on a Monday in 2021.
And it looks like...oh, my gosh! It's a camera!
I'm not sure who even has a camera that isn't a phone these days, but I love this! The camera itself is bright red (to match the glasses!) with a white area on top and a black lens in front. There's a even a blue ribbon strap so that the dolls can wear it around their necks:
On the back, there's a picture of three My Life girls, one of whom is an earlier version of Peyton!
It's weird, I keep forgetting that this set wasn't made specifically for Peyton. So I wasn't at all surprised to see her picture on the camera. I was like, of course, there's Peyton in a different outfit hanging with her friends.
The camera suits Peyton, and I really love that she's a girl who enjoys writing, painting, and photography!
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| And she doesn't even mind wearing an unmatched scrunchie. |
Is it a pink compass?
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| That'd be cool. |
It's a circular object made out of pink translucent plastic, and it has a nice molded design on the top:
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| Like a starfish. |
That's fun because we were just talking about the Polly Pocket compacts! And I like how there's a separate applicator and working mirror. But it's more makeup, which isn't really my thing.
Peyton thinks it's fun to look into the mirror:
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| Too bad she can't touch her face with her hand. |
We're definitely getting down to the wire here with door number twenty! It's big and red and tucked up in the corner:
There's some suspense-inducing tissue paper...
Covering two identical tubes of jasmine-scented lotion:
Or maybe it's meant to be like shampoo and conditioner? It's ho-hum for me. The tubes don't open, don't have a lot of printed detail, and just aren't very interesting for play.
We can add them to the makeup gift box, though, and round things out:
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| Maybe this is Peyton's gift for her mom? |
Let's move on to number twenty one:
I can't quite tell what this is...
It looks like perfume, with a faceted pink bottle and a clashing baby blue stopper:
This set has suddenly gotten quite heavy on the beauty supplies:
The compact is great, but the others things aren't very interesting and--again--don't seem age appropriate to me.
Let's see if number twenty two can do better:
This door was also hard to open. After basically ripping it off, I found more tissue paper:
And inside that, I found a purple smart watch!
This has an adjustable strap with three pegs, the middle of which fits nicely onto Peyton's wrist
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| And now it's perpetually 10:39 on Monday June 21 (the longest day of the year). |
Only two more doors left! And number twenty three is bigger than some of the others:
The backpack fits comfortably over Peyton's shoulders and is a nice size:
Bottom line? It was fun to re-acquaint myself with the My Life As brand after all of these years. Peyton is a nice doll for her price, and it's impressive that she cost nearly the same as the equivalent doll that I bought in 2014. I like Peyton better than that older doll, too. She has beautiful red hair, styled in a way that downplays her overly round head and high hairline. She's missing the wire leg armature that the 2014 dolls have, but I don't find that kind of articulation very effective or attractive for dolls in this scale. My doll has a lip paint defect, but she's otherwise well made. I don't have a lot of complaints about Peyton's quality, but there's something missing for me with her appearance. I don't connect emotionally to her face mold as much as I do with some other dolls. But she's cute, and she's certainly grown on me.
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| Exciting! |
What do we have here...
At first I thought it might be a handheld game, but no. It's another compact:
This one hinges open to reveal a sticker with some colorful eyeshadow choices:
It doesn't fit into the gift box:
And I had a depressing realization with this surprise. I think these:
are actually makeup brushes, not painting brushes. The big ones look like what I use to paint a My Twinn doll, but most people use them for makeup.
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| I can paint a picture using eyeshadow! |
I know I'm overreacting to the abundance of makeup. Maybe it's because I don't use anything other than Chapstick myself and am not good at choosing or applying any kind of cosmetic. I recognize that for a lot of people, the makeup elements in this set would be fun--especially for young kids who are curious about cosmetics and want to feel more grown up. So I'll try to set this personal prejudice aside.
We're at the final door! I'm so curious to see what the grand finale will be:
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| Probably a makeup case, lol. |
No...it's something colorful and fuzzy!
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| Not a pet, though. |
It's a fleece backpack!
The fleece has a mix of pastel shades, with a bright pink zipper and matching ribbon shoulder straps in back:
The pack opens to reveal a spacious, soft-sided interior:
And all of the cosmetics can fit in there:
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| So it's basically a makeup case. |
The backpack is a satisfying finale, and a nice way to store a lot of the smaller pieces in this calendar.
Here's a picture with all of the items in the set:
There's some good stuff here. My favorites are the headphones, the glasses, the gift box, the camera, the notebook, the coffee cup, the fidget spinner, the watch, the brushes (I can pretend they're paint brushes, can't I?), the backpack, and the small compact.
The duds for me are the lipstick, the perfume, the lollipops, the cake, the lotion, and the pie.
All of the other items, like the donuts, barrettes, llama mask, phone, and scrunchie are fine--just not favorites.
After I'd looked at everything in the calendar, I took Peyton's pigtails down so that I could inspect her hair:
I love the color, length, and wavy texture of this hair. It frames Peyton's face nicely, and is easy to brush. It's hard to tell from these pictures, but the hair fibers are a natural mix of different red tones, which is lovely:
The rooting isn't great, though, with lots of exposed scalp around the sparse hair plugs:
Still, the wave in Peyton's hair gives it a lot of volume, which is effective at hiding the scalp.
Here's Peyton with some of her favorite calendar items:
I think she's listening to music as she heads off on a nature walk. She'll probably stop to snap a few pictures of the scenery, and maybe start writing her book.
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| I'm already on chapter two! |
Have a good walk, Peyton! And keep track of the time:
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| See you later! |
It gets dark early these days.
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| I promise I'll be home by 10:39. |
The advent calendar was a solid experience, especially with Peyton by my side to test out all of the accessories. There was no real theme to the surprises, other than items that would make nice gifts for a young child. I prefer this approach to a calendar that has only Christmas-themed things that won't get played with for most of the year. However, I was disappointed by the overabundance of cosmetic items, especially things like the perfume and lotion that don't have any working parts and aren't very interesting to look at. I would have preferred a more balanced collection of gifts, with the inclusion of things like actual art supplies, pet-themed items, musical instruments, or perhaps some sporting or outdoor equipment.
As it is, my favorite items are the things that are likely to be used for everyday play. In this category, I think the glasses, camera, watch, headphones, notebook, and backpack are great. These items could incorporate into a number of different games. The llama mask would be good, too, if it weren't so tight and hard to put on. I think the gift box is a smart inclusion, and could be used for both Christmas and birthdays. My least favorite items are the small things that are either grossly out of scale, poorly made, or not easy to use with a doll. The cake, pie, lotion bottles, lollipops, lipstick, and perfume all fit into this category.
Here are the basics:
Best toy: the glasses
Worst toy: the cake
Number of okay surprises: 12
Number of great surprises: 6
Duds: 6
Excitement rating, out of 10: 7
Aesthetic rating, out of 10: 5
It's fun being back in the world of 18-inch dolls! I've missed it. And I'm just getting started. Tune in next time, and we'll see how the Our Generation dolls and calendar compare to Peyton and her pile of gifts!
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