Winx Club Dolls by Playmates Toys

My country is in a shambles right now, and it can feel hard to do everyday activities.  But I continue to forge ahead with my reviews because it helps me to balance the bad with some good in my life.  I hope the blog offers a retreat for others of you in the United States right now, and for anyone in other countries dealing with the toxic fallout. 

Today I'm going to be looking at the newest Winx Club dolls.  I'm not a lifelong fan of the Winx Club franchise, but I started to appreciate this magical fairy world back in 2012 when I reviewed Believix Bloom by Jakks Pacific.  I became even more invested in 2014, when I compared an Italian Witty Toys Bloom to the dolls from Jakks Pacific.  By now I have a decades-long interest in the evolution of these dolls, and I was particularly excited to see the newest version of Bloom, the spunky redhead who's at the center of the Winx Club stories:

Winx Club Bloom by Playmates Toys, $17.99

The new dolls came out in 2025, in conjunction with a reboot of the Winx Club television show called Winx Club, The Magic is Back.  We need to take a moment to talk about the television show, because I found it borderline unwatchable.

The teaser shots for the show looked quite promising to me.  Take, for example, this shot of Bloom mid-transformation:

She looks pretty badass, right?  With flames shooting out of her hands and that sassy look on her face?  But I miss the distinctive 2D animation of the earlier Winx Club shows.  

As an example of the earlier style, this is what Bloom looks like in her Believix transformation sequence:

The aesthetic of the new show is completely different.  Up close, the characters have generic 3D animated faces that struggle to convey any kind of emotion.  Here's Bloom:

Out of context, I wouldn't even know that was a Winx character.  She could be from the Barbie universe, Unicorn Academy, Mermaid High, you name it.  Most modern cartoons look like this.

Contrast that to the highly stylized and memorable face of the original Bloom:

She's got some character!

Anyway, the lineup of fairies is the same as before:

From left: Aisha, Tecna, Musa, Bloom, Flora, and Stella.

But they've lost any kind of novelty.  Here are the originals:

From left: Flora, Aisha, Bloom, Stella, Musa, and Tecna.

So the animation style (or lack of style) is one critique, and it's a big critique, but that's not the worst of it.

The animation is also bad.  As in faulty.  Take a look at the glitch in the armpit of Bloom's shirt in the opening scene:

And that's not a one-time mistake, either.  It happens again:

And again:

As Bloom's mom looks on with open-mouthed, underbite horror:

The wing animation also causes no end of trouble--especially with the hair.  Sometimes Bloom's hair is behind the wings:

Sometimes it's in front of the wings:

And oftentimes it goes right through the wings:

Maybe the wings are supposed to be like projections and not solid at all.  But then how do the fairies fly?

One of the biggest animation offenses is in the opening credit scene.  At the beginning of every single episode, Bloom looses her skirt for a few seconds.  It's there one minute:

And gone the next:

In addition to the obvious flaws, the animation is also really awkward.  The characters all have the same ridiculous walking motion, the faces have very little expression, and the action is either seizure-inducingly frenetic or laughably lethargic.

And the story?  It's a dizzying mess.  Within literally the first *two* minutes of episode one, Bloom goes from sitting at her desk writing in her diary (occasionally extinguishing her spontaneously combusting hands in a self-filling glass of water?) to running away from a huge mythical monster in what looks like an abandoned Central Park.  When two random fairies who she's never seen before save her from the monster, she instantly runs off to fairy boarding school (on another planet) with them.  And when she tells her parents she's leaving, they're like, bye, sweetie, see you whenever!  No.  I'm sorry, but no.

I struggled through the whole first episode, but couldn't watch much more after that.  I did have a fun time fast-forwarding through the other episodes to explore the bad animation, though.  For some reason, that kind of thing fascinates me.  In addition to the flaws I noted before, I also found this sign in the high school gym:

Bloom goes to Gardenia High School, but I guess "Team Name" was good enough for this banner.

In the hallways of the same school, all of the posters are in a foreign language:

It reminds me of the SIMs.

My favorite thing to do was explore the background scenes, and this bookshelf at the boarding school (Alfea) was particularly interesting:

The books repeat over and over, and the two titles that are easiest for me to read are A Fine Young Man and The Confession.  Make of that what you will.

I won't go on and on with this, but I have to show you one more thing because it made me literally laugh out loud when I came across it.  It's a pizza...sort of:

That is the most grotesquely bizarre animated pizza I have ever seen.  I think it might have looked okay without the gobs of white "cheese," but they went ahead and added the cheese.

I suspect the animation is at least partially AI generated.  That would track with everything else in the world right now.  For all I know, AI is responsible for the dialogue, too.  How else would you come up with this pearl of wisdom from Bloom's mom: we know this isn't easy, but hard things never are.  No kidding.

Anyway, a bad show doesn't mean bad dolls, so let's focus on the dolls, shall we?

Over the years, Winx Club dolls have been made by Jakks Pacific, Witty Toys, and even Mattel.  But this time around, Playmates Toys took on the challenge.  All six of the main fairy characters were made into dolls, and they all cost $17.99 (on sale right now for $14.99).  

There's Bloom:

Aisha:

Aisha and Bloom's names stand out to me.  All of the other names have some connection to that fairy's power.  Like Tecna is the fairy of technology and Musa is the fairy of music.  But Bloom is the fairy of the Dragon Flame, and Aisha is the fairy of waves.  So why don't they have names like Ember and Marina?

Bloom sounds like a name for the fairy of flowers, and Aisha means "living" or "alive and well."  Hm.

Anyway, here's Flora:

Stella:

Tecna:

And Musa:

Musa appears to be the most popular of the dolls at the moment.  She is sold out at Target and her price has risen at places like eBay.

Lucky for me, Bloom often feels like the least popular doll in the group, and yet she tends to be my favorite because of her flame red hair.  I also thought Flora and Aisha looked nice in this lineup.  So I ordered Bloom, Aisha, and Flora and will look at all of them in this review.

The dolls come in large blister packs with pink and blue decorations.  Here's Bloom in her package:

At the bottom of the plastic cover, there's a cardboard section with the Winx Club name, a picture of Bloom, and text that describes her as the fairy of the Dragon Flame:

The box art is very attractive, but that picture of Bloom doesn't resemble the doll or the television character!

The back of the box has some text and drawings of all six characters:

The text at the top says, "the Magic is Back!"  And then underneath, "join the Winx Club for a magical journey full of friendship, fairy powers, and stylish adventures!"

"Stylish adventures" is a strange thing to say, especially since the characters wear the exact same outfits all of the time.

Here we get a larger version of the picture of Bloom that was on the front of the box:

She looks really good, I think, but the beaded braids in her hair hit me the wrong way.  She also has thick bangs, which I didn't pay attention to before.  

In the television show, when she's in her human form, Bloom has some wispy bangs, and a bit of hair on the top of her head that's always sticking up:

In fairy form she has much longer hair, heavy bangs, and braids:

Anyway, moving on to the other characters.  Here are Musa and Aisha:

They also look good, but why is Aisha doing like a muted Wonder Woman pose?

Flora looks like she got caught in between poses, but Stella is the life of the party:

Last but not least, Tecna is on the far right side looking calm and poised:

I really like Tecna's purple hair, and enjoyed looking at the Jakks Pacific version of this character back in 2014:

But something about the new version doesn't work for me:

For one thing, she doesn't have the cool circuit detail on the left side of her head:

And also her face is vacuous.

Okay, but enough about the show and the other characters.  We're here for Bloom right now.  And she came mounted on a molded plastic shell, with a few long plastic ties holding her in place:

Here's everything that was in the box...which is just Bloom:

She doesn't come with a stand, which is too bad.  It looks like she's balancing on her own in that picture, but it's all trickery.  I had to suspend her from the ceiling because she absolutely cannot stand on her own--even for a second.

From the side you can see why.  When she stands with her boots flat on the ground, her entire body tips backwards:

So the heels of her boots are too short, and she also has a lot of weight on the back of her body, with those wings and her thick hair.

To make matters worse, the thick hair came sewn into one of those infernal plastic strips: 

I removed the plastic strip without too much trouble, and here she is:

One of the first things I noticed is that this doll doesn't wear her hair in the high ponytail style from the television show.  That's too bad since I think the style is cute.  Also, she doesn't have bangs.  In my book that's actually a good thing, since doll bangs in this scale don't tend to go well.

But the promo doll certainly looks like she has bangs:

In lieu of bangs, a section of Bloom's hair is swept across her forehead and tied over her left ear:

It gives the illusion of bangs, which is clever.

What's not clever is Bloom's hair fiber.  It's partially wavy, and the texture is coarse--especially at the ends.  So it looks messy all of the time.  And those mini braids have tinsel in them:

Tinsel and hair don't mix.

Also, the hair and the wings don't play very well together...much like the animation in the television show.  The hair pretty much has to be behind the wings, but it restricts their movement in that position, and can get caught up on the pointed areas.  This was also a problem with the Jakks Pacific dolls, as I recall.

Bloom's face doesn't remind me of the television show character, nor does it remind me of any other Winx doll ever:

She has huge teal green eyes with painted lashes, framed by some glittery pink eyeshadow.  Her eyebrows have hair detail, but it's not crisp and clear.  The mouth is straight and expressionless (which I guess is like the television show?) and painted in speckled pale pink:

Bloom's eyes are printed, so there's a lot of shine in that area.  Also, the colors aren't as dense and clear as they could be:

The pattern of Bloom's upper eyelashes is unusual.  She has three painted lashes on the inner edge of her eyelid, a big break, and then a bunch more lashes on the outer edge.  I guess it's meant to create the illusion that some of the lashes are pointing straight at the camera.

Bloom looks better in partial profile than she does front-on, but overall this is a forgettable face for me, with no sweetness or intensity to make it stand out.

Dolls with wings are really cool, though, and Bloom's wings are her saving grace:

The wing's the thing.

The wings attach to the back of Bloom's body with a peg and hole mechanism similar to what we saw with the Jakks Pacific dolls.  And they can flap, too:

The wings are removable, and they have an elaborate shape with swirls of blue and purple.  There are glittery veins on one side but not the other:

The wings have a great range of motion, and can fold flat against each other:

This is thanks to a gear mechanism in the middle that's made out of blue plastic:

It's cute how there are little "W" shapes at the attachment point to each wing.

The bottom of the gear section has two little metal dots, which I though were magnets at first, but they're just the pins that the gears rotate around: 

The wings also have a w-shaped peg that fits into a matching hole in Bloom's back:

This shape isn't as distinct as the x-shaped hole on the Jakks Pacific dolls, but it does the job well.  I didn't have any trouble with the wings falling out.

I removed the wings intentionally so that I could get a better look at Bloom's hair.  I even used my wire brush to try and tame the hair a little, but this never works with low-quality wavy hair:

It's a frizzy mess.

From the front, Bloom's brushed hair has way too much volume and looks like a big triangle:

I really wish that the hair had been styled in a high, straight, silky ponytail.  There's something off about the color of this hair, too.  It's very orange, which could be a good thing, but this is a glaring, neon orange that isn't realistic (or true to the television character).

I got my Jakks Pacific Bloom out so that we could take a quick look at the differences between these two versions of the character:

Playmates Toys Bloom (left) and Jakks Pacific Bloom (right).

The Jakks Pacific Bloom is taller, for one, and she also has crazy-long, spindly (and warped) legs.  But despite all of that, she can actually stand on her own, while the Playmates Toys Bloom is still suspended from the ceiling.

Both dolls have bad hair, but at least the Jakks Pacific Bloom's hair is a nice color.  I also think that the Jakks Pacific wings look more impressive, and I love their design.  But the Playmates wings stay in place much better.

Here are a few pictures of Jakks Pacific Bloom on her own:

This doll is not without her flaws, but I think she has a charming, distinct appearance that clearly reflects the style of the older Believix television show.

The exaggerated skinniness of her limbs and torso could very well have been inspired by Monster High. That was the trendy new look for dolls back in 2012.  Over the last decade, doll bodies have shifted to having more realistic proportions.

Here's a look at the x-shaped hole in Bloom's back:

Her hair hasn't aged well, but I still really love her face:

Here's one of my old pictures of Bloom fresh out of her box, with tendrils of hair still curled around her face:

I like that picture.  And I think I specifically like the white background.  I've been so frustrated with my grey background lately.  I feel like it clashes with certain colors (like Bloom's hair) and it darkens the whole image.  On the other hand, grey makes all colors pop a bit more than white, and it's been a hallmark of this blog for so long, I'm not sure I can give it up.  Maybe I'll experiment with a white backdrop for my next review and you can tell me what you think?  I'd appreciate that.

Anyway, I really like the Jakks Pacific Bloom, despite her bad hair, bendy legs, and fragile wings.  She feels like an old friend.  I'm not sure I'll ever feel that way about the new Bloom:

Bloom's outfit consists of a crop top and shorts with an overlying mini skirt:

If you look at the transformation picture that I showed you at the very beginning, you can see that the clothes are a pretty good match to the cartoon:

The mini skirt has more volume in the television show (when it shows up, at least) and the boots are much higher, but all of the colors and shapes are pretty accurate.

Here's the outfit from the back, where the top and shorts both close with velcro:

The construction is decent, with tiny little neat rows of stitching, but some of the areas are unfinished:

The shorts are a deep shimmery blue with a metallic print overskirt:

Unfortunately, the deep blue color from the shorts left stains on both of Bloom's legs:

The glitter-covered boots don't quite make it up to Bloom's knees:

And they have big slits up the back that make them easier to manage:

The boots are stiff and feel substantial, so it's disappointing that they can't help Bloom stand on her own.

Bloom's body is made out of hard plastic and vinyl, and she has seven points of articulation:

This is a step down from the eleven points of articulation on the Jakks Pacific dolls.

I tied Bloom's hair back to get it out of the way for these pictures, which also helped me get a better shot of her face:

I still don't like it very much.

Here's Bloom from the side, where you can see that she has raised heels, so she definitely can't stand on her own when she's barefoot:

And from the back:

She has Rainbow and Playmates copyright marks on her bottom:

Overall, Bloom is very skinny, but her proportions are more realistic than those of the Jakks Pacific dolls.

Bloom's head can spin around and look up and down a tiny little bit.  She also has the irritating habit of looking upwards when her head is turned to the side:

Her shoulders are rotating hinges, so she can lift her arms up and away from her body:

And she can spin them around:

She doesn't have any elbow or wrist articulation, but her arms are made out of bendable vinyl, so there's some minor flexibility there.

Bloom's hips are also rotating hinges...or something like that.  Here's a close-up look at the joint mechanism:

These joints don't allow her to do full side-to-side splits:

And her front-to-back splits are messy, too:

In fact, she can't even sit on the ground normally:

I couldn't get that left leg to lay flat.

I feel like maybe there's something wrong with this doll's left leg.  It doesn't move smoothly, and stays stuck in some awkward positions.  It's very frustrating to pose.

Bloom's knees are rotating hinges, so they can bend and turn from side to side.  But, even when the knees are fully extended, the legs aren't in a straight line:

The lower legs bow down towards the ground, which is probably another reason that Bloom tips over backwards so easily.

The knees can bend to about a 100 degree angle:

So she can sit in a chair, but it's kind of a disaster:

I'm now very curious to see if all of the Winx Club dolls have poor hip articulation like this, or if there's something wrong with my specific doll.

Bloom is just over 11 inches tall in her boots, so she's shorter than a standard Barbie doll like Petra (also in her boots):

Winx Club Bloom (left) and Signature Looks Barbie (right).

Because of Bloom's poor balance, it was hard to take interesting portraits of her.  But since she had to be suspended from the ceiling all of the time anyway, I figured I could get some shots of her flying!

And I eventually did get her to stand up all on her own in this one slightly strange position:

Ready for action!

She's a surprisingly photogenic doll, especially in half-profile, with those lovely wings showing:

You knew I wasn't going to be able to stop at just one doll (especially because I told you at the beginning that I bought three...).  But after seeing Bloom's underwhelming face, bad hair, and disappointing hip articulation, I was glad to have a few more of these dolls to check out.

The second doll that I bought is Aisha.  I thought she was the most interesting character based on the promotional photos: 

Her box colors are the same as Bloom's, with a lot of bright pink and blue.

To my delight, this girl can actually stand on her own!

Even with those heavy micro braids, she's fairly solid on her feet.  No tipping backwards:

Here she is from the back:

Aisha's hair works better with the wings than Bloom's hair.  Those discrete twisted sections in the ponytail are nice because they can be moved, individually, either in front of or behind the wings.  And the braids don't snag on the edges as much as loose hair does.

Aisha's wings have a different shape and color scheme from Bloom's.  They're mostly blue and teal, with gold glitter veins:

Aisha's face mold is different than Bloom's, too.  She has more of a smile on her face, and her lips are thicker.  Her nose looks shorter and wider to me as well:

Aisha also has different facial screening, with high eyebrows and almond-shaped eyes:

I like the bright green color of her irises, and the fact that her upper eyelashes have a normal pattern:

I wish her lip paint was more carefully done, though.  It's a bit blob-like, hiding a mold that looks more detailed.

Here's the inevitable GIF comparing Bloom and Aisha's faces:

I'm glad to see face mold variety in this series of dolls, especially because I like Aisha's face more than Bloom's.  It's great to have options.

Aisha's outfit is a bit more substantial than Bloom's, with a short jumpsuit and tall vinyl boots:

Let's check the accuracy of the outfit against a picture of Aisha from the show:

The outfit is a nice replica overall, but it's irritating that the doll's boots don't match the rest of her clothing, and there are no knee-high socks underneath.

Here's a closer look at the jumpsuit:

It closes in back with velcro:

I like the shimmering teal color, and most of the elements are fairly symmetrical:

However, the sparkly mesh overskirt has a rip in the fabric:

And one area of stitching is loose along the front seam:

Inside, the seams all look sturdy, but the edges aren't reinforced:

The boots are a completely different color of bright blue, with painted white laces running all of the way up the front:

The painting on the laces is a little sloppy, but the overall effect is fine, and the boots are easy to get on and off:

Aisha's body is mostly the same as Bloom's, but she has slightly wider thighs.  That's literally the only difference I noticed, which makes me wonder why they bothered.

In terms of articulation, I'm happier with how Aisha's hips move.  She can almost sit on the ground normally:

And she can almost do front-to-back splits:

She definitely looks better than Bloom when she's sitting in a chair!

The hips joints still don't move as well as I'd expect, but I'm glad to know that Bloom's frustrating articulation isn't the standard.

It was a hassle to photograph Bloom, but I had a fun time with Aisha.  It's amazing how much difference a few things can make.  I didn't have to worry about suspending Aisha from the ceiling, and I enjoyed moving her hair into different positions around the wings: 

I also find her face engaging, with those bright green eyes and subtle smile:

This little fairy certainly went a long way towards resuscitating my opinion of the doll line as a whole:

I was curious about what was lurking underneath that cool ponytail, though.  As much as I love how the style works with the wings, ponytails like this have been known to hide dirty little secrets.

So, I took the ponytail down and unwound all of the twisted sections:

The hair doesn't look terrible when it's down.  It's a mess, sure, and it sticks up too much on top, but it could have been worse.  Those micro braids actually have a lot of volume:

That volume is concealing a bald scalp, though:

So if I were to boil this hair and flatten it, the scalp would show a lot more.

This style of rooting only works for a ponytail, so I put Aisha's braids back into a high ponytail:

She looks fine, but my advice here would be to leave the cute factory style in place for as long as possible.

The last doll that I want to look at today is Flora:

I like her character in the television show, and I thought the doll looked pretty, with those roses on her arms and a soft hairstyle.

Miracle of miracles, Flora balances on her own as well!  I was really surprised by this because she has small, spiky-heeled boots:

She doesn't balance quite as well as Aisha, and I had to prop up the back of her boot for some poses, but at least she stands.

And she's really lovely:

Her hair looks great from the front, but in the back there's a huge, slightly crooked braid that isn't quite as attractive:

Flora's wings also have their own unique shape.  They're much smaller than Bloom and Aisha's wings, with a mix of pink, purple, and blue:

And they have the typical gold glitter veining decoration on one side.

Flora herself is a nice-looking doll.  I even think her upwardly slanted eyes hint at the older Winx aesthetic...or maybe that's just wishful thinking:

Flora's face mold is similar to Bloom's, but she has a slightly wider nose and larger lips:

I guess I like green-eyed dolls!  I wasn't even aware of that when I was shopping.  But I adore Flora's mossy green eyes, especially next to her warm complexion.

I did one more GIF to compare the three face molds that I have:

Aisha has the most character, Flora is lovely but with an expressionless mouth, and Bloom is still my least favorite.

My temptation when there are multiple face molds within a collection is to buy all of the dolls so that I can record all of the face molds.  If there had been significantly different body molds here, I might have taken the plunge.  But as it is, I'm not smitten enough with this brand to plunk down that kind of money.

Flora's outfit consists of a sleeveless metallic pink dress with a petal skirt and ruffled tulle frills in the bodice:

The dress has clear vinyl straps on top, and a velcro closure in back:

The dress is an excellent replica of the costume in the television show, right down to the details in the boots:

The designers did a very good job with this one.

The construction is on par with the other outfits, but I like the design of this dress better than anything else I've seen.  The skirt really looks like a flower:

Here's a peek at the inside--notice that there's a strap of ribbon to keep the dress from riding up:

Flora's shoes are bright pink ankle boots with a lot of glitter and a top section that's molded to look fuzzy:

These boots are really hard to get off--more so than the other boots I've looked at.  But at least they give Flora decent balance!

Flora's ribbon rose arm bands are removable:

They're held in place with clear vinyl bands, but the sea-green ribbon also has to be wrapped two times around Flora's arm.  I thought these things would be hard to get back in place, but it wasn't a big deal.  It might be very frustrating for younger kids, though.

Flora's matching ribbon choker is not removable; it's sewn in place:

Much to my delight, Flora can sit on the ground even better than Aisha:

She almost does full front-to-back splits:

And she sits in a chair perfectly:

There a difference in how her knee joints feel when I move them, too.  I can feel and hear the joints ratchet into the different positions, even though the movement is smooth and effortless.  It feels like a completely different style of joint than the other two dolls, but I assume they're all the same.  Flora's joints must have been molded very precisely.

Flora has the same body as Aisha, with the slightly larger thighs.  Here's a photo of all three dolls together:

Because they all have the same torso, they can share clothing with no trouble.  And the difference in the legs is so subtle, I wonder again: why on earth did they even do it?

Here's Flora, standing on her own like a champ for a few portraits:

I just love her color palette:

Her articulation isn't good enough for any really dramatic poses...

Bt she's just lovely when she's standing still:

I wasn't crazy about Flora's ultra-thick braid, and I also wanted to check the rooting.  So I took her hair down:

The tinsel is a big mistake, but the hair overall is nice and soft.  It'd need a boil wash to relax, but I see some potential:

The rooting is good, too:

Without any kind of strategy or forward knowledge about these dolls, I somehow managed to save the best for last.  I love it when things work out like that:

Here's a look at all three dolls together, back in their original hairstyles and outfits:

From left: Winx Club Bloom, Aisha, and Flora.

Bottom line?  This is a great example of why I like to review several different characters from a new line, rather than basing my opinion on one random doll.  If I had limited my review to only Bloom, I would have had a poor impression of these dolls.  But Aisha and Flora improved my opinion considerably.  I would say that for almost every feature of these dolls, my assessment lies along a gradient, with some dolls performing better than others.

All of the dolls have limited articulation.  None of them have elbow or wrist movement, which I find restrictive.  Also, the head mobility isn't great, although the dolls can look up and down a little bit, which is nice.  The knee and hip joints are decent-looking, but their range of movement is less than what I'd expect from a rotating hinge.  For example, the knees don't even bend to 90 degrees, and none of the dolls can do full splits.  Bloom can't even sit on the ground normally, but I think there must be some kind of manufacturing flaw in her left hip.  She's very difficult to pose.  However, Aisha and Flora can sit on the ground and in chairs pretty well, and have more fluidity in their movement.  But I find it unsettling that there's this kind of variability between dolls.

Each doll has her own unique face mold, which is something I always like to see.  The molds are all similar, but the little differences are impactful.  Bloom's face doesn't appeal to me.  I feel like her expression is bland.  However, I like Aisha's and Flora's faces, although they're on the generic side.  The dolls all have huge printed eyes that can be a little shiny, but the colors are pretty.  The lip shapes look overly simplified to me, but maybe it's just that the paint doesn't follow the contours of the mold very well.  There are at least two body types in the mix, although the only difference I could find was that some of the dolls have slightly wider thigh pieces.  I'm not even sure that should be called a whole different body type.  All three of my dolls also have different skin tones, which is great.  I'm curious to know if the other three characters have different skin tones, head molds, and leg shapes, but I'm not curious enough to buy any more dolls.

The hair on these dolls is disappointing overall, but my complaints are different for each character.  I don't have many nice things to say about Bloom's hair.  The fiber doesn't feel great, the ends are always tangled, the texture is frizzy, the color is off, and it's hard to position the hair around the wings.  I wish Bloom had been given a sleek, high ponytail.  Aisha has a high ponytail, and I love how the twisted micro braids are easy to manipulate and don't get stuck on the wings.  However, if the hair is let down, there's a large patch of bald scalp that's exposed.  Flora's hair looks pretty from the front, but she has a large, chunky braid in back that's way out of scale.  Her hair can be let down, and it feels nicer to me than Bloom's hair, but the tinsel is a pain and ends up looking scraggly.

The outfits and wings in this line are great.  I especially like the wings.  They have an excellent fluttering motion, are easy to put on and take off, and they don't fall off (or fall apart) too much.  They're also very pretty to look at, and I love how each character has her own wing shape and color pattern.  The outfits match the costumes in the television show really well, and have some cute details.  The construction is decent, but there are a lot of unfinished edges and a few little flaws.  Bloom's outfit is my least favorite, in part because the dark blue shorts stained both of her legs.  Also, her boots make it impossible for her to stand upright on her own.  Flora's outfit is my favorite, with its tiered petal skirt and pretty rose armbands, but her ankle boots are really hard to get off.  Aisha's outfit looks true to the show, but there's a rip in the skirt fabric and the boots don't match the jumpsuit at all.

If I liked the new Winx Club show better, I might have formed an easier attachment to these dolls.  They do a good job of capturing the look of the characters, and would be excellent playmates for kids who are fans of the show.  I think if you select the right dolls and manage to avoid manufacturing defects, you could have quite a positive experience with these fairies.  After all, it isn't every day that a new line of winged dolls comes out, and it's the wings that raise these dolls up from generic and forgettable to something that's worth a second (or third) look.