1:12 Scale Super Flexible Seamless Figures by TBLeague (a.k.a. Phicen)

Okay, so it's mid-May already and I have yet to write a review for this month!  Ack!  My excuse is that I've been working on two reviews at once, which slows me down in the short term but makes up for itself eventually.  I also took a weekend to go see my mom for Mother's Day, which was a lot of fun.  And I've been working hard on Lena's house, which I told her would be done by spring (oops).  It's almost ready.

Today I'm going to be looking at some 1:12 scale figures from Phicen, a company that's now going by the name TBLeague.  I like the sound of Phicen better, but I gather there were some trademark hassles that cropped up in about 2017.  For right or for wrong, I'll use "TBLeague" and "Phicen" interchangeably here.  Incidentally, the last time I reviewed a Phicen doll was back in 2017, when I did a three-part Figuring Out Phicen series.  That trio of reviews looked only at the 1:6 scale figures, which are remarkable.

I've been interested in checking out Phicen's smaller dolls for quite a long time.  Almost a decade, to be more precise.  They look highly realistic and are more affordable than the 1:6 equivalents.  This felt like an opportune moment to finally take the plunge, in part because Zuru is preparing to release their own highly-articulated twelfth-scale Minnee line.  I'm eagerly anticipating those dolls, and thought the Phicen figures would offer an interesting comparison.  Even without any comparison on the horizon, these are intriguing little dolls in their own right:

TBLeague 1:12 scale Super Flexible Seamless figure, $47.99.

Warning: these dolls are realistic in a way that might make some of the following photos not safe for work and inappropriate for young children.

It can be hard to understand all of the figures that Phicen/TBLeague has to offer.  There are variations in skin tone and body type, and also newer and older models that have small differences.  I took a haphazard approach to choosing dolls for this review by basically buying the ones most readily available on Amazon.  I typically shop at BigBadToyStore.com for this type of purchase, but they have a very low inventory of 1:12 TBLeague products right now.

As with the 1:6 dolls, the twelfth scale figures all have alphanumeric identifiers.  TBLeague's very first 1:12 body came out in 2018, and is called PHMB2018-T01A.  I distinctly remember the promotional photo of that doll resting in somebody's hand:

I have a T01A for this review, but I bought three other dolls as well, each with a different shape, and one with a different skin tone.  

I should probably have started things off today with T01A.  That would have made chronological sense.  Instead, I'm going to begin with the first doll that I bought...which makes sense in my own weird personal chronology.  This doll is also the most different from the other three.  She has an anime style and came out in 2020.  Her reference code is PLLB2020-T02B, but let's just say T02B.

T02B came in a plastic box with a body-shaped window on the front:

The plastic on this box is semi-transparent grey.  I can just barely make out the words on an insert that's visible from the back of the box:

The white sticker on the back is easier to read...provided that you understand Chinese.  Here's a translation:

It's mostly a bunch of warnings, including a recommendation to not leave the doll in the same pose for too long.  I'll keep that in mind.  It's interesting that the label says "Phicen" prominently, with no mention of TBLeague.

The top of the box has check marks next to this doll's specifications, which are pale skin and large bust:

The bottom of the box has the TBLeague mark (and the Phicen name again...) plus the item number that I mentioned before:

When I started this review, I wasn't 100% sure what the full "PLLB" stands for in this identifier.  I figured it was "Pale Large Bust" with an extra "L" that I couldn't explain.  Maybe it's like "PaLe Large Bust?"

Anyway, the lid of the box lifted off to reveal the doll and all of her parts snuggled into cutout sections of black foam:

Here's everything that was in the box:

TBLeague PLLB2020-T02B.

There's a body, a head, an extra pair of feet, two extra pairs of hands, a white bikini, and some white joint covers.

The head attaches to the stainless steel neck with a ball-and-socket joint:

Here's the assembled doll, who I'm going to name Coco, after her chocolate-brown eyes:

TBLeague PLLB2020-T02B.

Coco has a silicone body with vinyl head, hands, and feet.  Her body is poured over a stainless steel armature.

"Large bust" was not an exaggeration for this girl.  She has balloon-like breasts with molded nipples.  Her chest is all the more prominent thanks to an extremely skinny waist and narrow hips.

Here she is from the back:

I like the shape of her back, but I can see some of the stainless steel skeleton showing through her pale skin--almost like a bruise:

The skeleton is also visible on her left shin, where the silicone is quite thin:

You might notice that Coco was also covered in black lint from head to toe, presumably left over from the foam packaging.  I washed her off in the sink before I put on the bikini.  The bath helped a little bit, but lint on silicone is very stubborn!

One of the things I liked best about this doll from her promotional photos is that her clothing is all made out of flexible vinyl, or some other stretchy, rubbery material (perhaps more silicone):

This type of clothing reminds me fondly of Polly Pocket.  I also think that fabric clothing can look bulky on 1:12 scale dolls, while the vinyl pieces look polished:

TBLeague PLLB2020-T02B.

The tiny bands that conceal the wrist and ankle joints were a huge paint to get in place:

And I put the ankle pieces on upside-down...

Before I figured out how they're supposed to go:

It's worth noting that any forceful manipulation of the legs (taking the feet off and shoving the joint covers on, for example) can cause the silicone to slide upwards on the slippery metal skeleton and create some alarming situations:

Coco has a cute anime face with large brown eyes and an impish smile:

Her face looks really strange in profile, though.  Her jawline angles severely up towards her ear, making it look like a big chunk was taken out of her neck:

The back of her head has molded hair with minimal detail:

Another doll was released alongside Coco, and she's called PLLB2020-T02A.  She has a similar body style but with red hair and a different expression.  I was extremely tempted by that hair, but couldn't warm up to the face:

Why is she screaming?

It wasn't until I was looking at T02A's promotional picture that I realized Coco must have come with a stand.  It's still hidden away at the bottom of her box.  I didn't notice it, nor do I need it.  Her balance is excellent.

The 1:12 TBLeague dolls boast an impressive 22 points of articulation. Let's see how accurate that is!

We know that the head connects to the skeleton with a ball joint, so that's point number one.  This joint allows Coco's head to look up:

But it can't look down much at all, even with that cut-away neck:

However, there's a second joint deeper in the neck, and this allows the head to look downwards quite a lot!

Joint #2. 

Coco can also use this joint to tip her head even farther back:

Both neck joints working in tandem allow the head to tip from side to side:

Coco has excellent shoulder movement.  Her arms can lift way, way up and away from her body.  In fact, the only thing restricting the upward movement of her arms is her head:

Joints #3 and #4.

The arms can also spin around:

This makes me feel like her shoulders must be ball joints.

But I struggled with her elbow movement.  I bent her elbow in order for her to raise her hand and wave to you, but her forearm wouldn't rotate upwards:

Joints #5 and #6.

It's a simple hinge with no rotation.

I was able to rotate the arm at the shoulder, though, and this allowed the forearm to point downwards:

Or upwards...for a slightly awkward salute:

I got the hang of the movement eventually, but raising the forearm causes the silicone in the upper arm to bend and twist in an unnatural-looking way:

Still, Coco can touch her nose (almost):

And rest a hand on her hip:

She has good arm movement overall.  It just feels strange to manipulate her elbows.  They don't behave the way I want or expect them to.

Coco's wrist joints are ball and sockets like her neck:

Joints #7 and #8.

The ball and socket style makes it possible to easily swap in different hands.  Here are the options:

There's a trigger finger hand for each side:

And a gripping hand for each side:

One of the biggest frustrations with this doll is that her hands pop off a lot.  I keep expecting there to be hinge movement at the wrist, but any attempt to bend the hand forwards or backwards causes it to pop off.

Coco has outstanding mobility in her torso.  She can arch her back:

I pushed a bit more, and got her to bend even farther backwards!

She can also tip her upper body to the side:

And bend forwards:

I like the way her belly rolls in a natural-looking way with this pose.

The extreme flexibility in Coco's back makes me think she has a chain of joints in there, or at least two more joints.  So for now let's call these joints #9 and #10.  We're almost half way to 22!

Coco's hips are also ball joints, but they don't quite allow her to slide into full side-to-side splits:

Joints #11 and #12

She can do full front-to-back splits, though:

Her knees have hinge movement, so she can kneel on two knees:

Joints #13 and #14.

She can't bend her knees as much as I thought she'd be able to, though.  I was hoping she'd be able to touch her calf to her thigh like the Made to Move girls can.

She can also kneel on one knee:

And her knees have rotation, too, so she can sit with her legs out to opposite sides:

She sits in a chair beautifully:

And can even cross her legs:

Her ankle joints are exactly like her wrists (joints #15 and #16), with ball and sockets that allow foot removal and exchanges.  Thankfully, the feet don't pop off nearly as much as the hands.

Somehow I'm missing six whole points of articulation.  Where on earth could they be?  I'll have to investigate further in a minute.

Coco is six inches tall, so about half the size of a standard Barbie like Petra:

TBLeague 1:12 figure (left) and a Signature looks Barbie (right).

And, just as advertised, she can fit comfortably in the palm of a hand:

I played around a bit more with Coco, mostly to enjoy her flexibility, but also to see if I could figure out where those missing joints are!

I'm so happy that she has solid, vinyl feet to help her stand, rather than the rubbery feet that some of the 1:6 dolls have.

I didn't show off how Coco can twist her torso to the side earlier, so let's not forget that!

She can sit on the ground in a number of different ways, too:

And she can wave!

I took off the silly joint covers and tested out Coco's articulation even more.  In some poses, it's nice to use the high-heeled feet to make her look more graceful:

And the gripping hands are useful when she has to rest her weight on the ground:

I was delighted to discover that she can even sit cross-legged:

And she can do full side-to-side splits if her hips are manipulated a bit:

Her double-jointed neck means that she can slide her head to the side in a bird-like way:

Overall, she's a very cute, highly flexible little doll.  I wish her elbow movement was more natural, and that her hands didn't pop off all of the time.  It's also alarming how the steel skeleton shows through the silicone in some places.  I feel like it's about to poke through.   But those are the only criticisms I have.

I can't figure out what joints I'm missing, though.  So, cute as she is, Coco had to donate her body to science.  I need to know how that skeleton works!

Noooo!

I guess that's why she's screaming.

The silicone came off of the armature really easily.  And this is what I found underneath:

It's so cool!  Like a robot with flesh feet.

I wanted to investigate some of the more confusing areas, like the shoulder:

It looks like the shoulder has two joints side-by-side: a ball and socket, and a hinge.  That explains a lot, actually, because now I can see why it's easier to engage the hinge part of the joint than the more proximal ball.  

And I see that the shoulders should be counted as four joints, not just two (joints #17 and #18).

As I suspected, the elbow is a simple hinge with no rotation:

The torso has two separate ball-and-socket joints, which explains the great flexibility in this area:

The hip also has two ball-and-socket joints right next to each other: there's a ball on the leg side and another on the body side:

So I guess that counts as two joints on each side as well (joints #19 and #20).

I still don't completely understand why this armature can't slide straight into perfect side-to-side splits.  I think the top part of the leg is blocked by the body a tiny bit:

In the knee, the hinge is about a half inch away from a rotational ball joint, so that counts as two joints on each side as well:

Which gets us to joints #21 and #22.

We found the missing six points of articulation!

It's easier for me to manipulate Coco's arm into a waving position now that I know exactly how all of the joints work!

And she's still cute, but now in a more sci-fi android type of way:

Maybe she should go live with Spectra and Lustra?

Now that we've seen the inner workings of these dolls, I'm going to go back and look at the very first 1:12 doll from TBLeague: PHMB2018-T01A.

This doll came in a shallow, transparent plastic box.  She doesn't come with a stand, so doesn't need a larger box like Coco's.

She's marked as being pale with a medium bust size:

So what does the "PHMB" in her identifier stand for?  I'd have said "Pale Medium Bust," but what about the H?  Maybe "PH" is for "Phicen?"  Like "PHicen Medium Bust?"  Hm.  Google's AI is telling me it's "PHicen Metal Body," but then what's the "PLLB" in Coco's identifier?  I don't trust AI.

The back of the box has the same sticker and the same insert that we saw on Coco's box:

This insert was easier to access, so I got it out for us to read:

Omg.  In the first paragraph there's a clue to the identifiers!  Look:

"PL" is Phicen Limited!  And probably "PH" is also for Phicen.  So that helps clear up the mystery.

The bottom part of this insert is interesting, too:

A sex toy?  I mean...   ...   how?  No, no--don't answer.  Let's not think too much about it.

I also found this instruction sheet in the box:

This describes all of the different joints.  Happily, because of Coco's sacrifice, we don't need to read this. We know all about that skeleton.

I think it's funny that they call the knees "shanks," though.  Is that a thing?

Only if you're a butcher, I guess.

Anyway, the plastic box opens like a book to reveal the body and accessories inside, this time packaged in white foam:

Maybe the lint won't be as noticeable?

Here's everything that was in the box:

TBLeague PHMB2018-T01A.

This doll comes with the same basic things as Coco (extra hands, extra feet, head, underwear, and joint covers).  One difference I noticed right away, though, is that she has very muscular legs!

I really like all of the realistic molded detail.

The joint covers are made out of fabric in this case, and there's also a small black band, which I think is for the hair:

And the extra hands and feet have the exact same shapes that we saw with Coco:

Gripping hands, trigger hands, and high-heeled feet.

I snapped the head on and it looks...very small:

TBLeague PHMB2018-T01A.

Is that a normal head size and I'm just too used to dolls like Rainbow High and Blythe who have huge heads?  I'm not sure.  Let's check in with Leonardo da Vinci:

Yep.  The Vitruvian Man says the doll's head is too small.  I thought so.

In all seriousness, though, I think the head is only slightly too small.  We have very strange standards in the doll world these days.

Worse than being too small, though, the head simply isn't very good.  The overall shape is basic, the expression is blank, and there's very little molded or painted detail:

I thought Phicen did a great job with their 1:6 heads, so I had higher expectations going into this review:

1:6 head from my 2015 1:6 Phicen review.

From the back, you can see this doll's long black hair:

The hair isn't good, either, but at least this wasn't a surprise coming from Phicen.

The texture is poor, and there are only about three rows of rooted hair with plugs that are way too big for the scale of the doll:

Behind the hair, though, this doll has nice detail in her back:

I guess I should name her?  I struggled a bit with this task:

I think I'll call her June.  In anticipation of the summer.

June's profile is better than Coco's, with a more normal-looking neckline:

June's articulation is exactly the same as Coco's, which is good because it means I don't have to take June's skin off.

One small difference is that because June's head is smaller than Coco's, she can lift her arms up even farther away from her body!

I played around for a while trying to come up with poses for June that I didn't try with Coco:

She's very flexible, and I like her athletic-looking body type.

She can do a bridge:

Standing on her fingertips, no less!

And she was able to strike this running pose without any balance help:

Underneath her bikini, June has a more normal looking bosom than Coco, with no nipple definition:

TBLeague PHMB2018-T01A.

Here she is from the back:

I like that I can see the outline of her scapulae.

June and Coco have the same size neck joint, so they're able to swap heads.  In fact, I might decide to permanently swap Coco's head onto this body:

I don't like the fabric bandeau top on this bikini.  It has no shape, and doesn't provide full coverage.  So, I went online and found a simple tee shirt and shorts outfit for June:

I found this for $20 on Amazon.  I've been trying to steer away from Amazon recently, for a bunch of different reasons, but sometimes when I'm in the middle of a review and I need things fast...well, nobody can deliver faster than Amazon.

The outfit is shown modeled on another highly-articulated 1:12 scale doll that looks interesting.  I actually own a doll similar to her and will do a review at some point.  Maybe over on Patreon?  I've been neglecting Patreon lately and am sorry about that.

Anyway, this outfit was difficult to get on over June's high-friction silicone body.  I struggled a lot with the tee shirt:

I wasn't able to maneuver the tee shirt into a completely symmetrical position, but overall I think this is a nice improvement for June:

She has an excellent, realistic, highly-posable, athletic-looking body.  I just wish her head was bigger and had more detail.

The third doll that I bought has a different skin tone from the others.  TBLeague doesn't offer much in the way of skin tone diversity, but at least they have "pale" and "suntan."

This doll has the suntan skin tone with a large bust:

Her item number is PLLB2022-T05B, so she's a Phicen Limited Large Breast doll from 2022:

I chose this particular doll because I wanted to see the suntan skin tone, and also because I thought her face looked nice in the promotional pictures.  We'll see.

She came with a head and a red bikini, plus the same assortment of hands and feet that we've already seen:

TBLeague PLLB2022-T05B.

That red bikini barely fits her.  Why can't these girls get better coverage with their swimwear?  At least she came wearing the swimsuit, so I didn't have to wrestle it onto her body myself.

Here she is, standing solidly on her own:

TBLeague PLLB2022-T05B.

Right away, I could see that this doll's face is better than June's.  It's much more realistic.  She actually reminds me of somebody I know.  So the promotional photos don't lie.  She also has a more substantial body than either Coco or June.  The muscle definition is not as distinct as it is with June, but the proportions are reasonable.  Except for maybe the chest, which is quite large indeed.

Also, her hair is nicer than June's.  The texture is less coarse and dry, and the blonde color is pretty:

Here's a look at her back with the hair swept aside:

Nice spine definition but no scapulae.

The suntan skin tone looks a bit grey to me--maybe more so in real life than in the pictures.  But it photographs really well.

I'm going to name this girl Valerie.

Valerie has dark brown eyes with delicately-painted eyelashes and heavy eyeliner.  Her lips are a natural peachy-pink color and have a nice shape:

Compare those features to June:

Yikes.

In contrast, June's eyes look blank, her eyelashes are all sticking straight up or down, and her mouth is small, simplified and too dark.  It doesn't even feel like the same company made these two heads!

Here's Valerie's profile:

She has a normal chin and jaw, and a thick neck.

Valerie's hair might feel better than June's, but the rooting is equally sparse, with big thick plugs:

Valerie poses just as well as Coco and June, despite having a thicker body in most areas.

I don't see the steel skeleton showing through as much, either.

And the realism in her face accentuates the realistic body.

I really like this doll, but wish she had something better to wear!

Before finding Valerie a new outfit, let's take a quick look at her body:

TBLeague PLLB2022-T05B.

Like June, she has no molded nipple definition.  Her breasts are large, but at least it looks like they answer to gravity to some extent.

Here she is from the back:

Valerie came covered in a white powder of some sort.  I didn't notice this on the other two dolls.  It might be cornstarch?  I've read that people use cornstarch to keep their silicone dolls from getting too sticky.

For Valerie's outfit, I turned to Etsy to see what the options might be.  There's not a lot of selection, honestly, but I found a nice shop called Deb's Miniature Clothes that has some great choices.

I bought Valerie a three piece set with a floral skirt and two tops.  I like this orange top the best:

For shoes, I was excited to find these 3D printed Crocs at an Etsy shop called Molded Candy.  They're advertised as being 1:12 scale:

Unfortunately, they're way too small for Valerie's feet!

They almost fit June, though:

It actually wasn't until I was testing out footwear that I realized Valerie has larger feet than the other two dolls:

June's foot (left) and Valerie's foot (right).

Valerie's hands are larger, too.  However, because the underlying skeleton is the same in all of the dolls, they can swap hands and feet (and heads) despite the size difference.  So Valerie can wear the cute sandals, but only if she's sporting mismatched small feet:

Ankle sock tan.

Eager to find a shoe source for Valerie, I compared her foot size to some of my other dolls.

Her feet are larger than Barbie Chelsea's:

1:12 Phicen T05B feet (left) and Barbie Chelsea feet (right).

But only slightly smaller than a standard Made to Move Barbie's foot!

1:12 Phicen T05B feet (left) and Made to Move feet (right).

Skipper's feet are much larger than Valerie's:

1:12 Phicen T05B feet (left) and Barbie Skipper feet (right).

And it looks like a Disney Store doll's feet might be about the same size, but unfortunately these feet belong to Rapunzel, and she doesn't come with shoes:

1:12 Phicen T05B feet (left) and Disney Store Princess feet (right).

I tried some knockoff Barbie pumps that are a bit too small for Lena, and these fit Valerie.  They look out of scale, though:

I even ordered the next size up of the orange clogs, but these are way too big:

So, at least for now, Valerie will have to go barefoot.  I don't think she minds:

Valerie is my favorite doll so far.  Her chest is quite large, and that makes it hard to find clothing that fits well, but I like her overall body shape.  I also like the suntan color. It has a slight grey cast, but it photographs well and shows detail better than the stark pale of the other dolls.  Also, Valerie has a well-painted, highly-detailed face that matches the realism of her body.  And her hair feels nice, too.

The last doll that I bought is from the same year as Valerie, so I was hoping for another realistic face:

This is PLMB2022-T04A.  So a Phicen Limited Medium Bust body from 2022:

Here's everything that was in the box:

TBLeague PLMB2022-T04A.

The accessories are the same as what we've seen before: extra hands and feet, a head, and a bikini (in a bag this time).

For some reason this doll's name came to me right away: Brooke.

I'm bummed that Brooke didn't come with her bikini on, but it gives us a chance to look at the body right off the bat:

TBLeague PLMB2022-T04A.

Brooke's proportions are nice.  She has Valerie's body type, but with a smaller chest.

Here she is form the back:

Before I wrestle Brooke into her swimsuit, let's look at a few comparison pictures with all of the dolls.

First, here are Brooke and June together: the two non-anime pale dolls that I bought: 

TBLeague T04A (left) and T01A (right).

Both of these dolls are marketed as medium bust, but Brooke's measurements are larger.  June is narrower in almost all areas, and she has more molded muscle tone.

Next, here are all three of the pale dolls:

From left: TBLeague T04A, T01A, and T02B.

Coco really stands out here, with her overly exaggerated proportions.  She has my least favorite of the three bodies.

Finally, here are all four of the dolls that I bought:

From left: TBLeague T05B, T04A, T01A, and T02B.

Valerie's suntan skin tone looks more realistic to me than the other three dolls, especially in photographs.  But Brooke strikes a nice balance in terms of her body proportions.  If I was judging by body alone, I'd want Brooke's body in Valerie's skin tone. 

That doll exists, I believe, and is called PLMB2022-T04B:

She's now on my wish list.

I should have known that the suntan complexion would appeal to me the most, judging by my experience with the 1:6 scale Phicen dolls.  But extra heads are much easier to find in the pale skin tone, so I focused heavily on that for this review.  Sigh.

In any case, Brooke is who I bought, so I'll get back to her.  I somehow managed to squeeze her into that tiny black bikini:

TBLeague PLMB2022-T04A.

This was a difficult thing to do, though, and caused both of Brooke's legs to be covered in black swimsuit lint:

I dusted the lint off (or tried), and focused in on Brooke's face:

She has a nice face.  It's much more similar to Valerie's face than it is to June's  So TBLeague made big strides between 2020 and 2022, at least in terms of the quality of their heads.

However, Brooke's hair is really coarse and scraggly.  It's not as soft as Valerie's hair.  And I don't like her expression quite as much.

Now that I've seen all four faces, I can confidently say that if I was choosing one of these dolls based only on her face and hair, I'd pick Valerie.  Hands down.  But Brooke would be in second place.

And of course she poses just as well as the other three dolls, and looks good in every pose:

I tried Valerie's colorful outfit on Brooke, to see if it suited her:

It looks fine, but I think the colors suit Valerie's complexion better.

Brooke is my second favorite doll in the mini collection that I've assembled.  She has great body proportions, and her face is realistic and attractive.  If only her hair was better!

There's a loose end in this review that I'm only noticing now that I understand the identifiers.  The dolls that I bought are numbered T01, T02, T04, and T05, but I'm missing anything with a T03 label.  What was TBLeague doing with the T03 wave of dolls?

I actually remember these, vaguely, from back in 2019.  They had vinyl bikinis like Coco, which is awesome.  I love the colors of the bikinis, too.  And their body styles and head sculpts were conventional, not anime:

I think those heads come unpainted, though, which would have been daunting to me back in 2019.  I might have more fun painting tiny heads at this stage of my life, but there are enough dolls in this review already.  So we'll just have to admire these ladies in their promo picture.

During my old Figuring Out Phicen series, I spent a lot of time looking at head options for the different bodies.  I found some fun choices, including a few celebrity heads:

1:6 Phicen body with three head choices.

There are nowhere near as many heads available for the 1:12 dolls.  Or at least I struggled to find them.

This face is the one I found all over the place (Amazon, Etsy, eBay, etc.):

It costs $40 and comes with a lot of different hair styles and colors.  I chose the only variety that does not have bangs:

All of the bodies can share heads, but I tried this head on Brooke's body first:

It doesn't look as nice in person as it does in the promotional photographs.  The face paint isn't as soft or nuanced.

Also, the head doesn't snap completely onto the skeleton.  It sticks up:

And makes the neck look huge.

I found it hard to get the head flush with the top of the neck:

That ball can't fit completely into the socket.

Even if I push the head on with all of my might, it still pops off too easily.

I pushed down with all of my might trying to get the head snapped onto June's body.  This resulted in a funny, bent-neck expression that I had to capture.  She's like, what do you think you're doing, grrl:

Srsly.

The big split seam on one side of the head may or may not be a result of me pushing down with all of my might:

Anyway, this head isn't made well, and certainly isn't worth $40.  But I decided to keep it on June's body because, despite all of the flaws, I like it more than the original head.

So I'll call this June #2, or maybe Junie:

TBLeague T01A with a replacement head.

I dressed her in Coco's bikini top and the blue shorts that came with my Amazon set.

And I have to admit that she looks cute:

If a bit startled.

Her black hair is styled into a long, curled ponytail, with shorter strands of hair hanging down on either side of her face:

She looks like Valerie's teenaged daughter or something:

So, like, what's for dinner?

Here are my two dressed girls:

I wanted to give Brooke something to wear as well, but my options were limited.  I tried her with her own bikini and the second top from my Etsy set.  This top can double as a skirt, apparently:

This is fun and tropical, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for.  And it was two days ago, when I was feeling a lot of pressure to get this review done.  So...Amazon came to the rescue yet again!

This time I chose a simple short dress with a cutout feature on the chest.  It cost under $20 and could be delivered to my house within hours:

The picture makes the dress look grey, but the description said purple.

It's definitely purple!  And also extremely hard to get on:

With Brooke's hands and head removed, she managed to shimmy into the dress.  It looks fine...if a bit transparent:

There's also a section of the cutout that gapes open on the right side of Brooke's chest, but at least it's better than an ill-fitting bikini:

And now Brooke can join the ranks of the dressed, shoeless dolls!

I wanted to show these girls off against a backdrop that was more interesting than plain grey.  I feel like their realistic faces and fantastic articulation warrant that kind of attention.  However, twelfth scale is so small that outdoor elements like flowers and grass are way too big.

So, instead of taking the dolls out into my garden, I decided to get out the Palisades Muppet Swedish Kitchen.  It's approximately 1:12 scale, and is one of my favorite things.  In fact, it was the third toy that I ever reviewed on this blog!  Does anyone remember that from way back in January of 2012?

The Palisades Swedish Kitchen from my 2012 review.

This kitchen was designed to accommodate vinyl Muppet figures, which are about six inches tall, but with oversized features.  So traditional 1:12 dolls can look a bit small in some of the spaces.  Also, most of the accessories that came with this set are way too big for dollhouse dolls.  However, with a few replacements, I turned it into a fun place for the Phicen girls to hang out.

I decided to let Valerie check out the kitchen first, since she's my favorite:

Hi everyone!  I'm the favorite.

Look at my new kitchen!  Should we explore a bit?

The counters are a nice height for me.  Right at hip level, just how I like it.

The stove is really big, though, and I think somebody left this pot on the burner for too long...

I'm going to need a stool to reach these cabinets!

But the sink is good.  I prefer a farmhouse style, but whatever.

This fridge is huge!  But there's not much in here.  Hmm.

Okay, I see milk, butter, eggs...I bet I could bake something with all of this!

I'll open this up...

And chop the butter.

I can let the Kitchen Aid do most of the work, though!

Look at how nice these eggs are!  So fresh.

I'll whisk them up a bit...

And add them to the mixture.

Now I just need some milk and maybe some flour, and I'll mix everything together!

Valerie mixed and poured a bit more before everything was ready.

 I'm going to pop this in the oven and see what happens!

Valerie had so much fun with her baking experiment, she kept trying more and more combinations!  Soon the whole kitchen was full of a delicious aroma...and a lot of baked goods:

Look at what I did!

Understandably, she decided that she'd need some help eating everything:

Um, hey, Junie and Brooke, are you guys feeling hungry?

Junie and Brooke didn't waste any time getting to Valerie's kitchen:

Oh, wow, Val!  You made all of this??

That cake in the middle looks amazing.

I think I'll grab myself a slice...

This chocolate one is calling to me.

Yeah, and that slice is the size of your head, Brooke!

Hey, don't judge.

Sorry.  Go ahead and enjoy your treats.

Valerie, this is delicious.

Yeah, *burp* I might have a second slice of the chocolate.

I guess I'd better grab something for myself before it's all gone!

Good idea, Valerie.  Good idea.

Meanwhile, I can give everyone the bottom line: I had a great time with these girls, which is a fairly predictable outcome for any kind of highly realistic, highly articulated doll.  There's a lot of variability in the TBLeague lineup, though, so it's a good idea to run through a few of the differences between dolls.  I'll summarize those differences in chronological order...something I failed to do in the body of the review.

T01A (June): Made in 2018.  June has a skinny body with well-defined musculature.  Her narrow limbs allow the stainless steel skeleton to show through frequently, especially when the joints are bent.  The head sculpt that comes with this body has a small, simplified, unappealing face and coarse, scraggly hair.  The accompanying outfit is a white bikini with a bandeau top and boy shorts.  The joint covers are fabric and hard to use.

T02B (Coco): Made in 2020.  Coco has an anime-style body with an extremely skinny waist and an exaggerated chest.  Her skeleton shows through the silicone in many places, even when those areas aren't being flexed.  The head sculpt also has an anime style, with a cute expression and molded hair.  The profile on this head has a strange, unnatural jawline though.  The accompanying outfit is made out of flexible vinyl (or silicone ?) and is much easier to use and better-looking than a lot of fabric clothing.  The joint covers are also vinyl.

T04A (Brooke): Made in 2022.  Brooke has a more robust body than the earlier dolls, with realistic proportions.  Her hands and feet are larger than they are on the earlier dolls, but still interchangeable.  The heads are also all interchangeable, despite the change in body style.  Brooke's head sculpt has an attractive face with realistic paint, but the hair is coarse and scraggly.  The black bikini is made out of fabric and is difficult to use.  It also sheds a lot of lint that gets stuck to the body.

T05B (Valerie): Made in 2022.  Valerie has a suntanned skin tone that looks grayish in person, but is overall more realistic than the pale complexion.  Her body has the same proportions as Brooke, except that she sports the larger bust size.  Her face mold is very appealing, with realistic, well-painted features.  For some reason the texture of her hair is much nicer than it is on June and Brooke.  Her red bikini is made out of fabric and struggles to cover her body in some areas.

As I mentioned earlier, my favorite bikini is Coco's, my favorite body style is Brooke's, my favorite face is Valerie's, and my favorite complexion is also Valerie's.  The only downside to the suntan skin tone is that it's harder to find replacement heads.

The one thing that all of the dolls have in common is their articulation.  Thanks to Coco, we know exactly what the internal stainless steel skeleton looks like, and can confirm that it has an incredible 22 points of articulation.  This is a staggering number of joints for such a small doll.  And most of the joints perform beautifully.  The one exception, and it's a pretty big one, is the elbows.  Because the elbows don't have any rotation, the lower arm relies on rotation at the shoulder to achieve certain poses (like a simple raised-arm wave).  I often found it difficult to maneuver the shoulder in such a way that the elbow would do what I wanted.  I got better at this as time went on, but really wish that the elbow had its own point of rotation.  Another problem is that there's not much wrist flexibility.  Any effort to flex or extend the wrist causes the hand to pop off.  But, the other 18 joints are great, and I love the way that the silicone skin creases and bends so naturally with some of the poses.

If I could go back and do this all over again, I'd probably purchase only Valerie, or maybe her T04B cousin.  But even just one of those dolls is compelling enough to cause problems for me.  You see, now I want a whole 1:12 Phicen family to go with Valerie!  There are already male action figures available in this scale, which tempt me, but can you imagine if there were also little Super Flexible Seamless kids?  Gah!  I'd go nuts.  And then of course the family would need a whole twelfth scale dollhouse to live in...

It's a dangerous game, this doll collecting thing.  But for now, I'm going to sit back and be content with Valerie, her small group of friends, and their delightful Muppet kitchen:

I guess we ate everything.